Lead-in ramp to Unemployment Line.

Bruce’s facile documentation makes me look like a real mountain biker — although as he notes in the cedar stump jump, I almost manage to take him out even as I try to avoid hitting a fresher stump right in my flight pattern. Bruce survived to tell the tale, and we all had a great time capping off Tour de Galby with Eric Brown’s fantastic new Unemployment Line and Atomic Dog (which is shaping into arguably Galbraith’s best in Bruce’s opinion, me seconding).

iPhone app Motion X GPS caught it all.

It was a great day, which we caught on our iPhone with Motion X GPS. I love this $2.99 app but it’s not without caveats, which we’ll explore in a forthcoming review. For now the word is, hit Galbraith asap. The trails are buff (Unemployment has berms the size Maverick waves) and you can spend all day riding switchbacks without ever knowing exactly where you are, let alone repeating yourself.

Bike Blogger Meetup reviewed.

KING 5′s “Evening Magazine” had a segment on the new Duthie Hill mountain bike park, whose grand opening is May 22.

But Duthie can’t yet touch Galbraith Mountain for KING5′s “best Northwest mountain biking Escape”.

It’s a lot of work and you takes your chances… but hey, that old car you used to drive that’s just sitting in the driveway like rust bait? Fill out the forms and you could get a new Titus Rockstar 29er for a trade.

I’m going to want to stop in at this place some day on my Ibis Mojo.

Spokane has been added to the League of American Bicyclists list of bicycle-friendly cities.

Peaty has an app! Steve Peat will endorse a downhill racing game to coincide with the 2010 World Cup launch the beginning of June.

In Chicago, if you’re a 67-year-old woman and you try to run down a teenager on a bicycle in a fit of road rage, here’s what you can expect.

Now comes the “ride-by shooting.” At least the article didn’t call the perp a “cyclist.”

Interbike 2011 may move to August, when it’s cooler out, the cycling community is sitting at home bored, and everyone wants to ride in the desert…

A somewhat cryptic article in the Bellingham Herald on the transfer of ownership/stewardship for Galbraith Mountain. It sounds like a routine financial handoff, but hey, the Northwest’s “Little Whistler” is on the line here, thousands of hours of trail work and miles of really romping singletrack, features, structures and what have you.

Eternal vigilance, in other words, is the price of freeride.

The trailer is tantalizing indeed, with clips from the Aptos Post Office jump park, Whistler mountain bike park, Tahoe, Vancouver Island’s Mount Washington and elsewhere. It’s cool to see pony-tailed riders in full armor skying launches and doubles. Will we be seeing a She Slopestyle event at Crankworx sometime soon? The way these women are amping the skillz, we wouldn’t be surprised.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIPsY3oERsI&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

The fem freerider is definitely here to stay. We noticed it most dramatically at Galbraith Mountain last summer. Any day of the week you could find fully geared women ripping the trails. Where were they all coming from? The presence of Western Washington U undoubtedly is a contributor, but the mtb culture is so generically ingrained in Bellingham that my sense is no single factor is at work. Women have been a mainstay on the GalbraithMt.com Web site for years. All it takes is a few to spread mtb love and you’ve got a revolution on your hands.

Here’s the showtimes for “Women of Dirt” as it stands now.

Related: MTBChick’s Mountain Biking Tips for Girls

Mike Bikes! to press conference

You have to love this: Newly elected Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn riding his bike to a press conference. Thanks to BikeHugger for the pix. When we wondered last August whether Seattle could get a mayor “who actually rides,” we were expressing more hope than expectation. Now it’s breakthrough reality. Images like this do wonders to advance the cause. Our full mayoral-bike thread here.

Toll avoidance maneuver: “Bicycle enthusiasts and certain tourists who use the Ohio Turnpike are paying up to 75 percent more in tolls thanks to a change in vehicle classification that took effect toward the end of last year.” As I tweeted to BikingBis, here’s the drill: “Arrive toll booth, get out of car, get bike down, ride past toll booth, back to car, drive thru, put bike back on rack, drive on.”

Pedal Pusher Club's Bicycle Safe Vehicle

The Freeride Revolution continues apace. Up on Galbraith Mountain, not content with the region’s bestination (south of the border), they’re taking Galby to new heights with work on Luge, Upper Mullet and other hot spots. Thanks to WHIMPS, EB, Fanatik Bikes and everyone for giving us a 2010 season to top them all!

Kudos to Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle for birddogging the bikes-on-bus at any stop in downtown free ride area.

Downieville Classic will be July 9 through 11. Note the reference to “mental hardship”…there was talk of abandoning Downieville because of hassles from locals and the Forest Service. Sounds like nerves are still a bit frayed but at least The Big Dawg is on!!

Momentum: New Bicycle Safe Stickers from Pedal Pushers Club now available!

I cannot claim hands-on familiarity with the breadth of today’s cammery. Back when I got my first helmet cam, circa 2002, there were two models. It was easy to master the landscape, although both were bulky, incredibly complex to set up and difficult to operate. All that, plus grainy resolution too! But we pioneers were glad to have ‘em, because the alternatives were duct tape with a standard, brickian camcorder, or one-handing your way to certain biffdom.

Today the market is exploding. The good ones come with High Density, which is pretty cool as long as you have plenty of storage and a frame rate (60 fps) to support it. Expect to spend anywhere from two bills to the $700 range.

GoPro makes several popular models, including the HERO HD. I tried an earlier (non-HD) iteration a couple of years ago and found it to be flimsy and less-than-advertised in performance. But the new models look more robust and are getting decent reviews.

Seattle-based Twenty20 has produced the new ContourHD, billed somewhat hyperbolically as the first “wearable HD camcorder”, whose specs look fantastic. I may spring for one and review it, but for now you can check it out in the links below. I do like the idea of wireless, and reviews say the control panel is easy to use even with the camera atop the helmet.

Wireless is a big deal: My original HelmetCamera.com kit had (and today’s models still have) a wired camera. The lens unit was light, bulletproof (you can ride over it with a truck if you’re prone to that sort of thing) and versatile (could mount just about anywhere) but the dang wires were a real downer. VioSport also offers a popular wired camera.

I also prefer rechargeable batteries, but others argue that you’re dead in the water on road trips without an outlet. I carry an inverter in my rig (which uses a cigarette lighter port to provide AC) for just that reason, but it’s a personal preference. Oregon Scientific offers models using conventional batteries.

REI carries a pretty good line in helmetcams. I’d start with the Contour and HERO and work from there. Shopping around is definitely recommended.

A site dedicated to helmet cams.

MTBR.com’s take on helmet cams.

A good mountain biking video making wise use of helmet cam footage from Galbraith Mountain, Bellingham WA