Glad you're here to do the thinking for me!

I cannot say how excited I was when after getting my time down to 25 minutes to get all the balloons I discovered how to jump on the town roofs and navigate them (slowly). I keep trying other places as well and hope to figure out how to jump over things like short walls, etc. I think there may be other things hidden in this game to find. Just have a funny feeling. I did eventually jump (fall, and start from there) down from the Castle road tunnel extension to the road just before the Ruins. I am trying to find a way to zig zag up some of the rock formations.

Yes, I am trying things, too, with all my left over time. It's fun when you find something new.

"Spoiler Alert" Have found 19 of the 20 balls on the Free ride course, and was convinced that the 20th must be on the rooftops that I cannot quite manage to stay on for very long. After checking things out here, it looks like I was missing the one on the "s-shaped ledge" . Can't wait to try it out later today! Have had our wii fit since Christmas, and with diet and exercise, I have dropped 10-11lbs. I haven't been motivated like this for about 15 years. I am so happy to find another bunch of people who find it as interesting as I have!

Welcome MTmom! Great that you have lost that weight! My 10 pounds has taken a year to come off, but I know I would have gained much more by now if it weren't for my efforts. I have like no metabolism, lol.

That s-shaped ledge is a bit of a workout. There are a couple of tricks to keeping it reasonable, so you don't have to climb and climb to get it.

One is to drop down from above. There is a tunnel above it, leading from the dry lake bed, where you have already found a balloon. You go to the road and cross over it to where you will find a fence. At the right end of the fence you can drop down to the top, flat area of the grass. (I find that it helps to approach the fence end from the right going left, and keep your wheel going just as it was when you first dropped. Like you will head left. But you won't, you'll be facing in the direction of the balloon. If you approach it from the left going right, you wind up up on the road again and have to give it another try.)

Another approach is to turn right at the bottom of the fence, which is helpful if you are coming from a direction where that is closer than the top right end of the fence. Try to enter between the fence and the tree near it or you will wind up having to climb. Still far preferable to climbing from the bottom.

YES!!! Now that I know where all the balls are, I had no trouble getting all 20 in 28 minutes. Next time I am set to start at the far end of the peninsula, and should be able to take off a few more minutes. Now to improve my time, uncover the whole map, and get my new bike. I love that there always seems to be some new goal to try for. Hopefully by the time I ahve run out of new goals, Nintendo will have come up with a new version

What New Bike?? We get new bikes? I still have the same one? I am trying to figure out where the fence to drop down from is after the dry lake. No Idea where that is?? Still, my best time is 25.08. I can't do it everyday because I am recovering from shoulder surgery and if my Dr knew I was doing this he would not like it, is my guess.

Good going MTmom!

Maimiolivia,

Yes, we get shiney, pretty new bikes with great tires when we uncover the map. You can read all about it on the gift thread.

When you come out of the dry lake bed, go straight ahead, cross the road, and you will run into a fence. That's the one. Then you will need to practice to get oriented on just where to go to get the right angle on it. It's well worth a few practice sessions.

Oh my goodness, probably the wrong place to post this, but yaaaaay. I did all 20 balls in 28 minutes, and that included falling off two ledges and getting lost on the way. i am so pleased with myself. I have also lost a pound in weight over the last few days. Can't be bad.
I know my time isn't as good as some other peoples, but I'm gonna get ya! At work today, I was thinking of the route, so I could try it when I got home. Am I obsessed?

I have also spent a half hour session trying to roof jump, I land but fall off again. I'll keep trying. Another thing I tried, you know that tunnel after the ruins, the one that goes along by the beach a bit? well I tried launching myself out of the end open gap, but I couldn't make it to the beach area for the ball,my Mii character just fell. I was trying to see if I could save any time.

Nice going, Mummy! Keep at it, and read up on some of the faster routes. You are SUPPOSED to fall off cliffs to get the quickest times!!

Don't forget to post your best times for the Free Ride Balloon Hunt (and other Wii PB's) here:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... haL_3YqN7A

I'm ALMOST in the sub-19 club after nearly killing myself to do 19:07.26 just now. If only I'd taken a better route through town ...