My Boards
Bama suggested the original design of my board. Take a 1/4" 6061
aluminum plate. Put two bends in it, about 15 degrees apiece. Each bend is about
2 inches from the center. Take two 3x3 box tubing, one for the boom, one for the
headpiece. Cut the box in half, expect for a piece about 6 inches long on one
end. You can imagine that the box now looks sort of like an L. A 3x3 box
attached to a 1.5x3 inch channel. Now weld the two boxes to each end of the body
pan. Attach foot pegs and a handle and you have a luge.
For the front end I took a set of bike foot pegs and a long bolt, and bolted
the foot pegs to the front of the luge. The attached both pegs. The nerf bar was
held in place by tapping the foot pegs and bolting the nerf bar to the foot peg.
I created two small handle and bolted them to the luge. The padding was attached
to the luge using an s type hook.
For the tail, I created a head rest and attached it by an s type hook, The
bumper was held by taking a piece of aluminum, and folding it over so the I
could bolt it to the side of the luge.
I rode this board once before making modifications. I had to reposition the
trucks, and I created new handles, a great suggestion by Kurtis Head. This is
what the board looked liked after these modifications, and how I rode it for the
first few races. Notice the long handle bars, also I removed the head rest.
The last modification I made has to lighten the board. At Mammoth 98 my
board weighed in at 41 pounds. One pound over IGSA regulations. So for St.
George 99, I removed the two corners of the tail of the board. The board weighed
in at 39.4 pounds at St. George. Of course the regulations were changed to 45
pounds!
Later I changed the way the nerf bar was attached. Originally I had a single
bolt that held both pegs on. I changed this to two carriage bolts. The carriage
bolts would go through the end of the nerf peg, and would bolt on under the
channel.
At the end of 99 I decided to build a new board. While I liked my board, I
was tired of paying excess baggage, every time I traveled. I averaged once
excess baggage fee a trip, which amount to about $500 for the year!
I set out to build a new and improved board. This time the board would be
narrower (just under 16 inches, instead of over 19!) The pan would be shorter by
6 inches. The major reason for building the new board would be a removable boom.
And finally I added a butt protector.
The boom was made out of a 1x3 channel. A solid 3/4 inch dowel of aluminum
was welded on the end of the boom for the foot pegs, and the nerf bar was welded
to the end of the foot pegs.
I found a large snowboard bag to carry the luge that is broken down. Since
I've traveled with the new luge, I've only paid an excess baggage fee once.
You can see Kurtis Head's influence on my luge, when you see other luges he
has built.
Mine is the silverish one second from the left.
I was sitting on my board one day and I got up and noticed that my hands were
covered in gray stuff. I decided it was time to powder coat the board. I wasn't
sure what color to go with, I ended up with a Neon Purple. The following pics
were taken in the hotel courtyard just before the Red Bull DHX. The board had
come back from the powder coaters shortly before the trip, and I hadn't had
enough time to take pictures of it. Notice the cool rounded, shaped nerf bars.
You won't be seeing them in that way again!
Version 3
I built my first board when I didn't know what I was doing. I got some ideas
off the web (back when there were only a few sites.) I measured my body, and
built a board. It was originally two feet wide! The board worked, although I had
to make a few modifications. When it was first built it was over 40 pounds! I
decided to build a breakdown board to ease my travels. I also hoped to reduce
the weight of the board, mainly by using a smaller pan. While the board was
broken down, and fit into a snowboard bag, it still weighed in at 39 pounds!
It was time to build a smaller lighter board. I liked the design of my board,
its low to the ground (no rail underneath the pan,) nice long handles, a butt
support to protect my butt in a collision. But I needed a lighter board. I also
decided I needed to break the board down further.
First I went with a smaller lighter pan. It is six inches shorter, and about
three inches narrower than version 2. This makes the pan roughly three quarters
the size. I then went from quarter inch to three sixteenths, knocking out
another quarter of the pan. The new pan is almost HALF the size of version 2!
To reduce some more weight, about three quarters of a pound, and to make the
board safer, I choose Tim's new bumpers for the front.
To reduce some more weight, and to tighten the wheelbase I shrunk the tail
end. Originally I was going to bolt on both the tail end and boom to the pan.
The front end of the pan is fairly complicated, between the butt pan and
handles, so I stuck with a welded boom. But the tail end is simple, so its going
to be bolted on.
This actually gave me some flexibility. I created three different size tails.
The longest makes the luge as long as the previous version. Recently I have been
riding with the trucks as close to the pan as possible, so I created a medium
length tail to place the trucks in the same position as they were in last year.
But because the pan is shorter, I can bring the trucks even closer. So I created
a very short tail that allows me to place the trucks right next to the pan.
Because the tail end is short, very little sticks out past the trucks, and my
head. Makes it harder to tangle up.
For organizations that require number plates I created a plastic extension to
hold the number plate. It is stiff enough to hold up the plate, but flexible
enough to prevent entanglements.
A look at the luge after its maiden voyage at Templin.
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