I need a big favour
 
After an unescorted run with five little darlings this past weekend my rig is in need of much TLC!!!!

Wonder if anyone going to Culbin this weekend might have room in the van to take a damaged rig along to drop off to Matt Emery.
I can make arrangements to have it dropped off at a convenient location on the A92 or where ever else is suitable.
Anybody out there able to help?

Or, you could arrange to enter the rally and borrow a rig when you get there !!!!!!!!

Hope everyone is OK after their little run, a 5-dog of mine did that to me a few years back, and did 4.5 miles before coming to a stop in a ditch 

Cya
E 
www.sleddog.info

Gosh, would we still be able to enter this close to the weekend?

The five little darlings were mine and they are absolutely fine, thankfully, Linda's rig, my right shoulder and my new helmet are a different matter.......   

Linda managed to stop them quite quickly, despite Volk's determination to race the van, but by that time her lovely rig was rather battered. I have to say that I am SO glad I was wearing a good helmet - it was an open face motorbike helmet and it's now quite a mess. Worth every penny I spent on it I would say as I wouldn't like to imagine the mess my face would have been in if my visor and the side of the helmet hadn't taken the impact. As it is I've only got a battered shoulder to show for it all.

I learned a few good lessons last weekend - one is to remember to tie myself to the rig when I'm running the dogs, and another is that handlebar rigs are NOT as stable as tiller rigs, despite what people claim. 

Linda learned not to ever lend me her stuff.....

Volk learned that if you are put onto the front seat of a van with a packet of digestive biscuits, you should eat them all as quickly as possible.....mind you, he probably knew that one to start with!

I know this is a much debated and polarising subject but I'm strongly in favour of not tying yourself to your rig.
Whilst I would hate to lose my team and would worry about what injuries they may inflict on themselves, or indeed even get killed in a worse case scenario, I am absolutely no use to them if I get dragged and subsequently break my neck or worse.

I'm guessing it's not nicknamed a suicide strap for nothing.

Linda,
Hope you get your rig fixed,
Catherine,
Helmets are a life saver, it is compulsory where we usually race and after seeing a musher break his collar bone a couple of weeks back I see why, with out the helmet he would have had one serious headache to say the least. I know there are some who are against wearing one, their choice.
Have to agree with Peter about tying to rigs, OK with a small team, but 5 are going to hospitalise you and by the time they do slow down you won't be much use to them.
I normally run 4, 3 girls,1 boy and I like my bait, best part of 15 stone, the little buggers still dragged me once.
Hope all involved are OK.
Steve

to be honest it rarely seems the dogs get hurt when they do get loose with the rig, it is usualy the rig that gets trashed and the musher gets hurt 

it would not be a bad idea to design something for or on rigs that would stop/slow a loose team

homing pigeon, with it's loft at your van, carried in rig bag with ejector seat type mechanism.
sorted, patent's in the post.
 

I have always tied myself to the team in the past and it has meant that I have managed to slow the team enough to get their attention and stop them running off. The difference in this case was that because I was on a handlebar rig I was actually thrown right off the rig and so I probably would have been dragged if I had been tied to them. In 19 years of running dogs I've never turned over my tiller rig, or in fact ever fallen off it, only been dragged along when they set off while I was off sorting something out.

I was ignorant enough to believe that a handlebar rig would behave in much the same way as what I am used to and would continue to roll with only one hand steering it. The fact that it didn't (and this was a VERY good quality, well balanced rig with bungies on to steady the front wheel) makes me wonder why people gave up using tillers and started to use the handlebar version. I can't see the advantage myself, because one is no lighter than the other, and the tiller seems so much safer.

I'm with Peter, do not tie yourself you your rig/team.

Not long after I started a comment was made to me, which I always remember, "You can replace your dogs, not yourself"

Cya
E
www.sleddog.info

I think mushers gave up tillers because people stopped making them.

IMHO, tillers are faster than handlebar rigs in several ways and less dangerous too.

Just last weekend, I picked up my new(*) tiller rig from B. Gale.

AJ.

* New to me!

Faster you say....

Any idea where i'd get an aluminium and carbon one?   

Ah AJ - you got me all excited for a second there....I thought somebody had made a new tiller rig for you and was about to immediately get onto Brian Gale and ask him to do one for me.

Martin - as we were saying today, there's no reason that a tiller rig can't be made in aluminium but nobody has done it - I'd definitely be a customer of anyone who did!

So, does anyone know why people stopped making them, forcing people to change over to the bicycle style? My rig was made by Ross Goldie, but in those days there weren't a lot of people making any other sort. The last time I approached a well known rig maker to ask for a tiller to be made (at a fairly high cost, I would expect) I was politely told "no".

What do those of us to rely on tiller rigs do when we need replacements for our equipment? Am I going to have to learn how to weld stainless steel? 

Yep that'd do it Catherine ,
Why not come along to that seminar I'm reqesting on the other channel.

"Rig Maintanance ------- and Assembly"

Bring your welding torch and we can disassemble your Tiller then demonstrate how it all goes back together again .

Like you I got all excited Catherine
Stp teasing AJ
I don't tie myself to the team, but as I run a tiller (one of 2 made by Dan AJ )I don't have to, as Catherine says, can hold on with one hand and fix any problems with the other Also, if you have to get off and sort stuff out, you can start the team off again and jump on as the rig goes by without it being thrown off balance by the turnming of the handlebars
Have run on both tiller and handlebar over the years. Again like Catherine I have never come off my tiller but have rolled and lost the handlebar too many times to count Ouch springs to mind
Ran a handlebar recently when visiting friends as I didn't take my own rig with me, had been considering getting another handlebar as tillers are so hard to come by Within the first 50 yards I was reminded why I run a tiller Scared myself senseless and that was only with 2 dogs
I hear Brian Collins forks went on his tiller at his last race, I take it Dan will fix it for him, but if he is, why can't he be persuaded to make more Or Bruce etc
If you take up welding etc Catherine, you can do any repairs on mine

Well I don't know about Bruce, but I expect Dan was wanting to put all his energies into the Quadriga because he did try to persuade me to have one of those instead. Lovely though they are, the steering is still directly controlled by the handlebars and so it's not independent from the place I would need to hold onto, and it wouldn't work for me.

It's a real pity as there definitely is a market out there. I've got all the welding equipment, just no idea how to use it.