Running in

I've spent over a week working late winter nights to get it running for the midwinter BBBB event. You know you've been rushed as you do your final assembly and first sit in the buggy on the beach.

Springboard axle was a surprising success. Running over washboard ruts on the beach I soon realised that I was hearing the wheels on the ruts and not feeling them. Normally hard turns would break traction early in these conditions. With no axle tramp and reduced wheel bounce I had a hard time sliding this buggy.

Footrest came out nice but very heavy. I'll build another lighter set. However the weight balance was spot on the few times I got to break the wheels loose in a slide. Do need to trim the mudflap though.



Things to finish:
Shorten the stirrups
Trim the mudflap
Replace the velcro on the seatbelt quick release
Finish the GPS mount on the goose neck
Replace the elastomers with an unpigmented set
Clean up all the final details

The new axle is complete including the frame to mount it. I like the way the angle work and complete the stubby back end of the seatframe. The finish is not bad for an atmospheric layup either.

Layup consists of:
2x layers of blue cotton
2x layers of 6oz glass
4x layers of 9oz chopstrand glass

The reason for for the chopstrand mat is to provide the strength in flex to absorb bounds without reflex as rebound would break traction




Here are some shots of the stub-axle mounts. The big washer is just a spacer that sits on the machined bearing journal to allow me to snug everything appropriately.



I plan to do one for the race buggy on the vacuum table next. I'll cast some sidewalls to protect the wood from moisture too. The flex worked out well and I just have minimal sag with my weight in the buggy. Jumping on the back axle with the wheels on proved that it was both strong and did not bottom out on the ground which is a good sign.

Carbon illness

Another buggier wanting to get into freestyling. This builder has patternmaking skills in a composite boat building workshop though need the metal parts for the divinycell core carbon frame.

His frame consists of a semi-teardrop shape profile and the headset is a mating fit over it.


To keep weight down we considered 20mm thickwall tube for the stubs and front axle. You can also see the head set abgle had to be adjust to get the right lead angle on the fork since the down tube section of the carbon frame was to shallow.

Chasing the rainbow

Managed to find a replacement pressure cooker for the one I used to use for degassing resins and fillers. However still have not resolved the curing issues when adding pigments and I'm still chasing down a source for powder acrylic pigment.

The brown elastomers are the natural unpigmented colour. The grey ones are just dirty from living on the workbench for a few weeks. These were donated to Peter Lynn's Craig Hanson as test samples.



Soon as time permits I'll hook up the vacuum chamber and mill some new molds to improve ease of demolding.