Beachgrad05

I won a contest with the city of Long Beach and since I didn't really need a new bike (at least not the type they were giving), I chose the option of merchandise of my choosing worth $300. I got a GoPro Hero HD and a SD card and it came to just over $300...no $ out of my pocket.

I signed up this past week for the free Traffic School 101 "lite" class that is given for FREE at CSULB 1x a month (every third Wed and third Sat). The classroom portion was Wednesday night. Yesterday was the road portion. I decided was a good opportunity to test out the GoPro. I rode my Trek FX 7.2 there instead of the road bike as I commute on the FX and didn't want to deal with the clipless pedals in drills that I was unfamiliar with). I was glad I made that choice as a few drills might have been issues. I know what to do to practice those drills on the road bike now so it is all good.

I thought I was recording the actual ON the ROAD portion of the class but forgot I set the camera to turn off automatically after 2 min if it wasn't being used to conserve battery. So when I hit the record button for that, it was off so got no video of the road portion of the class. Oh well, I only wanted that to share with my cycling club as others will be attending the class in the future.

Here is a video I created of the ride there. (I especially love the highway patrol motorcycle cop and what I did there)

volosong

Sounds like a good course. Similar to the American Motorcycle Association's Basic Rider Safety course. Good stuff.

Nice video, fancy editing. What software did you use? I have never mounted my GoPro on my helmet, always on my bars. If you elect to mount on your bars, consider a K-Edge mount. Those things are solid and I've heard rumors of people losing their cameras when using the GoPro rubber mounts.

Beachgrad05

I used iMovie to edit it. Probably can do much more. I was proud of just figuring out as much as I did.

chefisaac

On the helmet might be something to try. You will see more when you pivot your head.

magohn

Congrats on the camera score! I have the same camera and they really take interesting POV shots. I have iMovie but have never really dug into it. Ive used Windows Movie Maker in the past. Looks like I will have to give it a shot - cool effects. What size SD card did you get? I elected to use a 16gb card as it stores 2 hours of HD video and I dont get more than 2 hours of playtime out of a charge anyways. I like the helmet POV but felt like a 'teletubby' on my rides so switched to the handlebar mount. Ive used the HB mount many times and never had an issue with the camera falling off or vibration - GoPro make very good kit. Also, the chest mount is a good way to go. In the winter I can wear the cam and have it poking out of my jacket.

Sometimes i do get a little paranoid when I take a break on a ride. Im sat at the side of the road with a carbon-bike, Garmin GPS, GoPro and (sometimes) checking my phone. Quite a $ haul for some person of questionable character

Beachgrad05

On my ride today home, some little leaguers yelled at me and I couldn't make out what they were yelling. My instincts /gut told me they were making fun of the Un-thin Athena on a bike in cycling jersey and shorts. Played the video back and that wasn't it at all. They saw the GoPro and were commenting on it. LOL

Mr. Beanz

Nice job! I say angle the camera back a bit to capture more sights than pavement though. First few times I used the helmet, I got nothing but pavement or sky ha ha, can be tricky.

+1 on the nice score. I really need a GP, tired of this recorder without an anti shock device.

freighttraininguphill

GoPros are the best sports camera out there, IMHO. However, I just acquired a second Flip Ultra HD identical to the first one I got a few months ago, from the same person. At first the original one was a loan, but now they are both officially mine. I traded a Windows XP netbook and a RadioShack Pro-160 mobile police scanner for them. I like them because of the small size and stereo sound, but I would never mount them on my bike. I tried it once and the rolling shutter jello-vision effect was much worse than anything I get from my GoPro or Contour cameras.

They will be good for recording live music if they don't overload and distort at high volumes.

CommuteCommando

I would consider it a good training aid for head position. I would aim for getting the horizon right about mid frame.

volosong

"Sometimes"??!? I'm so paranoid that I take my bike inside gas station food markets when purchasing extra, (and very cold), water while on rides. Have never had a store clerk tell me to "get that bike out of here".

Beachgrad05

Experimenting with best postion. I noticed that on first video when watching it, I kept trying to lift my head to move the viewpoint up...ha ha ha. I tried to position the camera up more. Here is a video I made yesterday. It plays fine on youtube but due to music I added, it seems to have issues playing elsewhere due to restrictions.

Beachgrad05

Also riding different bike in 2nd video. First video I was on the more upright hybrid. The 2nd video was on the road bike.

goldfinch

Beach, it looks like your video is blocked from YouTube.

PhotoJoe 

Yup. Me too.

Beachgrad05

Hmmm...I can play it...odd. As I said, there seems to be an issue with the music I selected. I may have to redo with different music. Try going there? Let me know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbCi2FrG0p0&feature=plcp

Nevermind, I just logged out and cannot view now w/o being logged in.

Will redo without the Pink Floyd music...will pick something else.

Mr. Beanz, how do you go about selecting music for your vids?

Beachgrad05

Viewing video should work now: I changed the music via youtube to some unknown to me band/song.

1FatBikeRider

Pretty cool!

freighttraininguphill

YouTube is very strict about copyright. Years ago I received a copyright strike on an old account for a video of Christmas lights synchronized to the THX theme. Even though I deleted the video after they disabled it, the strike remained. If you get three copyright strikes, YouTube will terminate your account.

YouTube now has an automated system called "Content ID" that identifies copyrighted content and blocks, allows, or mutes the video. More information about that system is here: https://www.youtube.com/t/contentid_more

I used to think that as long as Content ID allowed the video to be played worldwide without issues, I was free and clear. This is not the case. From the copyright strike information page: "Automated identifications made through our Content ID system are separate from the copyright infringement notification process. This means that any content you do not have permission to use—whether or not identified by Content ID—may be subject to strikes in the future, should a content owner choose to notify YouTube of infringement.".

The part I bolded caused me to delete all videos that had music from YouTube and re-upload them on Vimeo instead. Vimeo isn't as picky about music as YouTube. Unfortunately, HD uploads are only available to paid members. Since I use my GoPro and other cameras on the 848x480 60fps WVGA setting, this doesn't affect me. I'm perfectly happy with a good quality SD video.

A few days ago I made a slideshow of the past ten years of funny/odd/interesting bikes and bike related photos that I had taken. I used a remix of Kraftwerk's "Tour de France" for the song. At first I uploaded it to YouTube because I had seen other people's videos with Kraftwerk songs that weren't identified and tagged by Content ID.

When I uploaded the video, it was immediately ID'ed and tagged. YouTube said it would play worldwide, but I deleted it anyway due to the above bolded sentence. I refuse to take chances with my YouTube account. I worked hard to get my 150 subscribers, and I don't want to lose my entire account because of YouTube's ridiculous copyright policy. It sucks, because the videos that had music had several likes.

The video is now on Vimeo:

Here is the video that had the most amount of likes for a music video when it was on YouTube. It is a descent of Donner Pass Road, recorded with a camera mounted on the moonroof of a friend's vehicle behind me. I liked how this one turned out.

The vast majority of my videos are 100% natural sound. Believe it or not, many of those ended up being more popular than the music videos I uploaded. People told me they liked the nature sounds, hearing me work hard on climbs, the bike sounds, and the dialogue between me and other cyclists.

The videos that I uploaded with music had crap for original audio (100% wind noise), or the audio was muted by Windows Movie Maker when I sped up the video. If I use iMovie on my Macintosh, I can make a sped-up video with sped-up original audio.

I no longer make sped-up videos of climbs. They end up way too shaky.

goldfinch

That Donner Pass descent is out of my league. I get the stomach flutters just watching it!

volosong

What an awesome video! The music compliments the video perfectly. Nice to see so many bikes on the way up the hill. I kept expecting you to blow by that car that was holding you up.

Mr. Beanz

Very carefully! ha ha!

I look up the song on yt before using. MOST ( I said MOST) times it will allow you to use it if it has that ad below the video selling the song on amazon or itunes.

I have been fooled before, that's why I say "most" times.

Other times on an old song it may not have any ads below but will allow use. Sometimes not, I have lost lots of times over the last 3 years of posting videos getting fooled. At one time I would chose a song , make the video then run a test video on yt about a minute long to save time and find out if it was allowed or not.

Sort of gambling at times.

Over the years I have reused songs since I know they will work.

There is also a site where you can look up the songs which are owned by certain labels so that you know not to use them. I forgot the site but a search on yt will produce the site. It will name bands like the Eagles that will not allow to be sued. I love the Eagles but can't use them.