Been kicking around for a while getting something for bears, not for while riding a bike per-say, but for fishing and stuff like that. This was the first year I ventured out into the rivers and stream areas to go fishing while wading and traversing the shore, which in some areas is pretty thick with bears. They just show up and all of a sudden there is one in between you and shore or some similar situation. I thought long and hard about the 329PD and Raging Bull 444 Ultralite, but those have some inherent issues that make using any kind of hot .44mag bear load a bad idea, with the 329 the recoil is so violent it can actually make the rounds creep out of the cartridges and jam it, as well as the internal lock can do the same, and the Taurus has similar issues and the cylinder isn't long enough for these kinds of loads. So while the lightweight allure of these two weapons was attractive, the Model 69 came out just a couple years ago and splits the difference at 37oz and full .44mag capability. It's also built on the smaller mid-size frame, vs. the two lightweight pistols above that are built on the full size frame. After having shot this, I can say that firing any kind of high pressure .44 mag out of those other two would have been a bad bad idea anyway. With .44 special this is a tame pussycat.