A 100km loop around Braidwood with the new DJI Action 4 talking about Surly Corner Bars

After spending 3 weeks in Canada the plan was to jump straight into a snowshoe camp trip as soon as I got back to Aus. Well, there was pretty much no snow left and the weather forecast for the Snowy Mountains was for extremely strong winds. I couldn't waste the weekend so instead I booked a night at the Royal Mail pub in Braidwood and Josh and I headed down for a ride. I recently bought the DJI Action 4 camera and wanted to give it a good test. Decided to make a video and while doing it talk about the Surly Corner Bars. A bit of a random one but lots of fun.
The loop we did.
ridewithgps.co...
The Surly Corner Bar
surlybikes.com...
My bars are actually the Zniino carbon bar (Replica of the Surly corner bar)
/ timmeh500
/ advanture.st

[@k.whiking4372]

A burger at the pub and two beers = nap time.

[@advanturest]

Haha, simple, but perfect comment 😂 Across the road from the pub was a nice bit of Grass, very tempting for a lay down and snooze.

[@rottieshepcalibre9156]

= more beers 🍺 😊

[@peterpan8907]

So i use the corner bar for a while and i started now to rise my stack height. The bar is made to ride more in the lower grips and now they make more sense to me. I also wrapped them with an old inner tube before wrapping with bar tape. Now they are way more comfortable 😊

[@advanturest]

I have no idea how they are meant to be used, I probably should have added that in the video. Oh well! When I first got them I was using them with my hands in the lower grip area but I found myself getting head aches from looking up so much. My steerer tube isn't long enough to raise the bars anymore so I got a new stem with a 45 degree rise, this helps but still not great. I've been using the bars on these old 90's bikes which generally have a shorter top tube, so I moved everything around and started holding on up top. I actually find this a really comfy position apart from my hands getting a little sore after a while. I suppose it all depends what bike you have them mounted too and how high the stack is. A mate of mine got me onto these bars because he was buying a pair and asked if I wanted some too. I thought I'd give them a try. 2 weeks ago, we did a bikepacking trip and he used them on his dual suspension bike. He has set his up to ride in the lower section, but I often saw him holding up top like I've been using. I think I'll stick with them for now. I like them and trying to get my head around my hand pain. With the bar tape they actually feel great, (I put foam under the "hood" position to fill in the gap before wrapping) and that pain might just be because I've had too many crashes landing on my hands over the years.

[@peterpan8907]

yeah i put mine also on a 1991 cannondale and i suffered neck pain too at first. i guess it is also because i am used to sit on a modern mtb. but man i love the look of these bars and i love how fast riding feels with them 😛 @@advanturest

[@davidpicot5457]

Always so much gratitude in your videos. Love your work big fella 🤙

[@advanturest]

Cheers mate, there was a shot in here where I asked Josh to move my bike when a car was coming, a few seconds after I said please. Editing the video I was worried it would come across as a bit demanding 😂 It wasn’t so I’m glad you mentioned gratitude. That’s all I could ever ask for. Thanks mate 👍

[@P.Ttrying]

The rain has stopped and a new vid, awesome, happy Saturday 🏆

[@stillshunter]

Nice seeing my backyard showcased on video! Sorry I couldn’t join you. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@P.Ttrying]

A pub Burger, A beer n gravel, heaven 🤤🏆🏆 (i can't go the second beer, brave!)

[@advanturest]

It really was heaven. Such and enjoyable day. Especially when riding in that late arvo sun. Loved it! Cheers

[@P.Ttrying]

Got that right Tim 👍 With the weather we have been having lately I'm already having fantasies for the burger and possibly Two beers in Hay NSW in a few days. Now to watch your new video from Rankin Springs, 🏆☮️🦘

[@NunoLima1337]

Hi! That was a nice ride, thanks for filming all this. Recently I fitted a Zniino bar for the same sort of reason. My bike is sold by Polygon as a "hybrid", with a MTB frame, Deore 1x10 speed , 700C wheels and WTB Riddler gravel tyres. With this setup I intend to take turns using a wheelset with 700x40c road-oriented tyres, the original set with 700x45c gravel tyres and an off-road wheelset with 650B rims I had spare. So far I haven't tried adding sponge and bar tape to the "hoods" like you did. Since my brakes have hydraulic lines that were too short to place the controls at the top, I moved all of that to the lower half of the Zniino bar. Instead of 3 hand positions, I just change back and forth between upright (without reaching the controls) and the lower position that feels good for most of my riding. One day I might get a set of 10 speed Tiagra hydraulic brake + shifters to fully convert to drop bar, but I think I'll keep the suspension fork :)

[@advanturest]

Very slow at replying to this one, yeah I think drops with suspension would actually be pretty cool. Not so much this ride but most of the bikepacking trips I do are in a rougher environment and front suspension would be amazing. I’ve been thinking about getting a modern frame so I can put decent suspension forks on it and use these bars, the problem is I’m kind of obsessed with these old 90’s frames and I’m not really interested in crappy old suspension forks. Anyone something for me to ponder over. It’s taken me pretty much a year to wrap these bars, I kept changing the position so never bothers but where they are now I think I’m happy. Cheers!

[@furleyforever]

Was never one of those guys that could indulge during a ride. Always had to be when I knew the bulk of effort was done for the day. Made the mistake and lost all motivation to keep on pushing. Always envied the guys that could. Thanks for sharing your experience. 👍

[@advanturest]

Believe me it was a struggle after indulging. 😂 I had a lot of footage of me battling up hills but I decided to cut the video back as it was already getting long. Would I stop for a beer and food again. Absolutely 😄 It's worth the pain. Cheers for watching!

[@furleyforever]

@@advanturest 🍻

[@ryn5302]

Love the corner bars on my gravelbike..so comfy. 😊

[@SJ840]

Thanks Lads, another very enjoyable and entertaining ride and vid. Well done on cracking the 100 klick barrier although hard to ride away from that pub, after a burger and beers. Cheers and thanks, Pete 😊

[@advanturest]

They had a train carriage out the back as accommodation. The accommodation we booked at the Royal Mail in Braidwood was only $50 each. I was very tempted to forfeit the Braidwood accommodation and stay at Majors Creek 🤣 Glad we continued in the end, Riding in that late afternoon sun was my favourite part of the loop. Cheers

[@eprohoda]

useful ddji. have a good one-)

[@adamnovina2139]

This is so good to watch the upsidedown world when autumn here, in europe makes you feel like a dog shit. Really cool. I use a drop bars but with offset, works nice for me but hard to keep it when terrain gets harder. Have a nice day mate

[@advanturest]

Our weather over here has been a bit all over the place. One day it’s really hot. The next it’s cold. But yes there is some beautiful days to ride in between. Last weekend I did another decent size loop and the first 45km were a lot rougher than expected. I was wishing I had my mountain bike 😂 Cheers for watching. 👍

[@projectmayhem2330]

New track for my electric skateboard ✌️

[@advanturest]

What’s the range of this skateboard. Sounds fun!

[@projectmayhem2330]

@@advanturest the max range on one of my boards is 65km, but you can get over 100km if you get a secondary battery pack, it you’re ever in Newcastle, I’ll take you for a ride. I often go from the base of Mount Sugarloaf, up and back down. Plus have street boards. It’s the best drug on the planet lol

[@goatsplitter]

Great video. I would have liked a bit more on the bars, which is what i came for. But stayed for the really good video overall! I haven't ridden 100km before. Furthest I've ridden is 60km but on an enduro bike. Like you said, I'm also a mountain biker, and went for a longer haul, but all i had at the time was the enduro :) what a slog! Looking forward to doing a 100km on a gravel with the surly knock offs, too! Cheers!

[@adamreed31]

Curious, what width carbon corner bar did u decide on/install here? I just installed a 620mm overall width and thinking of going to 680 or less for more aero position in drops.

[@dvd6997]

The upper part of the hoods where you hold on the entire route seems comfortable, how did you place it? Did you put any type of extender or lengthening on it? Did you put any type of padding on it? thanks and regards.

[@advanturest]

I put the brake levers right at the end of the bars and then put some foam tape in the corners to pack it up a bit. I then taped them. I originally had the shifter up top as well but it would get in the way of my hands so I moved it down below. I have to take my hand off that too position to change gears but it doesn’t bother me at all.

[@80ZX]

Great ride Mate

[@advanturest]

Thanks mate 👍

[@glennpettersson9002]

Shame about the 2Ks of near death experience, for the want of 2 thousand metres of gravel cycle path that could be a real cycling magnet. I do have a converted MTB that has drops, was 26" but takes 700X38 and cable discs brakes are cheap and from my experience not too horrible. Epic ride, thanks for sharing 👍

[@advanturest]

You’re spot on. It wouldn’t take much to put some sort of path in for the bikes. Saying that, the ride with gps route I used actually went the opposite direction. I wanted the pub to be on the 2nd half and I also wanted the tail wind at the end of the loop. I thought that would make it easier. That section of the highway is more downhill if I went the direction the route said. Maybe there is a reason for that. You’re travelling a lot quicker going down and you would get off that section in half the time. Anyway I survived so I’m happy 😂 P.S this old bike I’m riding is fairly heavy. I’ve got my eye out for a old high end 90’s frame that might be cool to ride. Something like a triple butted Trek 970 would be sweet. I love playing with old bikes 😂 Cheers

[@dvd6997]

What degrees of inclination do you have on the hoods?

[@rickute1458]

Yes the camera is good and the 105km trip was good, but only 8inch ape hanger handlebars are the best, keeps you up right and comfortable on long trips ! The fact that you did not ride your mongoose is sad ! 80's and 90's bike rule !

[@advanturest]

While I wasn’t on the Mongoose, it brings me great joy to inform you that the bike I ride in this video is from the 90’s. It’s a Raleigh Kalahari. I don’t know the exact year but posts I’ve seen online suggest it’s from 1993. 😁 I’ve converted it to disk brakes which definitely makes it look more modern than it is. I actually wanted to try these bars on the Mongoose but it just doesn’t work with the rim brakes. I’d need to get some long cables. Now speaking of the 8” ape hangers. I’ve been looking at different moto style bars for the Mongoose as I want to raise the bars. You may have just given me a good option 👍

[@stewartmckay9830]

A Terry towelling hat underneath your helmet nothing worse than a sore head in the middle of a big ride

[@GPMcGee]

Weather looks nice,, was it windy?

[@advanturest]

Nah mate! Not a breathe 😂

[@Adlemtbadv]

I'm still rockin the original Osmo Action, and I've been watching the reviews on the 4 carefully. I've always had good audio with the chest mount, even in headwinds, but the stabilisation has always been an issue. It gets glitchy when panning left and right with mtb cornering etc. It's just not as smooth as my old glitchy Gopro 7. The Osmo 4 looks promising. Nice vid BTW 👍

[@advanturest]

So far I’m very happy with Osmo Action 4. I’m coming from a GoPro 8 that was glitchy, always freezing etc, so I decided to jump over to DJI for the reliability and longer battery life. I’m not sure how they compare with the newer GoPros but for me this has every thing I need. I have a bit of a story on my experience with the DJI if you’re interested. Earlier this year I was watching heaps of reviews on the Action 3 as I planned to buy one. At the time all the comparisons were with the GoPro 10 and 11. All videos said the GoPro had better image quality but my thoughts were, if the Action 3 is as good as my 4 year old GoPro then I’m happy with that. I was just after reliability. Anyway I bought the Action 3 and was very disappointed. First issue was the focus, I bought the camera mid July and thought they had fixed that issue but turns out I got old stock. The 2nd issue was the image quality, my old GoPro 8 absolutely destroyed it. If I rode through trees on a bright sunny day, just the shade was enough to pixelate the footage. I was shocked at how bad it looked. While most people watching from there phone wouldn’t notice, I certainly could and I was so annoyed. Anyway a week later they announced the Action 4 so I took my Action 3 back and got a refund because of the focus issue. I hesitantly bought the 4 but I’m glad I did. So much better. I love it. GoPro still seem to be much more popular but that quick release design of the DJI is so good. As for the wind, I did some tests around the city and it actually performed really well. I think because the ambient noise is louder the camera turns the gains down on the mic. Out in the bush it definitely gets effected by wind. I need to buy a wind slayer for it but haven’t got around to it yet. It was also blowing super hard on this ride, I don’t think a wind slayer would have helped. Cheers 👍

[@Adlemtbadv]

@@advanturest DJI is definitely more reliable. Probably had 2 glitches in total compared to the Gopro 7 that I just wanted to throw over a cliff many times. 👍

[@advanturest]

@@Adlemtbadv 😂

[@anthonywalsh2164]

Looks to be a great circuit, apart from the King’s Highway. Thanks.

[@advanturest]

Yeah that section was bad 😂 there was another 10km stretch down Cooma road that is also 100km/h but the whole time I saw 1 car and it was driving the opposite direction. Definitely a much quieter road which was nice.

[@anthonywalsh2164]

@@advantureststill considering that surly moloko. Id be interested in any updates!

[@HeuristicalWorker]

I am NOT being sarcastic, but matter of fact. I was NOT sure, but unlikely as it was, had to check, to see if you might be making a colorful video discussing the Dow Jones Industrial Average--30 stocks. Stockbrokers and professional investors always, say, DJI action. For real. Wish you well. Yahoo shows ^DJI, or others $DJI, or DJIA, so on.