street luge in Montana

[supercub1]

hey I am new to this site and have just built my first street luge ( a pegless woodie) and am wonder if the is anybody who street luges in Billings or at least Montana. If you do I was wondering if you could tell me any good roads i could luge on cause ive already hit 25 30 mph on some neigboring street but i want to fine some longer roads for a longer run.

[Nick-a-tron]

Hey there, welcome to the forum.

I'm afraid I can't help you with riders in Montana personally but I thought I'd give you a heads up on a good way to spot your self some roads to ride in your area:

Go on to google maps, type in your area, and add choose map mode and add the terrain option, have a look around for some high elevations or dramatic changes in the terrain, and of course for cool looking roads! Once you find some interesting looking spots head over to www.mapmyrun.com and click map new run, and enter in the street name, zip code or what ever you have.

From there you can draw in a "run" along a chosen route (make sure you select "follow roads", it will give you the distance, and total descent/ascent (click show elevation). This is an awesome way to find a good hill to go take a closer look at, find a bunch, add them to your gps and go see what they're like, sometimes you can even go on google street view and check the surface is good. Just took me two minutes to find a road called Brainwood Blvd near Billings that looks pretty sweet and a road off of a street called Hollow Tree road there is a dead end run that looks great! As a general starting point, 40metres descent per KM of distance seems to make for an ok hill. Dead end roads are also a huge bonus, especially if it ends at the bottom of the hill for obvious reasons. Looks like you have some awesome hills to ride around you, can I come stay at yours?

Have fun, be safe.

[supercub1]

hey thanks for all the help i think i found some really nice roads to ride that i can walk to(im 15 and dont have my drivers licenses yet ) also for getting up to speed i was wondering if it'd be better to have a steeper hill or a really long moderit hill. finally what do you guys think about highway luging,is it a bad idea, cause up in Redlogde Mt the is a nice highway that goes from the top of the beartooths to Redlodge and its pretty safe i rode my bike down it once its about 5 or 6 miles long i cant remeber. If you guys could give me some input on it that'd be great.

[Nick-a-tron]

As far as the hill goes it's really hard to generalise, but all in all the more descent the better imo, but no road is much fun without some good corners on it, and that's where you will improve your skills, and probably have more fun.

I've never luged a highway, and to be perfectly honest I couldn't offer you an opinion on it as I know little about USA highway law and what the highways around you are like, but as with any thing you do on your luge, make sure you're wearing full protection, leathers, gloves + fullface at very least. Even a slow crash can be horrific without protection and can be easily avoided!

[supercub1]

yeah today me and my dad went out and found this road called sentors hill ( like a 200 ft decent and about a have a mile long with a big curve at the end) i went down and he drove behind me and he said my top speed was 38 mph (and the speed limit was 35mph ) also about protection im gonna get a motorcycle helmet and sense i dont have a job i was thinking ebay, ive found some for $20-40 and there DOT centified would it be safe to buy one, i have a pair of tight leather work gloves so thats good, and finally for leathers i dont have enough oney to buy a pair and im only 5' 8" so i dont think i would fit good enough, ive been wearing a old pair of sneakers which are holding up pretty good, jeans, knee pads, a old leather jacket, elbow pads, and a helmet(going to get a full face helmet soon) would these clothes help me not get roadrash if i got into a crash

p.s. thanks for replying to my post the information has helped alot

[Nick-a-tron]

You'd be suprised how cheap leathers are! Look on Ebay for used 1 piece leathers, you can get them for $20-80 no problem, and being 5'8" is probably actually a good thing, those sort of sizes appear to be more common. I'm 6'4" and it's a nightmare finding new leathers! As far as helmets, anything Dot certified will do you for now, I'd suggest not buying used, and there's not much sense in it since you can get new full face helmets on ebay for something like $40, I bought my wedge helmet for $40 on ebay so keep an eye out for them. Looks like you have no shortage of runs in your area, have fun!

[supercub1]

sad to sat i wont be doing any street luge anytime soon on teusday i broke my tibea and fibea in 3 places in a spiral fracture, broke my growth plate, and dislocated my ankle i had surgery yesterday and had 2 screws put into my leg i know your thinking ohhhh what a bad luge crash but sorry it wasnt that cool i was playing tennis on our school team after school and I turned around flat footed to get the ball, lets just say my foot didnt turn with my body the docter said i use to much force to turn and broke it under my own strength. btw it wasnt pointing in the right direction we i tried to stand up

[supercub1]

Glad to say im back on my street luge and made my first big run down the Beartooth Pass outside of redlodge Montana. It was aout a 9 min ride down and top speed of a little over 50 mph. The beginning was pretty freaky though 4 miles up a closed high way all by myself and 8,000 ft up about 20 degrees with 3 ft on snow on the sides of the roads (yes i walked up the whole thing), i call that pretty extreme. This is the video below sorry about it being side ways i dont have a movie editor compatible for my ipod (the smallest thing i was able to mount on my luge).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ATQrKQZvmE

Also if anyone else in Montana wants someone to luge with im all up for it

[Furlong]

Hey there, mad props on luging that 5-6 mile road! With absolutely no cars on it. Is the road leading to a ski resort or something?

Also, from the video, looks like the top section is REALLY slow. Doesn't seem to be steep enough at the top huh? Coz you only picked up speed towards the bottom.

Just a tip, you should have handlebars on your luge, you'll need them to help you steer the luge. Watching you steer by holding your hips with your hands was sketchy, if you get a massive speed wobble you won't be able to correct it easily without handlebars.

What wheels are you using?

[supercub1]

hey thanks for replying yeah the place i started from is pretty slow but thats only 1/2 the way up the road. The road (highway, which is closed for the winter) leads up to the Beartooth plateau and then entering the North/East entrance of Yellowstone Park; which is the largeest plateau above 10,000 ft in the lower 48. The reason i only started from there is they just started to plow the road and and thats where they stopped for the weekend, so i am hoping that around May 22 ill be able to hike up the entire 8 miles of the road before they open it up in June.

Yeah my shoulders are really sore from holding my hands up the entire time. Id love to get some handles on my luge. The first set i tried to make i used some old crutches (from breaking my leg back in October) and as i was bending them they just "ripped". So maybe if i heated up another pole before bending them?? Or maybe like i think there called knife style handle bars like short bars sticking out to the side. What type of handle bars do you use?

for my wheels i got them from ebay from BugetSkater they're a longboard offbrand wheels(70mm i think) and offbrand trucks with Abec 7 bearings.

P.S. at 7:20 in the video i got a speed wobble and almost lost it but i just layed down and spread out and it took care of it, But if i had handle bars i problaby wouldnt of got them in the first place.

[ChrisMcB]

Just a second... my ears are still ringing... A piece of advice... turn down the volume, or turn it off altogether and find some free music to throw in there.

The road looks a little rough? But looks like a nice fun run, too bad you've got to hike it!

I'll second the, "your board needs handles"

[zmolek4]

i live in laramie wyoming, but go up to cody to see fam a lot. i'll join you sometime this summer for some runs..no more walking up hills.

i'll chim in about the handle bars too...get them

i also have a spare leather jacket, no bottoms, that are a lil too tight for me (5'9" 145 lbs)

[supercub1]

Hey sounds like a sweet offer. haha i only walked up that hill because the road was closed off too all motor vehicals.

About the handles i just made some "knife" style handle bars for my luge but i have yet to test them out; maybe ill go to some neigboring hills this friday cause im out of school. So what type of luge do you have if you dont mind me asking.

Idk that jacket might be tight on me to im 5'8 160 lbs.

Hey thanks again for replying, its good to know that there are some people in the luge community close to me.

[lousybomber]

two of us bought those ebay special wheels, and on the third run, one of them grenaded at close to 60MPH. it was pretty scary. i would highly suggest buying quality wheels if you can afford it. I recently bought Abec11 BigZigs and love them, totally different feel to the luge as well.

[supercub1]

yeah it would problaby be a good investment but ill have to save up some money. hopeful they dont exploxed for the time being