To hot wire or not to hot wire…..that is the question?

popeyethewelder.com/facebook questions

 

2012 

 

  • Brad Rex –  IMO if done correctly, the only and the safest way to buggy! Been hotwired to the buggy for 6 years never had an incident and I push it pretty hard. You just have to have confidence and understanding in whatever system you use and any possible drawbacks it may have and then perfect it! My confidence is in my hotwire system will not buggy without it!
  • Mark Sherlock –  Difficult to compare when I’ve never tried hot wire. Like the feedback of flying with a harness so dont feel the need to change. Plus, in racing hot wire is not an option.
  • Andrew AutoBuddy Jones –  Yet to try it tbh. May do this year.
  • David Olsen –  Go ahead, But not me!!
  • Carlos Fandango –  I have had a few short sessions being Hot wired in about 15mph wind, once I had got used to the idea I must admit I did enjoy the experience, not sure I have the confidence to go out in 25mph plus though My Set up
  • Alan Vidow –  I would like to try it, as I suspect there is les pressure on the body & a more relaxed flying experience.
  • Stuart Mcgougan –  It would put less stress on body and I’d be interested in trying of however its not allowed in racing
  • Jeroen Potters –  buy a blowfart,…then you stay safe ,. 🙂
  • Brad Rex –  I’ve seen many more accidents and serious ones in blokarts than in buggies.
  • Jeroen Potters –  that is because they let everybody drive in it without proper instructions,…its more safe, but head on collisions wont do you good,.. Hot wiring, no way !!! learn to control your kite, accept it is a extreme sport, and have fun !,… 🙂 ,…but that my opinion :), sometimes it needs to hurt a bit, to have fun,…. 🙂
  • Carlos Urtiaga  – Am being naive here, hot wire???
  • Alan Vidow –  Instead of harnessing to you, harness the kite to the buggy.
  • Carlos Urtiaga –  Thats a good idea and I would imagine safer, do something wrong and its not you personally going skywards!!!
  • Jeroen Potters –  In a proper designed kitebuggy you can lock yourself instantly, we see people jump etc.. with full race buggys, they are not hotwired. In a race it is sometimes good/safer to lock yourself( when in a upwind turn your kte collaps, BAM !), and sometime better that you can come out.( when you buggy flips over)
  • Craig Hansen –  Hotwire. I don’t have the same confidence if I am not Hotwired, never leave home without it. In saying this I have a home made rig that allows my spreader bar to clip in to either my harness or transfer to the buggy, so for kite handling out of the buggy it is on the harness, for riding it is on the buggy, if it gets sketchy I can choose where I want the kite, and for water crossings I can go to kite on harness, the bar also doubles as a seat belt on roughf terrain. I have recycled seat belt fittings to make it they are good because they are cheep they don’t let go untill you want them to and always letgo when u push the button, and as I have one on each side I get two goes to find a button.
  • Cliff Baker –  How much feeling or feedback of the kite do you loose? After being hotwired for a while do you naturally regain that feedback but through the buggy?
  • Craig Hansen –  Good question I have not struggled with this since go I dont think it is a big issue really, there must be some loss for sure but Wayne Carkeek is on to it with the keeping a little tension on the handles with your hands. i tell you where you do notice it is after about 9 hours you can comfortably continue bugging, and then do it again the next day.
  • Andrew AutoBuddy Jones –  Have you any pics of your set ups and you in the buggys with them.
  • Craig Hansen – Photos Perrin Melchior has some good online picture of his rig if he gets this he may post the link? I will have to take some of mine when we get back to bugging(winter no wind)
  • Andrew AutoBuddy Jones –  What u mean no wind in the winter ?
  • Craig Hansen –  Ok let me qualify not much usable wind in Ashburton in winter.
  • Nick Thompson –  Does it work just as well with a bar as it does with handles
  • Wayne Carkeek –  bars have a longer length in general but if you set it up short as possible yes it works fine with full throw and comfortable. a shorter bar is a bit better.
  • David Lees –  Normally I just buggy using my harness, strop etc. like most people. However, I keep hot wire straps, a separate pulley & QR on my buggy and hook them up if I have to make very long straight runs usually tacking upwind. If the upwind tack is less than about 3 to 4 kms, I don’t bother. The reason I hot wire is only to improve my comfort on those long tacks.  Note that we tried hot wiring when running the dunes but after a couple of nasty prangs being dragged with buggy on top of pilot, that idea was abandoned.
  • Craig Hansen –  Bars in Buggies…… they work well however, personally I think they are dangerous and so proceed with caution when I use them (I still use them),  if you are at full noise or cross country over rough terrain and in danger of tipping up you need to know that they tend to stick in to the ground and stop and then get you to land on their pointy end, I have had a few such incidents of which 2 where bad ones a cracked cheek bone and a bruised liver, that said I have had many spills on handles and only once been injured by them, and that was properly painful but not life threatening in fact I broke them in half with my butt. Bars are good but beware.
  • Lawrence Simpson –  I started buggying just a year ago, and started on handels and hot wired from the start so find it easy and no strain on the body and arms. As Wayne Carkeek mentions to keep the tension on a bit, especially when taking off as its easy to get tipped  over and or break lines when not using your arms like a bit of bungy. I have landed twice on my head, but also having a good safety release is paramount, as we all do in little NZ. I personaly think handels on a buggy is beter than a bar for fast action.
  • Al Noblet – i love hotwiting and would never go back, im happy with it in any wind and have flown in gusting 50knots, albeit very tentitevly….with the buggy aking the load its a lot easier to fly in well powerd conditions for longer and its very nice in sanddunes where pulling up inclines and general rough terrain riding demands unusual loadins from wired kite positions….im not an freestyler but its cool riding downhill into the wind and becoming gracefully airborn just sitting in your buggy….my is fairly heavy at 50kg…..
  • Perrin Melchior –  Photos here is my hard wire system I have been using for the last few years. It has been very reliable.
  • Jorge Cabrera – Hot Wiring.. for me result the best solution, 1/2 second release, comfortable and take my back normaly LINK TO PHOTO
  • Richard Miller – I know someone that uses a seat belt systim like this! He loves it!
  • dean  jordan – I always used a thick piece of spectra tied on the left, and quick release on the right.  On it, was a steel Carabinieri, thick.  I used a device meant to quick release a sheet(sailing).  Put a small cord with knot on it.  Super fast, cheap, reliable.  Never failed to release.   Have not been able to use that system since i started flying twin skins….i miss it.  The fatigue factor is so much lower with a seal belt harness.
  • Jorge Cabrera – I spend a lto of hours in the buggy with NO Fatigue
  • Eduardo Lopez – but I have a question guys, for sure the hot wire is confortable, but don´t you think it goes against feeling the power of the kite on your body?  At the end of the day it is a personal choice but I love feeling the power of the kite
  • dean  jordan – Oh you feel it.  You just gain so much control, and confidence.  When i first started riding like that everyone told me i couldn’t do it that way.  Mostly no one even noticed.  Now freestylers and others do it all the time.  No big deal.
  • Jorge Cabrera – ?Eduardo Lopez I prefer feel the love of my wife in my body, not the kite….:)
  • Thomas Mulligan – Where does the seat belt attach to? I like the idea of being harness free. I tried a hot wire system that I made myself but it kept pinching my legs. The seat belt looks way better and safer. I fly LEI’s, so I’d need to replace the roller with a hook but that should be easy enough.
  • dean  jordan – I always attached it to the side rails.
  • Marcus Livermore – I’ve yet to find a freestyler who hot wires !
  • dean  jordan – Why do say Hot Wiring is dangerous Marcus?  I never found it to be so at all.  Did i ever end up on my face with the buggy on my back.  Oh hell yeah.  At least I knew right where it was.
  • Marcus Livermore – It’s just that a with a harness you feel every twitch it’s connected to you. Not to what your riding on ! Allways thought it as dangerous due to that exact reason. Had many conversations about it with many other riders over the years. And yes I have hot wired an tried it for a little while to see for myself. weather it’s because I do freestyle  and learnt the way I learnt or because of old school thinking I don’t no but my opinion is only based on what I beleive after many years of flying and many many serious mishaps where had I been hot wired I don’t think I’d have come out of.
  • dean  jordan – You don’t come out.  It’s just that if you are riding a light, freestyle bug, it’s okay.  In a heavier buggy, avoid tricks, so you don’t turtle.  As for the feeling, 5 to 8 hours in the buggy is possible.
  • Marcus Livermore – I’ve never come out of any buggy I’ve ever been in ! That’s why I have a belt holding the buggy to my butt. Lol but my understanding of racing is your not aloud a belt nor to be hot wired . I suppose it is a matter of personal choice at the end of the day as with everything not every one is the same so each to there own lol peace bro