Viki , Bollo and I!

[John the Monkey]

ON A MORE SERIOUS NOTE!
I've had a few irritating incidents recently where I've looked at the footage, suffered a moment of righteous outrage and then thought "flip it, I can't be arsed". I'm limiting myself to posting clips that are either funny, sexy or seriously life-threatening, in that order. That was the original intention of buying the camera and its paid for itself many times over (only in the life-threatening sense, I've yet to reinterpret "helmet-cam" in grumble-flick terms).

Jacomus said a similar thing a while back, to the effect that low level irritation (close passes etc) are so common that one becomes almost oblivious to them, to the extent that only the stupidly life threatening passes within inches are registered.

 

[Bollo]

The thing that's making me more circumspect is partly time factor and also the endless debate that seems to follow nearly every incident that's posted. I think much of the shock factor that first accompanied these vids has now passed - there are only so many 'Rule-163' clips that you can post without it becoming, dare I say it, mundane.

 

[Origamist]

The thing that's making me more circumspect is partly time factor and also the endless debate that seems to follow nearly every incident that's posted. I think much of the shock factor that first accompanied these vids has now passed - there are only so many 'Rule-163' clips that you can post without it becoming, dare I say it, mundane.

+1

Does the infamous NCN23 provide many opportunities for capturing "sexy" footage then?

Perhaps you could film this velo-perv en route from Winchester (assuming it's not you)?

 

[BentMikey]

I'm coming to the conclusion that posting videos of the day-to-day irritants of cycling is ultimately biased and self defeating;

On the other hand when a company driver does something, it's always worth taking the clip, posting it, and writing an email/letter. That's because with reportable company drivers you can have a real effect, and the company is bound to act when they see the footage of their driver's poor behaviour online.

 

[Bollo]

+1

Does the infamous NCN23 provide many opportunities for capturing "sexy" footage then?

I do pass the Gay Dog kennels, but that's a kink too far even for me!

On the other hand when a company driver does something, it's always worth taking the clip, posting it, and writing an email/letter. That's because with reportable company drivers you can have a real effect, and the company is bound to act when they see the footage of their driver's poor behaviour online.

Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of value in recording rides and naming and shaming. I've been lucky in that I've never really had a run-in with a commercial driver that's required a phone-call. If and when it happens, I'll be serving up a tasty dish of grief to the company concerned.

I'll give an example of why I'm picking and choosing the vids I put up - I've got some footage of a close pass on a single track country lane. I ended up skimming a hedgerow with my panniers to avoid being hit. I'd put it up, but I know it would kick off a debate over road positioning. What I do know is, at the time, I had good reason to believe the driver behind me was an idiot with a very limited understanding of space and time. I bailed. I was just glad to be upright after she'd passed. But in the end posting it up does not serve any real purpose. Most non-cyclists will not appreciate the danger, even less so without an explanation that they'll not likely read. The righteous brethren of cyclechat will be largely supportive and outraged, with the usual cast of malcontents. Either way, for 90% of incidents, the debate doesn't move on much.