Depends largely on season and surrounding. In particular cases when I met bears using flare would not cause any forest fire. Also if I feel that my life is in danger chance of forest fire will be the last thing I would care about.

True. But there are flares, fired from special gun that might do the work just fine.

You don't necessarily need a special gun, they make 12 gauge flares. You can even get them at Walmart.

Again, I'm not saying they won't work, they're just not my top choice.

I too have been good friends with the trainer while the tour has been on.

I backpack quite a bit in bear country, brown and black. I've always been taught that if a brown attacks, play dead, if a black attacks, fight like hell.

"If it's brown, lay down, if it's black, fight back."

#blackbearsmatter

I wonder what sort of confluence of stupid/luck it takes to be killed by a centipede.

Allergic reaction to a bite is my guess.

Maybe a heart attack from having one of those monsters crawl across your face at night.

I don't think it counts if you had to hop off the CT. Would have been much more badass if you had fired while still riding.

Just after I bought a Taurus Judge, I stopped at a Cabela's in West Virginia and noticed they had .45 LC 325g "Bear Load." Not knowing any better (and not knowing at the time that Taurus recommends against shooting high-power rounds through the Judge), I bought a box of 50 and thought, "Huh--this should be fun at the range."

One shot, ripped the target off the holder and let out a report so loud everyone else on the range stopped. Today, I still have that box of "Bear Load" with 49 cartridges in it.

I was mountain biking in the Crested Butte area last Thursday, and when we came into town for lunch, a giant male black bear was up in a tree, just off the main street. It had apparently been there since before 7am, and it was then about 2pm. Tons of people standing around, taking pics. There was a ranger there keeping them from getting too close, and he was just hoping the bear would stay up there until the crowd thinned out.

 
You might be on to something here. Looking back at the original picture you could throw a flare at the gas can next to the garage. The resulting explosion and flames engulfing said garage might just be enough to scare the bear anyway. Judging by the picture I think grabbing the Old Ladies spaghetti pot and banging on it with her rolling pin from the confines of you screened in patio would have been just as effective. Although I do see the fun in popping off a few rounds just for the hell of it. If you really wanted to be a bad ass you could have pissed on it like the IMLP DQ guy. That would make Chuck Norris proud!

I'd say you are...

And you must be a liberal. Bears have to be scared away or they come back. When they find food, they will keep coming back unless you make them leave.

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Because he owns a gun or because he fired it? Even up here in Canada the rate of gun ownership is quite high outside the major cities.

And the reason it was in town, and up in the tree all day was due to the gxdxxmn tourists from the Front Range and every southern state from TX to Louisiana. Every summer it is the same thing. This one is the worst. Idiots everywhere. The tourists show up, trash the town, ruin the trails, drive like idiots and scare the wildlife.

Had everyone just left the bear alone he would have wandered on his merry way. You do know bears in town will eventually end up dead bears? It is sad and it is the reason you can be fined heavily if your caught not bear proofing your garbage.

Stereotype much? Hey, I'm sure there's some truth to what you say. But we goddamned tourists from TX didn't trash your towns or trails, and the condo we stayed at didn't even have outdoor trash bins of any kind, I guess that was idiot-proofing. Sucks to have a nice state people want to visit, I guess. I hope the state enjoys the money me and my friends dumped there. Warning - we'll be back!

Can you post your training file? I'd like to see your heartrate leading up to, during the actual shots and recovery time post gunshots. Now, THAT would be interesting data.

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I wake up in the morning and piss excellence. --Ricky Bobby

Can you have a bear simulate an attack [bear footage] in your veloreality videos? :p

Very true.. But the sliding glass doors, tile floors, screened enclosure, ext don't give me a very safe place to send the bullets!!

How do you think Phil and Paul would have called that action during the tour d'france?

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Austin Hardy -

While training with of the videos (forgot which one) I hit the breaks because of a cat jumping onto the road just in front of the camera. That was quite a moment. Luckily we both survived. But fear not, we are doing some filming in Alberta this summer so the chances are high ;)

Crossed paths with a black bear on my ride this morning...on my way out saw the guys garbage was a bit of a mess and knew the cause, on my way in I looked again and "Smokey" looked at me, I looked at him, I moved to the other side of the road, and he ran the other direction away from me...all was good until I realized I didn't look at the other side of the road as I avoided him-could have road right towards his pop...lesson learned, regardlerss we were both surprised to see the other.