Balancing a buggy?

popeyethewelder.com/facebook questions

2012

  • Robin Cook – Tips and advice welcome. Noticed it missing frothe Q/A and I’m gonna be tweaking a new buggy soon so might come in handy.
  • Alan Vidow – Firstly. Go out & try it 😉
  • Robin Cook – Lol. I got a good idea what I’m doing getting a bug balanced Alan and obviously il try it before making any changes but hopefully il pick a few tips up here and be useful to others in need if help.
  • Alan Vidow – If the front or back is breaking away early. Try firstly moving the seat an inch either way ie;
    Front breaking out/washing out in turns : move seat an inch further back. Vica versa if it’s the back. This moves the tow point.
  • Robin Cook – Always good to learn summat new John.  Had a nightmare getting my current bug to behave but eventually found a sweet spot.

    Curious how people like there bugs balanced. Found my ideal balance was the front end breaking away just slightly before the back.
  • Matt Cook – make up some adjustable weights that you fill with lead shot,or fit bottles of water to your buggy to get the right weight on the forks
  • Alan Vidow – Weights are a last resort.
  • Matt Cook – put a set of scales under each wheel, sit in the buggy and get a mate to read each one,when each dial reads the same then your buggy aint far away
  • Robin Cook – Heard that mentioned matt but perfectly balanced on scales  must differ a fair bit to powered up with a kite no??  Can’t remember where I saw the equations for working that out.
    Had a mate tug on a rope hooked into my spreader to help tweak my current bug.
  • David Wilmer – Take the buggy with both sets of wheels discs and bigfoots to your fly zone and spend time setting your seat, length of your down tube and foot pegs till both setups are the same and you don’t need bother with weights and change of setup between discs and bigfoots !
  • Robin Cook – Agree 100% with that Dai. Grabbed another axle so I can keep disks and bigfoots on each so my camber/toe will always be as I want it.
    Il be playing around with it once I’ve got it home till I got it sweet. Sure il have more questions then.

    Looking forward to trying them disks out. Never used em before.
  • Carlos Fandango – I have a couple of pages about balancing a buggy LINK  …and here is the formula for adding weight LINK
  • Robin Cook – Cheers for the links Carl. I read them when I first started but hadn’t seen them on the new site, didn’t think to look in buggy projects.
  • Al Noblet – i use a ballancing stand, this is a big ask for most folk as tey wont have a ballancing stand but if you wana get a realy good result without trial and error then it could be worth making one…..this is the theory, put your buggy in the ballancing stand and move the towpoint forwards or backwards untill your buggy ballances with al wheels off the ground nice and level, now get into the buggy and sit in your natural position (with your arms in the flying position) the buggy should remain level and ballanced, you should be able to rock the buggy over the CG with your head and sholders….thats a ballanced buggy, and it feels awsome….but it takes time moving stuff around untill it works properly.
  • Robin Cook – Hmmm. That’s the first time I’ve heard that method mentioned Al.
    I guessing you balance the buggy on the tow point?

    Any chance of a pic or two of the balance stand, shouldn’t be to hard to knock something up.
  • Al Noblet – the towpoint is what were trying to find, it is not a set position and only once everything is ballanced will you find where it is, that is the trick, once you know where both your buggy/your buggy and yourself in it ballance will you know if the towpoint is where you want it ( a comfortable place, ofton above your bellybutton) or inline with your elbow…..once youv found it you can work on moving it forwards or backwards into your most comfortable position by moving things around until you have it nailed…..a buggy wont always ballance where you want it…a tail heavy buggy alone may ballance with the rider seated, but its still tail heavy and the towpoint will have to be moved away from the CG to compencate fot this, so its not actualy ballanced….but will feel ok…just not as good as the real thng…i know its a bit heavy going, but it works and worth the time.