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Video by MJ Klein

Hey, I have another GoPro video for you.  I took a trike ride into the downtown area of Hukou and rode around trying to capture what it’s like to visit our small town.  Here is the video:

A Ride Into Town from MJ Klein on Vimeo.

Speaking of GoPro cameras, my plastic mounting hardware has broken, piece by piece.  The plastic is much too brittle and the mounting shoes survived only a few mating cycles before the retaining ears broke off.  GoPro is aware of the problem, and had this to say about it (in response to my email):

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Photo by MJ Klein

I took this photo (or should I say the camera took it automatically) while out on a lunchtime ride yesterday.  I like the fisheye effect a lot.  Also, you can see me with my helmet cam if you look hard enough.

Video by MJ Klein

Another video of the big hill, but this time I used the new GoPro Helmet Hero WIDE camera.  The trike gets going pretty fast by the time it reaches the bottom of the hill.

I’m having fun with this new camera!

Video by MJ Klein

There I was, riding along, minding my own business, when my air pump fell off the trike!  I was going through a tunnel and apparently hit a few bumps that were more than the pump could take and it fell off the mounting bracket.  So then I had to park the trike, walk back and get the pump out of the tunnel.  This being Taiwan, that was easier said than done!  In fact, it was a bit dangerous since the tunnel is narrow and big trucks go through there.

I offer you this video, hosted on Youtube.  Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!  We’re looking forward to your comments.

Photo and video by MJ Klein

By now all our readers know that I enjoy riding, especially the recumbent trike.  I’ve taken lots of photos and done ride reports using my Nikon D80.  But I’ve been looking for a camera specifically designed to capture action for activites such as rides, and I’ve found such a camera – the Gopro Helmet Hero WIDE angle.

The Helmet Hero comes in an impressive package with a clear plastic case on top.

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Photos by MJ Klein

Wow, what a glorious day it was today.  The sun was shining and no threatening clouds anywhere.  I put on my sunblock, strapped on my helmet and gloves and went for a nice ride on the trike.  Today I decided that I would take my D80 and shoot more photos than I normally do.  I found that I don’t mind riding with the camera around my neck.  For those of you who are visiting from other countries, you’re going to get a nice view of what it’s like to ride in Taiwan.

But that’s not all.  Since I had the GPS running, and the GPS was also recording a track log, I used GpicSync to geotag all the photos from my ride, so they work with geotag-aware sites such as Flickr.  So, clicking on any photo will take you to the photo’s page on Flickr, where you can then view it’s position on the map.

UPDATE: For some unknown reason, some of the photos in the blog did not link to their Flickr photo page.  I’ll try to correct this but I cannot find the reason for it.  The same exact procedure was used to post every photo but a group of them in the center of the article did not link.  Weird.

I broke the Nikon out around 30 minutes after I took off on my ride.  This is one of the roads that I ride on in the Sinfong area on my way to the coast.  I was heading in the same general area as I had done in a previous ride, but I took a different route on the way back.

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Photos by MJ Klein

I have over 300 KM on Artifice Gordon and I wanted to make an adjustment to the seat.  Short rides are one thing, but when you’re sitting on the seat for a few hours and riding 30KM or more, the comfort of the seat is of paramount importance.  In fact, seat discomfort is one reason why I own a trike and I don’t ride an upright bicycle for long distances.

This is a photo of the left seat hinge, taken from the trike’s right side with the seat folded down (looking at the back of the seat frame, side-on).  I unlaced the mesh seat cover and pulled it out of the way to expose the side tubes and hinges of the seat frame.  On longer rides, this seat hinge (the black metal part) irriates my lower back.  The angled bracket is toward the inside of the seat frame.  BTW, I’ve discussed this issue with the designer and he is going to address it with a design change.

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Photos by MJ Klein

Today’s ride was 4 and a half hours long.  The main problem that I have with riding that distance is not the distance itself, but the fact that I get pretty bored after being on the trike for more than three hours.  Anyway, on this ride I did some of the familiar bike trails and also went to places not reported on before.

The Taiwan Straight looked just beautiful today.  This shot was taken on the Yong An bike trail.

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Photos by MJ Klein

UPDATE: This article was missing the ride stats.  I’ve added them at the bottom.

Today, I took the Artifice out for a ride to finish the route that I had started last week when I was rudely interrupted by 5 dogs coming out of a house to chase me.

This is a small bicycle trail between Sinfong and Yongan.  It connects the 2 trails together.

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Photos by MJ Klein

A few days ago I took a ride on the trike.  I left Hukou and traveled up to the Yong An fishing port area and then headed back down towards Hukou.  The ride would have been somewhere around 43 KM, but it was cut short when no less than five dogs from a single house ran out to chase me.  Since they were only about 3 meters behind me, I did a very fast stop.  The brakes locked up.  The rear wheel of the trike came off the ground.  The dogs immediately lost interest and I continued on my way at very slow speed.

I was facing into a headwind, making about 9 or 10 KPH.  Since I had been making speeds of about 15 ~ 17 KPH despite the headwind, I knew there was something wrong.  I got off the trike and tipped it on it’s side.

I found that both front wheels were dragging, and the left front wheel was dragging very severely.  I took the left front wheel off (as shown in the photograph) and tried to see what the cause of the problem was.

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