GoPro Hero 4 Sessions & The Strap Mount

Brief post on the new GoPro I got last month - Hero 4 Session.  I wanted to get the GoPro off my helmet for a couple reasons (weight, safety...).  With the smaller Session you can easily mount the Strap on your wrist.

Here's the wrist mount:

And here are some samples from riding a drop bar bike with this mounting:

I'm liking this mounting for road bikes, and as somebody that has 6 bikes and rides them all, a bike mount is not practical.  

Summit Unchained Series - Make It So

I've been a fan of the Summit Unchained series for a long time.  However, I was not sure how I'd like this beer with Earl Grey tea....  Make It So is VERY enjoyable!  (with a nice hint of Star Trek geekiness).

I love the copper color for one thing, but after that the taste is a great balance.  This is a strong bitter (ESB) with just a hint of tea.  The tea flavor is there, but it's very subtle at the finish.  There is also the nice balance of honey, which is how I like tea - with honey.

I would recommend you find some of this limited edition beer!

http://www.summitbrewing.com/blog/summit-unchained-19-make-it-so 

Biking Near the Gunflint Lodge

I just spent 4 days (3 nights) at the Gunflint Lodge and we brought our Pugsley bikes.  Good fun all around!  Fun things, like the car the passed us on I35, then slowed way down, and passed again looking at us with big smiles (they must of done a double-take on the bikes)



We stopped at the Sheridan in Duluth on the way up, brought the bikes in the room for the night.  You get some good looks rolling these beasts around in a hotel.  Sunday morning I decided to take a short ride up Lake Ave - 1/2 mile that climbs 358 feet, average grade is 13% with sections near 20%  ...  all this on a fatbike!  Bonus, the doorman met me on the way back in to open the door.

Sunday night we got to the Gunflint Lodge and got on the water right away.  Here's a shot of the High Cliffs from the lake:


We did a lot of on-water fun, but I'll focus on the biking fun.  We did some biking, but never got too far from the Gunflint Lodge.  I did two rides with Lisa and two rides solo for a total of 14 miles - there are a lot more trails to ride and explore if I had more time up there.

If you are interested in riding up here, this is all fatbike trail conditions.  For biking, we rode mostly the cross-country ski trails, some gravel roads, and a little bit of snowmobile trail. The lodge has a winter trail map with the ski trail names.  They warned me that the brush would be tall, they will brush cut the ski trails in the fall, but this time of year it is really tall/thick.

Monday morning, we road out to the county road to the snowmobile trail (BAD trail for biking).  After walking up a step, rough snowmobile trail, we took some easy trails back to the lodge.  Including Big Pine, this is a good bike trail, well maintained, but it's the horse trail for the on-site trail rides (4x daily).  We wanted to avoid the horse trail to avoid spooking the horses.

After lunch, I went alone to recon a trail (Amperage).  It was good for about a mile, but got really wet and thick with brush, this is where I turned back:



Tuesday morning, we rode out to Rabbit Run trail on the other side of the Gunflint Trail, this was mostly good trails, one step climb to the Gunflint Trail - Here's Lisa at the Gunflint Trail sign:



 and more deep brush on the Rabbit Run trail:



Tuesday afternoon, I wanted to get to High Cliffs. That was a challenging ride, including walking a bog sections and some climbs over rough terrain at better than 25% grade. Here's a picture of the Pugsley at the High Cliffs over Gunflint Lake.



I will definitely bring the fatbikes up to Gunflint again!

Why does a person biking ride that far out in the road?

I will never ride my bike in a way that jeopardize my welfare for your perceived decency.

It is very common to hear people driver cars complain about people on bikes taking "the whole lane."  I will use two recent videos posted to YouTube from the UK to make the point about why a person riding a bike will avoid riding next to the parked cars.

Listen to this man in the car when confronted about his dangerously close pass (driver is very liberal with the F-bomb):

He states "if you'd had the [effing] decency to ride to one side instead of taking the whole [effing] road ... "  and on the rant/argument goes.

However, the man on the bike was completely correct in his position on the road.  Here's Another video from the UK of a biker being "decent" and riding close to the edge of the road:

This person on the bike damn near lost his life trying to be "decent".

Footnote, to the hateful driver in the first video, the anger of a person in a steel and glass cage is so unbelievable/unjustifiable.  At no point is this man threatened with anything other than having to slow down for a couple seconds.  This driver never changed pace.  However, this driver has massive amounts of rage to a biker for asking for the right to safely use the road.  

So if you are going to demand "decency" on the roads, be decent and respect the lives of other road users - use just a little patience and humanity.

The B.O.B. trailer idea worked great!  Ride went fine, the trailer was top-heavy, making the bike tippy, but not bad.  One minor casualty, while getting the bikes out of the garage, I leaned the trailer too far and the Kona's brake lever hit the ground.  This broke off the hood-mounted bell and damage a small part on the brake lever.  The only issue is I need a new bell and the hood will be a little floppy, the tab that holds the hood to the lever is broken off.  No big deal.

I ended up using the car to pick up the bike, mostly because I was too lazy to reverse the operation and wanted the bike back for a ride tonight to Steel Toe Brewery with some friends.

Time to start Blogging....  OK, I'm a little slow on this stuff.

First post is about this goofball idea.  I've been thinking about pulling a bike to the shop using my B.O.B trailer for years.  I finally decided to do it.  I'm bringing the Kona in for new grip tape and the rear wheel from the Mondonico to have the bearings rebuilt or replaced.  I took this set up for a short ride last night, everything is solid.  Only downside, I think I broke the bell off the Kona's brake hood.

Here is the Marin, pulling the B.O.B. trailer with the Kona mounted on the trailer.  I think for the return trip I will reverse this set up and have the Kona pull the Marin. You'll notice lots of red strapping, these are ratchet straps I have for the car, they are very long, and really add to the MacGyver look of this set up.





Today's ride will be roughly 13 miles to The Alt (Lyn-Lake).  I will post an update when this experiment is complete (all bikes are home from the shop).