Product Review: R&A Cycles Walnut Creek

RandA Cycles was one of those shops in New York that I'd see in the back of my bicycling magazines in the mid 1980's with all kinds of old-world Euro stuff.  They opened a branch in Walnut Creek a few months ago and they've been sending me emails with good content so I decided to check them out.  Their website says that during this pandemic lock-down they're open by appointment only.  I sent an email saying I wanted to try on some road shoes and named a few of their brands they have advertised, and they responded pretty quickly.

During the lock-down, you have to come in the back door so they can check you out.  They let me bring my commuter bike inside though.  The place is sort of like Nordstrom's for bikes - very nicely furnished, great customer attention, only the highest-end product.  They had the shoes I wanted to like in all sizes and Andy spent some quality time with me and my feet and one of those foot-measuring things that shoe stores used to have.  The shoes I wanted were on sale for the low price of "the most expensive cycling shoes I've owned in 36 years" AND they were the cheapest shoes they had, so it was a good thing I liked them.

They also had a few bike fitting areas with computers and such but they were not in use of course during lock-down.  I could certainly spend a lot of time in there just ogling the stuff, and I think they would've let me if it weren't for the virus.

The location isn't bad - not the easiest bicycle access because it's just downhill from the freeway ramp.

I suppose the people who will really like this place are the ones with lots of money who want to be treated like royalty... but I didn't get any sense of snootiness from the staff; they were friendly and helpful and seemed happy to have me in there.

Saturday Morning Ride with the Health Club Team

Product Review:  You already know Hammer Gel is like liquid go ... but the Montana Huckleberry flavor is crazy good; it even has little seeds in it.  Thanks to my brother's family for giving me this jug for X-mas.

My usual Diablo partner knew he was going to be sick in plenty of time to let me make arrangements with the health club team for their Saturday Morning Ride.  They called the route "Franklin Canyon and Cummings Skyway" but I saw neither a canyon or a skyway.  I didn't have a route map so I just followed the people who looked like they knew where they were going but I'm still not quite sure where I was most of the time.  I mean I've looked at the map since then and I know where the roads are, but I don't think I could find them again without a GPS or something.

I think that's the Vallejo-Carquinez-Al Zampa bridge.

Golden Bear on the smoke stack of that ship.

So good riding with good folks.  That guy with the Capo jersey is an animal.  There were four or five of us that could ride with him but we didn't do much of the pulling.

Roadkill Report:  two skunks on some road about 20 miles northwest of Diablo.


Hammering Franklin Canyon from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.


Team Club Sport: Franklin Canyon and Cummings Skyway from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

Product Review: Contour GPS Video Camera

I am a little conflicted writing this review, because Contour doesnt even make this model of camera anymore... but you might find one still for sale (maybe even at a great price) and a lot of the comments here will also apply to the other models, so here we go.

I thought a lot about what kind of sports cam I wanted for my bike. The two obvious options are the GoPro or the Contour. Both seem to have a lot of fans and both seem to take great videos. I like the Contour's looks and mounting options better but I just wasn't ready to buy yet.

I've also been getting interested in Strava, and you need a GPS recording device to take advantage of the coolest Strava functions. But I already have computers on all my bikes so that would be a lot of duplication just for some cool maps.

So then I realized the Contour GPS sports cam would allow me to take videos and upload GPS data to Strava too. After a little more self-convincing, I pulled the trigger.  You can click on My Contour link here or over in my sidebar to see a whole bunch of my clips, but most of the still shots and video you see on my blog since last June were taken with this camera... I hardly ever take my regular camera along for rides anymore.

The GPS function though is pretty bad:

1. It takes a really long time to lock on the signal.  You might go a whole ride with no GPS recorded  You can help things along by finding a sweet spot in your back yard or something that you know it'll find, and warming up your camera there before each ride.
2. The GPS makes the battery discharge faster.
3. It only records when you're recording video.  There is no "GPS-Only" fuction.  The GPS data is encoded inside the video somehow and you can only extract it using the Contour software on your computer.
4. Once you extract the GPS data you have to upload it manually to Strava or other programs - this may also require a little knowledge of html code.
5. The GPS mapping onto the video only works in the Contour software and the Contour website - if you import the video into a video editing program you won't see the maps.

So if Strava data is important to you, you will certainly be disappointed with this as your device.

Overall though, I am not disappointed and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Contour currently makes two models, the $200 Contour Roam-2, and the $400 Contour+2.  The cheaper one doesn't have replaceable batteries (recharge through the camera) and has an "instant on" switch, so it's for people who want to capture video on demand, a few minutes at a time or shorter rides only.  The expensive one has GPS and replaceable batteries and other bells and whistles so it's for people who want to record everything for the whole time on long rides and then edit later.

The mounts that come with the camera aren't much good for cycling. You need the vented helmet mount and the rubber strap mount. Other possibles are the bike mount (bars or stem) and pole mount (seat stay).

The rubber lens cap doesn't fit very well and you'll lose it within a month.  I store my camera in an old sock to keep the lens from getting scratched.

In addition to the basic package, I bought (or received as gifts)  two flex straps, a pole mount (for the seat stay), a vented helmet mount, four extra batteries with charger (Wasabi from Amazon), and a 32GB Micro SD card.

The bezel in front of the lens has to be turned the proper direction according to the orientation of the camera - if you do a sideways mount you have to rotate the bezel so "up is up".  I painted some extra dots on mine so it'd be extra obvious.



This is my normal mount.



The Flex Strap mount comes with two bands, the smaller one is big

enough for a steel headtube but you need the bigger one if you have

an oversized headtube.

The Vented Helmet Mount gives a good perspective, but you might

get dizzy watching the videos.



You have to line up that little dot on the rotating bezel with the arrow

on the top (there are arrows on three sides of the camera) - otherwise

your video will be sideways or upside down ... the little dot's pretty

small, that's why I painted some bigger dots there.

Doesn't look a whole lot different from a helmet-mounted lighting system.





The ski pole mount works well on a chainstay.  You can

rotate the ball thing to about any orientation.









All of the mounts work by sliding onto those rails at the base of the camera.  You can slide it on from either side and it's a nice tight fit but still easy and fast to put on and take off.  The pole mount above also has sort of a quick release bit that attaches to a screwed on clamp bit that you leave on the bike.

Here's an example of how screwy the GPS can be.  One of those

red lines is my climb up Diablo, and the other one is the descent

(same road).   More frequently it won't have any GPS data at all.





When you get it right though, it's pretty cool.  I can embed the Contour videos onto my blog but you lose the GPS mapping.

Here's the same video on the Contour site with the map included:  LINK

On the back door you see the battery light, the power on button, 

a door latch slider, and the memory light.  The lights flash different

combinations of colors to indicate that they're working, have locked

on to the satellite, running out of memory, etc.





The mode switch allows two different recording modes - you might pick highest def for mode 1 and long recording time for mode 2 for example... or video for mode 1 and continuous still photos for mode 2... but you can only program which mode is which while the camera is plugged into your computer... then you can switch between those two modes while you're on your ride.

Here's the link to My Contour Site where you can see lots and lots of little clips I've taken, and you can see some of the highly recommended clips of all kinds of other people too.

The Contour GPS gets a 6 out of 10 on the DiabloScott CycleCam rating scale.  One point off for the slightly buggy software, another point off for having to buy all the extra bits like mounts and decent size SD card, two points off for the unpredictable GPS availability.

Why didn't I get a Go-Pro? Mostly just the looks and the attachment options... and the lack of a GPS recorder.







Dork factor goes to 11



It's like a Fred annunciator.



UPDATE:  Here's a comparison of still photos.

I took photos of the same tree with different methods, and then cropped them to the same size... seems like a valid comparison.

Test Photo 1:  Screen grab from Contour 1080p video.

Test Photo 2:  Contour continuous still photo mode.

Test Photo 3:  Olympus pocket camera photo.

One thing I didn't mention before is that in the full HD 1080p mode, the camera uses a lens angle of 111°, and in all the other modes it uses 135° degrees, so there's a noticeable fish-eye effect in the still photo mode that you should be aware of that isn't too pronounced in the way that I cropped the photos here.  You'll also notice that in some of my videos you get a little more brake lever and shift cable in the frame... that's 720p mode, and the ones with hardly any lever and cable are in 1080p mode... IMO much nicer framing for bike videos... snowboarders and such may prefer the wider angle.

Here are uncropped screengrabs from the Contour Storyteller software so you can see the difference.

111°

135°

2012 Amgen Tour of California Stage 3 ON DIABLO!

The Seventh Amgen Tour of California.  I've seen at least one stage of every single year.  This year they went over Diablo on Stage 3 and your humble blogger was there.

I left work about 10, went to pick up a sandwich and some power water, then drove to Arbolado Park and changed clothes in the restroom.  There were a few other park users and a few other cycling fans; no problem parking or feeling guilty for taking up the spaces.  Started riding at 11 o'clock. 

Coach Marie: spin instructor, triathlete.

There was a pretty steady stream of cycling fans going up North Gate Road, and a few cars.





There was a traffic stop at the Bump.  Apparently a rider who crashed well before I got there, and they had him off the road but they were positioning the ambulance to evacuate him.  Had the guy in a neck brace and back board.

At the Junction, there wasn't even room to breathe.

Went down to my pre-chosen spot and it too was packed with fans and also some cars and tents.  So I kept going down to the helicopter pad where there was good viewing and lots of room.

  Met up with Rick and we watched together.  The race was about 15 minutes late so there was a lot of just joking around and people watching.  Didn't see anyone in a Borat bikini or an inflatable sumo suit.  Did get to see the guy with the ram horns riding up with his helmet on his rear rack.  Rick also showed me the recent battle scars on his bike, shoes, and flesh from the Wente crit.





This guy drove up which I thought was kind of lame, but he brought his wife and infant so that makes it OK.











My Turf

I think I was going to play with the "panoramic" photo thing on my camera but decided it wasn't worth it.  You can just imagine this string of photos all connected into one.

Rick

Thanks Rick!

Finally the race came through and it honestly wasn't very exciting.  Mount Diablo was 50 miles into a 115 mile stage and neither the 4-man breakaway nor the peloton really considered it to be a good place to make a GC move, so everybody just kind of rode it like a training ride.  Still, the atmosphere was what I was there for and there was plenty of that.

I took a little video too - click for the fan experience.

Product Review:  Grace Digital Audio ECO Extreme

Got this with some birthday money (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

I was looking for some iPod speakers for my bike and didn't really like any of the smaller ones so I went with this big one.  I don't usually listen to music while riding, and only occasionally a single earbud.  But sometimes I like to have a little noise, like on the trail coming to work or like a party atmosphere climbing Mount Diablo for the Amgen Tour of California!

I decided on this one, which has a single speaker but it's nice and big, waterproof enclosure, runs on three AA batteries, and you just plug your MP3 player in and turn it on.  It's really great if you have an older version iPod that you don't use much anymore because you can just make it your dedicated iPod Boom Box unit.  It's big enough for your Smart Phone or Blackberry too.

It's way too big to mount to your handlebars though, you'll need a small rack or a handlebar bag or something, or you can probably find a way to make it work with your backpack like shown - it comes with a carabiner thing but you'll want to make sure it doesn't swing around back there.

I'll give it 8 of 10 on the Diablo Scott waterproof music system rating scale.  If it were more bicycle friendly and you could turn it up louder without the distortion it'd get a 10.  Comes in lots of fun colors too.