Last year about this time as Susan and I were planning on Thanksgiving in Death Valley — part of which involved me fulfilling a long-delayed plan to mountain bike from Ubehebe Crater to the Racetrack Playa — I was shopping for bike-mountable HD or near-HD cams upon which to immortalize the journey.

I narrowed it down to a couple of makes, and was leaning towards the Go Pro Hero, but ultimately couldn’t force myself to part with the required $300… and it was just as well because bad weather ended up with me wisely postponing the endeavor, which I ended up doing the following April — or at least the 14-mile uphill part of it (but still HD cameraless as I remained hesitant of the pricetag).

Fast forward to last weekend while at Costco and out of the corner of my eye I spied a Go Pro Hero cam package for substantially less than $200, and while it wasn’t the full 1080 HD model, it was the 960. Pleeeeenty enough definition for me. The ultimate selling point was that the unit has a built-in timelapse function. And you aaaaaaall know how much I am loving of the timelapse.

So I bought it and then side-ordered the handlebar mount so I wouldn’t have to look like SuperDuperDork with the thing mounted to my helmet. That accessory arrived yesterday and if all goes well with the work I’ve got to get done today, I expect I’ll take the bike out for a spin around the hood this afternoon and see if the thing’s worth keeping or returning.