Here is part of our ride, this includes part of the long descent on the Aynes loop. I tried to include some fast flowing parts and some of the slower, trickier stuff as well.

My helmet cam struggled with the level of detail a little bit, but overall it looks pretty good. I really like the wide angle lens, as it portrays well how the trail skirts the edges of some ravines.

I took some more footage of the North Tower Loop, but I haven’t had a chance to edit it yet.

• Throughout – Bike lane is situated in the door zone. Riding on the left edge of it helps, but I still don’t feel 100% safe with it. Sometimes I have to ride in the traffic lane to avoid the door zone.
• 0:22 -  Weird dividers between the bike lane and traffic lane. Not sure if these are really problematic but they seem odd and make me a little nervous.
• 0:34 – Hazard in bike lane (manhole cover, slippery when wet)
• 0:50 – Starting at this point, the street gets wider and the bike lane moves to the far right of the street, which soon becomes a right-turn-only lane. I avoid this by staying in the main traffic lane to go straight. After the intersection, the bike lane continues on the far right, which once again becomes a right-turn-only lane. I suppose you could go straight from the right lane, but this seems like you’d be setting yourself up for a right hook.
• 1:39 – The bike lane continues on the far right, but this is a one-way street. State law permits riding on either side. If you want to turn left (as I did), you have to maneuver across the traffic lane anyway.

In my view, this road is good for biking, and would be even better *without* the bike lanes. They encourage/force unsafe riding practices — riding in the door zone, going straight from a turn lane.

Here’s another video, in which I go through part of downtown Bloomington. I had previously been taking a route that missed the square entirely, but I’ve discovered it’s actually very pleasant riding by the square.

When I posted the test video, I was surprised at how much attention people were paying to various details, and some of the comments talked about my riding style and traffic controls in the brief ride. So, I’m curious what people will see here.

Before I post the video, I have a few unrelated comments.

1. For quite a while now, I have been having some problems with my little toe on my left foot. Nothing has worked to get it to heal on its own, so I will be having surgery next Friday. It’s fairly minor and routine, or so I’m told, but I’m very much not looking forward to it. I will be off the bike for at least two weeks. After two weeks, the stitches come out and I can do whatever I’m comfortable with.
2. Moving, and doing some work in the new house, is proving to be very time-consuming. So I have not done much riding. We also don’t have Internet access in the new place yet, so it’s proving difficult to blog much.
3. My new commute will be close to twice as long as the old one, so things are going to get more interesting on the commuting front. I already started riding the Trucker when the weather isn’t too bad, and I have to say, it makes my commute much more enjoyable.
4. I tried to make a video of a fantastic night ride I did with my friend Dave. It was cold, dark, snowing, windy, and we were riding on hilly gravel roads. It was phenomenal! Unfortunately, the helmet cam does not handle darkness very well. I’m not sure yet if any of the footage will be salvageable.

Anyway, back to the commute video: I hope you enjoy it!

I’ve enjoyed quality time with my wife, mom, sister, and nephews, good food, a little time on the bike, new birthday toys to play with, and a beautiful drive with my beautifuler wife. What more could I ask for?”

What I didn’t mention is what I meant by “toys.” My wife got me a really cool gift: a helmet cam! It’s a “Go Pro Hero Wide.” It’s a tiny video camera that can mount on your helmet, handlebars,  etc. I did a short test yesterday with it on my helmet. The wide angle view lets you see a lot.

The best thing about this camera, though, is that it has slick mounting brackets that make it very easy to mount the camera or remove it, without hassle. It’s also very small, so it should be easy to take it on rides.

Here’s my brief test video from yesterday. The image quality is pretty good. This thing is going to be fun! This ride isn’t particularly interesting — just a test around the neighborhood — but it gives you an idea of the camera’s capabilities.

There’s nothing quite like riding through the woods at night. All you can see is what’s illuminated by your lights, immediately in front of you. It’s hard to explain, but this video (not mine) demonstrates it very well. This video was taken on the Hesitation Point trail, which is more difficult than what we were riding, but hopefully you get the idea.

So, the other day, I put together a fun mixed-terrain route, and took some photos and videos along the way. Here’s a map of my route. The orange is the whole route; green is the descent down the north side of Larksville Mountain. Blue is the south side of Larksville Mountain, and the gravel roads in the last video are in purple.

View Corby Salonsky etc 08/14/2009 in a larger map

Here’s the descent down the north side of Larksville Mountain. This is the shorter side, and it drops about 400 feet in 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile. The camera angle is a bit weird. I used a piece of music that I started but never finished. However it’s more upbeat than most of my music and fits pretty well, I think.

Here’s the descent down the south side of Larksville Mountain. This is the long descent back to the valley where we live. The road drops about 950 feet over the course of two miles. The video doesn’t really give any indication of how steep it is. At times, you can see the camera mounted on my helmet. As my wife pointed out, it looks like I have a flag on my head. The music here is a heavier piece that I did. While I was trying to figure out what music to use for these videos, I realized how slow and dark most of my music is. It’s mostly not very suitable for biking videos, but this one works.

And here is a slideshow with some videos on gravel roads, and photos from the rest of the ride. The music is from the album I wrote for February Album Writing Month in 2006. The entire album can be found here (free download).