In comments, Patrick O’B. asks whether I’m having trouble deciding which bike to ride since adding a nifty Jones rigid-specific 29er to the Mad Dog fleet.
Nope.
I haven’t been on a bike of any type for a week — a terrorist wasp nailed me in my left ankle during a hike last Wednesday, the sonofabitch swelled up to the size and shade of a ruby-red Texas grapefruit (the ankle, not the terrorist wasp), and I have whiled away the hours since full of Benadryl and bad ideas, trying to get a metric shit-ton of work done with my shoeless left leg propped up on a box.
And the weather has been picture-postcard, Chamber of Commerce, fall-in-Colorado perfect, too.
Gah.
I did get out for a short while today. The ankle looks more or less like an ankle again, rather than a botulistic bratwurst, and I needed to shoot a bit of HD video for an online review of the Co-Motion Divide Rohloff, having just wrapped production on a Jones video. So I spazzed around in Palmer Park for an hour, playing Quentin Ferrentino with a couple of dusty old Hero 3 Black Editions.
The Adventure Cyclist gang and I met with the GoPro people at Interbike, but only editor Mike Deme walked away with one of the new Hero 3+ dinguses, though I thought I batted my eyelashes most fetchingly at the product guy. Bitch.
So I had to make do with obsolete technology in my latest projects, and as usual it is the little people — you, the viewing public — who must suffer.
Still, that makes two videos in two days. Stick that in your hobbit-pipe and smoke it, Peter Jackson.
Mad Blog Media 
That chain looks a little dry.
That’s ’cause I use a dry lube. Vodka, a couple of olives, and just a hint of a whiff of a rumor of vermouth. Shaken, not stirred, of course.
You got more shit on that handlebar then air force 1 has in their cockpit.
Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!
You need a cup holder with a can of PBR on that rig.
Glad the ankle is better. I have healed and will ride tomorrow. Plan to get a few more miles on the ES. Only thing worse than not riding is having a new bike in garage and not riding.
I hear you, Patrick. Anyone who thinks I’m cranky ordinarily should see me after a week of enforced sloth in beautiful weather. A turpentined badger has a sunnier disposition. Glad to hear you’re getting out. I’m gonna wrap the ankle and have a stab at it myself today.
Well, Sir, here I sit again. Partly cloudy with steady wind at 15 with gusts to 32. This is going to last all day. Wind doesn’t even have the courtesy to blow uphill. So, no riding today. Might even blow away our weekly farmer’s market. After checking the weather in Bibleburg just now, it seems you have the same weather, just a little cooler.
Come on … admit it … at least once, whilst nestled behind that H-bar, you said to yourself, “I’m too close for missiles, switching to guns.”
Of course, and while humming Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries,” too.
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like, like…victory.” What a horrid setting for a great short story. Should have done it in Africa.
Wiki claims there was a Playhouse 90 adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel, made in 1958, set, of course, in the Congo. I never saw it. Just saw the Vietnam version.
Reminds me of back-in-the-day when camcorders first came out. A guy showed up on a tour with a full size (VHS cassette) camera mounted on the handlebars. Complete with a brown rain cover that made it look like he was riding along with a roast turkey on a platter in front of him! When these little units came out, I watched a few video clips made with them on the ‘net. So many of ’em were like entries in some sort of “Insomniac Theater” competition, I’ve stopped bothering. Am I missing something?
I think some of these action vids can be good if the shooter, editor and athlete all know their stuff. And the GoPro guy told us at Interbike that the company is now offering a new version of its GoPro Studio software that lets the average person basically plug his/her footage into a template and create something that looks more professional than the standard YouTube video selfie.
Being a videography tyro and a guy who rides like an old married man, I’m limiting my “action” shots to a few seconds of each two-minute Adventure Cyclist review, just to give folks a look at the bike in motion.
It’s a lot like writing, actually. Anybody can pound out a ton of words, or shoot a thousand hours of video. But not everyone is a ruthless self-editor. ‘Tis unknown how many words, photos and videos I’ve consigned to the dustbin over the decades.
I take ONE good photo each year during our season in Italy, so video is way beyond me!
The stuff I learn on this blog!!!
Glad your ankle is better, Patrick.
People learn on this blog? Other than to avoid it, that is?
Wonder why Mr. O’Grady is not narrating Nova or Nature yet? That voice is smoother than the polished and waxed mesquite mirror on top of Sandy’s marudai.
I always thought my radio voice sounded something like the Voice of the State might when it was having a citizen euthanized for thoughtcrimes. But then I read way too much science fiction as a kid.
Well, now that I think of it, it could probably put me to sleep faster than Peter Coyote’s voice does.