Yesterday morning, Debbie and I took the recumbent tandem out for a 26-mile ride in perfect weather, through the streets of north Midland. It had been a while – OK, months – since I’d used the GoPro HD video camera on the bike, and I had a new mount purchased in San Antonio a couple of weekends earlier, so I decided to affix the camera to the head tube of the bike (that’s the frontmost tube on the frame, over the front wheel, for those who aren’t cycling experts) and record our ride.
Since I hadn’t fully charged the camera’s battery, I set it to take stop action still photos, one per five seconds. The following video contains those 1,400 some odd pictures, assembled on a Mac Pro in iMovie ’11. I wish I’d added some background music, but I didn’t think about it until it was too late.
If you have the patience to sit through the entire three minutes, you’ll notice a couple of places where the camera seems fixated on the front tire and pavement. That happened because I didn’t tighten the mounting joints enough and a couple of hard bumps knocked the housing downward.
Some interesting notes for Midlanders who are looking for cycling routes through the city. First, we discovered that you can now pedal through Grasslands West and exit directly onto Highway 158, without having to get on the 191 service road. It’s going to be a welcome and safer option for coming back to Midland from rides along 191.
Also, Mockingbird Lane now connects to Garfield Street from Midkiff Street. It’s not open to car traffic yet, but cyclists will find new, smooth asphalt.