Project fork-cam

While the cable-cam idea is cooking, I've rigged-up brackets for mounting the camera on the forks.
One is stanchion mounted, the other (the best one) on the fork leg.
The fork-leg mount is made from a plastic light bracket, and the holder for a Light and Motion lamp which allows 360 degree rotation.

I'll be trying out the fork-leg one at this weekends MADMTB Club Champs
I'll give Steve the stanchion-mount one and see what kind of footage we get.
The stanchion-mount also allows 360 degree rotation and was made from bits of plastic for feck-all

 
 
 
 

Project cablecam: Part 1

ok,
so the plan is to rig-up a carrier for a camcorder to get MTB footage.
Seems to be a lot of unique indie designs out there, some really basic - some very professional.
I've found a handy site with some nice ideas, in particular, the one in the pics below looks good because it can be made with fairly basic materials, and you can alter the angle easily.
This site has some good camera mounts, and this one is similar

Also it holds the camera upright, which is what I need as my sofware can't invert the image
I'll put up a post on the regular MTB forums to try scavenge a pair of roller-skate wheels, but maybe I could find some rollers in a hardware and use them instead
Not sure if I'll use rope, or maybe some 50lb monofilament fishing line, which would provide less rolling resistance to the small rollers
As a first location, Imight use the Rock n Roll forest section up 3rock, as there are some fast &relatively straight sections that would probably look good





This one is REALLY impressive:

Irish XC National Champs

Well, I got in the top 10 but figured I could have done better by a few places if I trained. But then I had enough of training at that time so I just enjoyed the course - a really nice course laid-on by the WORCies too - didn't really realise how much fun it was until I was tearing through it during the race - during practice it didn't seem like anything special but racing it was a different story.

NPS 5 2008 Tymon Park

A pure mud-fest, very difficult racing, the ability to stay upright thru the turns was a skill in itself.

The mouldy weather the night before bucketed rain the whole night long and well into the morning so I guess you can't do too much against that, but there were some brutal sections that really should have been re-routed/closed-off.

I thought the first few laps were great - the tear-off from the start line was vicious and the amount of muck being thrown up was crazy.
Leaned into some guy nicely on the first turn and heard his helmet bang of a tree so had a big silly grin on my face for that lap.
Had a great sliddery ride all the way to the huge gulch of pure slop - shoes filled with gooch and it was mud-central from then on in.
I was feeling less inspired on the 3rd and 4th laps with the wheels packing-up with a huge amount of branches and mud, stopping several times to unclog the wheels.
The middle-ring was out of bounds due to chain-suck which made spinning on the marshy sections pretty difficult.
Then halfway thru the last lap just when I was being chased by Oz from EPIC my derailleur gets mysteriously pulled into the spokes - didn't hit anything or snag it at all, guess maybe the bouts of chain-suck weakened it, but it sheared-off at the bolt and that was me out of the race - pity as I was going reasonably ok, but that was my first mechanical ever in 2 years of racing so I guess my luck had to run-out at some stage.
The food after was really nice and some intense sunshine too.
Thanks Sean for doing my bottles and to the crew at the pit for the support!

Trailbuilding post #3

Finished the exit from Zippy - looks nice, and started RipRide - got about a third fully done, the lower section won't be as much fun as the top but I'll see how it goes.
It was pretty jammy finding the run-in to it off the fireroad.
There'll be a few of us up on Monday to try finish things off, it's looking good for my triple-trail club-league concept this Wednesday, though weather is gonna be totally brutal for the week.

IMBRC Team Relay (pre-NPS 5)

That was a bit of craic, bit sloppy and sliddery but fun all the same.
Steve, Oisin and myself comprised team BigRing and put in a respectable performance for 3rd place.
A big turn-out from MAD today - good to see it.
The 2 lads are abandoning me for a week of MegaAvalanche the lucky feckers, I'll be racing in brutal conditions tomorrow as it has totally hammered down all night, wouldn't be surprised if the IMBRC had to cut-off a few sections as today was bad enough, anyway, we'll see.....

Trailbuilding post #2

Fri 27 June:
Looked like a great night for a spin but I headed up after work and got a decent bit done.
I brought the entrance of Rock n Roll all the way back to the corner, downhill all the way pretty much, soft and a bit lumpy in places - will need a few weeks to bed in but it'll still be good, entrance is a bit tight but should be easy to widen it a bit.
Aligned another section a little better to keep the flow and make it faster

Sat 28 June:
A lot done today.
We completely finished the new RnR entrance and linking trail and blocked the old one.

The new section is gonna be great once it hardens up a bit.
Myself and Rob horsed a new trail out of it and got a huge amount done, the trail links the fireroad to the connector which runs from RnR new entrance to the fireroad (which leads down to the old MAD CC)

A good bit more needs to be done to this trail to make it rideable:

Logs need to be moved into position to form a bridge entrance into the trail, we've moved 4 into place already - need another 2 (ferns/gorse below are pretty thick, possibly easier to bridge it).
Laddering wood needs to be salvaged from the TToT and brought up to the new trail.

Also, where the new trail meets the connector trail needs to be altered - at present it meets the connector side-on - angle needs to be a lot shallower so you don't have to slow and turn sharply to get onto the conector.

Need some slaves.....

Trailbuilding post # 1

Trailbuilding - it'd be good if I got paid by the metre, I'd have a few nice bikes..

Most of the trails I've been involved with have turned out well, except when the forest gets felled, or chainsaws get set upon my woodwork - that's the risk with this stuff.

Anyway, this weekend a soggy 3rock is the venue (when is it never the venue?), plenty of bits to be done - a fair bit of work in all.
Thinking of bringing the entrance of Rock N Roll up to the corner/junction.
Also need to bring the exit of Zippy to the entrance to Rock n Roll - that's a big job coz the forest is very dense in that section, but it can be done...

Not a whole lot else, except for Oz's new trail which will be a very large amount of work but it'll be good if it gets done.
Then of course there's my section of The Blast course - that'll be a good one - if I get given a decent stretch.