What A Trip!

So yes, a touch of caution over it being Friday the 13th and the urgings of my inner lazy demon to just blow it off were both thrown to the wind and I rolled over with my helmetcam rig to participate in last night’s Midnight Ridazz group ride.

HelmetCam

I’ve never put much stock on the unluckiness of Friday the 13th specifically or superstitions in general and an enjoyable and uneventful night ride with what I’d guess was approximately 500 other riders traveling the 15-mile trek from Echo Park to downtown then up along the L.A. River into Atwater Village bore out my believe that a specific day and month is no more cursed than any other. Crap can happen every day of the year.

The ride itself was much different from the first one. The turnout was perhaps as much as twice as big as last month’s and it was longer, which was very cool, but it didn’t have the energy and organization of the last one. I think part of it was that last month we literally took over an urban core, looping so exhuberantly around Hollywood over Sunset and Hollywood boulevards. Last night’s ride, while coming through downtown spent its bulk rolling along a more rural Riverside Drive before taking it entirely off-street to the L.A. River bikeway up into the heart of a sleepy Atwater Village. It was still a blast, just on another less envervating level.

I was definitely pleased with the performance of my helmetcam mount and it certainly generated a lot of curiosity and interest. The other good news is that the battery lasted for the full 90-minutes available on the DV tape. I had my doubts, but it just kept on going.

Now it’s just the matter of time involved to go through the footage and pull out some video clips worth posting. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: A small set of photos from the ride are here.