skinnies

Published November 14, 2016 by Griff Wigley

Video: hopping and rocking on a camelback skinny

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I deliberately ran my front tire past the Y on the Camelback skinny at @lebanonhills today. I wanted to practice hopping backwards and rocking the front wheel sideways to try to 'recover' and exit the other direction. Out of about 20 tries, I only cleaned it twice, and even then with a slight shoulder dab on the tree. So hard but so fun. 39-second video. 50% slow motion

A post shared by Griff Wigley (@mountainbikegeezer) on Nov 13, 2016 at 7:22pm PST

Instagram post Learning to ride Video

hopping rocking skinnies

Published November 11, 2016 by Griff Wigley

Video: How often do I fail when sessioning difficult obstacles like this log skinny?

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Sessioning a difficult obstacle typically involves way more many failed attempts than successful ones. This was especially true for me two weeks ago when I kept trying to ride this new log skinny 'backwards' at CROCT's Caron Pk trail. The timing for unweighting the rear wheel to prevent slipping was surprisingly precise. And even when I got that part right, holding my line on the skinniest part of the log was sketchy. The 7 fails in this 34-sec video are just a few of the many that day

A post shared by Griff Wigley (@mountainbikegeezer) on Nov 10, 2016 at 7:22pm PST

Instagram post Learning to ride Video

sessioning skinnies

Published September 14, 2016 by Griff Wigley

Video: ratcheting & track stand skills provide more precision for cleaning this boardwalk skinny

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It's tricky to make both turns of this narrow boardwalk skinny (at @morcpics Theodore Wirth mtb trail) without hopping the rear wheel. But I discovered yesterday that my improved ratcheting and track stand skills gave me more precision for placement of my @advocatecycles fat bike's front wheel. I could run the wheel partially over the edges of the boardwalk which gave my rear wheel more room to make the turns without hopping. My next challenge is to use a rocking technique to reposition both wheels for both turns. That might take awhile! 40-sec vid:

A post shared by Griff Wigley (@mountainbikegeezer) on Sep 14, 2016 at 6:56am PDT

Instagram post Learning to ride Video

how to ride a skinny pedal ratcheting skinnies Theodore Wirth Park track stands

El Gato returns to his Northfield roots, draws the heat

Published March 26, 2015 by Griff Wigley

El Gato returns to his Northfield roots, draws the heat

The day I rediscovered mountain biking also happened to be the day I met John Gaddo (AKA ‘El Gato’). It was the grand opening weekend of the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Trails back in June of 2011 and he was chauffeuring Hans “No way” Rey around, one of his many duties as a QBP staffer. I happened to be at a Crosby, MN pub when he and Hans came in for beers and dinner with Gary Sjoquist, Advocacy Director for QBP and Jeff Verink, sales rep with GT Bicycles. John told me he grew up in my hometown of Northfield, was into bicycle trials, and we’ve been colleagues ever since.