A solo, wind-powered attempt to cross Mongolia by kite buggy. Everything I carried, and what it did.
Mongolia 2026 · Trans-Mongolia Kite Buggy Traverse
This is everything that goes on the buggy. Most of it has been in continuous use since May, in freezing nights, Gobi heat, sand, thorn and rock. Some of it has been better than I expected. Some of it has broken.
I've written a one-line verdict for each item rather than a spec sheet, because the specs are on the manufacturer's site and the verdict isn't. Where something failed, I've said so. Where I'd carry it again, I've said that too.
Some links here are affiliate links, through Amazon Associates and RockPorch. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you. Other links earn nothing and are only here because they are the right part. I only list gear I actually carried, and the verdicts don't change either way.
Section one
The most-asked-about thing I own. It's a custom build, so this is a build spec rather than a shopping list. I've linked the parts you can actually buy.
The frame — GT-Race, modified
Built and modified for this route by Martin Faber. Steel frame, widened for load, rear rack sized for four duffels. Not something you can buy, this is the documentation.
Front drum brakes — Honda Z50
"How do you stop?" is the single most-asked question on my channel. This is the answer: motorcycle drum brakes on the front wheel. A disc fills with sand and a rim brake doesn't exist at this width.
The link is the donor part, a Honda Z50 mini-bike drum. What I ran took machining and fabrication on top of it by Martin Faber to mount to the buggy, so this gets you the drum and not the assembly. Not an affiliate link, I earn nothing on it.
See the Z50 drum →Kenda Speed Racer L3R Pro — 21×10×8
Run at 10–15 psi on hardpack, down to 3 psi backcountry.
The size I ran is no longer listed. Kenda's current Speed Racer chart runs 19×7.00-8, 25×8.00-12, 22×10.00-10 and 25×10.00-12, so 21×10×8 appears to be discontinued. The link is the tire family rather than my exact size. Not an affiliate link.
See the Speed Racer range →Wheel bearings — full set
6004-2RS ×4 · 6201-2RS ×6 · 6304-2RS ×2
Five separate viewers diagnosed a failing bearing from the audio in a reel before I'd said a word about it. Part numbers are in the full inventory.
M8 threaded rod — Stormcube, 250mm, 5 pack
Spare threaded rod. On a machine held together by fasteners under constant vibration, spares are not optional.
Buy the threaded rod →Copper anti-seize — Loctite 37616
On every thread on the machine, including the rear axle bolts. Stainless galls and seizes, and a seized bolt 400 miles from a hardware store is a very long day.
Buy the anti-seize →30mm socket — 3/8in drive
The tool that turns the M20 rear axle bolts. Sold as a bike fork topcap tool. Aluminum, which I'd change for steel next time.
Buy the socket →Leatherman Wave Plus
The tool I reach for most. It's in the bolt-extraction footage doing work no dedicated tool in the kit could do. 318g.
Buy the Wave Plus →Tire plug kit — 16 piece
Plugs, T-handle probe and insert tools, vulcanizing glue. Thorn punctures are a feature of this route, not an accident.
Buy the plug kit →Tire sealant — TireJect, 20oz
Goes in before the puncture rather than after. Includes the valve core removal tool, which is one of two field repairs the buggy veterans taught me at the Ivanpah Buggy Expo in April 2026, days before I left.
Buy the sealant →Electric tire pump — CYCPLUS AS2Pro
120g, battery powered, and the reason running 3 psi in sand is practical rather than theoretical. Charging it competes with the cameras.
Buy the pump →Schrader valve tools
Valve stem removal is the other field repair I was taught at the Ivanpah Buggy Expo in April 2026. This is the tool. It is what makes airing down to 3 psi and back a field operation rather than a workshop one.
Buy the valve core tool →Towing webbing — 1in, 25ft
The line I drag the buggy with when there's no wind. I have covered a long way on foot with this over my shoulder.
Webbing and buckle set — 1in
Six yards of webbing, six side-release buckles, twelve tri-glides. I made my own load straps rather than buying finished ones.
Buy the webbing set →Front light — Lezyne Macro Drive 1400+
Satin black · 1400 lumens · USB-C
Night riding was a recurring necessity, hidden drainages and thorn bushes at near-zero visibility. A bike light bolted to the front is the whole solution.
Buy the light →Wind meter — Kestrel 2000
Every wind figure I quote comes from this. On a wind-powered expedition, an instrument that measures wind is not an accessory.
Duffels
Two North Face Base Camp and two REI Co-Op 120L on the rear rack.
Buy the Base Camp 95L → · Buy the Base Camp 132L →Section two
Five kites, 2.5m to 11m. The quiver is the engine. One machine can't work across the full wind range without a ladder of sizes, and choosing the wrong one costs you the day.
Ozone publish their wind ranges for snow, with an 80kg rider. I'm on a loaded buggy on hardpack, sand and gravel, so my numbers differ. The ladder below is Ozone’s.
The quiver, by published wind range
Ozone published figures, snow, 80kg reference rider. My measured buggy ranges are added below each kite as I confirm them.
Ozone Ignition V3 — 2.5m
Bar: its own · Ozone: 5–19 kt
The storm kite, and the one that did not work. Flown about thirty minutes in total, under five miles. Underpowered in high wind for a buggy this heavy over ground this rough, so it kept hitting the deck, and it tore. I never repaired it. That is a fit problem between kite and vehicle rather than a build-quality one, and it is the honest note in this section.
Ignition V3 at Ozone →Ozone PowerPack — 3m parawing
Bar: its own · Ozone: 15–35 kt
First time I'd ever flown one. Threaded a full highway stretch on it. Worked. Wouldn't recommend it as a plan.
PowerPack at Ozone →Ozone Explore V3 — 4m
Bar: Contact Snow V5, 45cm · Ozone: 15–35 kt
One of the two kites that did the traverse. Roughly half the time and half the distance is on this one, the other half on the 8m. If I had to take a single kite it would be a coin toss between them.
Explore V3 at Ozone →Ozone Explore V3 — 8m
Bar: Contact Snow V5, 50cm · Ozone: 8–20 kt
The other half of the working pair. The 4m and this one split the riding roughly fifty-fifty between them, in time and in distance. Two kites from one model line did essentially all of it.
Explore V3 at Ozone →Ozone EXP V1 — 11m
Bar: Snow EXP V5 · Ozone: 7–17 kt
The bottom of my quiver, and below it there is nothing in the bag that will move a loaded buggy. In practice I flew it on day one and not again. It is slow through the window for a downwind run and the lines tangle easily on the ground, so it was the wrong tool for this route. I would expect it to be excellent on a snowkite traverse, which is the job it was built for.
EXP V1 at Ozone →Control bar — Ozone Contact Snow V5, 45cm
Flown on the 4m Explore. The short bar is the small-kite bar. Less leverage, which is what you want when the kite is small because the wind is not.
See the Contact Snow V5 →Control bar — Ozone Contact Snow V5, 50cm
Flown on the 8m Explore. Between this and the 45cm bar on the 4m, these two did essentially all of the riding.
See the Contact Snow V5 →Control bar — Ozone Snow EXP V5
The EXP takes its own bar. Not interchangeable with the Contact system, which is worth knowing before you buy one kite and assume the bar carries over.
See the Snow EXP V5 →Harness — Peter Lynn Divine Evo
With two PLK spreader bars, one modified with a welded slider. The rider-to-machine interface, and the thing people ask me about most after the buggy itself.
Spare lines — three 5-line sets
20m and 25m Ozone, 25m EXP, each on a holder. Full spare sets rather than repair line, because a line failure ends the day.
Field repair kit
ABS repair jig, double-sided tape, polyester line, sharps needles, Tear-Aid, and a guitar E-string for splicing. Everything here has been used.
Tear-Aid Type A is the kite repair. It goes on the 4m and the 8m, the two kites flying every day, and I have got through enough of it to have more sent out mid-route. The 2.5m has never been repaired. Gear Aid Tenacious Tape is the other one, for clothing, the tent and everything that is not a kite.
Buy the Tear-Aid Type A → · Buy the Tenacious Tape →Section three
The rear axle bolt, and the two that replaced it
A rear axle bolt sheared mid-route and sent a wheel down the road ahead of me. Laboratory metallurgical testing found three different steels in three bolts that all looked the same.
The original that sheared was harder than its grade 8.8 stamp. Too hard is not stronger, it is brittle, and brittle is what cracks under constant vibration. The Chinese-made replacement I bought at the black market was softer than its 8.8 stamp, which makes it effectively counterfeit. The salvaged rusty bolt out of a scrap pile was the closest to true 8.8 of the three, and it is the one that was still on the machine at the end.
That's the kind of thing you only find out by breaking something 400 miles from a hardware store, and it's why I take the rest of these verdicts seriously. The rusty one being the right one is not a joke about old parts. It is what the testing said.
The 2.5m kite
Torn through both layers after repeated contact with the ground, thorns included. My error and a bad fit, not a build fault.
Worth saying that tearing kites is not the failure here, it's the job. I have torn the 4m and the 8m Explore many times. Out here any contact with the ground will likely tear a kite, and that is the terrain rather than the equipment. I repair both of those, over and over.
The 2.5m I have not repaired. It is the experimental one in the quiver, it is not working for me in high wind, and repair tape is finite. Spending it on a kite I have stopped trusting is not a good trade.
Zippers — all of them
Fine sand gets into every zipper out here: tent, duffels, jackets, pack. They all run rough and some are close to failing. This is wear rather than a defect, it’s what abrasive dust does to a coil zip, and it’s what I expect in this environment.
Shop-bought bottles, twice
A five-liter burst inside a duffel and soaked my clothes and my cash. A two-liter soda bottle got punctured in the side after a day of being shaken up in the heat, went off inside a bag, and made my kites, some clothing and the carabiners and towing system sticky.
Both were bought in shops rather than carried from home, which is the point. I don't carry dedicated water containers. Both my filters thread onto any bottle you can buy in a Mongolian village, at 28mm, so the bottles are the water system. Two of them failing is the cost of that, and it is still the right trade.
Section four
Every item on this page, with brand, model, size, weight and the honest verdict.
The full inventory →Dispatches
Occasional notes from the route and from planning the next one. Gear that worked, gear that did not, and what changed my mind. No schedule, and nothing else.