I’ve already mentioned that Jill Homer is riding the Tour Divide this year. The Tour Divide is a 2,745-mile self-supported mountain bike race from Banff, Alberta, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.

MTBCast posts a daily digest of the riders’ call-ins from the trail. It makes for some fun and fascinating listening. You can listen at MTBCast or subscribe using iTunes or your favorite RSS reader using this link.

Whenever I’m listening to music I’m thinking, this would be a good soundtrack to the bike video I’ve never made…  that I’m going to make… any day now. Seeing the d-i-y camera mount post the other day made me think I should actually dig out my gorilla pod from wherever it was hiding and make a video.

I wholeheartedly recommend the d-i-y method, but if you want a slightly more expensive alternative that works out of the box, I recommend the gorilla pod (depending on the size and the size of your camera the stability will vary.) I always tie my camera strap to the handle bars for extra insurance but haven’t had any problems with it coming off… it just jiggles a bit.

I went out and did a loop around the neighboring block with my camera in video mode to test it out. It went pretty well. I did speed it up, compressing the 22 minute ride into less than 3 minutes, so in case you weren’t sure, I’m not actually a bike racing superhero.

Handlebar Cam video from a loop around my block>>

I plan to do some video of my commute now that all I have to do is slide the camera into the gorilla pod mount quick release thingy.

Gary Young wrote in to say that Rochester’s R Community Bikes is running low on bikes! They provide bikes to needy kids and adults in the area, and sometimes sell bikes to raise money for the group. They are taking all types of bikes for donation on the following dates, in ALL-CAPS so you remember:

SATURDAY JUNE 27TH
AT “THE BIKE ZONE”
885 LONG POND ROAD IN GREECE
FROM 10 A.M. TO 2:00 P.M

SATURDAY JULY 18TH
AT “PENFIELD FITNESS AND RACKET CLUB”
667 PANORAMA TRAIL WEST IN PENFIELD
FROM 10 A.M. TO 2:00 P.M

I non-consensually donated a bike to them last year, and still felt good about it! You can find more details on their events page, and here’s a PDF of the event flier in case you’d like to spread the word.

The wonderful Jill Homer is ready to begin the Great Divide ride — 2,700 miles along the Great Divide. Her post from yesterday lists several way to follow her along her route. She’ll also be blogging whenever possible.

From all of us at RocBike.com: Good luck, Jill!

Bill Collins sent in this link to a Do-It-Yourself Bike Camera Mount:

The smell of the road, the wind at your back, infinity miles per gallon…

Riding your bike sure is sweet. But you know what would make it even sweeter? The tried-and-tested, make-it-yourself, $10 + 10 minutes Photojojo BikeCam!

As I wrote here and here, there was a recent cycling accident in Saratoga Springs, north of Albany, that was featured in the Times Union newspaper. You can read my note to the reporter in the previous post.

Here’s the response I received from the reporter, Dennis Yusko:

Hi Jason: Thank you for writing. You make a valid point about the placement of the helmet reference. I guess it was in this particular story because he suffered a head injury, and because police made a point of it when discussing the case. Anyway, I’ll think about it more next time I write because of your note. In the meantime, feel free to go to our Saratoga Seen blog and post what you feel under the story there. It might generate some discussion.
Dennis.

If you’d like to take Dennis up on his suggestion, visit the Saratoga Seen blog.

I would just like to report that, in addition to RocBike’s rank in the top 50 at London Cyclist, my public service announcement has apparently worked.

My rides home over the past couple of weeks have been exceedingly pleasant.

I attribute it to the power of RocBike.

The deliciously insane Jill Homer is about to ride the Great Divide Mountain Bike Race. North to south along the Rockies. No, that is not a typographical error.

Follow her exploits — if you dare — here.

This story of course notes that the bicyclist was not wearing a helmet. Which I’m sure is what caused the motorist to fail to yield the right of way.

Vehicle charges likely in bicycle accident
Bicyclist hospitalized after Saratoga Springs accident

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, June 9, 2009

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A 30-year-old man was taken to the hospital with head injuries on Sunday after he struck a car while riding his bicycle on Broadway, police say.

The man, who police did not identify, was riding north at 1:22 p.m., when he hit the rear passenger door of a vehicle turning left into the parking lot of Lillian’s restaurant, Lt. Matthew Veitch said.

The bicyclist was not wearing a helmet and was transported to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Veitch said.

The operator of the vehicle, who police would only say is from Vermont, will likely face charges of failing to yield the right of way, police said.

“The investigation is ongoing and charges are anticipated,” Veitch said.

This article is available at the Times Union site.

I sent a follow-up email message to the author of the piece, Dennis Yusko (dyusko@timesunion.com):

Hi Dennis,

As a local cyclist, let me begin by saying thanks for covering any bicycle stories at all, even when they’re accidents.

A quick question: Why is it that the cyclist’s lack of a helmet is mentioned before the motorist’s failure to yield the right of way? (I might go further and ask why the helmet is in the story at all.) Surely the cyclist’s lack of a helmet is not what caused the driver to hit the cyclist. Shouldn’t the charges against the driver come first?

Helmets are great, but every cycling accident story tells the reader whether or not the cyclist had one, as if this had anything to do with the cause of the accident.

Thanks again for your time and for paying attention to cyclists.

All the best,

Jason

On Saturday I started riding toward Geneva. My goal was to end up at the Geneva Bicycle Center. I needed a spare tube but mostly I thought I needed someplace to ride, a destination. It’s about 14 miles away so there and back seemed like it would be a good ride. I passed Cress road and started thinking that I’d never been down it & wasn’t sure where it went, made a u-turn and was off on a little explore. I covered a lot of uncharted territory in empty space between Lyons, Newark, and Phelps, an area formerly thought to be occupied only by sea monsters and steep hills. It turns out that the steep hills part is correct but the sea monsters were actually just cows. Lots and lots of cows.

I never did make it to the bike shop. I just wandered the back roads for a couple of hours until I remembered how little breakfast I’d eaten then spent another 40 minutes singing to myself about my plans to eat a sandwich while I tried to find my way home.

I never love biking more than when I’m exploring new territory… and there’s so much unexplored territory right under my nose even though I’ve lived here forever… well, almost forever. What’s hiding down that side street that you just cruise by every day?