bikes and things

Well everyone on Flickr that is. It seems that a little bit of rising mist in the woods with some sun behind it is a bit of a winner.

I shot this whilst out riding at Swinley a few days ago. Bizarrely enough I took my ‘proper camera’ but forgot it and left it in the van. We got there early and the frost was being warmed up by the rising sun and then beautifully back lit. Hence the effect you get below. I shot it with the iPhone and then processed it with VSCO Cam before sticking it on Instagram where it proved to be my most popular photo to date.

I thought I’d stick the full version on Flickr. I added it to a few groups and got on with whatever I was doing. Then an hour or so later the phone started buzzing with notifications. It didn’t stop for two days. Whilst some people, like Finn, are used to this I’m certainly not.

So my account trundles along at 500 – 1000 hits a day generally, nothing special but there’s the occasional traffic spike. This on the other hand is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

Now it’s not me saying I’m amazing, I’m not, and this was just a shot of some mist and being there at the right time. What does surprise me is that quality of the camera in the iPhone and how much I didn’t actually miss my proper camera. The second thing is how the explore page can drive traffic to your photos. If something gets a few hits it starts to hit the bottom end of Explore (popular page in Flickr language) and then it can rapidly climb from there once the views and favourites start piling in. If you look at the explore page it does generally seem to be sunsets and mist so I guess this one hit the spot.

It now sits as my most popular photo with over 8000 views and 180+ favourites, so far. I’m amused to see that my most popular shot is a mobile phone shot which I never thought would have happened just a few years back. I guess those camera makers are in real trouble as they’re only going to get better. The link to this article I found yesterday was entitled “Cameras will die with an iPhone 6s in our pockets” and reference this quote from the article.

After two and a half years, the GF1 was replaced by the slightly improved Panasonic GX1, which I brought on the six-day Kumano Kodo hike in October. During the trip, I alternated between shooting with it and an iPhone 5. After importing the results into Lightroom, Adobe’s photo-development software, it was difficult to distinguish the GX1’s photos from the iPhone 5’s. (That’s not even the latest iPhone; Austin Mann’s superlative results make it clear that the iPhone 5S operates on an even higher level.) Of course, zooming in and poking around the photos revealed differences: the iPhone 5 doesn’t capture as much highlight detail as the GX1, or handle low light as well, or withstand intense editing, such as drastic changes in exposure. But it seems clear that in a couple of years, with an iPhone 6S in our pockets, it will be nearly impossible to justify taking a dedicated camera on trips like the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage.

Convergence is going to continue to be a real killer for a lot of companies.

No, not a zombie apocalypse film set in the UK with Christopher Ecclestone, but the amount of time I’ve been off my bike since a little spill on a big ride* around Bath on the 1st December. It was annoying for a number of reasons but not least because I was just starting to get fit and starting to enjoy riding a lot more. It also meant that bruising and a reactivated shoulder and back injury kept me off the bike until now. The other thing being how slow the local bike shop are at ordering parts and a new helmet, should have just ordered from the net but I want to support them. Nevermind.

Matt, myself and Hamish met at Swinley for an early start. Unfortunately this meant a 6.30am alarm but was well worth it to get a decent start on the trails as well as getting back a little earlier than usual. The journey there was the fastest we’ve ever done due to hardly a soul being on the roads. It also meant beating the crowds and we had the trails almost to ourselves for a while.

The usual issues of not being very well dialled in appeared as expected due to time out of the saddle and as well as fitness issues on the last leg. The trails were also icy with that lovely mix of pebble like stones, hard packed, with ice over the top proving to be fun at first. Fortunately the sun rose a little further and warmed it all up leading to a little more grip.

As the sun streamed through the trees and the frost thawed we were treated to a spectacular light show. I reached for my camera (Fuji X100) in my bag to realise I had left it in the van! Annoying at best but was surprised at how well the iPhone dealt with the situation. A few of these were shot with HDR on to balance up some of the extremes of the light and catch some of that lovely mist. All were processed with VSCO cam.

Whilst it was sloppy in places it was nowhere near as bad as we had thought it would be. Most trails were riding well and all the berms never seem to be ridden at the fast bit at the top so were all lovely and fast. Riddiculator was great as well as labyrinth. I even managed to get a few personal records on Strava.

We did the blue, then the red and came back for a quick bite to eat. Hamish had to go so we did the blue again which was great fun, especially having just ridden it. It was faster and far more fun the second time. I still can’t get over how nice the weather was. So much so that I had got sun burn on my nose!

Not a bad return ride and pleased with almost 35k. Bit more next time and then again. Looking forward to upping that mileage. Interestingly Magnus posted a link to Twitter last night showing how a reduction of exercise affects your fitness. Well worth a read.

So good to be back on this thing again!

*A 90k ride is big for me at the moment but I need to double that distance soon before LEJOG.

This year my birthday fell on a Sunday which meant I didn’t need to take a day off work as is my usual ritual. My birthday is never a big thing but I don’t think anyone should be at work for a birthday really.

Work had been so busy that I’d kind of forgotten that it was a approaching. I was hoping to go riding the day before but the weather was horrendous and my email to people seeing if anyone was around was largely unanswered. Emma gave us a new set of amazing kicks in the morning and we then headed to Dragon Castle for Dim Sum. We somehow managed to sit down, order straight away and have a drink and were out in an hour. I think we will try and stagger the arrival of the Dim Sum next time. The food was great and whilst the Negroni wasn’t amazing it certainly helped me relax. After that we headed in to town to take a look around the National Portrait Gallery and the Taylor-Wessing Prize via Trafalgar Square and a quick peek at the new big blue bird on the fourth plinth.

After that we headed up to Covent Garden via a few shops to grab a few bits and bobs for people. We stopped in at my usual favourite the London Graphic Centre and Monmouth Coffee as well as the Brooks store which has just opened up. After that a new pair of jeans in Carhartt and over to Mishkins for cocktails to finish off where they do proper Negronis! And that was that. A lovely day out to celebrate the grand old age of 34!

This is terrifying. So creepy, so wooden, so badly done… Just bad. I bet most people don’t get to the end. Using technology to pick up dates surely never works.

A great article from Frank Chimero on all those sites we all check all the time (and why I deleted my Facebook). There’s so many great quotes in this but this encapsulates it best. Read the whole article.

I’m pretty good at juggling, but I feel split and overwhelmed, because these networks are sorted by what things are (a photo, video, snarky quip, etc.), rather than who made them. My brain works in the opposite way. It’s people first, so I don’t think “I would like to see photos,” I ask myself, “I wonder what Josh has been up to?” To find out, I have to visit each little silo and piece the story together. So, if you’re like me, you speed through and develop an uncourteous stance toward it all, because the stuff you really care about gets mixed in with a lot of accompanying bullshit.

Via @dyntr

Impressive stuff, which is obviously due to the law of conservation of angular momentum – of course!

The trick begins with a tight backwards flip, which happens quickly because all of the weight (human + bike) is distributed close to the center of gravity. By opening his body up in the middle part of the flip, Roberts slows down the rotation, just like a figure skater, diver, or ballerina would by throwing out their arms or legs. And then he gathers himself back onto the bike, which spins quickly again because the weight is all back close to the center. Boom, physics.

Via Kottke.org

I’ve heard a few people talk about how hard riding up Mt Ventoux is, having ridden them after training and using a nice light road bike. I’ve also ridden a Boris bike a few times in London and the worst thing about them is that they are so damn heavy. So much so that when you lean the bike against the inside of your thigh at the lights it almost knocks you off.

He’s not the first to have tried to do silly things on a Boris bike of course. Leo’s Dunwich Dynamo trip and the tricks thrown down at Stockwell skate park come to mind but this seems a little tougher.

The challenge is to hire a bike, get to France, ride up Mt Ventoux, drive back and check the bike into the docking station all within 24 hours, avoiding the £150 fine. Incredible and moving stuff and I have an enormous amount of respect for the guy for doing it, worth watching all the way to the end.

Popped out yesterday with Emma to have a wander around, do some shopping for Christmas and then eat some great food at Bone Daddies. Took some photos too, saw lots of people dressed like Santa, then came home. Not a bad day really and Emma even let me take some pictures of her.

Today I had to go to the office. :-(

I think we need to get a dog too. Interesting stuff though.

But then they do seem to rule the roost at home.

That man speaks a lot of sense! Such a shame the transport select committee wasn’t so enlightened and restored to the usual lazy cliches.

The MPs that sit on the transport select committee should be embarrassed by their performance yesterday in an inquiry that was meant to be about why six people died riding bicycles on London’s roads in the space of two weeks.

In front of them sat experts from campaigning bodies, transport research and the police – all ready to get into a proper discussion – and yet the MPs demonstrated that they didn’t even know the most basic of facts. Evidence and statistics were bypassed in favour of opinions and anecdotes on sideline topics.

Such a clear demonstration of lack of research and understanding at this level of seniority would, in any other business, be classed as negligent.

“This was an opportunity to discuss how we can make our roads fit for people to get around by bicycle, improving our nation’s health, the environment and cutting emissions. This will deliver benefits for everyone, not just cyclists, and to do it we need to transform infrastructure, tackle dangerous junctions and encourage people to use bikes to get around.

I’d like to see a proper, fruitful evidence session, rather than opinion-based discussion, on how to protect and encourage cycling as a mode of transport. To that end I am going to write to the MPs on the committee asking them to meet with British Cycling representatives to get to work discussing the real issues that can lead to the transformation of not just cycling, but the environments that we live in.