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First Burro Ride, lotsa pics (partial nudity) (23 posts)
|  First Burro Ride, lotsa pics (partial nudity) | AK Ken
Dec 30, 2001 9:43 PM | | Had a nice day for a ride, +30 degrees, lite wind. Clare was anxious to try out her new Burro Bike. Here she is multi tasking--chewing her breakfast, getting dressed, and installing bottle cages all at once.
If you're here for the nudity, that was it, have a nice day.
We opted to climb a little so we could break in Clare's brakes a bit on the return. The best climber, though, is the one on 4 feet.
The trail wasn't as icy as it has been due to some recent snowmachine traffic, and I should have taken off my studded tires and gone back to the fatsos for the loose conditions. Coming down was semi wild. I was sideways as much as straight. Once I got some air. At least I guess I did, I couldn't hear the tires on the snow for a second but when I opened my eyes I was on the ground again.
As we climbed along the ridge we came to two recent wolf beds. These were only 10 feet or so off the trail. The dog found them VERY interesting.
We could look back down and see our house. The thin white line going to the left of the seat rail is the airstrip near our house, and the brown specks just below and to the right of the nose of the saddle are some of the neighbor's houses.
At the top of the ridge Clare toasted her new bike with gatorade. It didn't even freeze much in the bottle today. Usually we drink till it's too slushy, then eat the rest at home in the hot tub after the ride. For long rides we use a camelbak, of course.
The return trip was an absolute blast. I gotta say, it's just like skiing. The only reason to climb on up is so you can bomb on down. Hope this doesn't mean I can only post on the DH/Freeride board from now on.
Had a wee bit of a traffic jam on the way home, but we got out of the way in time.
A dip in the hot tub followed by chicken nachos completed a perfect day. Clare liked her Burro a lot, and I'm completely intrigued by the Rohloff speed hub. Might have to put one on a big bike and see how it does.
Ken |
| Nice post Ken! Thanks for the pics! nm | JRinCA
Dec 30, 2001 10:08 PM | | |
| That is way too cool. Thanks! nm | LeeL
Dec 30, 2001 10:20 PM | | nm |
| makes me wish i were still in AK! | Mtn Mike
Dec 30, 2001 10:55 PM | | Great pics. Just 6 weeks ago I was up there enjoying the snow in Anchorage. However, now I'm in Kentucky, where it's a little colder right now, but less snow. keep the AK biking pics coming! |
| How does the Burro compare to a std rigid? | Harovore
Dec 30, 2001 11:03 PM | | Gotta say that's truly one interesting looking ride ... particularly the smaller diameter wheels and the frame design.
I'm sure it's a blast to ride, but in what ways does it feel different from a typical rigid framed mtb, IYHO?
Where are Burros built, how long have they been in the biz, and are they specifically designed for the type of climate you folks have in AK? |
| Can't know | AK Ken
Dec 31, 2001 12:27 AM | | Don't really know how it rides compared to a conventional 26 inch wheel rigid, as I don't have one to compare to. I only spent a few minutes on it, and this was on snow, keep in mind, but it seemed fairly flexy to me. I can't know yet if that was in the frame or just in the huge soft tire.
I can tell you it feels incredibly stable at low speed, and practically trackstands by itself. I think it'll be great for rooty, rocky, trials type riding--I'll bet you can climb some wicked steep stuff on slickrock with it.
Burros are built by a guy named Greg at Big Bear Bikes, in Big Bear Lake, California. They have a website that shows lots of Burro pics in various terrains, i.e., snow with a ski instead of a front wheel, a two wheel drive model, picking their way through rocks, riding on sand, et cetera.
They don't usually come with the Rohloff hub, but I wanted to try one of them, and they had built a couple other ones already, so that's what we got. I'm thinking the speedhub will be good here in our muddy swampy summertime conditions, plus derailleurs get finicky when it's really cold, too. You can put light weight oil in the speedhub for winter. Today was no test, cause it was 30 above zero.
I'm sure we'll develop opinions as time goes by.
Ken |
| Burro on the web | Mr. Johnsen
Dec 31, 2001 1:32 AM | | Is found in the close sorroundings of this adress: http://www.burrobikes.com/
Regards
Truls |
| That was great Ken! Warmer there than here. nm | fred³
Dec 31, 2001 5:38 AM | | |
| Don't worry too much about the DH/Freeride... | Twilight Error®
Dec 31, 2001 5:53 AM | | That only applies if you got a ride to the top on a sled.
That Burro certainly is an interesting rig. How'd you decide to try one? Its something I'd never think of (but then the trails over here are more suited to XC FS rigs) but would love to play with. |
| Saw one in Fairbanks | AK Ken
Dec 31, 2001 7:20 AM | | All Weather Sports (the folks who came up with SnowCat rims) had a BurroBike in the shop last summer. We rode it around a little bit, and thought it was kinda fun.
I've always had an affinity for fat tired two wheel rigs (Honda FatCat, Yamaha Big Wheel, Rokon Trailbreaker), but am less of a motorhead than I used to be. The Burro is the fat tire equivalent in the pedal powered world. They even show a 2 wheel drive one on the website, so it would be just like a Rokon.
Some of the appeal is the relatively small size, and we thought we might be more likely to have a BurroBike along when space was limited on trips that weren't primarily about biking. You know, fits in the car easier, take along just for short rides here and there along the way on an automobile trip, et cetera.
I also was interested in the Rohloff speedhub because so much of our summer riding is underwater/brushy/swampy/mucky that derailleurs are either plugged full of gunkola or at great risk of getting ripped off. The Burro provided the opportunity to try all this new stuff in one compact package.
Ken |
| Trail courtesy, Alaska style... | DeRanger
Dec 31, 2001 7:44 AM | | ..."Mountain bikers yield to dog teams and sleds"...makes sense from a self-preservation sort of thing - getting tangled in those leads would be no fun for anyone.
Great stuff as always, Ken.
DeR |
| Dogfights are no fun | AK Ken
Dec 31, 2001 8:00 AM | | G'day mate, how's life in the park this a.m.?
We definitely try to yield to dog teams for a variety of practical reasons. We usually have a loose dog with us, and she knows to get off the trail when a dog team approaches. But there are dog teams, and then there are dog teams, as far as control goes, so it's best to be completely out of the way if possible.
Nothing like wading into a snarling snapping pile of dogs all tied together to try to extricate your pet or your spousal unit.
The worst thing about riding dog trails is the 2 inch wide grooves left by the dogsled brakes. They're always present on steep downhills, and novice mushers will sometimes drag the brake for miles at a time, uphill and down.
My advice to them, from an admittedly biker biased point of view, is:
Stay off the brake, Jake
Hang on the sled, Fred
Let those dogs run, Son
And get yoself free.
With apologies to Paul Simon.
Ken |
| Music to mush by... | DeRanger
Dec 31, 2001 8:22 AM | | ...that's too funny!
Of all the hazards that can be found on trails on SoCal, grooves left by sled brakes aren't even remotely one of them...
DeR (...filling out reports in the office on a damp, deeply overcast Orange County morning...) |
| Hey DeRanger... | Twilight Error®
Dec 31, 2001 8:53 AM | | 
Some blue sky for ya. Chilly (28deg) and 100% cloud free. |
| I'll take it - cold temps and all - thx! (nm) | DeRanger
Dec 31, 2001 9:53 AM | | |
| Great post! Makes me want to go out and.... | BrianU
Dec 31, 2001 7:49 AM | | ride in the 1.5 inches of snow we got here on Oklahoma yesterday. Practically blizzard conditions. |
| Watch out for the deer | AK Ken
Dec 31, 2001 8:02 AM | | that you saw the other day, they might not have good traction in the new snow!
Ken |
| Too................ | Mike T.®
Dec 31, 2001 9:28 AM | | .....cool as always Ken Thanks. The nudity got me all excited. Ahhhhh! |
| re: First Burro Ride, lotsa pics (partial nudity) | Tucker
Dec 31, 2001 9:29 AM | | Great pics!!
it was a wonderful day to be out (although it was almost to hot, glad we didn't have any sun)
thought I saw some wild burro tracks out there running with the caribou. we stopped by to check out the new ride, but ya was already out riding (probably a good thing we didn't come up knocking while Clare was still working on the bike)
took off the studs myself and had no problem, had to pay a bit more attention on the glare ice going across the beaver pond south of the horse trail.
so how did the burro do going up the horse trail?
happy new year to you both
stay safe
nice song |
| Great pics | endo
Dec 31, 2001 9:59 AM | | Thanks for the pic me up on such a dreary day up here. Where were the photos taken at?
RC |
| Great pics | AK Ken
Dec 31, 2001 12:35 PM | | This was a backyard ride, east of the Nenana River, near Denali National Park. Some of the views (toward the houses) look into the eastern edge of Denali National Park.
Ken |
| ALASKANS The Other White Meat | ouch
Dec 31, 2001 2:00 PM | | |
| Can't argue with that! Ken | AK Ken
Dec 31, 2001 7:48 PM | | |
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