Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/137347
Wheel Spin TALE OF TAPE I by Kevin Novello can be a little slow on the uptake at times. The most recent confirmation of this occurred on a rainy Tuesday morning as I was enjoying the helmet cam and video footage from the previous weekends' racing. I have really come to enjoy the array of footage thats out there, especially the view from the helmet camera. After a while, you begin to see the tendencies and habits of riders, both good and bad. Early on in one of the helmet camera videos I found myself saying aloud "now wait for the weird double throttle rev on the downhill from this guy. Yup, there it is." Right there the 30 watt bulb that symbolizes my pea brain flickered to life. I loaded my helmet cam footage from the weekend and sat back for a critical look. Racing has never been much beyond a source of fun, meaning I am not overly self critical and I don't get too worked up about my bad habits. I've always known I wasn't a particularly efficient rider, but seeing it on camera was an eye opening experience. All those stretches of trail that I sand bag, or get distracted, or derailed by certain types of terrain brought about a new sense of self awareness. Moreover, seeing the areas that are easy fixes, like losing attention after about 30 minutes or noodling down large hills or poor cornering, were all stuff I could address with a little effort. 4 Trail Rider One thing that really stood out is when I come up on a slower rider, I slow down well in advance (probably because I never know what they're going to do) and then spend too much time behind them. After I make the pass, I tend to ride overaggressively and consequently blow through corners. I witnessed this three times in one section. The time adds up! . So will I change my behavior based on this? Maybe, I dunno. But at least being aware is a step in the right direction. It isn't just the helmet camera that I've come to appreciate from a critical stand point. Video footage to accompany a bike or suspension evaluation is revealing for even the least discerning watcher. We recently posted some footage of one of our bike tests and someone commented "What am I supposed to take away from that?" Well, I asked? Did you see the way the bike maintained it's trajectory over the trail junk? Did you see the way the rider carved the corners,? How quiet the bike was? How clean the EFI was? How quickly it turned? How planted it was? The tape doesn't lie. If a picture is worth a thousand words, whats a video worth? www.TrailRider.com