I had my first ride on the new tires today and it was AWESOME!!!!!

Smoother ride, not too much grip when I needed some slide, and it felt good to be another inch off the ground. I really had a great ride today gang. Started out in uber light wind slinging the 8.6 RII around, then as it picked up, I logged some miles on the 5.5m... I really have to say that the 5.5m RII is just really a sweet kite. In just about every case it did exactly what I wanted.

That will probably be about all the buggying I'll be able to get in before JIBE... I'll post some vids if I got any good footage. If I can, maybe I'll get a session in April, we shall see.

Thanks for all the help and tips on tires and rims!

Nice wheels. Do you think they would help me slide around turns easier on grass? My guess is I would probably need a wide axle as well as the wheels. Oh, and a couple reactors

I found that the golf cart tires would slide on the bare spots where the grass wasn't growing, but don't remember how much it slid in the grassier spots... Can't say for sure ... The crown of the tire is bald but the outer edges have plenty of tread... I can at least say that they were neither more or less "slidey" than the barrows... They just felt good.

The advantages of these tires for me were A. They were free... and B. They are bigger than the barrows. They lifted me up about an inch and I'm hoping they help out some on softer sand. I did pay for the front tire, but on $26.

The extra wide back axle helps, yes, and the RIIs are a super bonus!!!

Still following with interest -- I want to hear how you handle the squishy stuff at JIBE! I shredded my barrows in the desert, so it's time to look at going big or not.

I'm telling you Nick, the golf cart tires are pretty freekin sweet... Just enough grip and just enough slip for it to be fun, with the one ribbed 16x6.5-8 on the front I only paid a grand total of $26. The trick is finding a golf cart shop that will give away used tires for free... Usually if you talk to the shop manager he'll give them to you without the sales guys knowing. Even if you do have to pay for them it'll only be like $10-20 a piece, which is still a substantial savings.

My most recent outing had me in slightly higher grass (clover actually) and I could feel the tires gripping more than shorter grass, but I'm not sure the barrows could have waded through it.

I'm really exited to see their performance on the beach on both SSI and JI.

Well, I never really got to give the tires a good try on the softer sand. We stayed in the same place on SSI this year, but I only got to buggy once on the sand bar and I had my girls in the tandem, so I really couldn't get a good read on the their efficacy on the softer stuff. It did prove easier to pull with the leash over the JI sand coming from the beach access points.

I did feel like they performed really well on Jekyll during JIBE. I was able to reach a new PB and so far can say I'm satisfied with the new set up.