Retitled.

Hi all.
I feel bad that I keep getting new subscribers based on old work. Don't get me wrong, I definitely plan on shooting more rides when the spring comes and maybe one or two before that. But it seems like most of the rides people want to watch are ones that I've already shot and took a while to gain momentum. Currently the ride getting the most views was shot in fall of 2013. It's the Battle Road Trail, a very scenic ride in Lexington and Concord MA. That's getting about 1,000 hits a month as I write this. The Independence Trail up in Peabody MA is still getting over 500 hits a month and that remains my most watch virtual ride overall currently at around 13,000 total views. There's a few others that get around 200 hits a month, including some nice trails in central MA. But there's also plenty of ride videos with less than 100 hits.

Here's what I'd like to encourage: total hipsterhood. Find a video with hardly any views that you really enjoy and act like you discovered it by being totally intune with your surroundings (because in a way you are). Go ahead, create some bragging rights. Much appreciated .
Love,
-Rat

Shoot, right, the blog...

(From the FB page)

 

Hi all,
I've had a pretty busy month so far. Currently with the good weather here in New England I've been too busy riding/shooting so I'm a little behind on the editing. Sorry about that. Look forward to some jogger-friendly (8-10 mph) new vids of the Windham-Derry Trail and the Bruce Freeman trail hopefully later this week.

If you look at my YouTube page you'll notice I have been posting a lot ...of rides that might not show the more scenic parts of New England. These are being done to help make things better for commuter cyclists in Lowell by giving people a reference point for areas in need of improvement.

I've also done a couple of street rides around the town of Dracut, MA, the town next to Lowell. Dracut's a nice town but I'm looking forward to driving out a bit for other street rides.

Plenty of rides planned over the next couple of months. I'll try to stay on top of the editing. I promise they'll definitely be up before heatwave season.

Take care,
-Steve/Rat

 

 

 

Here's some artsy stuff for you:

 

 

 

This one is a combination of a practical and traditional virtual riding video. The trail itself is a work in progress.

 

 

That's a traditional virtual cycling video.

The Battle Road trail is one of my most popular rides from last year. Shot it again without checking the local event listings so there's a pretty cool surprise in there.

 

Anyway, more clips not mentioned here are on YouTube. More rides are being edited. More rides will be shot soon. Let me know what you're hoping to see. If there's a trail somewhere close to eastern Mass/Southern NH I'll try to shoot it within the next month or so. Anything beyond that give me a little more time.

 

Thank-you.

Early November

Recent Rides. Go ahead and watch them all at the same time. Technically the Ashuwillticook clips were already posted as a single clip but there was an issue with stabilization so I split them up and made it a northbound and a southbound ride. I kept the fullsize clip up but took it out of the playlist. Just not sure if there's a lot of people looking for 2 hour rides and it seemed like kind of a waste of the second half. 

Also thinking of adding to text to the Battle Road Trail clip about the historic places in it but I'm not sure if people want to read while watching these. The Battle Road clip is also intentionally slower (not slowed down, I just rode slower). I'm trying to expand towards giving joggers something to watch as well. I'm still shooting from the bike because it's steadier than if I were to actually hold the camera while jogging. Another option would be to shoot it at the same pace as the hiking videos and then speed it up during editing, but that would look distractingly fake. 

Anyway, let me know what works for you guys.  I think my favorite clip in this batch is the Topsfield/Danvers westbound. 

Totally back in now. New rides...

So let me make this quick. Hoping to give viewers the chance to do a different virtual ride every week for a year. Right now I'm up to 38 rides not including the remixes. So I've got to make at least 14 more videos before the end of the year. Doable if the weather cooperates. Thanks for watching.

Back to Riding

Fine. I learned my lesson about the importance of stretching. I can't fool the stretch gods by doing a five minutes worth of bouncing before doing forty mile rides. I can't fool them skipping the ankles, which are probably the most likely things to be injured. Got it.

My physical therapist (I actually have one now for the time being) gave a me a 30-minute routine I need to do twice a day and more often during long rides. Sticking to it so far.

Anyway, here's my first ride back. After doing a few errands around town on Thursday I decided to do the Bruce Freeman Trail. Proximity, length (14.5 miles round trip, a good test but nothing killer) and simply liking the trail all played factors. I've shot it a few times before and will probably shoot it again next month when the foliage peaks. Here it is at a good, slow rate. 10 mph on the southbound, 11-12 mph heading back up. Edited out was a stop at the pond where I went swimming and did some stretching on the beach. Happy, Doc?

For more information about/to support the trail please visit http://brucefreemanrailtrail.org/

Still can't ride. Here's a bridge with flowers on it...

Still waiting for my ankles to heal from the micro tears in the tendons before I shoot more rides. I guess normally this takes a few months to heal fully. But I work on my feet/can't stop working currently so it might be a bit longer. Still hoping I'm all set by foliage season. Those are the rides that would really hurt me not to shoot.

Meanwhile though I shot one video a couple of weeks ago. I've shot the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburn Falls a couple of times, but this time I got a different angle. I picked up a 23-ft long extension pole and put the GoPro at the end of that. Didn't fully extend it, but I did put it out there enough to give the shot a view I haven't gotten before. A little vertigo inducing, but overall I'm happy with it.

BTW, here's the bridge in 2008:

And here it is from 2012:

The 2008 shot was done standard. The 2012 was GoPro on a monopod. I know at some point I also did a slideshow animation of it. That's lost in my basement somewhere. But anyway, here's my evolution as a video artist for you.

I'm pretty sure I first found this place when my wife Neon brought it to my attention. I think an old roommate of hers used to live out this way. I'm not really a big flower guy, but I always thought this thing was cool. Just a couple miles west of Greenfield and slightly off Route 2 (Mohawk Trail), it seems like something that could be worked into a few rail trails. Anyway, real cool place. Check it out if you ever get down that way.

Hard to pedal without feet.

Both my feet are killing me. My primary care physician decided that I have Achilles Tendinitus. Went for x-rays, didn't hear back so assumed all was well. That was almost three weeks ago. I thought I was all healed up and decided to do a quick little neighborhood 4-miler.  Pain came up. Giving it more rest. Calling the doctor again soon. Meanwhile I'm thinking of remixing the existing rides. Let me know if there's one you'd like to see sped up slightly or with the colors all funky or without the stabilizer. Till then, here's some other things I've beer shooting.