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Skinnies/Log Rides

MR. evil

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WOW! I justed checked out a few videos of Millers Pond, that place looks sick. How far is it from Nam?
It's about 15 minutes south of Hartford, So maybe 50 minutes from exit 8 or 9 (I 84) on the MA pike. Check out BikeRag.com for good info on the place. The guy to runs BR also built all the trails & stunts at Millers.
 

MR. evil

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Awesome riding. I can do bunny hopping pretty well, but how do you do that back wheel hop? i never could get that down. Argh.

That's not me. I'm the hack on the red bike. I'm still trying to learn how to pedal kick (back wheel hop) myself.
 

eatskisleep

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Me and Austin did this one yesterday... there are a few more good ones here:

5899603692_e2f081abdf_z.jpg
 

eatskisleep

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You can see the first half from the picture; certainly a mind game... :spin:
 

bvibert

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Wow, I don't think that would end well for me. Mostly because I'd probably over think it...
 

Riverskier

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Looks wide with a lot of room for error. That said, I wouldn't be caught dead on that thing. Not worth the risk in the off chance that something went wrong.
 

bvibert

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There's a been a few new skinnies popping up at my local haunt. Now I just need to get the nerve up to try some. I gotta get over being worried about how I'm going to bail if something goes wrong, and just go for it.
 

MR. evil

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There's a been a few new skinnies popping up at my local haunt. Now I just need to get the nerve up to try some. I gotta get over being worried about how I'm going to bail if something goes wrong, and just go for it.

How's your wheelie drop?
If you can nail down a wheelie drop to the side, log rides become much less intimidating.
 

bvibert

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Practiced my wheelie drop a little last night during my ride, including on the infamous rock that Jeff witnessed a few years back. I think I'm getting the hang of it...
 

o3jeff

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Practiced my wheelie drop a little last night during my ride, including on the infamous rock that Jeff witnessed a few years back. I think I'm getting the hang of it...

lol, were you able to complete the back flip on the bike, you were close a few years ago!
 

MR. evil

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When I first started getting consistent at wheelie drops and then venturing into elevated Skinnies I ran into a small problem. The 2 or 3 gear combos that I hade down for wheelie drops were not the gear combos I like for riding skinnies. This resulted and a badley failed bail attempt from an elevated log ride at Vietnam that saw me landing on my face. I was lucky enough to be wearing a full face helmet that day, but it still hurt pretty good. From that day on I worked on both my wheelie drops and skinnies to make sure my proffered gear ratios for each matched up so that when ever I am on an elevated log ride I KNOW that I will have no issues pulling an emergency wheelie drop.
 

awf170

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What are you preferred gear ratios for each? Seems weird to be that different. I run a 32 up front and prefer to wheelie drop from anywhere between the 2nd biggest and 4th out back. And those are also the rings I use for log skinnies. Actually I pretty much never use another other rings beyond those three useless I'm riding somewhere that is really fast or has really long and not very technical uphills.
 

MR. evil

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What are you preferred gear ratios for each? Seems weird to be that different. I run a 32 up front and prefer to wheelie drop from anywhere between the 2nd biggest and 4th out back. And those are also the rings I use for log skinnies. Actually I pretty much never use another other rings beyond those three useless I'm riding somewhere that is really fast or has really long and not very technical uphills.

Now I use the same gear ratios for both, 32T up front, middle of the cluster out back. I used to like to ride skinnies in a much lower gear that didn't give me enough umph for wheelie drops; resulting in said fall on face at Nam....which I belive you were present for :)
 

bvibert

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I imagine that the speed at which you're traveling would have an impact on which gear works better for the pedal kick, wouldn't it? I guess that most skinnies are done relatively slowly though..
 
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