1. HISTORY?
We may never know who the first person to
try kitebiking was or where they came from (I would
be greatful for any information on this score, however).
It may have been one of those things where different
people tried it in isolation from each other at different
times before it seemed to catch on enough for a couple
of manufacturers to commercially offer kitebikes. Dave
Folkard may have been one of the first people to make
and try kitebikes, at least in the English speaking
countries. Here is an edited summary of his experiences
as he related them to me via email:
" I used to build all my own buggies and
kites when the sport was in its eary days... As an experiment
I made a 'kitebike' not knowing if it was going to be
possible. I was not aware of the existence of any others.
It worked but took a bit of R & D to get the steering
geometry sorted. I was suprised at how easy it was to
learn. I made three. The first was used for all the
R & D. I flogged number one and kept the other two:
One has fat buggy tyres, is short and maneouverable
and is best for bumbling around. The other is less maneouverable
and more stable at speed and it is fast. Very efficient
on hard packed sand. I've had this one up to 62mph!
"
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2. WHY TWO WHEELS?
3D BUGGYING
Since a kitebike is able to tilt it presents
a novel twist on the sensations offered by three wheel
buggying - it offers 3D movement, to a certain degree.
In this repect it is a bit closer to kitesurfing than
buggying. I was attracted to kitebiking by the prospect
of kite powered-motorcycling; to combine the two in
one sport appeals immensly to me. However, the sensations
of kitebiking are dissimilar in some respects to those
of motorcycling: when travelling straight one is leaning
over against the pull of the kite (like kitesurfing
and kiteskiing) and when turning, one cannot lean with
the turns nearly as much because of the recumbent position
and the fact that the steering is much more twitchy
(even more than a Ducati 748, in my experience...;-).
This is the case because of the reduced gyroscopic stability
of the small wheels, very little weight and the fact
that the center of gravity of the rider is so low (I
reckon that Dave Folkard's big wheel kbike would be
better in this area). However, having said this, the
sensations are wonderful - this is " soul " buggying...
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3. HOW DO YOU DO IT?
If I could only give one tip to someone
learning to ride a kitebike, it would be: "steer with
your hips and lean with your shoulders." Although the
picture is slightly more complex at very slow speed
(where front wheel steering and centered weight are
predominant), this "separation" is the essensce of what
it takes to properly control a kitebike at any speed
above a fast walking pace, in my opinion. Of course,
a decreasing amount of front wheel steering is still
necessary until speeds start to exceed 20-30kmph. This
rule holds true for standard wheel kitebikes, at least.
The three immediate problems for beginner kitebikers
are starting, staying balanced at slow speeds and turning.
Starting is really easy once you know how. :-) I conceed,
that such a statement is not very helpful to beginners
who continually fall over when starting. What is helpful
to know is that the secret to starting is to persist
long enough for your body to begin to order and "understand"
the complex of movements involved and "memorise" them.
In other words, once you know how, it is " just like
riding a bike " - you just need to fall off for a bit
in the meantime. In retrospect, I would have taken less
than twenty minutes to get started on my first day if
I had been using a medium sized kite in moderate, steady
winds instead of a tiny kite on five meter lines in
30+knts of gusty wind. I also would have " cracked "
it quicker had I tried sliding one of my feet for the
first ten meters or so. Now, while this may be obvious
to some people, I am used to starting the buggy with
both feet on the pegs and my motorcycle experience tells
me never to drag a foot on take-off.
Anyway, I would recommend both of the above tips for
starting and say that I think there is little problem
sliding a foot on a hardpacked beach. The next thing
to consider is that it is best to start the kitebike
by facing it about 135 degrees or so away from the wind.
This helps balance and lets speed build up quicker (more
stability). So, your ready positions is: kbike at 135deg
to wind, kite at the top of the window in the ready
position, and kitebike balanced in a standstill position
with one foot. To go: dip the kite into the power, keep
your weight centered whilst balancing through your hips
and though the steering the front wheel, start to gradually
lean against the kite as the power increases and your
speed picks up. (As an aside, I would note that it is
possible to " waterstart " the kbike in a way similar
to kitesurf practice by hoping in the kitebike with
feet on pegs whilst it is laying on its side and dipping
kite into the power to pull yourself up and going.)
Once you are moving, to stay balanced, you turn more
into a reach (90 deg) and lean against the kite. Make
sure that you lean over progressively, not suddenly.
In the early stages, people fall off by either leaning
too suddenly or not enough, soon enough. When going
very slow after starting, I steer with my front wheel,
balance/lean with my hips, and keep my upper body centered.
When moving at speed, the front wheel does very little
work: the hips steer and take care of the fine balance
whilst the upper body leans and takes care of the coarse
balance.
Once you have put in a run and the end of the beach
is nigh, it is time to try to turn about... and fall
off. The nicest way to about-turn a kitebike is to go
screaming into a tack, using a fast kite to keep the
speed up when it is above and behind. This is the best
way to carve turns. Most people are more comfortable
gybing, however, so the best way to gybe is to first
slow down (you can do this by edging upwind and slowly
raising the kite as you bleed off apparent wind generated
power), so as to not over-run the kite in the gybe because
it is going to be a bit wider than your usual tight
buggy turn. The next thing to remember is that it will
be steered to a large degree through the front wheel
although weightshift is needed to initially tip into
the turn at any speed above a slow walk. During the
turn, keep the kite high and your weight fairly centered
if you are not going faster than running pace. Try to
stay smooth in your actions - the best way to do this
is to visualise the actions of the turn beforehand and
tick them off in your mind as you actually perform them.
When you are three quarters through the turn, start
to bring the kite down into the power on the new tack
and begin to take up the lean on the new tack. A tip
for faster gybes is to turn the kite a couple of seconds
after you intitiate the turn in your kbike...
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4. WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Here I must confess that kitebikes are not
quite as versatile as buggies - at least in terms of
the shear number of tricks possible. I enjoy going fast,
leaning hard and pushing the adhesion of the back tyre.
This can be turned into a powerslide " trick " by powering
the kite and pushing the back end out when leaned right
over. To survive a rear wheel slide, you must generally
steer into the slide (like a speedway motorcycle or
rally car) and keep fairly still. The danger to be avoided
here is " highsiding " where the rear tyre suddenly
regains grip with the kbike at an angle to the direction
of travel and the rider is thrown over and out of the
highside of the bike. I haven't done this yet, but have
come close a couple of times. Another thing I like doing
is slaloming where the kbike is weaved back and forth
across the general direction of travel - try to make
the tightest turns possible without falling off (easier
than you think, but it will really test your hip steer
and upper body balance). One of the other joys for me
is carving big wide gybes and tack turns as fast as
possible. The measure of a good, fast carving turn is
the need to use very little/no front wheel steer. Other
things I have tried are jumping and dune riding. Jumping
with a seat belt using kite lift is fun, but it is crucial
to keep the kbike under you for the landing and to try
not to land with much or any sideways movement. Dune
riding is possible with standard wheels but you need
to let the tyres down a fair bit, keep the speed up
and watch out for sudden, steep dune drop-offs which
can come up before you can react when you are trying
to go fast enough to not bog down in the soft sand.
I have gone off a five meter dune cliff in this way
and landed on my head - i'malrightIambutitisnotnice...
Other little tricks are riding with no feet on the pegs
(just steer with the hips) and riding backwards - the
latter is proving a bit difficult... ;-) I'll add more
tricks as I remember them.
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6. EQUIPMENT REVIEW
The kitebike I use (pictured above) is made
by Peter Lynn Kites at their New Zealand R&D facility.
It is actually a kit which consists of three items:
two extended sidebars which turn down into a rear wheel
fork and a cross connector which joins the sidebars
behind the seat. The seat and front end (stem and fork)
are standard Peter Lynn Competition buggy parts. The
kit is not in mass production but is available as a
special order/custom. (I retail them, by the way ;-)
The kit fits quite easily to the front fork,
however the sidebars are quite long which is a shame
since if they were able to be split in half with a pin,
or whatever, the whole kitebike would pack very small
and weigh very little (most of the weight is in the
wheels and there is one less than a standard buggy).
Notwithstanding this criticism, the PL Kitebike works
extremely well. The design of the sidebars means that
they do not scrape the ground when well heeled over
(Something that looks like it could be a problem on
other designs...). The first bits of the buggy to scrape
are the footpegs. This is not a problem because it is
a good warning that the tyres are at the edge of their
grip. The side bars are actually quite cleverly designed
because they offer slide protection when you loose tyre
traction ("experts") or balance ("beginners"). I have
slid out at speeds of 40kmph+ and the bike just slides
along on the sidebars and the heel of your boot on the
peg. I don't know if PL had this in mind when they designed
the Kitebike, but it is an invaluable protection feature.
Other options for the bike could include
Bigfoot wheels for use on sand dunes (they fit straight
on).
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