Cowtown Classic-I'll Try This Again

I had posted a short video clip from the Cowtown Classic Bike Ride that took place Saturday morning, unfortunately I accidentally deleted the video. After engaging in a futile search to find the original file I just deleted the entire post and decided to try again. Here's another video from Saturday's ride. This was taken with my Flip Ultra camcorder which I had mounted in my Wald basket. This is my first attempt at peicing together video using Windows Movie Maker.

The ride itself was great with temperatures in the 70's at the start. I rode part of the way with my son, the guy in the orange jersey thats towing me along. He's taken over my old TSX tubed Quattro Assi (8 speed Ultegra components, downtube shifters). I'm glad somebody's getting some use out of it. I was on my Kona Smoke 1x9 which turned out to be faster and more comfortable on the 20 mile ride than I expected.

Flip Ultra

While reading through the Eco-Friendly Bicycling Photographer blog I came upon the author's review of the Flip Ultra camcorder. This thing is super simple and takes 60 minutes of video. I ordered one ($124.99 at Newegg) and went about figuring out the best way to mount it to my Wald basket. Flip sells their "Action Mount", but that would be too easy, besides the helmet mount looks kind of silly.

I bought two electrical covers, about $1.50 each from Home Depot and screwed them together on the outside front of the basket. They came with thin foam pads which turned out to pretty useful. I cut a 8mm video case in half and taped it up with electrical tape for a little extra strength and support. The case holds the camcorder. I taped Velcro to the case and the cover plates and then attached the case to the cover plate. I wrapped a Velcro strap around the case for extra security and placed a piece of foam at the bottom of the case for a little shock resistance.

This setup didn't work so well. The vibration and camera shake was terrible, so I removed and reversed the elecrical cover so that the Velcro was on the inside of the basket. Yes, I placed a couple of straws inside the case to support the sides of the camera and provide some cushion, it looks cheesy but it works.

Here's a very short test video. There's still a fair amount of camera shake and wind noise but it looks much better that my first attempt.



I'm going to try to have this perfected before the Cowtown Classic this weekend. If anybody's got any ideas as far as mounting or vibration dampening I'd like to hear them.

It's the LHT

After much too much internal debate, I drove over to Colonel's Bicycles and bought a Long Haul Trucker (complete) in olive green. The bike should be delivered to the shop around September 5th.



I've got to say that I was really pleased with the service I received from the guys at Colonel's. I've bought all of my bikes from upper end bike shops since 1987 and this is the first time anyone has taken the time to properly measure me. I've always thought that a 58 cm road frame was my size, but according to the "Fit Stick" I'm better suited to a 55-56 cm frame.

I'm hoping the bike shows up on the 5th so I can take it out for it's innagural spin at the Cowtown Classic Bike Ride on Saturday the 6th. That's if hurricane Gustav doesn't dump rain on us. I'm in rehab with a shoulder injury so, being cautious, I signed up for the 20 mile ride. Plus if the LHT doesn't show up I'll be on my Kona, in that case 20 miles will be plenty.