Shrox street luge

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Whoa, that's one of the coolest "how to" build *anything* pages I've ever seen! Just curious, but are there many street luge websites like TRF? Where do you race? Are there courses set up for "luge" enthusiasts to safely participate or do you just hit the nearest highway on a hill? :eek:

I imagine you put this together for newbies somewhere to benefit from. Pretty cool stuff. Thanks for sharing! Always cool to see what other hobbies people are engaged in!
 
You should also post a page on how not to crash and lose months of valuable rocket building/flying time! :D
 
After freezing and thawing every road here in PA is cratered like the surface of the Moon. They destroy tires and suspensions all the time. Accident reports actually have a special block for undercarriage damaging non impact crashes.
I am having a vision: My 6'3" 265 pound (OK, 275 pound) body screams down hill at 65 miles per hour exactly 1.5 inches off the pavement. A 4 inch deep pothole that stretches from the fog line to the double yellow stops the luge cold and I leave a 30 inch wide trail of skin and sh*t for 500 yards, until I hit the guardrail at the bottom of the next curve, ending up in a pile that looks like Beetle Bailey after the Sarge kicks his butt. Blue Cross and Blue Shield open a field office just for my account.
I think I'll stick to rockets. :D
 
...and don't you lay on these things with the chassis between your legs? I don't know..the idea of my body moving at 60mph and the chassis stopping suddenly makes me want to sing like a choir boy!
 
shrox:
how about a new Extreme sport? rocket assisted street luge drag racing? where you race for 1/4 mile? and need parachutes like the cars to stop you and each street luge vehicle that the person is in is teethered to a kevalr/steel cord ?
 
Rockets have been done, I'm going to try it soon. I actually had one set up but the batteries I had on hand were dead, probably a good thing.

Ever seen a dragster whip over to one side when the chute pops out? A cool but bad idea, except a lower speeds...

You really should wear full body leathers, heavy leather gloves and a full head helmet for street luging. If I had been wearing an open face helmet, I would have no face left. I watched the asphalt grind across the face shield for what seemed like a full minute before flipping over and sliding to a stop.

Yes, I still luge. My new design is extremely stable. Even some of the pros have said this new wood luge design is on par with the metal ones!

I just got out of rockets for a while, keeps it fresh I guess.

shrox
 
That's really cool.
My brother in law is the park ranger at the local state park and he lives at the park. The entrance to that place is a long winding up and downhill road through a forest. Every time we go over there, as I'm driving, all I can think about is how cool it would be to luge down that road. It's probably too curvy to go real fast, but there are certain spots that would just be awesome.
Of course I don't have a luge, but now you've got my mind spinning. I bet you could build your design cheaper than you can get the leather suit. :)

Tim
 
You can build this luge for $200 or less. But invest in the leather suit and a full head helmet. In fact, buy the leathers and helmet before you build the luge, even if you the have to wait to build the luge.

I live in Eureka, Ca and I am always looking for good hills. Smooth pavement, good long slope and little or no traffic are ideal.

shrox
 
Originally posted by rbeckey
After freezing and thawing every road here in PA is cratered like the surface of the Moon. They destroy tires and suspensions all the time. Accident reports actually have a special block for undercarriage damaging non impact crashes...A 4 inch deep pothole that stretches from the fog line to the double yellow stops the luge cold and I leave a 30 inch wide trail of skin and sh*t for 500 yards, until I hit the guardrail at the bottom of the next curve, ending up in a pile that looks like Beetle Bailey after the Sarge kicks his butt. Blue Cross and Blue Shield open a field office just for my account.

I believe that's probably why this is real big in CALIFORNIA. I sure couldn't see doing it in Ohio either. Of course, it's kinda flat here. You'd just lay there on the road in all your gear, looking silly and getting @$&% cold...

Hey Shrox, I wanted to ask you - that wasn't you I saw on Discovery Health channel recently, was it? They were doing a show on someone who got torn up pretty bad street luge-ing and I thought he kinda looked like you from a pic I saw in Sport Rocketry.
 
I notice it says Brazilian hardwood for part of it. What type, teak, mahogany, ?



200 bucks... might be a bit too expensive but considering that is the upper end of the price range... What would the minimum be?
 
one half of a pair of roller skates and a 2 by 4....

'bout a buck and a half...

:D sorry, couldn't resist... LOL I've actually *done* that, long before they called it "Street Luge". My mom called it "Suicide", us kids called it "Brave", in reality, it was "Stupid", but what can ya say...? :)

:) I'll let Shrox provide a real answer now...
 
There is a new metal luge frame you can buy. It is the frame only with no trucks or wheels for $250, although most are about $600 for the frame alone. A fully equipped professional metal luge is about $800-$1200. Mine can compete against them and will do so on March 7th at Barrett Lake near San Diego.

The trucks are pretty specialized now as well as the wheels, and many use ceramic bearings. I have six 85mm wheels and three Randall-II longboard trucks.

The hardwood is Brazilian "Ipe". It is a very dark brown color and very hard, it smokes when you drill it.

No, that was not me in the wreck Chilly was referring to. The show "Impact" on Discovery Health Channel spoke with me about my wreck, but we had not video or pictures of the actual wreck itself, so they didn't do my story.

Street luge is all over the world. Bainbridge, Ohio holds one of the biggest street luge events in the country, Oklahoma and Florida also have teams and races. There is even a team in Malaysia. Just recently a sailor aboard the U.S.S. Boxer on it's way to the Persian Gulf had his street luge shipped to him in hopes of finding a good hill...

shrox
 
Shrox,
When are going to come out with your mid/high power kits, and do you still have any ohters of your previous kits available?

By the way, when I was a kid me and my freinds would take our skateboards to the top of the hill and we'd pair up. One guy would put his feet on my board, I'd put my feet on his board( we we're both sitting down) and down the hill we'd go. You could get some pretty decent speed, at least for a 10 yr. old. Oh, we didn't have any helmets, elbow or knee pads. It was pretty cool.

Aint nothin' like California, especially Southern Cal.
 
Chilly,

I saw that on Discovery Health. IMO, it was worse than watching the replay of the Theismann injury (for those that can remember it).
 
Back
Top