Tag: biking

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HTC RE – Time Lapse Test

This was my first attempt at time lapse video. I shot the video from my Manhattan office window and used the new HTC RE camera that I got for Christmas. It is a nice little low profile handheld point and shoot camera that captures HD video and 16 megapixel still photos. The camera also has a built in Time lapse feature and a built in wide angle lens for capturing everything you put in front of it.

The camera is also waterproof up to one meter (3.3 feet) for up to 30 minutes without an additional housing. The HTC Re is a periscope-shaped heir to the Flip and pistol-grip Sanyo Xacti pocket cameras while offering some of the durability of cameras like the GoPro. I have a Contour Roam camera that I regularly use when riding my bike and the RE stacks up very favorably to the action camera in terms of features and image quality.

I love it because the HTC camera is pure simplicity. In fact, there are only two buttons one the entire unit. The first is a Continue reading “HTC RE – Time Lapse Test”

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Not so Easy Rider – MSF Training Class

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It seems that even over the July 4th holiday I still can’t get away from CUNY. Well, I have to place a caveat on that statement because I wasn’t really doing anything CUNY related. In truth, I spent most of the weekend at Lehman College taking a basic rider class sponsored by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF).

Everyone close to me knows that I have been thinking about buying a motorcycle for a few years. I had a bike briefly during my freshman year at Colorado College and loved it. I rode it for a few months until common sense, and fear of pissing off my basketball coach, got the better of me. I stopped riding Continue reading “Not so Easy Rider – MSF Training Class”

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No Sleep ’til Brooklyn part deux

This was my first bike ride since returning home from Oslo. I have been getting over a cold for the past week or so. I think my body has been rebelling against the NYC air quality and humidity. I had trouble getting to sleep because my legendary insomnia was in full effect as a result of the new job. Since I was wide awake I decided to go for a little late night ride. I was still missing Oslo but I felt pretty good all things considered.

I had forgotten how much I love NYC at night. I stopped biking in the city more than a year ago after being Continue reading “No Sleep ’til Brooklyn part deux”

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Really dumb stuff I did over my summer vacation

Bicycling in Norway is very different from the riding that I familiar with in NYC. The bike routes in Oslo are particularly spectacular. You can go from the suburbs to the city and then to the country within the space of an hour. The trails are rarely flat because much of the Norwegian terrain is made up of hills. So you generally find yourself struggling up steep hills or flying down sharp mountain trails. With that said, I decided to go for a fairly challenging and long bike ride this afternoon.

I had recently purchased a ContourROAM Hands-free HD Camcorder to record my travels and document my bike rides throughout Scandinavia. For my first long ride I thought it would be best to select a Continue reading “Really dumb stuff I did over my summer vacation”

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Lone wolves ride alone!

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A few months back my wife and I signed up for an introductory motorcycle class. We have been doing all of these semi-adventurous things as a way to celebrate her promotion to full Professor and her year long sabbatical. Over the past year we have gotten NRA Certified for Pistols, taken up Thai style cooking, started practicing archery. I am proud to say that she just got her motorcycle license after a 2-day intense course at the Motorcycle Safety School (MSS) at Lehman College. I wasn’t able to join her because of my work schedule, which is sad because we always have a lot of fun together doing this type stuff.  The good thing is that she is no longer opposed to me getting a bike. Plus she is now talking about wanting to travel down Route 66 on 2 wheels for our next big vacation trip. Personally I would rather ride through Europe, but we have time to figure all that out. I still have to get my license.

 

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2013 Five Boro Bike Tour

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Today was an excellent day for our annual Five Boro Bike tour family outing. The wife and I have done this every year together for a least the last ten years. My son started riding with us in 2010. This was his fourth trip with us. This year was very different because this was the first major public event since the bombing of the Boston Marathon a few weeks back.

The police presence was overwhelming. There were numerous checkpoints throughout the course. I even spotted a few police snipers Continue reading “2013 Five Boro Bike Tour”

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Y’all are Stressin’ me

I gotta chime back in and address some of the concerns my friends have recently voiced. I must at admit I am a bit shocked at some of their comments regarding me getting a motorcycle. I have thought long and hard about this. Getting a bike, i.e. Midlife crisis or whatever, for me isn’t about proving anything to anyone else. It is about doing some of the things that you always wanted to do….while you are able to do them and enjoy them safely. With that said, there are more than a few reasons why buying a bike at this point in my Continue reading “Y’all are Stressin’ me”

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2010 NYC International Motorcycle Show

In order to dull the pain of getting rid of the Batmobile, and to hopefully head off any impeding mid-life crisis, I have decided to a buy a motorcycle. In researching cycle options I thought it would be prudent to check out the annual NYC International Motorcycle Show and see what was out there. The show is held every year at the Javits Center. I hadn’t gone to the show for a few years and was eager to see the new models.

I was shocked to see how many different brands and style of bikes are available today. The Javits center was packed with vendors from nearly every motorcycle maker and third party accessory company. I saw a bunch of attractive protective gear with reinforced Kevlar and Nomex material that looked straight out of the comic books. It caught me off guard because I remember when jeans and a leather jacket was considered sufficient gear.

Both my wife and my moms are opposed to me getting a cycle, as well Continue reading “2010 NYC International Motorcycle Show”

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Rain, rain, go away!

The 5 Boro Bike Tour 09When the alarm went off this morning at 6:30am I almost cried. Sunday is usually the one day of the week that I am able to sleep in late. The kids were spending the weekend at Grandma’s house so it was the perfect type of Sunday to just lay in bed and watch TV. However, as we did almost every year, Ski and I had signed up to ride in the annual Five Boro Bike Tour a few months back, and today was the event.

I always enjoy this event but this year the weather was predicted to be cold and rainy for the entire day. Plus my body was still sore from the previous day when I accidentally caught an elbow to my eyebrow while grappling in Krav Maga class. So considering those factors, the last thing that I really wanted to do was ride 50 miles in the rain and cold. But with the kids and our busy schedules, it is rare that Ski and I get a whole day just to do something together on our own. So I manned up and dragged my behind out of bed to spend time with my wife.

Despite the rain and cold, I have to admit that the ride was fun. The course took us all over the city. We started in lower Manhattan and dipped all to briefly into the Bronx (i swear the Bronx gets shown no love in these events). From there we headed over a bridge back into Manhattan and down the East River Drive (even in the rain the ride down the East River Drive is always an experience). The we headed over the 59th Street Bridge into Queens then on to the BQE into Brooklyn. The final leg of the tour carried us over the Verrazzano Bridge and into Staten Island.

At the end we were wet and tired and cold. But I had a great time with my girl.