Details, Steering, Seat
The kite buggy's rear wheels are mounted at the ends of the rear axle. The front wheel is mounted in the front fork. In advanced buggy designs either or both front and rear wheels can be attached via suspension mechanisms.
The front fork is not unlike a bicycle's fork apart from proportions and the fact that there is no handle bar at the top. Instead there are two foot rests sticking out on the left and right of it, attached to the fork very low down, near where the wheel is mounted. These foot rests have two main purposes:
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- they allow the pilot to easily steer the buggy. Pushing the left foot forward will turn the front wheel to the right, pushing the right foot forward will turn the front wheel to the left.
- they allow the pilot to lodge himself tightly into the seat so he is not pulled out of the buggy by the kite.
Foot rests can be fitted with foot straps and grip tape to prevent the feet from sliding off the rests during extreme buggying action. Foot straps are not recommended for beginners, due to the possibility that they will not be able to remove their feet from the pegs if the buggy flips over and therefore risk breaking their ankles.
The seat of the buggy is a bucket style seat giving the pilot good side and back support. This is necessary as the driver has to transfer the force of the used traction kite into the buggy.
Read more about this topic: Kite Buggy
Famous quotes containing the word seat:
“Tom took his whipping and went back to his seat not at all broken-hearted, for he thought it was possible that he had unknowingly upset the ink on the spelling-book himself, in some skylarking bout—he had denied it for form’s sake and because it was custom, and had stuck to the denial from principle.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)