Monday, April 12, 2010

Mini Marmot, twice!

Sunday was a riding day. The weather was perfect. Warm enough and dry. I took the Marmot route and saw a string of Mini Coopers coming the other way, at least a dozen of them out on a rally of some kind. I was in the zone and my cornering was better than usual. When I got home I had two thoughts: "I should do this again!" followed by "And I should film it!"


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I dug out my Oregon Scientific action camera and strapped it to my passenger foot-rest facing backward, then headed out again. Just before heading down the hill on Ten Eyke Road I started the camera rolling. Again, I was in the zone and added 5 mph to my average cornering speeds.

Marmot Road is somewhat bumpy in spots and after a few miles I began to notice the camera was twisting in its mount. It was mounted just behind my left foot and on straight stretches I was able to reach down and rotate it back to a level shooting angle. Once Marmot Road came to a T at Barlow Trail road, I pulled over to find a way to firm up the mount so it would stay level.

And that's when I noticed the camera wasn't even on! I turned it back on and used a piece of paper towel to wedge the camera in place. After a mile or so I glanced down to the LCD display on top of the camera and noticed it was shut off again. When I got to Lolo Pass road, the turn-around point, I pulled into a driveway and checked out the camera again. It wouldn't turn on at all. Apparently the brand new batteries I put in it were old and wouldn't fire it up at all.

All was not lost. Although I was unable to film the second run, I had some great riding experience and got some fantastic practice on my cornering.

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