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I have been jumping "badly" in my buggy for about a year and its starting to show as you can see in the pic the front wheel is skewed and the rear axle is bent slightly. I have decided to modify a second buggy in these areas in an attempt to stop the buggy getting damaged from bad/heavy landings. After doing some research into the different ways other people modified there buggies it became apparent that most people do there own thing. If you look at other buggies on the beach or in the forums this becomes obvious quite quickly. So it really is a bit of an open book as far as what is the right way to do this. This is the way I have chosen. Time will tell me if it's a good way or not. Before I continue a word of caution. One school of thought says you should never modify the buggy at all. The logic behind this is that if your buggy is being damaged due to impact it is absorbing forces that could potentially damage "you". Also by strengthening the buggy in various areas you might just cause the next weakest part to fail. Taking this into consideration I decided to continue any way as I am heavier than the average buggy jumper. I decided that I wanted a brace over the rear axle and to put strengtheners across the side rails. Rear Axle. I wanted to have a single brace over the total width of the axle. I made it using 38mm OD stainless 316 tubing. I wanted the contact points to be almost to the end of the original axle so that it gave me the strongest fixing and was therefore welded onto both threaded bosses. Some axles are supported further in from the ends on the tube wall. This can still allow the original axle to bend at the weld points. The tubes were purchased at a local steel merchant. I also bought a 90degree bend. Which I then cut onto two 45 degree sections to provide me with the equal bends either end. Before the tubes can be welded I needed to prep the tube ends so that there was a minimal gap for the welder to fill. This is quite straight forward around the bends where straight butts are all that are required. Not quite so easy around the area where the brace sits on the original axle. You have to allow for the removal of the material when you cut it to length. If you mess this up then the brace could end up to short. I used a hack saw, various round and half round files and a protractor to prep the joints. This is quite time consuming but the results are worth the work. I wanted to have the axle brace welded in a position where it would give the optimum support, but not be right behind my back when I landed. I decided to weld the brace with a 60 degree angle between the brace and the side rail connections. This would leave the brace leaning slightly back in the finished buggy. Side rail strengtheners. I took the basic idea from a document that Stupid Dave (Flexi Pro Rider) had of his trick buggy mods. Highly recommended if you can get hold of this as he also shows other potential mods. The strengthener consists of a bar and two posts that effectively tie the two side rails together. This should provide extra rigidity that will help to stop the front end twisting. The materials I used were from an old damaged Radsails buggy. I basically cut up the rear axle to provide me with parts that I needed. Again the forming of the tube ends is quite tricky here as you have to ensure that all the butts are good for welding. I found that using some electricians tape here was very helpful to keep things together. Once the joints were prepped I was ready for the welding. As I did not have any access to suitable welding gear (MIG or TIG) I needed to find someone who could help me out. A friend of a friend came to my rescue and I managed to get the job done for a few quid. I was lucky, but there are many small workshops that could have done the job for me. Price is usually quite high for welding though. Again here is where the prepping of the welds can save a lot of money as the welder can work quickly. Once back from the welders, the frame was stripped and welds polished off to give a nice clean finish. The weld form was left visible and not polished out as I want it for strength. A basic drill, polishing discs and polishing soap were used to achieve the required finish. Warning; do not press to hard when using the drill as it can burn the motor out. (I found out the hard way) I had a little help in this area from one of the buggy polishing maestros. Guess who? One of the problems with welding the side rails is the welding causes the frame to buckle as the weld is forming. This means that some force is required to get the side rails and rear axle back together. It also meant that the down tube is now very tight into the front clamp. The buggy is now effectively one piece as far as transporting to and from the beach it is concerned. Seat mods. The Flexifoil seat is designed to fit over the side rails before the buggy is assembled normally. This gives you a problem when the side rails have been welded. The seat will not fit because the front two loops are to narrow. In order to get the two parts to fit modification of the front loops is needed. I machine and then hand overstitched two lengths of webbing onto the loops this allowed me to fit a plastic buckle to each side of the seat. Now the seat can be fitted to the side rails. Do this before fitting the down tube. With the frame of the buggy assembled the seat buckles can be tightened. I wasn't sure about the plastic buckles at first but they do seem to holding up during use. If they prove to be a weak point they can be upgraded to steel or the strap could be stitched together. I have also made a single lap strap for my bug as I prefer this over the three belt system. With the addition of the barrows and a belly pan the buggy is ready to fly. Note: jumping buggies and using lap belts will hurt. Maybe sooner, maybe later. But it will happen. You have been warned.

I was never going to be able to afford a proper race buggy so I had to look at ways of upgrading my humble Peter Lynn comp XR+ ... standard Peter Lynn Comp XR+ My buggy now has the Peter Lynn 140cm gigastrong axle, longer and stronger side rails, a custom made back rest and 6 ply highway rated radial tyres. beefed! Compared to one of my previous buggies of lust, the Sysmic S2 it is a very similar size (length and width) and has the same sought of footprint, but overall it is still a lot lighter in weight despite the modifications. The heaviest addition is the gigastrong axle as this is much thicker as well as longer. gigastrong! The side frame extensions have also added some extra height to the frame allowing me to lower the standard PL seat while still having a reasonable clearance under my butt! This means I sit lower between the frames and am able to wedge myself in more. The back rest has been through a couple of processes to get it comfortable and to provide the support I was after... Overall these modifications, along with the new tyres, have made the buggy feel much more stable. I am now able to block myself against the side rails and the overall feel of the buggy enables me to hold down more power. And rather than that power translating into sideways slippage the buggy tracks forwards better - I think this has enabled me to increase my speed and also the upwind performance. The new tyres are less likely to slide on the surface of the lake and this has also helped. With a slight shift of my weight I am still able to un-stick the rear end either to scrub speed or power slide - but it did take a bit of getting used to. I am really pleased with how the buggy is handling and the comfort side of it and I am so glad now that I didn't spend a couple of grand on something else (the mods so far have cost about $400). I'm not saying in the future I wont want to upgrade but some of the other production buggies are a lot heavier than my comp xr+.

Went on my 2012 3 week Portugal kitesurf trip and had a new company in the world of kiteboard building going by the name of NAVIS post me out their signature freestyle board for demo. Being based in Sweden (and during their bank holiday period) I was pleased they went to the trouble. This board was very much worth the trouble. Built from a solid wood core (Paulownia wood from Slovenia) and Bio-Epoxy from the US this board is very environmentally friendly, as well as a dream to use. Weighing in at 2.55kg this is a pretty light board too, making smooth transitions on either tack pretty easy. The rails are sharp and progressive, but also not overly keen so not to cause easy toe side slams! The underbelly is a full Dual Concave for quick planning and stable high speeds. This is a strong characteristic in major high line boards such as the Nobile 2HD series and the F-One Freestyle boards, which retail at almost twice the price of the Foucan. The upwind ability of this board is pretty astounding! The company advertises the Foucan as an “Upwind Machine” and let’s face it, all the manufacturers do the same. This board however is just that. After a few hours on the water you just don’t have to ‘try’ to get back upwind it seems to automatically take you there, it’s as simple as that. The board is classed by the company as a ‘stiffy’, but when tested by our Dutch friends at the Alvor Lagoons in Portugal they suggested it has a softer feel compared to their Liquid Force Freestyle boards. Nose to nose they were right. Stiffer than a Shinn MonkII, softer than a Nobile 2HD gave nice soft landings for a heavyweight rider such as myself, so I was personally pleased with the flex response. I ended up buying the Foucan to add to my batch, if you see me riding it you could very easily fall in love with the Retro style, almost Bamboo, look of the deck, no fancy graphics here! My personal preference with the Foucan was the Nobile IFS PRO 2011 footpads and straps, because, and amazingly, your typical kitesurfer doesn’t have size 13 feet and weigh 280LB!! Who’d have known? Author : Mr.M