Building & riding your own luge
Building a Luge There are a number of construction plans available on the Net. The
Links
page has pointers to these sites, which will be
enough to get you started. The construction regulations to which all luges racing in
the UK Championships must conform to are available from
SSSprint (see above).
Alternatively, you can buy a ready built luge. Road Rage Luge
are a UK company who specialise in building lightweight, portable luges. The luges are also exceptionally
fast!
Trucks The bigger the better. Larger diameter wheels mean less rolling resistance.
Quite a few UK racers use
Z Rollers
with Labeda wheels (90 mm diameter * 40mm width). The trucks have
a roller mounted
around the axle, which means if
you shed a wheel you don't go spinning out
of control and die...
Leathers & helmet A full face motorcycle helmet and one piece racing leathers are the only
thing that are going to protect you in a crash. Normally available second
hand at a reasonable cost.
But be warned; one of our
members managed to wear through his leathers, jeans and skin in one fall.
Brakes Riches and eternal fame await the person who designs some decent mechanical
brakes for luges. The best thing anyone has managed to come up with is attach
tyres to the riders feet, either by gluing or tying them to some old shoes.
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