May the 4th be with you...

Happy Star Wars Day!

SShhh!!

Don't tell anyone but at the moment there looks like there maybe some wind this weekend...

I don't want to scare it off!

After the rain we have had over the last couple of days there is a good chance that there will be some puddles to play in...

muddy puddles!

Video - Les Hemmes d'Oye

Still not looking good for a buggy session - so have reverted to trawling through the forums for some videos...

from Cliff on racekites

Weight - part 4

Hit my target weight of 76kgs this morning!

I'm still running, cycling and eating healthily - it would be nice to get out int the buggy soon, just need the wind to cooperate!

Still waiting...

It's been a couple of weeks since I was able to get out in the buggy, as let weekend I suffered the flat after 10 minutes. This weekend there was very little wind...

I'm now pinning my hopes on next Sunday, and it is looking promising - but no doubt that will change as it is still early yet!

Buggying?

I have been running and cycling but when am I going to be able to get out buggying?

Video - Naki Nut Buster 2013

I know another video, that's two days in a row but this video just "rocks"! Of the baby head kind...

Video - Libre Majestic

Clive has the only Libre Majestic in Australia...

Libre Majestic First day out from Clive Tebbet on Vimeo.

belated birthday present

It's been nearly three weeks since my Birthday and one of the presents my wife bought turned up yesterday...

I think it has been lost somewhere in Auspost land! According to the on-line tracking it was delivered on the 12th, after emails backwards and forwards with the company they kindly agreed to dispatch another one. This is the one that was dispatched originally as the tracking number is the same!

It is a wambam, Buffa GoPro case...

gettin' faster...

Unfortunately not in the buggy!

I had to dodge the retics on the footie oval this morning!

How did that happen?

I found the cause of my flat yesterday...

It had split right by the valve. New tube now in, ready for some wind...

If anybody is listening?

Bloody hell!

I'm on lake walyungup, as I write this, dragging a crippled buggy back to the car.

I had avoided the showers, the wind was looking promising then - pop, hiss! The front tyre has completely deflated! Thankfully I was only doing about 30kph.

This is still the original PL barrow tyre with an inner tube, so should be a quick fix!

Ouch!

Got my flu jab today - actually it didn't hurt at all!

Video - Putting on some speed

I think I should get away from procrastinating about things and get back to some good old buggy action...

Kite Buggy Weights

Over the last 18 months I have often looked at envy at other buggies, the Sysmic S2, the Libre Majestic and Dragster and of course the the Hobbs Carbon kite buggy, with a dream of owning a new shiny chunk of metal.

Hobbs Carbon Fibre

 But the one thing that comes up again and again (for me) is the weight of these buggies...

Sysmic S1 -  56kgs (big foots)
Sysmic S2 - 38kgs (basic)
Libre Majestic - 54kgs
Libre Dragster - 48.3kgs
Hobbs Carbon Fibre - 50kgs (approx)

(All weights from the manufacturers websites.)

Libre Majestic

And this puts me off as surely there must be some kind of power/weight thing going on? Stainless steel seems to be a heavy material to produce a performance kite buggy from.

F1 the ultimate example of power v weight

This maybe a completely stupid question, but I work in health and am not an engineer (though I did do technical drawing at school )-

But why aren't kite buggies designed and built to be as light as possible?

Surely a buggy could be built out of aluminium (like aircraft, some performance car chassis, mountain bikes) and be built/engineered to withstand the stresses, they wouldn't corrode and would potentially weigh less?

Libre Dragster

Sysmic S1

I am guessing the weight may help in up-wind performance(?) and holding that power, but can that be designed/engineered into a light weight buggy. How much lighter is aluminium at an equivalent strength to stainless steel? Is it a cost issue, is aluminium more expensive to manufacture and work? Is the weight limited by what we bolt onto the frame ie rims, tyres etc?

I don't know!

In the mean time I will keep on in my nice light weight Peter Lynn Comp XR+ (14.3kgs basic).