Flip Video Review

I recently received the Flip Video Camcorder as a gift. I have been intrigued with posted videos on Blogs and web sites and thought what a great enhancement. I used to love watching Alan's videos on his Recombentblog. He would be riding some serene bike path on a beautiful day with some great background music. It would seem like a utopia. How can you not love cycling.

After some researching and my wife looking over my shoulder, I received the Flip Ultra as a birthday gift. I played with this thing all day and fell in love with it. I took it on my annual birthday mileage ride and just laughed at myself afterwards.

It holds 1/2 hr of video which is more than enough. You can combine videos to make a movie. You can condense for emailing. Picture quality is far better than I imagined. It takes 2 AA batteries which I have yet to replace. It weighs less than a pound with batteries and is about the size of a small digital camera. Internal software works great and there is a 24/7 live customer support. It will obviously be outdated within the yr, but for now it's great.

Keep Riding

56 Birthday ride

I have a yearly tradition to try and ride my age, This yr it's 56 miles. My birthday was a wash out weather wise but 1/12 was beautiful. My wife gave me a flip camcorder so I made some clips I hope you can enjoy

Trike Stand and Repairs

My trike had been working and shifting flawlessly until a week ago. The right shifter jammed and would not go up 4 higher gears. I was hoping for a great ride, so instead of heading home I managed to repair on the road. It took about 1/2 hr. Don't know exactly what went wrong but it was working and I continued my 30 miler. Towards the end of the ride I noticed my lower gears missing at times and shifting up. Over the last yr I got tired of driving a 1/2 hr to my LBS and decided it was time to learn repairs. With the help of the Internet, BROL and Park tools, I managed to change my chain, cranks, BB, cassette and cables. I found things quite easy if you have the right tools. Unfortunately bikes have their own unique tools.

What I didn't have was a stand to work on the trike. I would put small pales under the rack to lift the rear wheel and then work on my hands and knees making adjustments. Too old for that. There has been a some talk on BROL about trike racks. UTAH Trikes and others have displayed various inexpensive PVC racks. Today I went to my local hardware store and for $19 made this PVC trike rack in a few hrs. I am still tweaking it as it has a tendency to sway a bit. It's light, the height is perfect and it makes working on the trike much easier . I have an old Workmate bench which my son has to return. I think I will use that to steady my stand better. I won't get into how I built this stand as it is obvious through the pics, and can be made in various configurations. It is great to use a bike stand for repairs and maintenance. When it comes to getting into those final adjustments, I find you have to add weight and torque to the bike. Another words ride the bike, stop, make adjustments and try again until all is right. For me learning repairs has more than saved me money, but, saved me time so I can continue to

Enjoy the ride

First ride of the year

Hearing rain last night, I didn't expect to get a ride in for the new yr. When I finally awoke the rain had stopped and the skies were clearing. As always, after reading the paper I check Alan's, The Recumbent blog, and Bryan's BROL. On BROL there was a posting by Bjorn, "First ride of the Year". He didn't like the idea of no rides for 08 on Bike Journal, so he did a short ride of 5 mi. I new how he felt. Unfortunately I had 2 unwanted guests from the party my neighbor had, Woozy and Queasy. I had hoped to shake them off with a 14 mi ride. They kept up with me the whole ride. Finally after a hot shower and writing this Blog, they got bored and left. It is nice having started my cycling yr on the right foot and still
Enjoying the ride