Peter Foulkes – Kitebike Speed Run
Gannet on the way to only just lose out to a third record
Sunday morning, the plan is to kikebike the 50 km of Muriwai beach and return or as we call it, “nukes the moose”. (The northern end of the beach we call the mighty Mooseland). Al calls in at my place wit…h his Razor kitebike, we load up with kites, 2.3m, 4m and 6m each. Rexton turns up as well with buggy and buggy trailer.
At the beach I set up my Kitezone nz Razor II kitebike and 2.3m Ozone race kite, the wind is NW 20 + knot, which makes it hard work traveling North, as the beach faces SW. We cancel the idea to nuke the moose and drive to the 50ks to the other end. The Moose is cranking, a good 22 knots gusting 28.
We zero the GPS’s and I saddle up with the 2.3m again, I take the Razor II south a bit, It winds up fast, I start to think this could be speed run weather, should have taken all the kites, O well. I turn and head north to get a run up. This is the second time I’ve been on this bike, last week at Orewa beach and now I’m doing speed runs, eek. I stop about 5 k’s north zero the GPS in front of the camera again, and turn on the Go pro, launch the kite and start heading down wind, the bike is hard work to balance at slow speed, but at 10 km/hr it smooth’s out and winds-up, and winds-up fast, The 2.3 is awesome, so smooth and stable, so is the bike. I get a good gust the kite powers up and fly’s even faster the bike breaks traction and power slides a little, I hold my line not to end up in the soft sand.
I go about 8 to 10 km and then slow up, using the wet sand to help pull this iron horse up. I put the bike into a slide to bring it to a stop, the kite is still powered up and pops me out. Once I get control of the kite again, (check out the end of this video below) . I turned off the Go Pro and checked the speed, to my surprise the GPS’s up front have a top speed of 85.2 km/hr, I check the GPS at the back in front of the go pro and it’s on 85.2 as well. I dance around like a school girl at prom night, on a beach in the middle of nowhere. Deano comes over in his buggy, we talk about what is the world record, 85 something, we head back into the wind slowly to the others. I have to wait till I get home to find out that I get second place, missing out on the world record by 0.58 km/hr.
Wanting patiently for the next 25 knot Norwester
Pete Foulkes aka Gannet
Peter already holds the Kite Bike, and Kite Buggy distance Records
Kite Biking Fastest Speeds
Gannets Bike PB
wheel radius, 
is the head angle measured clock-wise from the horizontal and 
is the fork offset or rake. Trail can be increased by increasing the wheel size, decreasing or slackening the head angle, or decreasing the fork rake or offset. Trail decreases as head angle increases (becomes steeper), as fork offset increases, or as wheel diameter decreases.
)
