So after doing some basic helmet cam video of the new bridges in Copper Harbor, Jay and I started discussing other ways to film this totally cool new feature. Our thoughts immediately turned to using a zip-line. We have seen it done in mountain bike videos for years but had never tried it ourselves. So a couple of weeks ago we headed to the woods with our climbing equipment, some ropes and a loose idea of how we would pull zip-line filming off. Our first day of shooting went pretty good, we were able to find two anchor points for our line that would allow us to follow a rider as he rode down the bridges. We used a dynamic rope, because that was all we had, and managed to come up with a rigging system that got it very taught. We agreed that we would have to track down a static rope for the next attempt, but we made do with what we had. Even with as tight as we got the rope, there was just to much sag to keep me from hitting some parts of the bridge that stuck up as I traveled down the line. So we improvised and did slow motions shots of the parts of the bridges were I did not hit. We knew to get one continuos shot we would have to come back another day.
About a week later we returned, this time with a static rope borrowed from a ski patrol buddy (thanks Dan) and made quick work of setting up our second attempt at a zip line. The surprising thing was that we could not get the static rope much tighter then what we achieved with the dynamic rope. Even with a 6-1 pulley system and 3 guys pulling, the rope was only a little tighter then our first try. In the end the slightly tighter rope combined with the anchors moved higher on the trees, enabled me to be able to zip-line down the trail without hitting anything. With the aid of another buddy (thanks Jake) we added a second line attached to my pulley to control my speed. This worked out nice because all I had to worry about was filming and not running into the rider and/or the anchor tree at the end.
By the end of the second shoot we were able to get a continuous shot that followed the rider (thanks Kane) from the top of the bridges, through the 8 switch backs, and out the bottom. A lot was learned, and there is definitely room to improve, but not bad for our first try. Check out the video and photos from our second day shooting.
Check out the link below covering a mountain bike trail advocacy seminar in Ironwood, MI. Hansi Johnson of IMBA and Scott Chapin of RJF Agencies spoke about the economic impact of trail building. Towards the bottom of this article they mention the Copper Harbor Trails club mapping effort and link to their website. Check it out:
As promised here are some video clips I pulled from the helmet cam footage I shot during this years Chequamegon 40. The first clip is from the start of the race and as you can see it was sunny, but also pretty brisk. I got there at 5:45 am to put out ghost bikes for Jason, Elise and I and you would not believe how many bikes were already at the start. I was still able to get us spots at the front of the 2.5-3 hour section, and it was the closest to the front any of us have ever been at the start. After that I went back to sleep in my Tahoe for a couple hours until Jay and Elise got there. When we started our warm-up ride it was a little miserable at first because it was so cold. As long as we stayed in the sun, I started to feel a little warmed up. The plan was for both Jason and I to film and gps the course, but Jay realized during the warm-up that his battery in his gps was dead. He thought he had charged it the night before, but something went wrong and he was going to have to go without a gps which is also his bike computer. Fortunately my stuff was working fine, and Jay was still able to get video of his race.
After warm up we pulled our ghost bikes and took them back to the car, which was some of the most fun of the whole race. I had grabbed a few abandoned crappy full suspension bikes from the apartments where I live for our ghost bikes. When I say crappy I am being nice, these things were your classic K-Mart, heavy as a motorcycle, 80′s paint job, everything squeaks, the brakes don’t work, was never meant for going on anything other then pavement mountain bikes. The looks on people faces and Jay and I rode them back to the car was worth bringing them.
So anyway back to the video clip attached below. Just wanted to give you a sense of what the start is like, and what it is like coming off the pavement onto Rosie’s hill. Very fast, a little scary at times, but a lot of fun.
The next clip is of my encounter with a guy on a fully rigid single speed who did an amazing peice of riding right in front of me. As you can see in the clip we are flying down a hill on a dirt road when we come up on a hard right turn. The guy on the single speed could not slow down fast enough to make the turn and had to ride up a super steep dirt bank into some trees and brush and back down to the road. It was very cool to watch and kept me Read the rest of this entry »
September 24th, 2010 by Chris | 1 Comment | Filed in Event
As we do every year, the Hairy Media crew raced in the Chequamegon 40 mile mountain bike race this last weekend. It was a good year, but a little slow because of all the rain the trails saw in the days leading up to the race. Race day was sunny and cool, I wore my sleeves the whole race and was plenty comfortable. In some spots on the course there was a lot of standing water, but there were only a few spots where you could not find your way around it. Both Jason and I wore our helmet cams, but Jason’s GPS was giving him problems before the race and he was only able to get video footage. My GPS was working and I was able to get the whole course filmed and mapped. I would imagine we will take the data and create an iMap of the race at some point, but our list of races we mapped this summer is pretty long so it may be a little bit.
I have been going through the video and there is some good footage, but because of all the water on the trail about 3/4 of the way through my lens got a spec of mud on it. It only really shows up when the sun hits the lens and you get a little mud lens flare. I am not sure what if anything I can do to prevent this in the race, but the real bummer is when I went out to shot the new trail in Copper Harbor the next day I did not think to check the lens and that footage had a mud spec on it to. Live and learn I guess.
I should be able to finish getting through the video from Chequamegon tonight and get some highlights posted tomorrow. In the mean time check out my GPS data from the race, it will give you an idea of what the race was like this year.
The new excavator is being put to good use. The new section of trail that takes you from the middle of Woopidy Woo up to Brockway Mountain Drive is now officially open and it has bridges! About a minute into the attached video you get to see the bridge section, which is some of the most fun you can have on a mountain bike. Designed and built by Aaron Rogers with help from his assistant Elias Featherly, this trail flows from beginning to end and is as much fun to ride up as down. The best part is, this is just the first section of a much longer trail that takes you down the north side of Brockway and out to Hunters Point. Stay tuned for more video, or better yet come ride it yourself!
There is a new app for the iPhone and iPad that puts all the Hairy Doughnut movies at your finger tips. Created by our friend Malcolm over at Atlas Programming, the new app marks the Hairy organization’s first foray into the app market. You can read more about the app on Apple’s website or visit iTunes to get your own version. Why Hairy Doughnuts? Hairy Doughnuts is where Jason and I got our start and was were we made all our first movies. It was that experience making movies that prompted us to start Hairy Media so you will see the Doughnuts mentioned often when we talk about our movies.
Both Jason and I are big users of Apple products so we were pretty excited to have an app made for our movies. The Doughnuts HD app is $0.99 and is similar to another app Malcolm made that streams the video to your device, but this app is way better because you have all Doughnut movies in HD on your device. He also included two more movies then what is on the streaming app. So anyway if you are a fan of the movies and you have an Apple device I recommend getting your hands on this app.
This last weekend the Hairy Media crew participated in the Ore to Shore (O2S) mountain bike race in Marquette, MI. A great event, Jason and I try to do it every year. This year was a little different because we brought our trail mapping gear. Jason road the 28 mile “Soft Rock” and I road the 48 mile “Hard Rock” and we both had our helmet cams and gps gear running. The battery on my camera is supposed to last three hours, and when I tested it in the car on the way to the race it did in fact last three hours. My concern was that I could not get the race done before the battery ran out. As it turned out I almost made it. The camera battery died with about a mile left in the race. Fortunately the long and short course share a lot of the same sections of trail and the little bit I missed Jason got on his camera while riding the short course. The goal of filming the race was to explore how our iMap system may be able to help organizers better promote their races. The video of both courses came out great, it actually is a lot of fun to watch. Still need the take the data and integrate it into the iMap system, probably something I will tackle after the race season is over. In the mean time I have attached a few clips from the footage I got on the Hard Rock. The first is the rollout at the start through the first big climb, Lucy Hill. I really like watching the start with all the riders and seeing how everyone jockeys for position. The other clip is of Misery Hill the infamous climb everyone has to walk up (including me) every year. As always the camera does not do justice to how steep and rocky the hill is. It is interesting to see the different methods for getting up the hill. I carried my bike on my shoulder most of the climb, but there were a lot of people just rolling their bikes. So stay tuned, I am sure there will be an iMap version of this race course at some point.
