eBike Crash: Wet wooden bridge...

[GMUseless]

A few minutes into my commute...a wet wooden boardwalk gave me a little wake up call! The bridge goes through a park called 'Alligator Alley': there's a ton of alligators hanging around because people feed them from the Hampton Inn breakfast buffet across the street. Gators love those shitty cinnamon rolls.

This was one of my first few rides after changing to a better rolling front tire. Maybe I should go back to the front knobby?

The camera was a GoPro2…attached to a monopod strapped to the frame. All of the GoPro’s have terrible audio…so I’m using a separate audio recorder (Zoom H4n) with the dead cat cover on the mics to kill the wind noise (a trick I learned making snowboard videos.)

Enjoy!

[ohzee]

Damn yea luckily it was not worse still you went down pretty good.

I rode in today in 25 degree F so had quite a few patches of ice/water I had to be careful with.
Was nice though as I could pedal to warm up and not pedal to cool down.

Hope your not to sore.

[Ykick]

Glad you were clothed well and nothing too seriously damaged. Luckily, the railing kept you from going over.

I have a friend who lives on boat at the end of long (1/2mi) wooden dock. Slightly damp seems to be worse than saturated and there's no railing to contain a wipe out.

[GMUseless]

Yeah, I was fine. Slightly bruised on the left leg...even though I went down on the right. I kind of rolled of and hit the bike on the way down. It happened so fast my face was the first thing to hit the ground. I'm glad I was wearing the full face downhill helmet. I've always respsected the guys who argue that helmets aren't safety gear...but they sure as hell are excellent accident gear!

There was frost on the roofs...so it could've been an ice mixture in there. I actually had a little trouble standing up it was so slippery. I'm lucky I didn't loose it on the little jump I did off the initital ramp.

I was worried about the batteries, so I replayed it frame by frame and saw that the batteries never hit the ground. The handlebars swung around and prevented the batteries from touching. I've got alluminum plates in the bags for protection, but you never know. I was glad I had the video to analyze what happened.

I also noticed in the video I was front braking into the curve..which could've led to the wash out. You guys think a knobby tire would make a difference in these types of situations, or is a smoother tread tire better?

[Ypedal]

you slid where the boards change direction ( with the wood grain comes the slip ) .

i dont think knobies would have helped

that front chainring needs adjusting !

[GMUseless]

you slid where the boards change direction ( with the wood grain comes the slip ) .

Hey, I didn't really notice that until you mentioned it. You're exactly right. What a recipe for disaster!

[botz244]

yep never brake with the front on a curve lol
yep it winter up here in alaska and old habit of the summer even with studs in s striaght line of sourse but on a turn kicked out undeneath me too

[GCinDC]

nice trick with the audio! dang zoom h4n is as much as the camera tho, huh? you do a clap or something to sinc the tracks? i cut so much of my commute i wonder how i'd do it? i guess i'd just have to export a vid w/ the replaced audio track and then cut that up...?

nice crash. such a bummer! glad you're ok!

and thank goodness you were filming!

ps. what was the camera mounted on? i thought it was chest mounted, but there it was flopping back and forth... good thing (for the balls) that it's flexible?

[remf]

yep never brake with the front on a curve lol

....and never use regen on a wet wooden bridge either - the result was much the same for me

[GMUseless]

Hey Greg..yeah the H4N is about $300. I have it for doing DSLR video...so I'd thought I'd use it. But, they also make a $100 version, the H2, that does pretty well. The GoPro2 has an external audio jack..so I'll try that with a mic next. The big secret isn't the H4N..it's the Redhead wind screen. Check out the demo video on http://www.redheadwindscreens.com

Syncing is actually pretty easy. I use Adobe premiere...and most of the time I just sync a few mouth clicks at the begining. If I have a lot of tracks over several days (like the snowboard stuff ) I'll use a program called DualEyes that automatically syncs and replaces the audio. You still need to through in some clicks or claps to help the program out. But most of the time if it's just one track, I'll drag it into Premiere and just match up the waves visually...it takes maybe 30 seconds.

The camera was mounted on a Manfrotto monopod that was ziptied to the frame. I was worried about a crash when I strapped it on there...so I used a releasable zip-tie at the top so it would flex if in a crash. I've found the releasable ones will give fairly easily. The h4n was sitting on a mini table top tripod velcrod to the top tube.

I've tried the chest mounts before but find the constant swaying annoying. I've been experimenting with mounts on the bike. So far this has been the best. Part of it has to do with the handlebars moving exactly like the camera...so you get an intrinsically stabilized foreground reference point. Then, all the CMOS rolling shutter jellies and background vibrations don't seem so bad. Plus it gives a frame of reference for the viewer. I want to experiment more with 3rd person type viewpoints...hanging the camera off behind or to the side.

You know, one of the first things that went through my head after the crash was your recent video of a wash out: where you pointed out how much gloves minimized the damage of the accident.

[mat h physics]

I got a Mich cyclocross sprint on the front to help, recently. No match for pine straw on wood, in a turn last week.
I feel ya brother.

[GMUseless]

That was a WTB Graffitti that I lost it on. But, after looking at the board orientation that YPedal pointed out...I'm not sure anything would've helped.

[docnjoj]

A few minutes into my commute...a wet wooden boardwalk gave me a little wake up call! The bridge goes through a park called 'Alligator Alley': there's a ton of alligators hanging around because people feed them from the Hampton Inn breakfast buffet across the street. Gators love those shitty cinnamon rolls.

I know that "Gator walk" in Daphne quite well. Never did it on my trike though. Good that you didn't go into the water. Some of them 'gators are fairly large! Glad you are OK!
otherDoc

[GMUseless]

Hey wow...I've seen you post several times before, but never noticed you're in Fairhope. I just assumed there weren't many eBikers down here. Fantastic!

I come out of Lake Forest and take that bridge under I-10, then accross the causeway to Mobile, down Bay Bridge road to the Cochrane bridge, over the bridge and down telegraph to Mobile, then on to Virginia street near the coal terminal. Since they won't let me through the Bankhead tunnel, it turns the commute into an 18 miler. It wouldn't be possible without an eBike!

[tomk2]

I've went down similarly on a small Honda motorcycle in loose sand using the front brake.

Great video - good warning for all!

[Hillhater]

That was a WTB Graffitti that I lost it on. But, after looking at the board orientation that YPedal pointed out...I'm not sure anything would've helped.

..Less speed, no front brake, and a foot ready...would have kept you upright

[GMUseless]

A few minutes into my commute...a wet wooden boardwalk gave me a little wake up call! The bridge goes through a park called 'Alligator Alley': there's a ton of alligators hanging around because people feed them from the Hampton Inn breakfast buffet across the street. Gators love those shitty cinnamon rolls.

I know that "Gator walk" in Daphne quite well. Never did it on my trike though. Good that you didn't go into the water. Some of them 'gators are fairly large! Glad you are OK!
otherDoc

This 12 footer is what doc is referring to, sitting on the opposite bank about three months ago:

Hungry for a cinnamon roll...or an eBiker with sloppy front brakin' turn techniques...

[kmxtornado]

I was relieved you were wearing the proper gear. Glad you're alright buddy. How fast were you going during most of that video?

[GMUseless]

Thanks man! Most of the time around 25 mph. Top speed down the first hill was around 37mph. At the time of the crash, I think it was somewhere around 14mph....so not that bad. I just ended up with a couple of bruises. Wearing the right gear is a pain in the ass...but man it sure makes a difference when it's time to pick yourself up and walk away.

[ohzee]

yea i want one of those helmets.. ive looked at a few online , but im just worried about something that's decent quality.

[Grinhill]

Great quality vid, and great moment captured. How many of us wish the camera was rolling when we had our last crash???

Thanks for sharing.

[GMUseless]

I got it from Pricepoint. It's pretty good. I've got a pretty big dome, so I needed an XL...and I wanted a white one, since it's hot as balls down here most of the year. It runs about the same size as a Fox XXL. They pop up on chainlove.com all the time at 50-60% off.

I found the carbon fiber ones weren't much lighter than these, and those are all dark colors. Plus, these 661 helmets are DOT rated...which most DH bike helmets aren't.

[amberwolf]

That crash is almost exactly the kind of crash I nearly had twice tonight on lightly-wetted oily pavement on the way home. I managed to recover both times, but if there had been traffic on the road the second time, I probably would have skidded into someones' front end (if they'd been waiting to go on the other side of the intersection) during the recovery on my left turn.

Unlike you, I had no railing to prevent me from being able to steer into the skid and try to just keep upright until I could slow enough to not skid out again while completing the turn back the other direction--just a big open intersection. Otherwise, I'd've gone down, too.

No vid in my case; I didn't have anything to keep the camera from getting wet so I iddn't hvae it on there.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12500&p=498421#p498421

[beast775]

glad everything was good,but that was a smashing recording!

[dogman]

It didn't look to me like you grabbed a lot of front brake, But damp wood sure is slick stuff. Love to see crash vids with only bruises. Last time I rode I crashed twice. Kicked myself landing? somehow had a bruise the size of a grapefruit on my inner thigh. Wasn't the bar end bruise like normal.

You dissapointed me, not riding through the wet cement sidewalk earlier in the vid.