Bike cam test

Here is a quick trial of the bike cam. Not a replacement for proper photos, but useful to keep alongside the digital camera. For such an inexpensive piece of Chinese plastic I don't think it's too bad. (I've not sorted the date stamp yet - I'll persevere with the Mandarin instructions) http://vimeo.com/22090170

Bike Cam

I found this on ebay. It's a little video camera that will easily fit to my handlebars or bike helmet. It takes a micro SD card and it came supplied with a couple of mounting brackets, USB lead and mains charger. There's a cd rom with instructions that seem to be in Chinese, so I've not been able to set the time and date stamp correctly yet.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to play with on the bike. It was fifteen quid, so I'm not expecting miracles, but equally it'll be no big deal if it falls off or gets rained on. I made a short movie earlier starring Peggy and Jasmine the labradoodles and the results were actually ok for such a cheap piece of kit.

Hopefully I'll get some action footage on here shortly of a middle aged overweight guy struggling on a bike!

Loved and Lost

Here's a few of the bikes I've owned over the last few years. Every one of them was meant to be long term, but then I get restless or something better comes along and they just have to go........

York Railway Station

Now, where did I leave my bike? I took this shot some time ago at York station. York is probably the most cycle friendly city I've been to. I lived here for a while and missed the hills of the Peak District, but cycling is so easy. Flat, a good network of cycle paths and, on the whole, fairly bike-sensible motorists. When I lived here I had a 7 mile commute into work. It was actually faster to cover this distance on the bike than in my car at busy times. There's something exremely satisfying about cycling past a mile long queue of standing traffic, knowing that you're not going to be late but everyone else is!!

Albert Einstein

I thought of that while riding my bicycle. Albert Einstein

A long way for a bacon sandwich

This was our first "proper" tandem ride for what seemed like ages. I'd headed over to Mart's for a 7.30 start but got there for 8.30 (must be something to do with the clocks going forwards!) A cup of tea was called for and we were finally on the road at twenty past nine. Our "long" ride is a flatish 52 mile circular route on quiet rural roads, ducking and weaving around some of the area's main arterial routes. It was a still and hazy morning with the sun threatening to burn through the cloud. Perfect! The sign outside the Farm Cafe invited us to Eat, Drink, Relax. It would have been rude not to.

Two pots of tea in matching china cups (civilized) and only one bacon sandwich. Mart was blathering on about low carb and offered to eat the bacon out of my sandwich. Thanks, but no!

Our route took us over the Aire and Calder navigation near Pollington. I think canals and bikes are the two most enjoyable forms of transport. It was great to get some proper mileage in on the tandem. Our conversation turned to the idea of Lands End to Jon O Groats next year.

A footbridge over the A1, then straight back onto quiet B roads and away from the madness of traffic. The occasional encounter with busy roads like this seemed to heighten the sense of tranquility on the rest of the ride.

The Shimano flight deck computer on the tandem had been out of action which meant that Mart had been unable to obsess over average and top speeds, cadence, splits, etc. He's threatened that it's soon to be replaced with a gps system so he has even more data to analyse. Time for me to get Black Lace's greatest hits on the ipod.......aga doo doo doo, push pineapple, shake the tree.......

Bikes should be steel - not aluminium or carbon fibre!

Here's my Surly Pacer. Another steel bike! - they feel so good! The components came straight from the Bob Jackson (except the brakes which are long reach calipers to allow for the Surly's mudguard clearance).

A lovely warm March afternoon - perfect for a quick 20 miler! The bike felt great and I was glad to see the back of the winter weather.

Bike outside pub. (Sadly not opening time yet!)

Mum giving her baby a kiss.