Power Kite Forum

finally got my buggy! first day story & questions

teklife - 26-11-2004 at 10:42 PM

anxiously waiting, forever it seemed... at last, it arrived, my libre special buggy. i was surprised that it didn't look like the dozens of pics i've seen before; instead of the purple(lilac) color, it has blue(sides) and black (seat and back), and black sidebar cushions. although i'm not really crazy about purple, i was expecting this color, as it is now ingrained in my head, as a distinguishing libre color.

after quickly assembling it, out to the beach i went . the wind was not very strong, maybe 5-10mph, but i had to try it anyway. the beach was relatively flat, not all stepped on and pockmarked, like during "the season"; there were only tiny ripples over a flat beach, but the sand on long island beaches is very fine and soft, unlike other beaches i've been to in other parts of the world. i remember being in miami a few years ago and bugging out on how hard the beach was; it seemed as though there was only an inch or so of sand over a rock hard surface.

so, bursting at the seams with theory, and totally confident, i got the kite up; power seemed decent. i got in the buggy, pointed downwind, and started working the kite to build up apparent windspeed while turning the buggy slightly crosswind. i never got the thing over a mile an hour. if i continued downwind, the kite would luff, of course, but when i tried to go crosswind, the kite would fly ahead and out of the power window, and stop pulling the buggy. i thought i had it all figured out, what's the deal? could it be the winds simply weren't strong enough? sand too soft? kite too small? i am flying a 3M little devil.

tomorrow, the forecasted winds are 10-15 mph from the southeast. that ought to hit the beach almost perfectly perpendicular. let's see how it goes.

peace and good eats and funky beats and gale force winds

michael (no longer a buggy virgin, well, sort of)

teklife - 28-11-2004 at 02:01 AM

Update: it was the sand, and tires, and the wind.

today the winds were much stronger, got my cruise on; only after starting on the very hardest sand at the waters edge, which is not a lot since the beach has such a steep angle.

a harness would have been an excellent thing to have had today, as i got worn out quite fast and didn' get to do some cross country cruisin' because of fatigue and forearm cramps, yuck.

yesterday the wind was dead as compared to today which had 21mph up to 29mph winds, i think my kite was actually too big for today. the buggy would be plowing through soft sand when the tide came up, and we'd get yanked the #@%$#! out when it would get bogged down in it. can't afford fat wheels for a while, but i think it would help over the soft deep sand here. do bigfoot tires affect speed on the hard pack?

overall it was fun and i'm glad i figured it out pretty fast; i was getting disillusioned for a bit again today when i couldn't get it going, it simply wont roll in soft sand, and the uphill starts are tough too.

::sigh:: {missing the dry lakebeds}

what harness can someone recommend?

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erkens - 29-11-2004 at 05:49 AM

Hello teklife,

Driving a buggie is a lot of fun. a 3 M kite at 10 Mph wind speed is a bit small, i would use a 4.9 and dare to use a 6.6, depending on the buggie.

windspeeds 21 till 29 Mph i would use a 2.6 and dare to use a 3,5. So 3 M would be fine with a harnas. without a harnas you will not get far because of fattige and painfull arms.

Bigfoot would help for shore in soft sand, Also on hard beaches with profiled tires it runs very good.

I use a qaudrifoil harnas witch works fine but gets painfull after driving for a couple of ours. So a fullsize one would be idial.

Have a look at my site KITESHACK

Greets Marc

bondcw - 29-11-2004 at 09:46 AM

Having not used harnesses but having looked at quite a lot (want one for boarding in the New Year, the Maui Magic Mystic Seat Harness looks a good bet. Have talked to people who have had it on for 8+ hours during a day without any discomfort so think it has to be a winner on the comfort stakes!

erkens - 29-11-2004 at 10:39 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by bondcw
Having not used harnesses but having looked at quite a lot (want one for boarding in the New Year, the Maui Magic Mystic Seat Harness looks a good bet. Have talked to people who have had it on for 8+ hours during a day without any discomfort so think it has to be a winner on the comfort stakes!


Hi Bondcw, the drawback of this seat harnas is that it has a hook in stead of a pullie. Hook is ok when you use an control bar. A Pullie is used when using handles, and thats what most buggiedrivers use.

Greets Marc

Scoopy - 29-11-2004 at 11:55 AM

You can buy different spreaders.. You can put a wheel spreader on any harness, just as you can a hook harness.

Scoop

teklife - 29-11-2004 at 10:19 PM

thanks for pointing out that a wheel is better than a hook for buggying, that's helpful.