I like to use multiple social media formats to share my riding experiences. Blogging is great for going into details. I love capturing moments in pictures. But I also have fun making videos of my adventures. I have a YouTube channel called, shockingly, Two Wheel Lifestyle.
My YouTube channel has a lot of motorcycle content on it, but I have begun to add some bicycle videos now too. BTW, I hate referring to bicycles as such, but when you talk about motorcycles and bicycles together, you can’t call either one of them bikes. Such a pain, right?
So now that I am mixing bicycles and motorcycles on my YouTube channel, I want to mix my YouTube channel with my blog. Where will it end? The nice thing about putting my YouTube videos here is that I can write a little more about them. Yes, I could write more descriptions on YouTube, but let’s face it: people don’t go to YouTube to read. That’s what blogs are for. But a little extra eye candy in a blog might be a good thing, time will tell. So, here are my latest YouTube videos.
In this video I am using a format I am blatantly copying from motovlogger royaljordanian (“Motovlog” is an common term that is “motorcycle video log” crunched down, and self explanatory). It is not a format I plan to use all the time, but it works well for certain things. This was shot on my ride around Arroyo Trabuco in Orange County, riding my Diamondback Carbon Haanjo 7C bike, which is a drop bar gravel/adventure bike, and very much at home on fire roads and such, but can handle some singletrack as well.
I was surprised how well the mountain lion sign was captured by my Hero GoPro 7 Black, and the zoom effect was fun. The “rock quarry” was a handful on the Haanjo. They are called gravel bikes and not rock bikes for a reason. The steep rise out of the “quarry” is steeper than it looks, and I don’t always make it. This was a ride of a few hours, and it seems that whenever you ride that long you stumble across some special event somewhere. This time it was the classic/custom car parade at ONeill Regional Park. Those cars are impressive enough when you see one on display, and seeing a huge group driving around takes the experience up a notch. I also liked that I was faster than they were. Finally, the section of trail I call “The Jungle” is a great bit of singletrack, I don’t think I have ever cleaned the whole thing. So I was happy that I had the camera running when I did.
This video combines several rides. The first few are from my commute. Of all the people to cut me off, the city bus driver seems unlikely. They are usually among the most courteous drivers, which is good considering the size of their vehicles. But I managed to dispatch him shortly after being cut off, then continue to outmaneuver other cars in heavy traffic. The shadow of the semi struck me as pretty impressive while I was riding, I was happy that it translated to video pretty well. The drama of something like that is often lost when shrunken down to the screen. I was experimenting with various video formats, so they may look mismatched in this compilation, but I am settled on a resolution of 1080P 60HZ, normal wide angle for now. The GoPro makes great content at that setting.
The rest of the video is from my Multiple Sclerosis charity ride. I had a great 2 days of riding, knocking out 100 miles. I usually go for a longer distance, but this year my training was for speed not endurance, and I enjoyed keeping up a faster pace.