LAND LIZARD BUGGY

This is manufactured by Gary Lions at Highly Strung Kites in
Australia.  Gary says that they are of stainless steel contruction,
have a special ball-joint steering mechanism and are particularly
comfortable and fast.  They have been clocked by Australian 
police radar doing 81km/h (about 50mph).  They are distributed in
the UK by The Kite Company, the first shipment arrived on 18th
August 93.  

First Impressions review of the Land Lizard by Danny Frey

First impressions of the LL are pretty good! I was impressed by its  
all stainless steel construction (handy for the beach), the quality  
of build is excellent, all the welds are very nicely finished and it  
looks as though it could stand a heck of a beating.  The wheels are  
solid plastic and seem smaller in diameter than the ones I have seen  
on the Peter Lynn buggy - although they are 16" according to the  
spec. sheet, they're also a lot chunkier, remind me a bit of light  
aircraft landing wheels - good for the beach!  The thing that sold it  
to me was the ease of disassembly/assembly, it takes about 10-15  
minutes (alternatively the front section undoes easily and reduces it  
to large car boot size). You can buy it with a heavy duty red bag  
that is the size of the three wheels laid end to end into which  
everything fits well. Did you see that James Bond movie in which Q  
receives a few wooden crates and shortly afterwards has a fully  
assembled autogyro? :-)

The only problem I have with it is that the steering foot rest are  
secured onto the steering forks with a couple of large clips that  
would make a mess of someone's leg in a collision - I'm going to add  
some padding I think.  Padding in a few other places would not go  
amiss either.

I've just spotted the promo. sheet on it, here are a few facts:

Sealed ball jointed steering.
Ultra comfortable seat.
Adjustable wheelbase length.
Sealed deep grove bearings.
Negative chamber rear axle. - (do they mean camber?)

Fully collapsible for easy storage.
Wheelbase	36"-41"
Overall Length	56"
Track	44"
Fat wheel diameter	16"
Weight with wheels	32lbs.

Price 330 UKP
(Mine came from Richard Boissevain @ Air Circus in Bath - nice people!)

Well I couldn't resist trying it out yesterday so off we went to  
Holkham beach on the North Norfolk coast.  Normally there is a vast  
expanse of beautiful empty flat sand beach stretching for miles in  
either direction, yesterday it was flooded! After driving the 50 odd  
miles to get there I wasn't going to be put off that easily, the wind  
was a bit strong for the Quadrifoil 4 but I thought would give it a  
try anyway (how many hanglider pilots have died this way?).   
Launching the kite with my helper Dave went ok, God it pulls!   
Mistake one was to get the kite wet, it was too heavy to climb much  
and liked to hang around in the centre of the wind producing almost  
unmanageable pull.  Mistake two was the wind was a bit to blustery  
for four square meters, and three was that we ended up doing this in  
a few inches of mud and water.  After much messing around we were  
able to get a few cross wind runs in, and suddenly it was all  
worthwhile, Wow.. turning with the wind and doubling back really  
showed a turn of speed, even with the mud dragging me back -  
exhilarating.  After my first taste of this crazy sport I'm keen to  
have a more serious attempt, I hope the weather and tides improve.

Any of you chaps know of decent locations in the Ely Cambridgeshire  
area?  I considered Newmarket heath but am not sure if the horses  
would be impressed.  What's the buggying like in Basingstoke Andy?

-oOo-

First Impressions review of the Land Lizard by Andrew Beattie

One of the first Land Lizards to arrive in the UK was at Portsmouth.
Significant differences from the Lynn buggy are:

Double ball-joint steering mechanism.  The advantage of the (over-engineered?)
steering mechanism was not obvious to me, but the steering was certainly easy,
and smooth.

Steering geometry.  I'm not sure of the technical terminology, but the axis
about which the wheel turns goes straight through the centre of the patch
where tyre contacts the ground.  This has both advantages and disadvantages:

For: The wheel is very easy to turn (it feels like it isn't even touching
the ground)

Against: There is no feedback - You can't feel the pressure of the turning
movement against your feet.

Against: The wheel doesn't self-centre of you take your feet off the pedals

For: The buggy is much more stable when going backwards (the usual arrangement
makes the buggy significantly less stable in reverse).

Seat. I loved the bright yellow webbing!

Adjustment.  The large box section down-tube is clamped onto the seat,
allowing a *very* wide range of adjustment, without any pre-set positions.

Rear Axle.  The seat attatchment fittings are welded onto the axle, reducing
it's strength at a stress point.  This may prove to be a problem in future.

Something about the steering/seat webbing/seat tubes/axel width made it
very difficult to ride on 2 wheels (I couldn't do it, Peter Lynn just managed
it).  Whether you consider this an advantage (more stable) or disadvantage
(fewer tricks) is up to you.