Inspired by this commute video I saw this morning, I was curious what it would look like if I recorded my full commute. I’ve tried it before with a helmet cam, but hadn’t tried it with a fixed quasi-steady camera.
I took my cheap little Flip Ultra video camera, stuck it on the rear rack of my bike, and fastened it in place with a pair of bungee cords. It wasn’t ideal, but should have been good enough, as long as I didn’t wipe out or hit anything big.
I took the longer route home, climbing the big fracking hill at the south end of my home community. And Patrick Kelly joined me for the first part of the ride (you’ll see him a minute or so into the video). The video is sped up – it was a 45 minute ride, compressed into under 9 and a half minutes. I gave up on fancy titles and music, so you get the raw (but time-compressed) version here:
That rear view is strangely captivating, isn’t it? The dude riding with you being a clown is pretty funny 🙂
Thanks for the link love!
speaking of rear view, i watched for ten minutes hoping to see your tight bike pants, but was robbed of this. oh wait, no i didn’t.
um… dude… that’s a little too much info. not sure if I’ll be shooting video of me in my bike shorts and jersey. I barely work up the nerve to wear them in the first place – and only for long rides where they make a big difference…
Yeah – and having the rack as an unmoving fixed piece throughout the video makes the camera shake and jitter more tolerable too 🙂
The clown is Patrick Kelly – he works with me on campus. He used to be a bike racer, and did “synchronized bike riding” on the long training rides with his team to keep themselves entertained. Gotta do what you gotta do, I guess…
I like how the high speed footage makes it sound like all of the cars are gunning past you in a fit of rage. Take the lane! 🙂
the rage is pretty tangible even at normal speed. I like the way the cars sound like formula 1 race cars though 🙂 I usually try to take the lane as much as I can – not sure why I was so far over for this ride.
Yeh, it really cool, but this noise…
I love that clown in the beginning. He certainly knows some hand signals I am not familiar with. Was he preparing for a wheely into a right turn with no hands or something? Or was he just flagging down a plane?
Haha, great video,
Cindy
Very nifty!
This video has privacy implications, just wanted to make sure that you were aware of that. Might cut out the very last part.
so people don’t know where my mistress lives?
… yeah I guess… I think your wife would be more interested in that information, too bad she doesn’t read your blog!