Date: Wed, 16 Feb 1994 10:20:47 -1000 From: andrew@tug.com (Andrew Beattie) Message-Id: Organization: /usr/lib/news/organisation Subject: Andrew's World Tour I'm just back from a whole month's holiday, spent in Vegas (at the KTA and Buggy Boogie Thang) and New Zealand (as a guest of Peter Lynn). I'll try not to bore you with a diary of everything that I did, but I'd like to share with the net some of the many things that I observed and learned (in random order): First: The Buggy Boogie Thang Force 10 foil. These seemed to fair quite well at the Boogie thang. When once I tried to be the first to buggy as the wind stirred slightly above zero MPH, some bugger beat me to it with an F10. Nick names (1). After problems with heavier riders breaking and bending parts of Land Lizards, Highly Strung are bringing out stronger replacements, rumoured to be called "Jensen Performance Components". Nick names (2). Peter Lynn turned up with and extra-wide, extra-long buggy, with extra large wheels and a wider seat. This earned the nick-name "The Denny's Special" [Denny's is a 24-hour cheap resturant supplying large quantities of fried food] Nick names (3). Peter Lynn's single line show kites come in mini, midi and maxi sizes. While I was there, they were working on an extra large maxi ray. The workshop staff, unhappy with the term "maxi-maxi-ray" christened it "Big Ben", but Peter isn't so happy with the name. Nick names (4). Buckled wheels were referred to as "taco wheels" 10m Peel. I had been impressed by the 10m peel before, but was still delighted to do a *walking* 360 in the still desert air. New wheels. Peter Lynn has started producing spun aluminium wheels. These are currently available for fat tyres and will soon be available for skinny tyres. They should be both stronger and lighter than the plastic or spokes that they replace. These could well become the industry standard as Peter seems to be willing to sell them to his competitors in the buggy market. Lizard stickers. These got everywhere - on bar taps, on one-arm bandits, even on the registration booth at the KTA! Steve Shapson. Steve seems to have been born to be the target of practical jokes. When packing up the KTA, he asked Corey & company to look after his stuff (a bunch of F10's and his buggy). We replaced his buggy with a genuine Peter Lynn one and hung his buggy above the cubacles in the Gents toilet. When he returned and (eventually!) noticed the bright green "Peter Lynn" seat strapping, he shouted "Who's stolen my rip-off?" and stomped off to search for it. Despite the ribbing, he seems to be a good guy - he's trying hard to produce the best 4-liner and he says that he's talking to Peter to come to a mutualy agreeable deal on making the buggies. Gambling. The accommodation cost at the Primadonna was only $12 per night for a room with 2 double beds - is is heavily subsidised by the gambling. I am delighted to report that when I chanced $20 on the roulette table, I walked away with $37! CATS. Computer Activated Timing System. This device (as advertised in the kite press was set up for speed trials in the desert. Phillip McConnochie came first (only about 27 mph as I recall), but Peter Lynn came second by a very close margin (was it 1/10th of a second or 1/100th ?). Peter was showing off by doing it backwards, but managed to completely demolish the system on one of his attempts. TV. MTV were there for the first 2 days - I particularly recall trying to do a fast pass while flying the 15m Peel by the bridle - I cut it too fine and flew the kite straight into the camera! ESPN were there on the second day, I managed to do a particularly fast pass past their cameraman. If you see the clips on the telly, I'm wearing cheap wrap-round glasses and a t-shirt over my head. For some inexplicable reason, the TV cameras only turned up on the days with wind! Scott Dyer. This guy deserves a special mention - he lives in Vegas and acted as host. He orgsanised the T-shirts (who walked off with mine?!), produced the pins and then provided a bar for everyone from the profits. He also ferried people all over the place. Buggy Naked. Scott produced a special "Buggy Naked" pin. In order to earn the right to buy one, you had to buggy naked, with witnesses *and* get photographic or video evidence. I made the mistake of doing it while MTV and ESPN were filming - but Scott has promised a gold pin for anyone that get's broadcast buggying naked. Peter Lynn, Dominique and a couple of others made the mistake of buggying naked when the wind died and had to stand up (revealing all) to recover their kites! We had one female naked buggier later in the week - no-one seemed to mind that she didn't fly a kite but was pushed along. Extra wide wheels. Peter Lynn can now supply these for use on soft sand. They use the same tyres as electric golf carts. They require an extra wide front fork. Second wind. This is the name of a single line kite that I flew at the KTA. it is basically a dingle-line delta that is manoeverable like a fighter, but larger and more fluid. It glides like a good ultralight and makes a very interesting kite to fly. It was the most interesting thing that I saw at the KTA. Order from "Share The Wind": +1 904 257 5271. Flexifoil Buggy. Flexifoil asked Peter Lynn to design a new buggy for them. it is a significant departure from the Lynn buggy - as if he was laughing in the face of the rip-off merchants by doing something *different* but still excellent. The Flexi/Cobra buggy has higher, straight-sided, level frame, with a sunken, fabric bucket seat (offering good protection for naked buggying!). The driver sits marginaly further forward, spreading more of the load to the front tyre - this proved to be a small but significant advantage in racing, so Peter has changes his own seat to match. The fork has two axle holes, so that you can change the steering geometry for better high speed tracking or for better forwards/backwards trick handling. One disadvantage of this buggy is that the rear axel cannot be turned over to straighten it if it gets bent. Repair tape. When Peter pulled the bridles from a 10m Peel (the person trying to help him launch it had the bridle wrapped round his foot!) the damage was not insignificant - a rip down the seam and a rip in the rib. He repaired the damage not with ripstop repair tape, but with self adhesive mylar available from Bainbridge. This produced a particularly effective repair. BO Buggy. This is a particularly nice looking buggy. It uses cro-mo tubes, painted bright green. It comes in a hard flight-case. You don't need a single tool to assemble it in the field! The bearings look excellent. On the other hand it does have it's drawbacks: It is one-piece frame - if you break it - you replace the whole frame (don't forget - if it doesn't break, it's too heavy). The steering lock is too small - this thing has a *large* turning circle. The seat tubes are rather too wide apart for 2-wheel work (also the rear axle is a little wide to make this easy). The foot pegs are a little on the narrow side. Most foot-pegs have something to stop your foot sliding off the end. The BO pegs have foam covers, but no end-stop. The steering assembly was significantly raised above the down-tube. However, the whole thing smelled of expensive, quality workmanship and the quick hand addembly was attractive. BO Buggy Engine. Nothing particularly exciting to report here - just a decent soft Quad. Nice handles though. 4-line Peel. Peter had a new, experimental 4-line Peel in the desert. It wasn't flown much, but I understand that it is a significant breakthrough - it is designed to allow you to decrease power *without* increasing drag! Want to know more? Tough! My lips are sealed. Selling my buggie. I was quite happy with my buggy, but one evening Peter told me that there was much more demand for buggies than they could cope with, so he sold mine! It ended up with none other than our own Darrin Skinner. Peter promissed to replace it when I got to NZ. Seat straps. Peter Lynn buggies now come with new seat webbing - bright green, with "Peter Lynn" woven in. Zeph 1 buggy. This is another example of someone trying to bring something original into the buggy market - a fibreglass buggy. It was cruely compaired to a kiddies garden slide. It suffered from excessive body twist and a large turning circle, but these issues will no doubt be addressed. They are to be admired for working to bring out something new. New Flexifoil. Flexifoil have brought out a new foil specifically aimed at the buggy market. It is about the same size as the 6' for manoeverability (you need a stack for decent traction). It uses ultraflex spars for more maneabable power (the flex has a significant reefing effect). The spars are completely pocketted to avoid tangling. The are built out of 32 gram Icarex for light wind performance (Jost seemed to require perhaps 0.25mph less wind than the big Peels). The foils use a wide hole vent fabric to allow easier removal of sand from the sail. the Icarex permits better performance when wet (the fabric simply doesn't *get* wet - the water just shakes off). This could be a serious contender in the traction arena - a stack of flexies (add or subtract kites depending upon conditions) is likely to be cheaper than a *set* of Peels). Nop. Nop had a couple of interesting toys. First was a 10m^2 (+?) Sputnik. This seemed to perform well, taking the caternary bridle further than I expected it to go. Also he had a buggy with a space-frame approach to it's stainless structure and a choice of 3 wheel or 4-wheel configuration. Phaeton Trike. The Germans were out playing with their long, wide, large diameter buggy, but I didn't get a chance to try it. Next: New Zealand Peter Lynn Prices. I used to think that you paid a premium for the Peter Lynn name. Having seen the way that the place works, I can see that I was completely wrong. These guys work their butts off to keep prices down. Not a scrap of fabric is wasted (ever noticed that the Fugu, Ray and Centipede are made from scrap?) Nothing is done without consideration for price and waste. Don't expect to see flash cars, posh offices and the like if you visit the Lynn factory. Design & Build. I planned to build a body-surfing device, while I was there, but Peter quickly pointed out the flaws in my design and the assumptions that I had made which were incorrect. Instead, he tought me much about design, showed me how to fibreglass and I helped as he built a 4-hull plaining boat >From scratch in 5 days. This thing had 2 plaining hulls fore and aft and another 2 on outriggers (angled so that only 3 hulls were in the water at any one time). Peter had no hesitation in taking a perfectly good Tornado sail, cutting a few feet off the bottom, then making the whole thing wider. By a couple of feet. Who is Peter Lynn? You might think that Peter is first and foremost a kite flier, but having spent some time with him, I think that kite come second to sailing. His other passion is politics. Clearwater Lake. Peter's local lake is ideal. Surrounded by mountains, Peter reports that in 38 years, he's never had a day during the Summer where he hasn't had enough wind to sail. On the other hand, during the winter, you might go 20 days without a breath. The lake is plenty big enough to play on but if you totally stuff it up, it is small enough for you to drift to the shore within a reasonable time. There are few trees on the banks. Making a Peel. During my stay, I made a 10m and a 7.5m Peel. I learnt a lot about soft kite construction but was surprised at the amout of work involved - it's no wonder these things arn't cheap. On the other hand, I was delighted that despite my low skill, they flew particularly well. Midi Gecko. Peter's latest kite, the Gecko, is now available in "Midi" size. I guess that this is half the lenght of the original, probably 12 meters or so. Ask phone the factory for a price (Don't ask Peter - he probably doesn't know!) 4 line Dead Man. Production of 4-line dead-man handles is just about to start You can order them now, but don't expect delivery for a month or two. Hat. Have you noticed the hat that Peter wears? It had a semi-stiff brim, so that it holds position if you shape it, it doesn't show the dirt and it has a chin strap so that it doesn't fall off as you buggy. He sells them as a sideline. The latest model has his signature printed on the side in Gold and the story of the hat printed on the inside (The hat makers changed the story slightly - they replaced "it was an ugly hat" with "it was an unfashonable hat"). I am proud to own one *without* his name on :-). Harness hooks. When kite-sailing, I got a chance to try the harness hooks. These are simply hooks that you slip the QR handle strap into. It is rather difficult to get the strap in while on the water, but once in place, they allow you to use much more power with much less effort. Note that they are only suitable for use with a dead-man release. Kite sailer. Rather than simply take a replacement buggy, I gave Peter some more cash and bought a kite sailer with a set of wheels. This was great fun on the lake - it really can plane upwind (even at my skill level!) Raised Pegs. I got peter to weld on an extra pair of foot-peg sockets right up at the top of the forks. This allows me to take more forward power before being pulled over the front of the buggy/boat. New Kite Sailing Development. I have been sworn to secrecy and can't reveal any detail *at*all*, but I witnessed something new and exciting complete it's maiden voyage under kite power on lake Clearwater. [exciting? yes, it was exciting - Peter and Philip were having orgasms about it!] Maybe (just maybe) it will be revealed at the Rome kite boat regatta. New Reefer. There is a new reefing kite waiting in the wings. Again details are lacking, but the new kite reduces power significantly more than the old model and does it *without* increasing drag. The model that I tried suffered from inflation problems (it was better in more skilled hands), but watch out for significant developments in this area. Peel Mountain. On the way to the lake, we passed the Peel mountains, after which the kites are named. Finally: Thanks to all those who made this trip possible, especially: Peter Lynn, Corie Jensen, Scott Dyer and my long-suffering wife, Joanne. Andrew -- Work: gaffer@rec.com Phone: +44 793 614 110 Fax: +44 793 614 297 Play: andrew@tug.com Phone: +44 256 464 912 My mailbox was accidentally deleted while I was on holiday - I may have missed mail between mid-Jan & mid-Feb :-( = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =