Sunday Parkways SE, More Helmet Cam Fabrication

Wow, this year the SE Portland edition of Sunday Parkways was not as much fun. Oh, it was cool to see all the people and the diversity of people out. With the huge growth over last year, maybe the time has come to break out of being hidden away along narrow side streets and really duplicate the Bogata event by closing off main roadways like our SE Hawthorne and a section of E Burnside. This seems even more needed if part of the message is to increase awareness that bikes are more than just for "play time" to the masses.

Evan and I, where there were any people, were basically nearly stopped and using the bikes more like scooters with seats. Some sections had too many parked cars which narrowed the neighborhood side streets. Near the parks, some of the vendor booths were set up in the street so not only was the road narrower, but with booth visitors in the street there was little to now room. Time for a different event for us? We'll see.

I do think it is great to see so many people out participating, and not just the cyclists. Pedestrians and families, really awesome. I have more pics on my flikr site:

My Sunday Parkways SE PDX Pictures

Warning: Geeky, nerdy content ahead ...

I have some editing to do on a bunch of my test videos, but I can share some more lessons and thoughts. Based on some internet research I had been shooting 720p/60fps as this is suppose to make for smoother playback. Out of curiosity, I switched over to the highest setting of 1080p/30fps. Wow, in addition to having the full ultra-wide angle (142 degrees), I think the imagery is better, smoother. So, I've been shooting at that setting this week on my commutes and will do some test editing. I've run my handlebar mount and have re-designed my helmet mount.

Why re-design? Based on both the bike and helmet mount I have found the key is to create an extremely non-flexing system. Bike-wise, I have better results using my home-made mount over the parts from the ultra-mount. The reason is that on a bike, there is so much vibration transmitted during riding that any of the rubber cushioning of the bought mount transfers additional shake to the camera head. Using an absolutely rigid mount and 30fps creates a very stable image.

Now, applying this same learning to the helmet mount was a bit tricky since there is always a bit of looseness between helmet and head and it is amazing how much shake your head takes, even on smooth roads. Again, changing to 30fps helped quite a bit. I also picked up some helmet pads (thanks Bike Gallery!) for free and fine-tuned the head to helmet fit. I then tried a few different mount designs and placements.

The above picture shows the camera mount and camera head in its current set up. With the ultra wide angle, I can get a portion of the helmet in the image and still have a lot of image space for my surroundings. The final test will be tomorrow's full commute ride versus the up and down the street test I did today.

The bracket itself? An earlier mount I made that I curved to create more surface to contact the curvature of the helmet. I then stuck a piece of no-slide rubber so the mount would not move around on the smooth helmet surface. I used a shock cord and slide clamp from an old pack to cinch the mount snugly to the helmet. Note the mount can be ever so slightly twisted to align it with the helmet center line.

Notice the turn knob on the left? I have a slot so I can adjust the vertical and rotation of the camera head. Using the knob I can make adjustments during my ride (after stopping to the side of course). There is actually enough space I can also turn the camera around and shoot backwards (something I am thinking of trying).

Looking forward to testing this new setup tomorrow. So far, with the setting and mount changes, the images are much better and more satisfactory to this perfectionist - lol.

If this works as my short tests have shown I may actually use the helmet mount as my primary. This is much easier to switch between bikes, since the mount is on my helmet and allows me to shoot what my head is pointing at rather than just where the bike/handlebars are pointing.

I will on getting some of today's and yesterday's test rides edited and uploaded to my Vimeo account soon. Really.

Week Off From Commuting - Fun with Video - A Great Ride with a Friend

No working this week, so no bike commuting pictures either. I could definitely get use to all this free time - just need to figure out this whole everything costs money thing - hahaha. Portland has been having a dry summer and I have to say I am getting spoiled. I don't have to carry or wear the rain gear, I can carry way less stuff and I don't have to wear layers since both morning and afternoon are very comfortable on the bike.

Even with more people out in the mornings, it is still my favorite time to ride. The heat has not built up, yet and I tend to ride a little easier since I do not want to be all sweaty at work. Helps that I wear my work clothes commuting - have I mentioned I do not like changing clothes multiple times in the day?

Me being me I have been spending time trying to refine my POV mounting for my helmet and the bikes. What a CHALLENGE! Helmet mountings - did you know they do not design a helmet with helmet cams in mind? Well, they don't. Trying to attach a flat adaptor to a non-flat surface is utterly frustrating, not to mention near impossible. When I finally found a pretty good spot, I learned a couple of key lessons: 1) even super snug the helmet moves and jounces around; 2) I move my head a LOT! Both of those learnings have led to less than ideal videos, they are okay, just less than ideal.

Now, I do like the helmet mounting because as things come up (read cars and other road hazards) I can turn and capture 'em on video. Watching the videos one has to be careful about causing vertigo and nausea, though - lol. Also, when mounted without any static item such as the edge of helmet, the image seems a bit boring, the floating camera syndrome, I guess. That's true even when bike mounting the camera.

Now, the bike mounting is great, because I know what is being captured and the image is a bit more stable. A low mounting, such as on the fork is too low except for a few moments. So far, my favorite mounting is just behind the stem to have part of my handlebars in the video. Below is the latest version.

The goal was to have something relatively simple, stable and easy to remove and/or adjust. Because the camera head is small and light, I can use less materials and still have the camera head stable. The mount is a hybrid, using some parts from my custom mounting bin of parts and a piece of a store bought clamp system. Removing one screw I can take the camera head off, and the clamp mechanism allows me to easily adjust the direction of the view. Oh, that lens hood is a home-made one, since VIO does not make a lens hood. Surprise, surprise it is made from a piece of PVC plumbing pipe.

Oh, if you want to see some of my practicing videos, I have added a link over there on the right ---> titled, My Vimeo Videos (yep, that's right, a shameless plug).

Last Sunday (8/21) I rode downtown and met up with my friend, Sandra. We walked around where the Portland Century riders were coming in - looked like a lot of hot, tired people. Kind of miss that. Makes me, almost, want to do an organized ride. We'll see, should be a few rides, yet, to come. From there we walked over to the start/finish linefor the Giro di Portland criterium, next door to the NW REI. Some pretty fast riders out there. Lot's of men riders, only about 25 women racers. Hopefully that will change and we'll see more women racers so there will be more races.

Wednesday I had a great ride with Sandra. We rode out to the new Cartlandia for a lunch stop. Cartlandia is a parking area for food carts and there is also a bike shop there to help with minor repairs and such. Cartlandia is right on the Springwater Trail where it crosses SE 82nd Ave. Springwater Trail is really nice and I am very impressed with how well it was put together. I really had a great time riding with Sandra, such a wonderful change from either just commuting or riding in those huge Sunday Parkways events (don't get me wrong, I enjoy them, too).

Thursday I rode downtown with my son, Evan. We were off to see an exhibit at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center about Hapa (part Asian, part something(s) else). We also walked around the permanent internment exhibit. Evan saw his late grandfather listed with his family and where they were located at Minidoka (Idaho).

Fortunately, the center is just a block and a half from work, so we parked our bikes there. We also got lot's of ice water, as it was pretty hot and fairly humid. On our ride he got some lessons about what to watch out for as we had a car cut us off by turning left. She was talking on the cell phone illegally and I guess did not feel like yielding to two cyclists crossing the street. Traffic was stopped due to a light, oh well. These are always good opportunities to help him be safe and defensive as he is out and about on his bike.

Phew, I think that catches up on what's been bike happening. Oh, yeah, next week (Thursday) is the start of our Bike Commute Challenge month through the BTA. Hoping we get some more new riders and get a lot of participation. This Sunday is Sunday Parkways SE Portland so Evan and I will be heading over, probably leave home around 11am (at least earlier rather than later). So I will get some good fun riding in before starting back to the commuting riding Monday.

Hope you all have been out enjoying the summer riding and for those areas hit with mega temps, hope you are all staying hydrated.

Lot's of Playing with Video - More Joy to My Commuting

I continue to play around with experimental camera shots - the above is an example of my hand-held while riding adventures. The sense of speed is higher than my actual speed, but I like these shots, I mean, you can only take so many of the same Portland buildings and bridges, especially when the light and weather are basically the same day in and day out.

Here's one on the Radac. I like the coloring on this as I forgot to reset the white balance and the image was originally shot for tungsten light, so the original was very blue. De-bluing created a different image than if I had shot with an outdoor white balance mode.

Maybe you noticed an odd, wired thingy attached to the Radac's stem? It's my latest toy, a bullet type point of view (POV) video camera - woohoo! A bit more on that later, though (feel the tension).

At work we have a VP who is occasionally biking into work, and so she has expressed full support for any recommendations on improving our bike storage woes. Not bad. I have a meeting with her in a bit over a week - VPs are so hard to get a meeting time. In the interim, I do track issues and have become somewhat of the org's bike advocate. So, I arranged to meet with John from OHSU (Oregon Health Sciences University) from their Transportation Options group. OHSU has done some cool work in new building incorporating bike storage, both for staff and for their clients.

Above is their free bike valet parking with approaching 200 bikes! There are staff (riding up the tram from here near the Willamette River up into the west hills where the main campus is) and client bikes. For after hours, the bikes are brought into the parking garage to one of the many bike storage cages which are key card access only.

Here's one area of lock-it-yourself near the tram. I am so impressed with the number of people biking to work and to their appointments. These racks are basically staple racks with a secret - there are 5 staples welded to heavy steel flat bar. These are not attached to the ground which allows for flexibility in placement on an on-going basis. Pretty cool idea. Again, I was in awe of how many bikes were all over, including I had to lock my bike to a sidewalk post and cable fence. Bikes were locked to benches, every where and anything. Truly supports the notion, if you build it, they will come.

In their garage (part of the local services building) there are several cages, which all have vertical racks. These were not full, but all had bikes in them. I have some great ideas to bring back to my work and see how we can maximize the spaces we have to accommodate bike commuters.

So, about the new video toy. I have played around with both bike mount and helmet mount configurations. I like the bike mount for image predictability and I like the helmet mount for flexibility.

My Vimeo - Shadow Video

I have a couple of other videos there, as well, enjoy.

Bike Video Camera Going Serious Now ...

Mornings are still my favorite time, riding in to work, quiet, fairly peaceful and serene. Here's Portland on Thursday morning and, as I would later discover, with the sun serendipitously reflecting off "Big Pink" onto the Willamette River. The downside? Actually having to go inside a hermetically sealed, atmospherically isolated office building (read: no opening windows for fresh air ventilation). <bleh>

My experimentation with mounting my point-and-shoot camera on the bike's fork has been interesting. They are so handy for typical point-and-shoot (duh) picture-taking but only if you are holding them in your hands. When I shoot while riding, and holding the camera, I can feel the auto-focus point, pause for just a bit, then take the picture. I found I can't as easily tell when I am at the auto focus point which means the camera is not well focused to take my 4-shot set.

Case in point, the above is one of 4, all of them not quite in a level of happy focus. Taking video with that camera was  bit better, though because of its mass, it tends to create a bit shaky videos. Here's a sample I threw together as a test of mounting my camera.

Fork Mount Test at Vimeo

It's not all bad, I did get a few good shots in there - reminds me of my 35mm film days, take a lot to get a few good images.



Here the camera is mounted on the right side fork. Same as when I hand-held my moving wheel shots.

Here is a shot from a different day, but with the camera mounted on the left hand fork. I like these better since here we ride on the right, this just lets the wheel be the framing device rather than parked cars and curbs.

All this while and for some time now, I have been researching the various portable video cameras, also called POVs (point of view) and helmet cams. The one I really liked was also the most expensive - bummer. Well somehow I came across a discount gear site and found one at 40-some percent off - too good to be true? Turns out it was an open box unit and was missing a couple of cables, but those are cheap, so I done bought it. What is it? A V.I.O. POV HD.

I test rode it mounted to the bike on Friday. Will do some helmet mount tests. The one thing I find with a bike mounted camera is I can only shoot in the direction the bike is going. Will see how I like a helmet mount which would give me move shooting directions. I'll do up a test set - ha, when I get some time.

It's been fun to have a creative project, it's been quite a while since I had photography goals beyond taking pictures of my son. Okay, I have been taking commuting pictures, but this latest activity has me pushing beyond the "stop the bike, look at scene, take the picture, get back on the bike" scenario.

Well, that's the highlights, hope you all are out enjoying some great riding and other adventures!

You know you are a bike geek when ...

99% enjoying our warm, dry summer weather - starting to get spoiled for sure. That 1% is dealing with being more sweaty than I would like when I get to work - and I've been pannier'ing it to help. I'm just sweaty - I am trying to ride easy in the morning, too, really.

Well, I have to lighten up some more about judging cyclists who do not respond to my hi greetings, I just encountered the same thing at work with an unknown co-worker. I said, "hi," he said nothing. So, therefore, it appears it is a people phenomenon and, again, not a transportation thing. Hmmm.

Okay, on to the reason for the title of this blog entry. Actually I have two proofs, ha.

1. Felt there was too much black around the stem/handlebar area because of my thumb shifter mounts, soooooo - I sanded off the top of the clamps removing the powder coat. Then I fine grit sanded to smooth them up and then I hand polished them. Oooo, me like much better as there is less black showing. Cool.
   
   
2. With my experimenting with low angle photography, I felt I needed something that was a bit safer, sooooo - I built a custom mount for my camera, big surprise, huh? With another armrest clamp, more aluminum flat stock and a ball head, voila'. Oh, just for my own sense of safety, since the fork is tapered, I used a fender strut to act as a stop to prevent the mount from sliding downward.

Now, I can have the camera ready and just reach down and push the shutter button. I can also set the camera for video, but the image is pretty shaky. What I have been doing is using the multi-shot mode, set for about 5 consecutive shots. Once I have done some fine-tuning/tweaking then I'll clean it all up and paint it up black.

And that's getting my bike geek on ... hahaha.