Wednesday Video Roundup: Colombia’s last bike builder, drone downhill video, and more

Welcome to this week’s roundup!

Our first video (above) shows a cyclist who would be at home in Portland, given the number of fairy gardens spread around the city- and Mill Ends Park, of course. “Pothole gardening” is a pleasant form of protest combined with art.

Have you ever thought “I’d ride a recumbent, but only if it were front wheel drive”? The Kervelo (not Cervelo) is for you. It has some gearing in the front axle. Note there’s no footage of the bike navigating turns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdGKSEA4Fz4

I have a soft spot for Colombia, but even those who don’t should enjoy this 4 minute (subtitled) video of Colombia’s last custom frame builder. We are spoiled- imagine having to scrounge to find books about designing bikes, even in a language you don’t understand- and having trouble getting bike-quality tubing.

Here’s a German Fred explaining the difference between Sufferfest and Zwift. Some people really enjoy Zwift- I don’t feel like it’s sufficiently advanced to be interesting.

Trek put out a video of freestyle mountain biker Cam McCaul jumping down some mountains (and wiping out). The terrain is very bare, which makes for a really interesting video. The music flows nicely too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9DSePySno0

Bike tech blogger DCRainmaker shared video of a follow-me drone by Airdog. It’s neat to see how beautiful this footage is, considering there’s no human operator panning the drone.

Speaking of drone video, the terrain on this downhill video is about a “B”, but the videography and soundtrack makes it an A. It’s filmed with the ubiquitous DJI Phantom. I couldn’t figure out where they were, because it looked like Southern California but with cottonwoods (alder? poplar? something in that family). Turns out it’s Italy.

Controversies of note

I don’t want to cover every controversial thing that occurs, but there are two worth covering this week.

First, Audi made a commercial that strongly implies cyclists (and Prius drivers) are vain and inferior to a new Audi car. Perhaps Audi needs to learn about “punching down“.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOy3zjdYweI

Second, ugh. Just like Greg LeMond has been saying, “motor doping” is offically now a thing. It’d be nice if UCI released photos or video showing the device, but Womens U23 (under-23) cyclocross rider Femke van den Driessche was been accused of using a motor, presumably hidden in the seatpost, to boost her power. She was caught after her rear wheel locked up on the final lap- not something that happens easily on a well-maintained bike. Like I said we don’t have information on the device, but here’s a video showing her (probably) using it in a previous race. You can read more at BikeHugger, or watch “What is ‘Mechanical Doping’?”.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=kv3CiyrRTMg

Painful and outrageous videos

I’m putting these under a section header, so if you don’t want to see lawbreaking or bonebreaking, you’ve been warned.

First, this helmet camera vid shows a confusing intersection. The cycletrack is two-way, but the stripes disappear before the corner. Kudos to the at-fault cyclist for owning up to it, and it gives us all an interesting situation to dissect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pogz9RkwV4

One of the Youtube accounts that has been doing “bait bike” pranks put an airbag under the seat of their bait bike. It doesn’t look very effective, aside from being a loud noise. The thief at 2:30 was entertaining. (warning: strong language and violent ‘prank’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYlBT1d_GWo

This week’s honorable mentions: Tour Down Under Stage 7, aka the “Rickshaw World Championships” (warning, colorful language), bikes and smoke bombs (huh?), Lars van der Haar talking about CX Worlds (I liked his comment on disc brakes), surfboard-equipped cyclists (are they are touring beaches? hard to tell), Peter Sagan checking out the Rio road course (it will be in the Olympics, the internet is aflutter that Sagan hasn’t shaved his legs yet), Nikebike got a short discussion on GCN! (they couldn’t figure out how to pronounce it), and finally yes, winter gear makes you less aerodynamic.

Inclusion criteria: If I’ve missed something, post it in the comments! I prefer videos published in the last week or so. Note if there’s a specific point in a long video that is worth highlighting. Also note if there is colorful language. When it gets to spring, I will delay videos containing pro racing spoilers.

– Ted Timmons, @tedder42