The Blog Within

We went for a short bike ride again so I decided to clip on the helmet cam again. The paved trail on a hardtail was actually not much smoother than the offroad trail with full suspension…go figure.

I used avidemuxer to select a portion of the video, fade in and out, and run a stabilizer algorithm on it. It was starting to get dark, so the lighting is a bit off, and I moved the angle a little too far up, but here it is for what it’s worth:

Camera: Oregon Scientific AT2K
OS: Slackware Linux
Editor: AviDemux2-QT4
Video Codec: Mpeg4 512Kbps 320×240
Audio Codec: none
Container: Flash

I decided to take the new helmet cam on a quick run around the Hidden Mesa Trail this afternoon. “Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but this isn’t as easy as it looks, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t distract me.”

Seriously though, the camera is a little heavy, and I quickly had to cinch down the straps in my helmet to keep it from bouncing around as badly. Next time I use it, I will probably try to get it even tighter, as well as figure out a way to aim it a little higher. I really do look up when I ride, it’s just the camera that’s pointed at the ground!

Camera: Oregon Scientific AT2K
OS: Slackware Linux
Encoder: ffmpeg
Video Codec: Mpeg4 512Kbps
Audio Codec: Mp3 128Kbps
Container: Flash

Well, when I went to install the eggbeaters, I discovered one of them is broken. Bummer.

My Shimanos aren’t broken, and I abuse them pretty hard. I guess I’ll stick with Shimanos.

It’s snowing again! But it’s supposed to be 67º on Tuesday, so that’s something to look forward to.

At the REI Menbers only garage sale, I picked up a pair of used Crank Brothers Eggbeaters pedals, with cleats, for a really cheap price. I mean ridiculously cheap. Like, so cheap I refuse to print it here in case I decide to resell them!

On that note, it turns out they are not SPD compatible, so if I decide to use them, they’ll be exclusive to the bike they are on with one pair of shoes dedicated to those cleats. The natural choice would be to mount them on my new mountain bike, but I really like the Shimano M324′s that I have on there now.

However, last year in Moab my SPD pedals got progressively caked with dust until at a crucial point I couldn’t unclip, and ended up twisting my knee when I fell. The eggbeaters are completely impervious to this effect. On the other hand, I like to flip my M324′s over to the platform side when I ride on sections of trail with exposed cliffs, especially after reading this.

I guess I’ll change cleats on my shoes, bolt these on and give them a try. The reviews I’ve read are all over the place. It seems people either love them or hate them, so I guess giving them a try is the only way to know for sure.

The Great Blizzard of 2009 dumped a whole 1/2 inch of snow. On the one hand we need all the precipitation we can get, but on the other, I need to ride my bike more, a lot more, before Moab later this month.

So I guess i’m saying that I’m not upset that we didn’t get the 1-2 feet of snow they were predicting. Or “guessing” as Ava puts it…

It’s 62º and sunny outside. I went for a short mountain bike ride before picking up Laney from school, and just grilled a burger out on the patio. It’s hard to believe we are supposed to get 12-16″ of snow tonight and tomorrow!