I am now a proud, and excited owner of a used Flexifoil Bug. It's in great shape and ready to roll. Looking forward to my first OBE.:wee:

what happened to the kites?

cheers on the bug, wish I was in your shoes....:flaming:

He didn't like my offer for the bug and the Montana so he decided to keep the kite. I offered $450 for the combo. Understandably, he felt like he was giving the kite away. I then offered to pay him what he had in the bug, which was $350, and he accepted. He's happy and so am I.

You scored good on the bug then. Congrats! There is an OBE with your name on it eventually though. Those NEO's are snickering saying "hehe he's got wheels now!". You know what you're doing though, just keep your head and have fun with it.

Bob, I'm going to hijack my own thread. How would a guy (like me) go about getting one of those nice, bolt-on, custom made, back rests that I saw at Folly?

get some metal,cut it ,weld it,paint it ,pad it ,pimp it:roll:

My bender source is tapped out. It was impossible to get him to sit still with the bender. Turned out he didn't exactly know how the bender operated so it was never straightforward work. Wolfwolfee is also interested in one now. I will start a thread showing my cad drawings, source for the clamps, and stuff I learned in the process. Maybe tonight I can sit down and do that. I have to print the cad drawing to jpeg and I'll have to post it in the gallery because my flickr bandwidth is used up till february. Maybe it would be easiest to do it via email for now so you guys can get started and then next month I can do a thread on it. I can't imagine my buggy not having one now. I also have plans adapted for PL buggies as well if anyone else is interested in having one.

Congrats Mel!!
I'll have to say that the back rest is invaluable. On-shore winds yesterday yielded a long lazy park-and ride in 4-5 mph winds with the Reactor 10.8 straped in with harness and strop. I could not have taken the strain with out the back rest. Down shifted to the 4.9 in 8-9 mph and the back rest proved an effective roll bar in a flip at 25 mph. There was a lot of clattering behind me when I was eating the beach and when I stood up, the buggy was right-side-up. No damage execpt for another skin sample left on the beach.

Side note- just bot back from the store buying $25 worth of Bandages, tape, gauze and Neosporin and the lady at the check-out says "I can't figure out if hanging around you would be a good thing or a bad thing."

ouch sand rash................................

Bob, Email: Georgembj@aol.com. Thanks! We need to try and meet in Aiken some time soon.

Angus, Glad to hear it's just superficial stuff but I know that it hurts none-the-less. That first shower after a road/beach rash session is quite the eye-opener! Did you scuff your helmet?

Nope Just the elbow - same place as 2 weeks ago. And my 661 elbow pads were back in the gear bag. Not too smart there. Problem was the Warrior harness in the narrow Pl buggy had me sitting on top of the bug and less in it- high center of gravity.
You will not have that problem with the wider Flexi bug seat.

Being a cyclist, I have come to the conclusion that elbows were invented to protect our heads.

You're correct about the bug. The seat is very low and comfortable. The back-rest needs some height though. I will borrow your idea and use a camp seat until I can borrow Bob's idea and tack on roll bar. Sounds like it may come in handy for more than just comfort.

If you want to start sourcing parts, you will need 34" of 1" Rigid conduit, and 2 Kee Klamps model 10-6. These are available in galvanized like I got, stainless, or aluminum. I cut a 3/4 inch pvc union in half to place under the set screw that holds the clamp on the side rail. I was uneasy about torquing the set screw down into the side rail without something to spread out the pressure. The hard part is finding access to a pipe bender. A hand bender won't bend 1" rigid conduit and EMT conduit (thinner) can't take the pressure of the set screw that holds it in place. I tried EMT first and it does the job satisfactorily but you would have to do something to it to support the pressure from the set screw. Ideally, you can find a hydraulic bender that pushes from the center of the bend. This type would be much better at repeating your bend on the other side of the backrest for the backrest to be symmetrical. If you find the type that pulls the pipe along as it bends it, hope it comes with someone well practiced in using it. He can get you your desired results. You will bend up lots of pipe learning without prior experience. cad drawings to follow by email to Mel and Wolfee.

Angus, this is two flips in the bigfoot. What is the situation causing these? 25 mph is quite fast to part ways with your buggy. I imagine those bigfoot tires bounce alot if the buggy starts flipping. It is all tires and the headstock. Weren't you using the 10m Reactor both times? I hope to learn from your trials and tribulations.

We've really butchered this thread now.

I was too high up with the harness keeping me from getting all the way down in the more narrow PL seat- center of gravity way too high. - even took the padding of the side-rails. Will try a PL harness- thinner I think.

I tried my climbing harness flying static but wonder if it would be better while sitting in the buggy. I added a carabiner to the link between the crotch strap and the waist strap and that made a huge difference by adding some space there to minimize crowding. When I buggy with the Montana, I'll try both harnesses to see how they stack up.

Quote:

Originally posted by acampbell Side note- just bot back from the store buying $25 worth of Bandages, tape, gauze and Neosporin and the lady at the check-out says "I can't figure out if hanging around you would be a good thing or a bad thing."

That's just funny. You must be a pretty good guy because the wife has never discouraged me from hanging around with you. She's a pretty good judge of character, her choice of husbands notwithstanding.

Edit: back to original hijack.