Category: Video

Cuyamaca – BLT Video Remastered

I have been working on remastering some of my older videos to bring them up to new standards.   My videos range from ancient lip-stick camera and 8mm camcorders to GoPros.     All of various eras of equipment will have their own challenges to remastering and some of them I’m just not going to make the time for the effort required.   But I am going to make an effort.

The video above is from 2007 where some of the usual suspects of the time rode from the Cuyamaca mountains over to the Lagunas by way of the Deer Springs and Indian Creek trails.   It was about a 40 mile day of great fun!

Neck muscles of steel!

This video was shot with a 1080i Canon HDV camcorder.  It shot good video with the exception of the image stabilization.  It used optical image stabilization which was consider really good for the time.   However it was optimized for handheld work and not for the rapid bouncing around that occurs during use as a helmet camera work.    I’m pretty sure that the optical image stabilization often made things worse not better.   It certainly did not work as well as the electronic image stabilization that was on my previous standard definition camcorder setup.

I had previously remastered my Galbraith Mountain video from 2009 but did not try to do any software stabilization of the video.  Many moons ago I tried software stabilization and did not like all the artifacts it created in the video.

For the Cuyamaca – Laguna video I gave the software stabilization another shot.   I’m using Adobe Premiere  CC 2018 and it has warp stabilizer effect/filter built in.   After a bit of trail and error I found some setting that work well enough.   There is a balancing act that has to be done with with the 1080i footage between smoothness and clarity.    The filter will do a good job of stabilization but at the cost of cropping the footage.   When the footage is cropped the clarity of the footage is decreased.    I found that trying to keep the crop below 125% typical kept thing looking good.   Some scenes I did not stabilize at  all.    Overall I’m satisfied enough with it as it is better than the windows media format stuff I was previously using.     There will be some more of this coming in the future.

Video Tinker Time in Alpine

This past week I made a long overdue appearance at Steve’s Wednesday Stoke ride in Alpine. The weather was great which made the climb up to the top go pretty well. 

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I was playing with both my Digital SLR camera as well my GoPro Hero 3 today.    This was the second outing with thing so I doing quite a bit of tinkering with mountings and camera setup.

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One of the angles I really like was using the roll bar mount near the bottom of the downtube to view the front tire action.   One downside to the roll bar mount was I needed use one of the extender arms on the mount to get the angle right.   No matter how hard I tightened the the knob for teh extender arm.   It would still sag down after some hard compressions like a landing or bigger chunk.   I will have figure out some kind of secondary support strap or something to use this angle much.

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My Canon 7D DSLR can also shoot HD video so I played around with shooting video with it.   It will be interesting to show how the whole video editing workflow is going to pan out with multiple formats and frame rates going into a single project.

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I also used the seat post/handlebar mount for a rear facing shot. I did not use an extender arm for this mount as the angle looked good.

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The “good” angle was based on the seat post being up.   Once I started going downhill and play in the chunk I lowered the seatpost and found that I was unable to get the camera angled up enough for my liking with too much of tire being in the frame and not enough view behind to keep from chopping off the head of a rider behind me.

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For the main run back down the trail I had the side mount for the helmet on.   The trail conditions were pretty freaking awesome that begged you to stay off the brakes.

GoPro HD3 Shakedown Ride

Early this week I got out for a lunch time ride out at La Costa.  The weather was nice and you good see Catalina and San Clemente Islands out on the horizon.   IMAG0442

I got a GoPro Hero3 HD Black Edition for Christmas and it was high time that I tested it out.   Other than some futzing with it on the couch this was my first time rolling with camera.   I decided to go for a side mount on the helmet for this test.  I slapped the curved sticky mount on about the right looking spot and stuck it on.   I was also using the double hinged adapter that came with the kit.  The kit also came with a WiFi remote but I did not even break that out on this test.  Instead I used the GoPro app on that I installed on my Android phone to control the camera.  The cool thing I like about the app is that it allows you to preview the angle you have setup instead of guessing or having to buy LCD accessory for the GoPro.    Right off the bat I’m rather impressed with the video quality and I’m sure it could be made a bit better some some of the advanced settings I have not tinkered with yet.   Of course there is no way to get image stablization with this setup but overall this thing is nice enough that and maybe another one are going to make it into the video equipment stable.     Oh yeah…tighening down those little adjustment knobs is highly recommended.   Here is a short completely non-fancy clip.

Galbraith Mountain Video

I finally got around to pulling together the footage I took on  Galbraith Mountain back in April.  Putting this video together was an awesome way to relive the great freaking riding there is on that mountain.  You may find the music a little aggro for your taste but these tunes got stuck in my head while riding these trails so it only seemed fitting put them on the vid.  

Right Click on the image above to download the 115MB video that is 8 minutes and 17 seconds long.

“Rocking In SoCal” Video

Okay I have been letting this footage pile for over a year so it was time to do something with it.  It is a locals rock hangout here in San Diego.   You can call it either the KTS #1  (Kinda Top Secret) Trail or the Ain’t Telling Trail.    It is really not much of a secret at all but I was asked not to drop the name so there you go. 

Right Click to download the 9 minute and 46 second video that will set your hard drive back 139MB.

New HelmetCam Setup

I have needed to retire the helmet portion of my old helmet cam setup for quite sometime now as I had simply worn it out. The adjustment mechanism on the back of the helmet was shot and overall the helmet looked pretty worse for wear. I have been tinkering with a new helmet camera mounting design that would allow me to get away from having a dedicated helmet for the camera system. Wearing the helmet camera on long climbs when you are not filming is a bummer so I would often carry a second helmet. I wanted carry a single helment and be able to quickly attach or remove the camera gear during the course of a ride. The new setup basically uses the quick-release mounts designed for professional/prosumer grade camera tripods. I find it much more versatile than before.

Here the main concept piece of the new setup, the quick release mounts. One piece (the plate) is on the helmet, the other (the latch) is on the camera housing. There was two main reasons I put the plate on the helmet vice the camera housing. The first was was because additional plates are inexpensive compaired to the latch. The other was the the plates weighed much less than the latch and I was looking to minimize the permenant weight on the helmet.

Here is a close up the mounting bracket for the plate. I needed to create a vertical surface for the plate. I ended up mixing up a small batch of fiberglass resin from a small repair kit that you can find at most automotive stores for under $20. I used the cap off of a can of spray paint as my mold and made up two small pucks. Once cured, I used a dremel tool with a sanding attachment to shape the puck until it contoured the side of the helmet and was vertical. I used a 1/4″ thick piece of neoprene as a vibration damper/gasket between the bracket and the helmet.

I used a single bolt through the plate, the bracket and helmet and secured with a recessed T-bolt on the inside of the helmet. I used a neoprene backed washer between the bolt and the plate as an added bit of vibration damping. I found these washers at a screw and bolt speciality surplus store in San Diego (They have like 5,000 of everything). Tightening the screw was enough to hold the camera angle inplace but once I had aligned the camera vertically , I drilled a recess in the bracket to allow the small alignment button used on the plate to ensure the plate stayed in alignment.

You may have noticed that the counterweight bracket is at a different angle than the other side. Since I can now switch the camera housing to the other side, I’m experimenting with some different shooting angles on that side.

Another thing I like about the setup is I can now move the camera gear from an XC helmet over to my full-face helmet easily. I actually made the full face rig first as it was much simpler. The extra padding of the full face helmet seem to have added a bunch of vibration damping that smoothed out the video some.  Now I just need to get out on the trail with XC setup.

Tacos For New Year’s Eve

Tacos were sounding good today.  I went to Alpine to take some more flight lessons.

So I’m calling this a successful jump and landing, with a really bad bit of trail riding immediatly afterwards.  My biggest mistake was not really looking at the landing closely before jumping. I have done that jump before but did not take notice of a rut that had developed after the rains and was just chilling there in the shade. If I had I would have made more of an effort to not to go as far left as I did. I really thought I was just going to scrap the bushes a bit and keep on riding.

Here are some shots of the aftermath.

This one taco deluxe!

I thought for sure I would be walking out of there as it was firmly in the hella jacked range.

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Surprisingly enough I found that after showing the wheel some luving Ike Turner style, it was okay enough to get rolling again.

One thing is for certain, I confirmed that I am getting the full 160mm out travel out of my front fork. I got a scrap on the my thigh just above the pads and I aggravited an old injury to my right shoulder a bit. I even managed to hit a few smaller things on the return trip back down the mountain but a latter inspection revealed showed that this rim is going to have to be put out to pasture.

Long Overdue Fisher Mesa Video

Okay so this video took just a wee bit longer to get out that I expected.   Truth is I got a little burnt out on editing video so I just set the footage aside.    I rode Fisher Mesa in May on Day 5 of my Utah Colorado 08 Road trip.  Fisher Mesa is a really cool out-and-back XC ride that falls into the “eat your desert first” category as the mesa descends from the trailhead all the way to the turn around point which can be up to 12 miles at the point.   It is well worth the return effort.  Fisher Mesa is a good chunk of distance from Moab.  To give you a rough idea of where it is at, If you have ridden Porcupine Rim, the valley to the east is Castle Valley with it’s signature Castle Rock and the Priest and Nuns.  The mesa across the valley to the east is Adobe Mesa.  To the east of Adobe Mesa is Mary Jane Canyon and beyond that is Adobe Mesa.   The Adobe Mesa Rim trails is on the east side of the mesa and it over killer views of the Fisher Towers, Top of the World and Fisher Valley.   Like most of my photographic and video experience in this area of the country, it is tough to capture the beauty of the place.  

Right Click here to download the 87MB video that run 6 minutes and 35 seconds.

A little bit of Skyline DH

On a whim, I decided to head up to Corona and investigate a trail I have l been eyeing for a year or so.   To get there I needed to climb the Skyline Drive Fireroad on the the northeast side of the Santa Ana Mountains.   I arrived at the trailhead at fairly descent time and since this was an on-a-whim ride, I was joined by all of my friends.   The temps were pretty nice as I started my solo climb up the fireroad. 

While the grade did not seem steep, I was surprised how quickly the elevation stacked up.  There were some nice views to the north despite the ickyness that was setting down in the valleys below (That is not fog). 

The climb went by quicker than expected and I even got a really cool treat.  I rounded a corner to see a young bobcat crossing the fireroad.  The cat was not much bigger than your average house kitty.  He climbed up a steep embackment and stood at the top looking down at me for a good 15-20 seconds.  I was trying to get my camera out without causing him to bolt, but as soon as he saw the camera come out of the bag and me start to raise it, he stepped into the brush.   Geez, he was pretty.  It was awesome to get to admire one of these critters up close.  It was not long after this encounter that I made it to Beek’s Place and continued along Main Divide past the golfball.

  I have been tinkering with a new helmet camera mounting setup that would allow to get away from having a dedicated helmet for the camera system.  Wearing the helmet camera on long climbs when you are not filming is a bummer.  I want to be able to quickly remove the camera gear so that I could only carry a single helmet on a ride.    The new setup basically uses the quick-release mounts designed for professional/prosumer grade camera tripods.  When completed this setup should be must more versatile.  So far I have only completed my full-face helmet.   That was also part of the reason I chose this trail, it seemed silly to bring a full-face helmetcam out to some place like Penasquitos Canyon.

After about a mile of climbing on Main Divide Truck Trail, I reached the “Skyline DH” (Have no idea what it’s actual name is yet).    I was looking at this ridgeline quite a bit on the climb up and it certainly looked to have some steepness.

Steepness it did have.   While this trail felt a little like Bell Ridge at the beginning it soon became much more like Coldwater.   These types of trails are somewhat of an acquired taste. There were some sections of pure adrenaline rush as you just flew down the trail.  Other sections were so so steep that you had to be somewhat surgical with controlling your bike and the brakes as you could only marginally control your rate of acceleration let alone stop.  I like sections like that for the challenge they present but they are not my favorites.   As I neared the bottom, I came upon a firecrew contracted out from Oregon to do some debrushing for fire abatement on the trail.  They were doing a fine job, but since I caught them in mid-workday, they had yet to remove all the trimmings from the trail below them.  This made the last bit of descent slow going but overall this ride was well worth it.