There's a lot of talk of popping balloons on this forum, and I just unlocked the free cycle. It says nothing about popping balloons. What's that all about? How do I find them? So far, I don't see anything remotely resembling a balloon, and the instructions only say to take a leisurely tour around the island.

I'm obviously missing something, but since I'm a new video person, wii fit plus being the only one I've ever done, that's not too surprising!

I know this is probably a question that will make people shake their heads, but an answer would be appreciated. Otherwise I seriously will never do that free cycle, not finding a point to it.

Thanks

If you cycle around the island you will find 20 balloons in various locations. The purpose is to learn the island while cycling around looking for them. Once you know where all the balloons are you can plan a route to pop them as quickly as possible using various methods and routes. Some of us use cheats that we have learned and others just plan what they think is th e shortest route and practise techniques. There is lots of info in the forum about different routes you can use and if you can't find them all there is help for that also. If you don't want help, and many don't, stay away from postings that say spoiler alert as they contain info you may wish to find on your own. We also have a stats page to post our scores.

The things we call balloons are actually blue and white striped beach balls the same as you see in the Segway game. There are 20 hidden around the island but the map doesn't show them. You have to go on a search to get them. I won't tell you where they are in case you want to find them youself but if you want to see all of their locations just look through some of the posts in this forum and you'll see ones that say Spoiler Alert and some of those contain maps to the balls. I can give you a hint to start, just head out onto the beach behind the resort.

It really is great fun, and once you start to find the balloons you will go crazy trying to find the rest of them and then learning shortcuts to be able to pop them all in one session and after that trying to get your speed up to pop them all faster! jvv is in the lead timewise right now, but he is old and surely you will pass him by some day.

Hey, watch that old guy stuff or I'll take my cane to you. I can still beat them young wipper snappers on my shiny blue bike. Catch me if you can

to singalinger-SPOILER ALERT? Hi, everyone, I am a newbie to this forum from BC, where we just had a great winter Olympics. I live in the snowy mountains of the Kootenays, getting most of my winter exercise from snow shoveling, except for this crazy El Nino year (see above Winter Olympics). What a wonderful discovery, this Wii Fitness Plus! I have been enthralled with it since I got the board and game in January. And I am also happy to have found this forum, where it seems only positive contributors gather. I love the Free Ride Cycling and used the forum tips to open up the Island and to find the 20 balloons(except for one elusive one which I am going to search for tomorrow). It was so much fun to hit the beach at low tide and open all the remaining dark areas and then to be awarded my new purple bike at my next ride. My new project is the balloon popping 30 minute ride, and I am following another contributor's advice and starting up at the castle and peddling my way out to the end of the beach to end the ride. I've ordered the Sports Resort game from Amazon, 'cause it has some flying games that take you over the island. I love the island! There is no snow on it! It has been wonderful to get my 67 year old, nearly obese body moving again, and I am ready to tackle those 2 acres of lawn and garden that are waiting for me when Spring finally comes.

Hi from someone who lived in Kootenai County, Idaho at one time, where we picked blueberries every summer. Enjoy the dash and you can post your times and watch yourself progress.

Spoiler Alert: Thanks for the encouragement, Kescah. My Free Ride is down to 22:24 already, and once I stop bumping into walls and missing the balloons on the first pass, I hope to better that. I have been utilizing the death plummet down into the sand pit, and cut 2 minutes off my time by hitting the balloons on the grass ledges below the mouth of that tunnel, going back up the hill and across the rope bridges, popping the one above the metal tunnel, down it and to the lower ledge, then to the Iron Bridge, into town, out the black road, turning down right after the stone tunnel to the beach, then out to the end. Love it!

Ok,I keep hearing about the death plummet into the sand pit. Where is that? I haven't been cycling much lately, I've been torturing myself with Your Shape and ab exercises instead, but I may have to take a break and cycle a bit tonight because my abs sore now to the point that it hurts when I breath!

Yeow, that is some pretty serious exercising!

The plummet is up the volcano, going up to the right of the castle. You come to the first grassy area, pop the balloon, go on up more toward the 2nd grass, but on the way up you can make an additional jump first when you are in the midst of the waving cheering miis. It takes you up onto the grass, and then as you climb after the grass you will see a huge rock off to the right of the path. You want to go off the path heading toward the middle of the rock, but slightly before you get to the middle, in other words, not a 90 degree angle (or however that translates into metric.)