First off, i'll say that i totally love the buggy

I wont bother telling you the whole story, just the more interesting bits

I was flying it at my local beach, where i am a bit of a regular (ill attach pics) in 19mph winds, with my 5m samurai II, which worked perfectly!

i fell out / flipped the buggy twice, just because of simple errors, but nothing was damaged on me apart from my ego, as there were several people around at this point. My speedometer also came off its mount after the firs fall which is irritating, and im going to have to find something more secure!

I wont tell you everything i like about bugging, it would take too long A couple of small ones however:

-The fact that you are not limited by the terrain like you are on a board. The beach suddenly got a wholeeee lot bigger
-You can steer properly!
-I feel much more comfortable sitting, with the low centre of gravity
The ability to be pulled sideways and not have to bail, as i did on the board
-Doing power slides after about an hour
-Flying through (sometimes deep) water, and sending spray everywhere ! I got much wetter than i was expecting.
-The feeling of speed.
-The actual speed (gutted my speedo broke, ill get it fixed before the next run)

A couple of questions: (yayy :/ )

When i turn tightly and/or at speed the outside tyre makes a rubbing / squeaking sound. is this normal ? I assumed it was just the rubber stretching or deforming under pressure.

Although compared to the board, because of the steering i could move around the beach and zig zag much more, i still cant for the life of me work out how to move upwind :/ I know the theory, from coastalwindsports, but i honestly cant figure it out in practice ! Is there a video that could help ? I think i may get along with a video tutorial better.
When i finished cruising i had to walk 5-6 miles back to my car cause i couldn't fly upwind, lol.

Im sure i will think of more, but thats it i think for now.

Overall i absolutely love it ! i was on a complete high for the whole thing, and hours afterwards, (which i needed as i've had a really #@%$#! week..)
Its come much more naturally to me than on the board. I think the new board may get a bit dusty now. I cant wait to go out with the bug again !

yeahhhh, I'm not going to sell my lovely new buggy ! lol..

I hope the two pics work, and you like them. They were just taken on my phone, of my kit, and beach.

Tim

pics dint work, heres the link if you're interested:

http://s1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj515/yesnopossibly/

And I think I would like a full face helmet. I had a horrible vision of landing on my face, and loosing all my teeth ! Lol.

Think of going upwind as just a slight angle where you can gain just a bit of beach back with every turn. If you try to bite off too much, you will just stop. Do like in the tutorial where you set up a couple markers parallel with the wind and make it your goal to make every turn around a marker. With a 5m in 19 mph winds you should've been kind of overpowered so that shouldn't have been an issue. As you learn, you will gain skills every time. If you are drifting downwind, don't go so far before you do the walk of shame back to camp so you avoid the long stoke killing walk back. In no time you'll be rolling back into camp when you get tired.

my 2 cents- to go upwind you need to start going down wind- in order to gain ground upwind you have to already be moving/rolling and then start trying to gain upwind til you stop( means you have gone to far) reset and try again. Soon you will have the feel at lot of time for me it is making a noticable curvy track in the sand vs the nice straight track when going downwind- the curves will match the sineing of the kite
scott

The feeling you described when going from landboard to buggy will also hold true (until skills prevail) in winter if you decide to go on the snow. Snowboard is a little more difficult to learn, as opposed to skis. You can move around much better on skis while improving your skills both with the kite and heading upwind.
Glad your into it...now all you need to do is hit the lottery, so you can buy all the kites you want.

Full face helmets are nice too and make you feel a little more secure.

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Originally posted by BEC Full face helmets are nice too and make you feel a little more secure.

Also dangerous in their own way.... Just ask Jeff of Big Kid Kites,his almost killed him.

As far as your tire, Squeaking when you turn, did you buy the buggy used, how old are the bearings, did it start making the noise after you went through the water???? There can be a side load noise associated with turning with barrows, at speed if you look down at the tire, it will look as if it is trying to come off the rim. (side load) it is possible that it may rub the front fork, but no really common, depends on how much pressure you are running and how close your tolerance between the tire and the fork. But if the buggy is used and you made some passes in the water, I would suspect maybe some water got in there and washed out your bearings. Yes they are sealed, but to protect more from sand and dirt rather than water. I notice after I run through water I will get a lot of noise from an older set of bearings, especially while turning. When I get that, time for a new set!

Glad you are enjoying your ride! The smile will never leave your face!

You said you ended 5 or 6 miles downwind. This not possible with onshore or offshore wind. Sounds like you have side shore winds or slightly off onshore wind for you to be bias in one direction or the other.

You should be able to go 35 degrees or so into the wind - but you will need to build up a bit of speed and power before you start to turn upwind. If I'm trying to get upwind, I will head slightly downwind or across the wind to get a bit of speed going first. I will also move slightly towards the kite as I bring the kite down and slightly away from the kite as I move it up - so my tracks are rarely in a straight line unless I'm cruising. I will also be working the heck out of the kite (sineing vigorously) until I have enough speed and power to park it. If I need to go upwind further still, then I'll have to tack into the wind - but you need a bit of space to do that.

Thanks for your advice on moving upwind ! I'll keep practising

Are full face helmets not recommended then ? There may be exceptions as there are with all things, but I assumed a full face helmet would be better, is this not the case ?

Shehatesmyhobies, I bought the buggy used, but it's in pretty immaculate condition (If I say so myself). The bearings are smooth, spin freely, and sound good when I was inspecting / prepping the buggy in the garage. Perhaps I should replace them anyway ? It was only the rear wheels that were making noise when I turned. They did seem very soft, i can easily squeeze them by hand, I'll check the psi tomorrow. is there a recommended pressure for barrow wheels being used on sand ? (soft and hard)

Van, yeah, the wind was nice and steady, running parallel to the beach. I was zig zagging, and generally exploring the beach moving down wind, along the length of tw beach.

we call that a one way day! Wait until you get some onshore ,perpendicular wind...You will LOVE it!

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is there a recommended pressure for barrow wheels being used on sand ? (soft and hard)

I think I generally run somewhere around 16 psi on the narrow wheels. Sometimes a tad more. A little less on the midi's and somewhere around 9 psi on the bigfoots.

At 19mph you shouldn't have had to work the kite much ? Like others said you need to get in motion before pointing upwind.

Is it possible your beach was too narrow to turn and then set the kite at the edge? That would set you up for a zig zag downwind?

You go where you look. This is why the 2 cones are such a great tool for learning. Try keeping the kite a bit higher as you work upwind at 1st. Full face or not is a personal choice. They are very poular with the buggy crowd and less so with other rides. I sweat way too much with even a simple helmet so that is all I use.

Probably the best helmets are full face paraglider helmets. Great fiel of vision, lighter ...

So glad you are enjoying the buggy ! It will be a tough call choosing to sell the Sami or Viper. Both are sweet kites! As I mentioned , you can sell off that belly pan snd splash skirt for a little bit of coin and still have a funtioning buggy since money is tight.

Most likely the beach is like what we have here, real skinny. You can zig zag one direction to go downwind but it's impossible to go upwind. Direct onshore wind would be perfect for buggying. So most likely you were doing things right, the wind was not in your favor to go upwind. On a wide beach, you should at least be able zig zag and SLOWLY make it back upwind. It's also harder if your kite does not fly towrds the edge of the window. I always have a hard time going upwind with my Beamer. With my flysurfer, it's the opposite problem.

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Originally posted by Bladerunner Is it possible your beach was too narrow to turn and then set the kite at the edge? That would set you up for a zig zag downwind?

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Originally posted by van Most likely the beach is like what we have here, real skinny.

Check out the photos from the link above




Looks like plenty of room. :wee:

Like others said, picking an upwind line requires the buggy to be moving first, and you need to work your way there a little bit for each run. You just need to make more ground than you lose while turning around and you will be able to move upwind.

If that's the beach...it looks great. Plenty of room to tack back upwind - check out this article (if you haven't already) from Coastal wind sports...Better Buggy Basics it shows what you need to do to tack back upwind.

Take yourself back to kiting 101. Stand on the beach facing the wind , extend your arms straight out from your sides , these are the directions you can travel back and forth on without gaining or loosing ground , draw a line in the sand to serve as a reminder if you have to. Forcing the buggy to travel at an angle a little forward of the line will have you going slightly up wind (ZIG) turn around head back forcing the buggy slightly angled up wind(ZAG). Pointing the buggy at an angle slightly down wind will have you pinching holes in the seat until you get used to the speeds.:wee:

I think that the problem lies with to much power and going upwind was almost imposible without getting pulled sideways
i weigh 290 without gear and on grass with a 4.5 in 20mph i can't get enough traction to go up wind but just a little bit but that is with a low aspect ratio kite that pulls like a truck and has to be driven to the edge of the window i bet a 3.5 would have ben just right for you or maby a 4