My goal is to capture on video my world from a bicycle, which includes, fun, friends, racing, occasional pain and frequent periods of pure joy! (and share my massive *a-hem* knowledge about cycling)
I'm just finally using one of the cool features on my GoProCamera HD Hero. Namely the time lapse photography mode of the camera.
I find it fun to experiment with. It's as if I have a new camera again.
I think this format would be cool to quickly showcase an area or capture some interesting scenes such as a sunset, rapid weather scenarios, low tide/high tide, etc.
I look forward to experimenting.
The above video was shot with the settings of photo ever 2 second mode and mounted to the handlebars of my mountain bike. I rendered the video at 7 frames per second.
I rode at a fairly slow pace of maybe 5-7 mph along the MKT trail in Columbia Missouri and traveled through campus and ended in front of a water display and tiger sculpture at the Mel Carnahan Quadrangle.
Below is a video produced by some students from the University of Missouri that briefly discusses some of the history of many of the buildings that I passed by in my time lapse video.
The below video isn't time lapse, but it was made by me.
I must say, that I find the campus to be beautiful.
The campus has seen tremendous improvements over the last decade. Averaging about 100 million dollars per year in improvements, or 1 billion dollars total. Not too shabby.
Of course all of these improvements where done after I graduated :-(
The forward aft camera perspective gives a unique mobile view of parts of the campus.
The music is Beethoven (btw).
Symphony # 7 in A major, OP 92 II. Allegato , Artist: Philharmonic Cassanova
The year known as 2010 will be officially history in a matter of hours.
It has been quite a year for me concerning "My World From a Bicycle"
It's all pretty well documented here in the contents of this blog.
In fact, I have a post called "The Best of GoPro and the Best and Worst of David Henderson"
This post is really my best and worst video experiences related to biking and bike racing (I tried to be heavy on the "best", but that is of course subjective).
Yet I feel that have I evolved this blog into a bit of a free coaching blog as well. I would say that my top ten thirteen posts related to coaching would be as follows:
I have also learned quite a bit about the HD Hero camera and how to edit, share, and archive high definition video. For reference see this and this.
With that covered, I should announce that not only is the year over, but so is my racing career. And that's ok.
I am proud not only of my racing accomplishments for 2010; I am also proud of the contents of this blog. Yet, they don't pay the mortgage or any other necessary living expenses (although I've tried... believe me).
It's all good. I just need to focus on work and my kids. If anyone has raced at a Pro 1-2 level you know how racing is. If you are going to be serious about it, it is necessary to devote your life to it. I've done that. Blood, sweat, and tears. Literally. And now it's time for a new chapter for me (I'm no spring chicken). I'll always love all things bike related though.
I plan on still doing more posts on this blog over time. I will probably do a bit more coaching stuff. I do have a large video project in the works currently. (It's a completely new idea and I don't think it has been done before as I plan to).
My primary goals for 2011 is to develop contents for a new blog. This one. And of course ride my bicycle for fun whenever possible.
Oh yeah, if you are thinking about getting a video camera that can film both above and below water, shoots 5 MP stills, time-lapse photography (2,5, 10, 30, 60 seconds), several different video resolutions/sizes, and high-speed 60 frames/second, and can even record your biking adventures, click here to learn more at my blog post:
http://myworldfromabicycle.blogspot.com/2010/09/buy-best-high-definition-video-camera.html
This is my debut split screen race video using forward and aft simultaneous running HD Hero cameras.
I absolutely love it. I've never seen a better way to show the action of a bike race. In fact I think it gives the viewer a real immersion into my world from a bicycle.
This new leap for me has set my mind busy at work for new and amazing applications. For example I was considering the fact that the video has dead spots in it, in-between cameras. I could potentially mount the cameras back to back, and place them on top of my helmet. This would eliminate most of the dead spot and would be fantastic for mountain biking or video touring. (I would never want to race with lots of gear riding on top of my helmet). Another idea is setting up a rig with three cameras. My HD Hero camera shoots a 120 degree perspective. So with three cameras I could literally produce a video that has full 360 degree viewing band of my entire moving environment. Another idea is so mind blowing that it will make you crap your diaper! I'm not kidding. It's sooo good that I going to save it for later and reveal it in future video posts.
It has been brought to my attention that my video's audio could benefit from some good music. I more than agree. It has been suggested that I use copyrighted music, tons of people do it and Vimeo seems to allow it. I do not agree on this topic. I am strongly against breaking copyright laws for many reasons. Besides the fact that it is an actual law with actual potential consequences, I have found that it doesn't fly on YouTube. Early on I innocently used a 20 second audio clip without lyrics from The Beastie Boys and YouTube identified my video as potentially having copyrighted material that wasn't mine. YouTube disabled my video. I want good music, but I don't want my videos to be disabled or even worse litigation because I somehow made a couple of bucks using someone else's stuff without permission.
There is a musical audio solution. I thought I would make my own basic music. Using Music Creator software I have produced 6-7 tunes and they are ok. The down side is that they are not fabulous and they take a bit more time than I can manage. I think if I could tap the musical scene here in Columbia I could find lots of good music that could use. For example, my teammate, Justin Craig, is in a band called FDR's Revenge. We talked about this briefly, but I need to keep pursuing him. I literally need to hear the music so I can judge it. I really don't want to put up just anything. The music must add to the video's view-ability, and not make it worse.
I have been told that there are free site's for music download which also allow public use for video embedding?, and (supposedly?) public domain music where copyright issues are not in effect. If anyone can provide me with specific good music that I could use, I would be happy to compensate you for your services. Additionally, HEY GARAGE BANDS!: If you have any music that you think would add to my biking videos, please contact me and I will promote your band with all of my ability. I will give credit in the videos and provide links in my blog for people to purchase your awesome music.
Finally let me get to the race itself. This road race was May 16, 2010 in Newburg, Missouri. This was probably one of the smallest turnouts for a road race that I will end up doing. But don't let this mislead you. The riders who did toe the line are some of the best in the region. Several are highly ranked category one riders. If you don't believe me, just check USA Cycling's Results and rankings. (2009 looks better than 2010, but it's still early).
This was a hilly course and roughly the last hour of a 70 mile road race was in the rain. Both the rain and the hills brought our average speed to just under 25mph.
The most interesting aspect of this was the solo break-a-way by Zack Reed of team Dogfish. With about 25 miles to go Zack left our 6 man group which held his team mate Justin Maciekowicz. Initially I thought this was great. Zack was clearly the best sprinter, and I was hoping that our group would let Zack dangle of the front, burn himself up, and then reel him in somewhat close to the finish. I figured he would be toast for the sprint, and Justin's sprint is manageable. I was sure that my group of riders would pull Zack back in. Based on repeat timetrials, I was evenly matched with Zack by myself, and I had 3 other riders to help me pull in one guy. Justin, of course, would not chase his own team-mate, and was given a free ride.
Well, I was shocked to see Zack slowly disappear out of our sight. I'm still shocked. We were going pretty hard, I thought. For sure the rain did not help or paceline. Also it probably hurt us mentally that Zack had a teammate getting a free ride. I even told my group not to catch Zack too quickly because Justin will simply counter attack and we'll be in a worse position. Zack's the sprinter and Justin's the time trialist. For sure I was trying the hardest to pull Zack back, but I don't know if the others were holding back a little or a lot. (I'm guessing a little).
I should also point out that Zack soloed away after counter-attacking his team-mates attacks. So on the graph below, the "Zack Attack" came immediately after the spike in wattage which was from me chasing his team mate Justin.
After Zack was gone from our sight for several miles before we let off the chase. Eventually Justin tried several attacks during the last few miles, but we all stayed together. The final sprint was unremarkable. Justin lead it out and just managed to cross 1st of our group, followed by me for a 3rd overall. Turns out that Zack put nearly 5 minutes on my group during that last hour of racing. Dude was racing hard, and the rain didn't help us with the chase.
Good job to Zack!
[Update: I have purchased music liscenses for use in my videos from several different artists and I have also added a music player gadget to my blog. It is the 4th gadget down on the right. It allows additional audio choices for viewing videos and/or reading text on this blogsite]
This is a really cool video project the Justin Craig produced. He interviews Huston Snell, Benji Bockting, yours truly (David Henderson), and Dan Miller. This project was for an AV1 class that Justin took at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I should also mention that Justin is a talented drummer and some of his music is featured in this video from his band, FDR'S Revenge. All of the on bike perspective video was shot with my GoPro® Helmet Camera HD Hero camera.
I think one noteworthy point about this video is that it shows a range of newer to more experienced riders that this cycling team has that I am on. That's CBC or Columbia Bicycle Club.
Time limits prevented Justin from showing the teams full diversity. We have women riders, junior riders, and all sorts of levels of ability and areas of focus on cycling activities.
Probably the most important point concerning this video for me personally is that cycling isn't just about the bike. It's really about the PEOPLE who bike. Everyone is unique and has an interesting tale to tell.
I really need to try adopt this type of philosophy into my video blog content. I think it's fabulous!
Hello race fans: This race was actually fun. Click this to get in the spirit of the event. I don't have a lot to add to my race video. I did decide to fade out the audio and put in my musical creation. Primarily because the chatter noise was so loud and annoying. Plus, I actually like my little musical piece. Someone gave me a little encouragement so what the hey, why not. (don't worry, I'm not going to start singing). [Use your inner DJ to select music from the music player on the sidebar and mute it and/or the video's audio icon.]
Ok, so I promised to dish out a little wet weather advice that I have learned over the years. Here's possibly one the best ones: In order to dry your shoes quickly use newspapers. Simply ball the sheets up and fill your shoes up. The capillary action of the paper will quickly dry your shoes out. After a few hours pull out the paper and allow to air dry. What? You already knew that? Damn.
How about this little ditty: Another drying trick was given to me recently by my friend Charles Gentry. This is good for all sorts of drying needs, including removing water that is trapped in your carbon rims (if you have them). Charles says, Let the "air out of the tube and get a desiccant pack from Walmart. Comes in a cup and you take the lid off and put the rim and the frame (oh yeah, bike frames too) in a large trash bag with the open cup of desiccant. Soon the cup will fill with water and you pour it out. The desiccant will suck out the moisture out of the air in the bag and in the rims and frame. This is the easy way. I raced in Hawaii for 5 years and this is what we did."
It is also important to not fully inflate your race tires, in particular the front. Instead of the standard 120psi, try 85psi for the front and 95psi for the rear when using tubulars (consult the manufacture's instructions for clinchers). This is most important on the front tire. You can slide the rear a bit and usually recover, but you will almost never recover from a front wheel slide. Where the front wheel goes, so does the bike. Typically racers take the first corners tentatively and progressively get faster. The last corners before the finish often have wipe outs. (for information concerning high speed cornering see my post on the topic.)
That leads me to the single most important rule of bike racing and general group riding (rain or no rain).......NEVER HALF WHEEL! Basically, half wheeling is the potentially dangerous and foolish practice of positioning a bicycle such that a rider's front wheel crosses the plane of the rear wheel of the rider in front of them. If the front rider swerves suddenly on purpose (say.... to avoid a pot-hole or a dead aardvark) or accidentally (say..... because they noticed some discarded porn in the ditch) they can sweep the front wheel of a rider that is half wheeling. Again, as we have already learned: where the front wheel goes, so does the bike. Half wheeling is probably the most common cause of bike crashes and is most common when the pack is bunched up and not going very hard. That's one of the reasons why I say that fast races are safe races. When it is super fast, there is no half wheeling. And if someone crashes in a corner, they are usually sweep off the course by the pure momentum of their trajectory. As Martha Stewart says: "It's a good thing!"
[Special Note: I have a "Music Player" gadget, 4th down to the right. You may run audio from it or the video as you see fit by pausing the music player or muting the embedded video. Enjoy!]
The final stage was a 90 mile Road Race on a very hilly course, with one very very steep section (but short) Racers could pick and choose individual stages, but must do all three to qualify for the overall prize list, which was by far the majority of the prize. Individual days only paid four places and very little. To give you an idea, I made $40 for 3rd place on my TT, $25 on my 4th place Criterium placement and zero for 6th in the Road Race and $275 for 3rd place overall. So basically I am absolutely rolling in prize money..... oh I had to split my money with team-mates (I still owe Dan and Jonathan at this time). Entry fee was something like $95 for all three events. Happily my entry was free as the current defending MOBAR Champion from last year.
There is a reason why I am starting with money. It is important. It determines many things. Like whether you will do the race in the first place. There's fuel, food, possible hotel expenses to consider, and possible lost work wages as well (sucks to be a surgeon, conversely it's probably a break even scenario if you're a burger flipper). Also it determines how hard a person might race, or at least it can for me. For example: My bicycle costs over $8,000. My wheelset alone costs over a $1,000 used. I decided it wasn't worth wiping out in the last set of turns (turns out finishing one up would have made no difference). I would have to win several races to pay for destroyed wheels or bike frame. I have no idea what a doctor bill for an injury might be, but I'm pretty sure it can be considerable.
So money has a push pull effect for me and most cyclists, but clearly it is not the reason for racing at the amateur level. It's the thrill of the event, the challenge, the adrenaline, the commradery, and for older riders it's a way to stay young....... oh and a little cash winning never hurt.
I totally got off of the race analysis. I wanted to point out that because it was a points stage race with bonus points as primes in the criterium it is a little difficult to instinctively know what the hell is going on. Ethan and I knew the basics. Austin Allison 1st, Zack Reed 2nd, me third, then Justin M. 4th, and then Ethan 5th overall going into the last day. We told Dan Miller and Larry Simonson that they could be aggressive early on (they did not do all 3 stages), but not to work in any break with the Overall Top GC Dogfish riders, but otherwise go crazy.
Turns out they did! They both got in the break. Dan ended up 4th in Road Race!
You know, I could go on and on about the details of the race, but I think the video is adequate. I just want to say a few things. The riders of the Dogfish team are really good riders, but not only that...... they are good sports and people in general. In particular I have to single out Jim VanDeven for not "gigging me" at Froze Toes Race, and Zack Reed for being so darn friendly. That dude is fast all around and I've never heard a single bad thing meantioned about him (plus he's not a trash talker) and in my racing circle that is rare (there are certain people who are haters...... you know it's true! LOL)
Speaking of talent....... Austin Allison. Pro material? Yep. 19 or 20 years old. He's just going to get stronger. I would suggest that he polish his TT skills, climbing power, 5-20 minute power maximums and not work too much on the sprint. He shouldn't have to sprint too often.
Well, that's somethin' for race commentary. I think I'll start getting ready for the Tour of St. Louis.
[Special Note: I have a "Music Player" gadget, 4th down to the right. You may run audio from it or the video as you see fit by pausing the music player or muting the embedded video. Enjoy!]
Ok, I only have a moment before I have to leave this morning for the 90 mile Hermann Road Race, so I will do a more through analysis later. In short, I placed 3rd in the tt an 4th in the criterium
Concerning the video: I somehow lost the finish data (about 5 minutes), but it wasn't terribly fascinating anyhow. The big deal is that I did get the beginning and then some. I was also a little unhappy with the very loud clicking that was associated with my pedal cadence. (I've since discovered that the clicking noise is from the buckle of the camera mount and is preventable by installing a rubber device into the buckle. The rubber device is provided with the camera. I just didn't know about how to use it or what it was for.) I normally don't put music on my race videos, but I decided to delete the video audio and replace with my own musical creation. I would love to use professional music, but copyright issues disallow this. Anyhoo, if my music absolutely sucks, I suggest muting my stuff and turning on your own music.
[Update: I now have a license to use certain copyrighted songs. Additionally I have added a music player gadget on my sidebar for everyone's listening pleasure. When watching a video, mute the player or the video otherwise both will play. You have to be a bit of a DJ on this site. :-)]
[Special Note: I have a "Music Player" gadget, 4th down to the right. You may run audio from it or the video as you see fit by pausing the music player or muting the embedded video. Enjoy!]
Ah yeah, I finally made it out to RockBridge State Park to ride a little mountain bike. Very little. It started sprinkling on the way there and I barely shot this video before I had to quit. I'm racing three races this weekend in Hermann Missouri. Time trial in the morning and a criterium in the afternoon and I didn't want to slip on a wet rock and injury myself. I'm actually not very good at mountainbiking and I learned long ago that I have more fitness than bike handling skills in that venue. I do love getting in a nice groove by myself though. Sadly, I have found that when I mountain bike with others it becomes a sort of race and it starts sucking. In fact, the last time I mountain biked with Ethan, I clipped a tree with my handlebar and found myself thrown to the ground like one of those calves in a calf roping contest. My ribs literally hurt for a couple of months.
Anyway, Rockbridge is fantastic to mountainbike on and I thought a video would be a great way to show you what I mean. You know what I mean?
[Special Note: I have a "Music Player" gadget, 4th down to the right. You may run audio from it or the video as you see fit by pausing the music player or muting the embedded video. Enjoy!]
This is the finish of the Tilles Park Criterium. This was an unusual race for me in that it was stopped and restarted due to a serious crash. Fortunately for me, I was in a break-a-way group of six (including myself) and avoided the crash. I was told that Mike Weiss was injured (broken collar bone?), and I saw Andy Chocha bike was ruined with a fracture through the top tube.
I didn't personally finish very well. I think the video says way more than I can. Just count the attacks.
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April 15th, I've been thinking about this race and how I did it all wrong, or at least major parts.
Typically when I race I operate more on instinct than deep cognitive thought. In fact it is best to have a series of rules to operate by so that decisions can be made very rapidly. For example: Never attack on a downhill or into a headwind. It is best to attack uphill or with a strong crosswind or a tailwind (second to crosswind all because of drafting factors) Keep in mind there are some exceptions to almost all rules, but in general these rules help a racer who is often at a level of mental distress to make correct decisions. I broke several rules. Always expect a counter-attack when closing an attack. Based on this rule I should have not entirely closed a chase by myself. I should have sat up and forced my drafters to work. They would have most likely done so with an attack, but it would have been a much more managable attack. Another rule is to do the least amount of work as possible until the finish.
I think my single biggest mistake was taking a flyer on the bell lap. I over estimated myself and far underestimated four other riders. I think I forgive myself for this blunder because just a few laps earlier I had chased Justin down successfully and when I moved off to set back in the rotation nobody moved up and Justin easily rode away. At the time this meant to me that the group had no juice left, but I was quite wrong.
Another mistake I made was gifting my drafters with a free pull up to an attacker. This is a subtle thing, if I do not believe I can close a gap by myself, then I should try to keep riders with me so that I can fall back into their draft later for recovery. On the other hand, if I believe I can close the gap by myself I should NEVER PURPOSELY allow other riders a free draft. This is a sure way to get beat, and this is exactly what I did.
[Special Note: I have a "Music Player" gadget, 4th down to the right. You may run audio from it or the video as you see fit by pausing the music player or muting the embedded video. Enjoy!]
Here's the begining of the Tilles Park Criterium. Pretty good sized field and great weather (about 80 something). Sadly there was a serious crash (broken bones and bicycles) and happily I didn't see it because I was off in the break-a-way. This video shows the difficulty of being able to move up. Also you can see why it would be easy to crash when the field isn't moving real fast. The pack bunches up at slower speeds and the roads are curvery with a bit of curb here and there. I sensed a pending crash just before I moved up.
I have a second video that is pending due to processing from YouTube. It features some very good riders and lots of attacks.
[Special Note: I have a "Music Player" gadget, 4th down to the right. You may run audio from it or the video as you see fit by pausing the music player or muting the embedded video. Enjoy!]
Hello race fans. The above video is of the Masters race, which very much speaks for itself. Cold 45 degrees, very windy and raining. There was a crash and happily it was limited to only 2 riders and was as minor as crashes can be. The most notable point of the crash was that it involved Tracie Smith, who claims he never gets in crashes and only suckie bike handlers crash. (yeah, right! LOL). I raced very hard on this and most Masters races. I find that, for me personally, Masters racing is every bit as hard as the Pro I-II races. This is probably because I must do more work, or tend to solo more at full effort.
I did win this race. Gary Dyer was able to draft me, and did not try to pimp me (let me do all of the work, and him take the money, via popping me for the sprint finish). I like Gary. I was his teammate years ago (St. Louis Cycling Club) when I trying to get on bigger and better teams.
That reminds me. The last race I did for St. Louis Cycling Club was at Soulard in the rain. It started out dry and then started raining. Soulard is a serious criterium with many corners and isn't hard to crash on even when it's dry. I was running Specialized tri-spokes both front and rear. This was around 1995 and these wheels were considered "the bomb". Presently these wheels are illegal for mass start events due to safety concerns. Anyway I crashed twice and got 2 free laps twice (I got caught behind a crash as well). My final crash was in turn 2 and I did not get up for a very long time. I kept saying, "This is going to stop hurting. This is going to stop hurting." I had slide into a concrete curb and chipped the bone on my hip (that's what the x-rays showed). I was bed ridden for almost a week and done with racing for the season. From this story there are three or four important points: 1. I've riddend for another team besides CBC, 2. I know and like Gary as a result, 3. I don't like racing in the rain, 4. wheels make a huge difference.
Oh yeah, I also won the Pro I-II race as well! Unfortunately the battery on my camera failed on the bell lap of the Masters race. I got a partial recharge between races with my laptop, but still I was only able to video the start of the race (I've ordered spare batteries). The last 5 laps would have been good.
I had some really good teammates in that race. Jonathan Schottler, Jason Ozenberger and Dan Miller.
The race split into a 10 man break-a-way that included me, Schottler...................wait a second......... STOP! I don't think I want to discuss a race not on video. If you want to know about the race just look up the results.
Now watch my video first and then go out into the warm sunshine and ride your bicycle.
[Special Note: I have a "Music Player" gadget, 4th down to the right. You may run audio from it or the video as you see fit by pausing the music player or muting the embedded video. Enjoy!]
HD Hero camera.