I’m currently experimenting with a bike-mounted video camera. Initial results have been better than expected. I’m not aiming to share endless boring ride clips (which are a frankly as tedious as hell, like somebody else’s holiday snaps), but hopefully capture some snippets of life on a bike in a variety of places. Second run out yesterday after sorting out the best mounting position, I captured these on a brief errand run on a gloomy, wet Brownhills High Street.
The camera is mounted on the bike, not me, so the field of view is quite unsettling. I do actually look round, signal and so on, but helmet cam type footage just makes me seasick, to be honest.
The above clip shows two things – one, that my road position wasn’t far enough out from the kerb, thus enabling the driver to cut round me like that – and two – check out the state of those potholes, now over twelve months old, both with their own ecosystems. This is fairly typical driver behaviour, and remember that a significant number of cyclists come to harm under left-turning vehicles. I abhor left-hand cycle lanes for that reason. I had a feeling from his impatience behind me that this was going to happen, so wasn’t taken by surprise.
Negotiating the upper end of Brownhills High Street and the island. I’m further out this time, as overtaking here can stop you getting in position. I quite like this island, it’s reasonably safe if you’re confident. Particularly amused by the copper on the pedestrian crossing thanking me for stopping.