Here are some photos from our mission to the dunes of muriwai.
There was only a bit of wind Saturday afternoon and none on Sunday .
So we just hung out in the dunes and flew kites.
This pic is Rexton getting a close look at a 2.2m Peter Lynn N-Gen.

And this one is me parked up ,watching the sunset ,with the Leading link carbon fork (which I broke) and a 7.7m Peter Lynn Twister1.

Had to do a close up

More pics here picasaweb.google.com/perrinmelchior/Mooduro

haha.... looks like one of those close up boxing shots of a dude getting punched in the face.

oooh.. carbon link breakage..... expensive.

nah it only broke the part that was too weak not too bad considering, a bit of solid carbon will go back where the hollow flat bar was and then back to testing, right Pete ?

i love the rexton shot ,

Sad face on the carbon fork. Good to hear it's salvageable though.

You know better than to speak ill of the old N'gen my friend... it will own you every time. That and that crazy rotoring Reactor of Al's... come to think of most of Al's kites are a little 'sensitive'. Just be glad it's not a C-quad... nose full of carbon splinters.

Looks like the N'gen is back in business thought. Fun day too.

Yup, off to the workshop for a little bit more carbon,
but that is just what we need to do to it,
go hard on it and break it, so the next genaration
will be strong in the right places and lighter.

Nice kite kiss GeminiBoar
at least it's not a wet fish
just a angry reborn N'gen

yea, the spinning reactor was fun, i was just waiting for the other brake line to snap and i would have found out what it feels like to be the guy who has to pull the eject lever but cant remember where it is!!

both thoes n-gens are now, very sensitive and have never been better, i dont actualy have to fly them, i just think stuff and they do it....amazing kites, big HUGE thanks to kiteworks for my custom handmade bridals...im sure the rest of you wont be thinking that when i pass you
i diddnt realise he was standing their, honest

altho i did fly petes 7.4 yak and thought about slowing down in general! skary fast, will be intresting to see that thing wired into your 5wheel rig pete and give it some wind!!

the moose isn't big enough for that 7.3 yak if the wind get up (10 knots)
she is like a wild thing, with a rage factor of 9.9
and she will whip you bad

whip me beat me i love overpower

Need to buy a leading link me thinkz
now buggy reo reinforced and got no give ...... I bwoke me fork
could we revisit that option Gannet

a gemmiproof fork!
...ooooooh thats gonna be a butty thing
like something from madmax

a gemmiproof fork!
I was think the same
"like something from madmax "
Yeah , maybe with out the sharp bits.
how deep is your pocket
I woundn't do that to you.
but the carbon one is not cheap

what if.....(it feels like I'm going to give the red cross.)

a STEEL LEADING LINK 25 mm steam pipe (32mm O.S.)

if we base it on my s/s model, which fits a asymmetric duro

I can get it bent up and turn the bushs ,you can glue it up with some of that weld stuff you cool with that.

paymemt....hmmm

your are going to have to keep me drunk for the whole operation
one can should do it

one can, man there goes the budget
As for the metal glue, I rekon I could give her a go no laughing though
Sounds good, just let me know how many crates for the pipe

I'll see what pipe and plate I have at work.
on tuesday , oh 32 hour weeks are hard,
might go and roll some shell into the sand in the morning
I heard nigel no mates is up this way

been thinking about this L.L. fork
to make it gemmiproof we could put a layer or two of carbon on top
I have some off cuts under my bench

Gannet wrote:


Is he braggin' or complainin'? New kite, empty beach, bachelor for a month and some... he better not be rubbing it in! Working late through the night and all next weekend I might just have a little cry now...

Go the steampipe... Poor mans chrome moly, less fuss welding too! Lots of it sitting in the offcuts section at my local supplier. If you're still stuck for options let me know.

Felt a little frisky in the afternoon and needed a break from my mindnumbing carpentry yesterday so I wrestled some of that new Kenda rubber onto some black asso rims. Those things are so butty its' rude! Looking forward to getting lit on those puppies. Sadly the weather packed in because I really wanted to have a look at those on the Moosetruck.

are, your'll be happy to know then,
that I ended up go to work like a good boy going to school , kicking and screeming
it started to rain and the wind went to the south

hmmm , kendas meets moosetruck, that's a big day too

Tomorrow looks like a bit more of a breeze but as of now I'm sitting at work, through the night till well into the morning. Never got more than 4 hours sleep any night this week since Sunday either. I'll get home for breakfast and crash and live vicariously through you's!

Not sure if the kenda would fit the Moosetruck LL swingarm rightaway either. Want to make a proper hoop mold anyways. Last one was a proof of concept. Got a little bit of work planned for the Moosetruck, and the bigfoot and the barrow racer. By gosh it must be the big Moose soon.

I hear Norty's going leading link by peer pressure! Better pull finger on the new molds so we can save him some money on the rubbers.

haha.....its good having world class pioneer buggy designers as your mates, bending to peer pressure isnt as bad as they said it was in school
will definently be in the market for some of the finest G-rubber their guster, sorry to here about the buisy times, your making it to the moose tho right??
not far away now!!!

up date on the gemmiproof LL fork



had a awesome day at the moose
perrin and I , worked the ENE 6-15 knot
it was a good test for the 500ks / manta II
clock up 120 kms with a max of 63.1 on a high tide.
I started(and finished) on the manta 6 knots , perrin on the 8m jojo
and yes, she can hold her own against the 8m
and when perrin changed down to the 4m jojo
the manta was on fire kicking ass
at this point I should say it kick my ass as well
I was rocking along happy as, at 40/45 kms when this tree(dead tree )
laying in the sand jumped out from know where
I when over it OK but the landing was not so good,
landed on the front wheel, unicycled for a little bit,180ed the buggy still
unicycling,and landed backwards
as I hit the primary security
all about 50m from the west coast on a 15knot ENE

I have to say the manta is looking like the weapon for the moose
one kite does it all
may have to do some more testing

Oh , there wasn't any penguins this time ,but this guy did look like he was going to get a bad sun burn

sorry I havn't got any buggy photos , flat batteries
we also did some cool cliff surfing , it wound have made a awesome vid

hehe... didn't i say the manta would be the berries for the dunes!
you just need to convince jimmy that floating around in the air is an acceptable practice.

I think the manta is a winner, because you can power up and down
on every bump to get the max power + trim it for the conditions,
or if some thing is in the way of your line, you can depower
and go up wind of it.

I'll have to give it a run in a race meeting,to see how well she stacks up

and untwisting the lines after kite looping her is so easy on a bar,
just have to remember

No port left.
and port is red , well it was the last time I drunk it.

I didn't get to much air time just one or two,had to work hard for them
30 + ks kite loop, then hook her back ,that worked

I think jimmy will take to it, like a duck to water

Kenda's are fitted to the rear and the front needs a little modification to fit that fat wheels like these.

Then I realised how many wheels I have... have tested over the years. Here's an idea...


The BF's on the right are the classics on PL 3-spoke rims which is going to a new home soon as I've made a fork and downtube for them to fit a PL buggy again.

cool, thats alot of tyres ,you got there

and thanks again for the RHS for the gemmiproof forks
I havn't told jimmy, that he is on pick-up

gemmiproof fork update

two by two
the pieces keep coming out of the factory

I did not say how many I have of each... oh good then... because there is a lot of them!

At least with the tri-spokes gone my bigfoot is not totally out of commission yet as I have all the BFlites ready for dune'n.

Those look sturdy Gannet! No worries, I can drop it off at Jimmy22's tomorrow if that's one step closer.

Talking about forks... well the Mooser's doesn't take a Kenda. so that fork will go towards another project and I'll have to make another yet.

hehehe.. I was thinking that there would be three of each
and I don't feel so bad that my garage is full of buggy bits

its building season
just been to my new steel suplier and picked up 35m of 6mm bright mild rod for $10
and 2 3.5m lenths of 12mm for $5.....been a good morning

so buggystand mk2 is on its way, im going to braze it up, should look quite nice with the bright mild and braize on all the joints..

all looking very well put togeather their gannet, just let me know when i have to say goodbye to my soul

"all looking very well put togeather their gannet, just let me know when i have to say goodbye to my soul "


Hehe.. what about letting me win the next couple of race meetings
na .. what's the fun in that,and I need to learn to fly a kite first.
time payment, beer after beer for a long time,
and a good time one would have to say

Yeah thanks Guster, got me buggy back off gannet this week, mate, gemini proof be buggered, its nuke proof Think I'll call it "Brutal" the hybrid V max from the depths of gannets magical touch and the bowls of Club Bundy

Yeah thanks Guster, got me buggy back off gannet this week, mate, gemini proof be buggered, its nuke proof

Fine piece of bastardisation you have there... no question about the parentage at all.

Now worries mate... just $30 of steel! Gannet did all the hard work there. Poor fella has no buggy right now.

I'm flat out making molds and buggy parts and trying to get my snowgear ready to catch up with Ozone folk, RKS and Hadlow on the mountain on Sunday/Monday. It's such a hard life!

No prob, can't leave a good man down with no toys in the cot
just remember it comes with a full warranty,
minute or mile which ever comes first

I've been a little busy for the last week or two
fibre buggy is up and running again on little foots

machined a kenda front axle in titaniun tonight
so just have to finish the lower L.Link arm
and new foot pegs brackets for the widened s/s fork
and finsh the washing

What washing... you're coming to the mountain. Great timing that!

See you there.

Not wanting to Hijack this thread but i was jus checking out the array of tyres in one of the above pics and had to reply.
Ive got my own mini mooseland here in Foxton Beach and have started hitting the dunes pretty hard with my manta/ frenzy and my ozone stealth buggy.
Im jus running barrows on it and its all good after a bit o rain but gets more difficult pushing thru the soft when its all dry.
What im after is either: some wider tyres more suited to dune bashing, or some bigfoots and a bigfoot front end to be made up for me buggy.
Im not interested in any suspension, jus a bog standard wider front end to take the tyres.
The dunes here are epic and make for some great jumps from the peaks but im losing all me power getting to the edge and not having enough speed to get as big a flight as im looking for.

Any suggestions from you guys? You seem to be the dune and buggy Gurus around these parts.!

Any help appreciated

Butch

Great shot Butch, hmmm bigfoots are the way to go for sure in the dunes, but as I've found out, the hard way, when increasing speed over rough terrain, this has the result of increasing the stress on the buggy frame and then shite starts to bend/break especially if you weigh 100kg as I do.
Take my buggy for instance, Libre V-Max,


first, once I got me Bif Foots, I started to bend my seat side raills so fixed that with welding some D10 underneath, all that did was transfer the shock to the forks, so then they broke,so now I have a leading link fork (as pictured in the build above(geminiboar proof )) and would serriously advise that this system works to take the shock out and also has the advantage of keeping your stearing wheel in contact with ground thus giving you more grip/thrust/control

If you want a better explanation you'd have to talk to Gannet

Infact since getting my Big Foots (one off my better purchase) the only remaining parts to the V-max are the side rails, why ? cause Big Foots are fun but make concrete (almost) out of soft sand

bigfoots are the only way to go in soft sand man, with a mini moose at your disposal without them your missing out of something pretty cool......moosebashing, one of the most awsomest things ever.
you need 3 new tyres, you could use your old rims but youl soon buy new rims coz its such a pain in the ass changeing tyres, and a new pair of forks...perrin at kiteworks can sell you an awsome rigid set for $300, i have a set of them and love them...or like gemmi says, talk to gannet if you decide you dont want anything to bend ever again......seriusly, ever.
my whole set including older model forks cost $1000 two years ago.

ooh. the mighty northenal speaks up... were you been? too busy working?


Butch the auckland boys buggies do look the fruit for the dunes. if you make it to the moosemeet then yourl have your pick of vertually every configuration of buggy to try and see whats best suits your needs.

my geuss is that once you try the big foots the annoyance of extra weight will be easily offset by the extra speed and height/distance you can get jumping.

right then. Anyone got a set o bigfoots they wanna sell me?
Ill have to look in to front end options, but in my experience of buggy jumping, the less moving parts the better. A standard rigid setup is all ill need for now as i cant justify paying for a fancy suspension one when i have a business to start up and get running.
Maybe in the future.
Hoping to get this sorted for the moose meet.

Butch

I wouldn't be to worried about getting it sorted by moose time, as Northernal said, there will be plenty of big foot configurations there, and there are those of us (sadly not me) who have more than one buggy so you wont even be stealing a seat for the epically awaited first Mooduro race
I mean like your options would most likely include
- Northernal's SR71 lowered cambered axle butt smashing V-Max
- Gannet's home mastercrafted ski axle delight (he probably calls it somit else )
- Gannet's, well lets just say there are multi options here including Kenda tyres
- Jimmy22's shiney blingy fully rear strutted kenda fitted to skinny for my ass beauty
- or my overengineered overweighted D10 reinforced moose bashing hybrid V-max with leading link so affectionatly named Brutal
- and more
so a try before you buy/build might be a wise option otherwise for prompt service you might want to talk to Perrin at Kite Works

PS For those who have them, Dont forget your GPS's to help guide you round the Mooduro, we thinks a orienteering lap will be in order to set way points, then game on

Hehe... you just missed out on some of those wheels from that picture. Decay dropped by as I was contemplating loosing some and said he'd have some of those.

Currently rebuilding his PL buggy to fit the old Bigfoot classics, fabricating and welding a new back axle, downtube and fork. Actually getting a bit late in the day so I better get back to it.

The bigfoot lites without tubes is your best bet for weight. But as everyone here mentioned make sure your buggy can handle the loads. The larger wheel diameter puts more load on the axles and the frame. You also want to maintain the correct steering geometry and a low enough centre of gravity so you can still two wheel but not flip it. So it's not always just another fork and set of wheels but there's enough skill around to make those parts for you. Otherwise stick to runway landings eh?

I'm also thinking to out sort something a little more freestyle again. Especially with a 5m and 7m Haka in the quiver. But I may just make my version of elastomer trucks for a MTB or stick to kitesurfing for the silly stuff. The added weight to make a strong freestyle buggy for my weight group is too restrictive.

guster when are you going to see the light and sell your poultice of fixed bridles and get yourself a depower foil or 2?

ps make that those landboard trucks!

I meant ATB trucks as in landboard trucks yes.

When are you gonna see the light and get a buggy? Yes, I'd love a Manta and might still pick one up sometime.

butch has a 12m going for a song...... swipe it up before it sells.

i'll see the light when my local beaches are worthy for buggies. currently they are not. i'll be stepping into the water before i sit down ;}.

"The bigfoot lites without tubes is your best bet for weight"

is the way to go for starters
have some fun and before you totally wreck you buggy start plaining for
the stronger model
it's called "home build" brand
L.Link front
ski axle rear
and some 1" pipe side rails ( not tube )
and 40x60 goose neck to suit

then you can put the ozone stealth buggy back on barrows
for the hard sand freestyle work

I would totally wreck a standed buggy in one year.the best was one moosemeet,
last time at the moose I clock a 73 km/hr in the soft sand with bumps
I also wrecked the L.Link jumping, no ,falling off a wee clif

i dont know if you can borrow my buggy,
apparently you have to clench your butt at just the right angle so as not to scrape!!!!
this i must have become accustomed to over the years as i dont have any problems, amazing really that i dont walk with a gangster type buggy induced limp, but according to gemmyB its quite the annoyance
"quote, never EVER again am i going in that stupid buggy al"
its a personal thing.
and speaking of the light, where the hell is guster!!!??? we had almost all of us on orewa the other day, including a new guy but no guster AGAIN.....be ready for the moose man, or we are gonna come and manhandle you and all your kites into the moosebus even if we have to take your plasma cutter with us!!

Whatcha mean? Nobody invited me! I had family commitments before heading of to the mount with the boys. Decay stopped at my place for coffee after he'd seen you's at the beach, told me Gannet might be keen. Found him in Ngaruawahia later... still covered in sand!

Hehe... keen as a teenager on a third date but working through my list of priorities. Working on molds and leading links and bigfoot conversions and kite handles and trying to give the wife a bit of a break too. It was blowing hard Thursday and Friday and a bit on Saturday except for the rain and I was head down, fabricating like a maniac so I can catch up and do some work on the house again next weekend. Still a bit to do but at least I got rid of the headache I've been living with for over a month...