Inspired by watching MuttsCycles video turf/cycle through the woods and across the fields at Dalhousie Castle the other day, I was keen to do something similar myself. I’m most pleased to see other turfers trying their hand at making these videos. And having recently finished a rebuild of the Surly Pugsley fat bike, now in a resplendent burnt orange colour, it was only fitting that I took him for an outing. But first task was to transfer the front carrier mount from the Surly Ogre to the Pugsley. And as usual, nothing is ever straight forwards.
First job was to fabricate a different bracket between the rack and the mounting hole at the fork bridge. Thankfully, my ever-useful box of metal offcuts came to the rescue. Then I noticed the rack was off centre and one of the bolts for the camera mount was rubbing on the tyre. This was sorted after considerable trial and error to straighten out the carrier, which mostly involved carefully heaving the sides outwards, or inwards, while hoping nothing breaks. All very technical stuff. Not!
With a few bike turfing videos under my belt, I’ve fallen into a standard routine when editing them. First download all the footage from the camera and make a backup copy of everything, just in case. Next import the clips into the editing software and add each in turn to the video timeline, trimming the start and ends of each clip as required but generally keeping the entire clip intact. Once all clips have been added this way, I save the project and create a copy to work on next. I can then revert back to an earlier copy if I balls it all up. Which does happen.
Next, I run through each clip and trim out anything I deem not required. After that, save and make another working copy. Of course, saving regularly throughout the process. Now, I look at the audio timeline and the main time-consuming job is to edit out all the sniffs and snorts I keep on doing despite trying not to. Habit, I suppose. This is done by simply copying and pasting a suitable audio clip over the offending sniff or snort.
Making these videos, I’m sometimes amazes me how often Gremlins creep in and do their best to spoil things. For example, I was out recording footage around Newbattle and it was only when I viewed the clips on the computer that I realised the zip pull on the Buffalo jacket was constantly thumping against my chest, like a heartbeat, all quite noticeable in the video. In addition, the wide angle lens was occasionally showing the red cable that connects the wireless microphone receiver to the GoPro. Most annoying and unacceptable. Both rendering all the clips useless.
Finally, I can only apologise for the overly bright, overly loud and totally crazy cycle/yoga leggings. And those are the mild ones. Wait till you see some of the others! Aye, you can get away with anything once you’re retired and on the top side of 60. More coming soon.
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