Streetluging is not for the faint hearted and although to so some it may seem like kid stuff, streetluge is damn dangerous and people have been seriously injured and killed in this sport.

If you are mad keen to become involved in streetluging its probably best if you initially go to an event to watch the action and speak to those who are racing/participating. If after watching what goes on in real life you are still interested... it might be advantageous to have a chat to the lugers or the race organisor to find out if they know of any local clubs, schools, or upcoming taster days.

Steering a streetluge is done by leaning from side to side and often the riders shoulders and elbows make contact with the road surface. Streetluges don't have mechanical brakes, so in order to slow down the rider must use his or her feet which. Trying to slow a luge down from say 60 or 70 mph is physically challenging and damn exciting. The photo on the right shows some riders scrubbing speed off just before the big hairpin at Aviemore. The smoke is coming from the soles of his shoes.

Most of the rolling components (i.e. wheels, axles, bearings...) have evolved from the skateboarding industry and perhaps not surprisingly we have experienced numerous incidents where our equipment has failed because it was unable to cope with the high straight-line speeds or loads administered while cornering.

Failure of equipment usually happens at high speed and if say your bearing overheats and seizes or your tyre melts and leaves the rim you will probably wipeout in a very big way (not good).

Streetluges are usually about 8' in length, are constructed of steel and aluminum, have 4 or 6 tyres. This is a photo of a Rogers Brothers luge... their luges are superb.

Buttboards are very basic in design with a simple wooden deck (which can not exceed 12 inches wide by 48 inches long), they have 2 axles and 4 wheels (70mm diameter). This is a photo of a Lott Classic which is one of the best boards you can get. One of the great things about this board is that it is used at beginner, intermediate, advanced, and professional levels. Wow what a sport!

Helmet: a full-face motorcycle helmet with a visor. Most of the professional luge guys wear luging helmets with a narrow chin protector which cuts down on the aerodynamic drag coefficient and increases the range of sight. I personally don't trust those luge helmets (they look damn dodgy) and I always wear my Arai motorcycle helmet with its big chin piece because I wipeout A LOT and require all the protection I can get.

Leathers: Luging is really hard on you leathers. We recommend one piece motorcycle racing leathers with some really good CE approved body armour (spine, shoulders, elbows, knees, hips...) because you'll need it! Don't use two piece leathers because they can separate in a big wipe-out and avoid older well used motorcycle leathers because stitching is subject to rot (especially from lots of wet weather riding) and will weaken the seams.

Elbow protection: in addition to internal elbow padding, wear some external elbow pads or knee sliders mounted to you elbows which will help protect both you and your leathers from holing.

The Luge: OK, its not too difficult to build a basic luge... after all we managed to build one (our project feature: 'build a streetluge' is under construction), however it is difficult to build a luge that performs and handles well. Just have a look at this photo of the Rogers Brothers luge - it is superb. It's pretty much impossible for most ordinary folk to produce a luge that will perform as well as this.

Randal Street Luge trucks are top. They handle extremely well, and have a floating axle to further reduce friction. It dosn't get much better than this... See our feature on trucks and wheels...