Anyone have any ideas or know of any products out there with regards to back rests for the buggys. I have seen some nice looking setups in some photos. One appeared to be a crash bar looking thing, padded of course coming from one side rail to the other. Whats out there if anything? Thanks.

Dagon made one out of electrical conduit for his Libre...all of the parts are at home depot and when braced on both sides, the thicker conduit is very strudy, and the way he did it, its removable....I can send you a picture of an idea for one too...
Dan

i would like a picture of that im having same problem with my bigfoot i would like a backrest

this was my original idea but dagon used conduit instead

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c202/art_lessing/backrest....

There was a company in the past that made the Spring Back for PL Buggies

I think most are homemade nowadays. See pic for another style of backrest.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o7/ripsessionkites/Misc/1...

it really all depends on where you want your support...upper back, shoulders, headrest....full roll cage with cross strap seat belts and one of those rollercoster ride things that come down over your shoulders and lap..with a 90 meter kite and a stiff breeze...:P

but seriously.....

my buggy supports me up to the middle of my shoulder blades but it is kind of a big buggy and I like riding laid back and I don't intend on trying freestyle...i like to cruise.........

Hey Art, Thanks for the ideas and photos. i am on my way to "Lowes" rignt now so I will check for materials. Does anyone know how to get in touch with Dagon to see if he has any photos of what he did?

I built my back rest using two Specialized bicycle head sets, two short 1” PVC sepments and a backpack hip pad.

The bike head sets are the pieces that typically hold the handle bars to the head stock on a road bike. In the buggy case, these attach to the side rails of my PL XR+. Attached to the other end of the head sets are PVC tubing running vertical. These in turn act as supports for the actual back support. I used a standard backpack hip support strap padding that wraps around the two vertical supports and creates the back rest.

The set up works great. The actual back support is adjustable up and down to fit the height that you need, you just raise or lower the PVC in the head set. Also the angle is adjustable because to the slope of the side rails. (You can have more or less recline) Both of these adjustments can be made in a couple of minutes using a single hex wrench. The width of the vertical separation is fully customizable to fit your back by ordering the appropriate length of the head sets. They come in a wide variety of lengths (Specialized offers 12 different lengths!) so I just measured my back width, subtracted from the vertical separation of the rails and divided by two. This gave me the length of the head sets that I needed to best fit me. Bike head sets also have a couple of different angles that can be ordered, Specialized has either 12 or 24 degrees of ‘drop’. For the buggy this is not that critical but it does allow the head sets to be below the upper surface of the side rails and out of the way of moving body parts. Once I figured out what I needed to fit me, I ordered them at the local bike shop and they arrived in two days.

Since there is no actual ‘hard’ metal between the two rails the comfort is excellent. The PVC is both supportive and can flex under pressure. The net outcome is the vibration is reduced and the whole system can give a little if I push back into the seat or hit a bump. Break down of the buggy is completely unaffected since the only thing that connects the two sides is the soft padded back support than simply disconnects and sides off the PVC supports. The back support padding had as part of the attachment points to the original pack back, nylon web straps which line up almost exactly with the seat retaining straps on the buggy. I simply added loop attachment to the back rest and every thing straps together and is stable while riding.

The final product looks very clean, is very comfortable (folks at the NABX referred to it as the ‘Lazy Boy recliner’ ), simple to assemble, and has no effect on assemble or disassembly time.

Cost: the issue is that I needed the head set to fit on the 11/8 OD tubing of the buggy rail. Specialized Comp-Set head set is one of the few companies that make a bike headset with this large size. http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=25337 Cost me about $70 to get just what I wanted. The padded hip strap I had from an old pack, but they are available at a good sporting goods store (REI).

I can post photos of the individual components and the final assemble if wanted.

Hey Evotz, Very interesting concept... If you could if its not too much trouble, I would like to see some photos. Thanks

I will post some in the morning. Tried tonight but with the flash the details do not show up very well.

Got a few photos up.... http://community.webshots.com/user/EvotzKites

The black sleeve that covers the PVC is a piece of bike inner tube cut to length. It helps keep the pad from slipping and the black looks better. :bisou:

Backrest and the stock seat line up and provide full support. The height that I have them set at allows for me to rotate with the kite and the rest does not interfere with flying.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Well... I know what I am doing tomorrow! The only thing I am going to change in your great idea Evotz is to replace the back pack hip pad with a backrest from a directors chair. It is mesh nylon.

The hard part of the project is how am I going to explain to my kids where their handlebars from their bikes went to?!?

beachrights...having raised two boys myself...the answer to your question is simple: Ask THEM what happened! You know that no matter what the situation, when something is missing or broken their answer is 'I didn't do it.", this time they are right but just go with it... :evil:

I like the thought of a mesh to allow for drying but you might consider: the backpack material is water resistant and washable. The biggest plus for me is the padding (close to 3/4 in of high density foam) helps cushion your back rest against the uprights. With a thin mesh you might feel the pipes in your ribs.

That might work with boys but I have 3 girls!!:saint:

As for the backrest, I am planning on having the backrest sit just like it would on a directors chair. Your back would be "cradled" between the posts. I need to measure and probably will need to pad the posts as you say. Good thing I am not fat!

One great idea for a back rest is "buy a Libre Hardcore"
jellis

Made the mistake of letting the locals into my Libra Super Truck, nice comfy seat, tires aired down to smooth out all the bumps. Took a while to get the buggy back. Seems it rides like a caddy compared to some of the other bugs.

hey Evotz, thanks for the photos,,, great ideas there. Now I have something to work with.

Get a tall kayak seat that has straps to attach it to your seat and side rails. Easy to use and remove, it works great. I've had one in my fullrace for 3 years wouldn't buggy without it.
Brad

I made a back rest that works pretty good,,, but the kayak thing sounds very interesting.... I will have to check it out... Thanks.

bbrex- are you using a soft molded seat or a hard plastic shell? I just went on Ebay and saw the MAJOR potential for using those! Here I have been wasting time with directors chair backs and any other seat that looked like it might work! But, of course it doesn't.

I like the ones that have built in hydration packs! Thanks for the great idea.

It's just an add on seat that you can get from Academy Sports or your local outfitter they are soft and have some lumbar to them.
Brad

this is my solution, and it works great..

press here..

Here is a link on ebay of the type kayak seat that I use it comes up to just below my shoulder blades and partialy wraps around my ribs.
It works great.

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-kayak-seat_W0QQitemZ320185665610QQih...

Brad