Go Pro Mounts Suck!

UPDATE: Wow, totally awesome! Got my little links today, the tripod mount and the screws. Wow, sooooooo much better than go pro crap. Notice I intentionally don't capitalize go pro most times ha ha, no respect. These little dilly bobs work great! Tighten them down and they stay down.  No movement, no slop, no hoping they don't vibrate loose. I tightened one by hand then I could not get it to loosen by hand. I had to use the little wrench that come with the thumbscrews. Now I have 2 screws and a wrench. I have another exact order on the way and today after receiving the first set, I ordered another set of 3 screws anodized in blue, plus another wrench. Total I will have 2 tripod adapters, 7 thumb screws, 3 wrenches. the 2 links and a handlebar mount all in aluminum. No more cheap junk plastic Go Pro stuff for me. Much more inexpensive and far better quality on ebay. Great store ALLPOWER on ebay. Ordered on 27th 3 pm, arrived today the 30th arriving 1 day earlier than promised, free shipping. Can't beat that!  Tested them mounting on the bike, ROCK SOLID connections. Ordered these today, cool stuff.

Last night video clip testing...Way better than the Go Pro mount. I'm sorry but Go Pro action camera mounts suck! I bought a new mount and only 2 out of 10 were viewable The mounts vibrate so much that you can't even get close to a clean shot. So last night, I took a cheap Chinese aluminum mount I bought 10 years ago for $10 for a test ride. I strapped it on with velcro and it worked way better than the Go Pro plastic overpriced junk of a mount I used on the smooth bike trail over the weekend. This cheap Chinese mount worked way better at night and rough road that is always traveled by big rigs. I ordered some more cheap Chinese aluminum mounts on ebay for 1/3 of the price of the Go Pro mount. Can't wait for them to arrive cause they work way better than the Go Pro overpriced junk! I guess if I wanted to mount the Go Pro mount on a pole and record the grass growing, it may work. But on a bicycle? Total junk!

This was last night. Much better footage in the dark, no hands, no stabilization editing, cheap Chinese $10 mount from 10 years ago strapped on with velcro!

Night Ride Testing an Old Mount

Nice and cool out tonight so I squeezed in a 10 miler to test an old mount. Really sad when an old cheap Chinese mount from 10 years ago outperforms a new $30 POS Go Pro mount. The mount originally had 2 velcro strapt that secured it to hb's, most tubes on the bike but the velcro died. So I got a lil roll of velcro strips and tried it out.

Wow, it is so much better than the Go Pro even on the beat up pavement around the industrial center. Heck, on the trail, I tried the new Go Pro and it was just way too shaky. Well total vibration! Really sucks!

But this little sucker worked well.  Can't wait for the new little HB mount to show up. It clamps on the tubes via screws. This little sign with the mount tonight tells me the new mount is going to also be much better than the Go Pro POS!

I did take some video clip and all of them came out vs the Go Pro 2 out of 10. That really sucks for the price they charge people. Pledge to myself, never buyin Go Pro accessories ever again!

I did wear my new skeletal bones jersey tonight. A bit thinner than my other Primal jerseys cut it's cool. Only $28 so I won't cry about it. I do like the colors and the fact I look much skinnier in it ha ha!

Cheap little mount much better than Go Pro!

Looking kind of skinny in my bones jersey ha ha!

As far as ordering online, I sure like EBY far more than amazon. I ordered things 1 and 2 days ago from 3 different ebay stores. All 3 are shipped with tracking numbers already. Ebay says clearly on the ads free and fast shipping. I chose these figuring they are shipped from within the US vs China long waits though they also give you dates.

Amazon on the other hand posted on their ads free 5-8 day shipping. Then they charge you a handling fee (there goes the free shipping) and the 5 to 8 days changed to 23 days when they send you the order confirmation. That sucks! I hate places that are not straight up.

As far as probikekit dotcom, I ordered 3 tires and handlebar tape. All products said IN STOCK. I received the tires last week but the bar tape says pending and will be dispatched sometime in May. Really? In stock when I ordered. I would not have ordered if it didn't claim to be in stock. I paid a couple bucks more and got bar tape at the bike shop. Sad but Probikekit has really taken a dive imo. Not much product to offer anymore. 

Some Cool Go Pro Stuff Aluminum

OK, so I wasted another $30 on the Go Pro crap seatpost mount. Way too much vibration and I can tell with the plastic attaching area that GP stuff is just cheap crap. So I looked on the net and came up with a few thing I think will make a difference. Of course I have a couple K Edge mounts made of aluminum and they are soooooo much better so I searched for aluminum connectors and mounts. I found them!

On ebay and amazon. I like Ebay as they seem so much more up front and to the point. They gave me delivery dates and when it came down to it, once the order was place, one received, the dates were on or better, earlier! Such as my Charge Spoon saddle. No games!

Now, amazon, they suck! So they have the stuff I like but much of it from China. So they have this special advertised that if I order this product, it includes FREE shipping and 5 to 8 day shipping it says! SOoooo! I order a couple of items, BOTH HANDLED BY AMAZON which means they take responsibility seeing they are supposed to have the product in their warehouse. Which is nice for the Chinese made stuff they offer. The product that says from China will take up to July to receive it. I want it now ha ha! So amazon keeps some product and claims "handled by amazon" which means I should get it sooner as it is in warehouse.

But I place the order, I get the confirmation saying one item will be delivered May 17th and the other 25th. OK WTF! Where is my free 5 to 8 day shipping ? I ordered 2 days ago already.

Not to mention, they add a charge in for HANDLING!  OK, wtf! Free shipping but they don't make it clear there will be a handling charge so what's the difference really? I'm paying more and later delivery date. I hate outfits like this, deceiving. I can understand  a charge but at least tell me about it MOFO before I order. Things that were $2 cheaper than on other sites are now not any more inexpensive.

But ebay, I like!

I ordered a handle bar mount made of aluminum from amazon. I'm sure it's going to be better than the go pro POS I wasted my money on.

Then I also ordered this tripod adapter with thumb screws included. I have a couple of go pro adapters already but plastic. OK for a tripod but if I use these on the bike, I want them to be solid. I already dropped a camera on GMR descending at 30 MPH because the cheap go pro tabs broke on the go pro connector.

Funny I ended up the next day going to an ebay store and ordered the same thing ha ha! I don't know what I was thinking but that order is supposed to arrive by Friday May 1st. So it's all good! Plus I will have 4 screws, 2 tripod adapters and 2 wrenches.

Big plus is the length of these thumbscrews are a bit longer according to reviews so it should be easier to fit them onto the mounts with the cases. Aaaand! There is a little rubber donut washer included with each screw to help tighten. They say use it or not, to prevent marring paint or adding length to the screw. This will be nice! 

The ebay faster service store is called Allpower.  Wish I had found this one first! Bonus wrench too! BETTER up front delivery than the amazon site!

https://www.ebay.com/str/allpower21/GoPro-Accessories/_i.html?_storecat=58745258013

Then I happened to come across an aluminum extension on the net looking for other things. I saw these straight connectors which are nice. One can add a bit to the reach or just to connect straight to straight. Most go pro arms are straigh to a 90degree turn. That sucks at times as I want to stay straight with the original origin of the mount. Pretty cool site. US store so delivery should be much faster and an extra $1.50 I opted for the 2 day delivery (flat shipping was $6.85 so not much difference to upgrade) if it even makes a difference as I receive some shipments from the US rather quickly most times anyway.

I will return to this site when I need something else if they have it. I posted my order yesterday about 4 PM and today I receive the confirmation email that my order has been shipped. US company so shipping is easy through USPS. I recommend. ;-) 

Just wish they had more as far as go pro accessories. 

https://fotodioxpro.com/

Then I saw the straight to 90 degree links. Well darn, give me one of those as well! Heck, now whatever connections I make on my go pro mounts should be pretty solid. 

Cool stuff!

Just looking for solid stuff now after wasting too much money on go pro plastic crap! Really broke my heart on my last ride trying to get some steady stable shots with the new go pro cheap ass mount. Cheap as in quality, not price.

I did get my K Edge mounts a few years back and don't regret the price because they were a huge improvement over the go pro plastic.

If anyone remembers, years ago I dropped  a go pro camera on GMR at 30 MPH. No more of that bidness! Not to mention, the things I have been finding on the net are much more inexpensive as well. I think I paid $59 for the K Edge handlebar mount, worth it but now I find similar setups for $15-$20 on the net. Nothing wrong with saving some money!

Result of cheap plastic go pro mounts!

BTW, if you do use plastic mounts, use a tether. Learned my lesson. I have a couple of old camera wrist straps that attach nicely to the hinges of the go pro case. Free and not expensive like those offered by go pro in a package.

Lasso type wrap so that if the mount does break, the recorder won't go tumbling. I use one all the time on both my recorders now, front and rear. Never too much security! I am actually lucky that GMR tumble wasn't crossing a wooden bridge on the bike trail with the river below ha ha!

                                                                     Like So!

Gina SART ride

26 miles at 15.6 average speed. Supposed to be an easy ride but man, does the wind ever stop? When we do short rides, we like to go to the beach. Matter of fact, all our rides go to the beach unless something drastic happens. So the short ride are always on the windy section of the trail, Heck, what kind of warm up is that on the second day ha ha!? But Gina did really well. It was warm but not hot so she didn't suffer too much. Felt good after the ride though tired. Not bad for very little saddle time, like 1 ride every 3 months.

Plenty of foot traffic and some bikes on the trail. Most of the foot traffic is on the dirt near the coast, guessing the locals. But not too big a mess like so many people cry about. Yeah, if you're stupid and thing you can race around the locals, then I guess you would be the type that would complain, the stupid type ha ha! Use your head when you ride and we will all be safe!

Talking about safe, WOW! Soooooo many people not wearing masks. Gina was shocked. She was like, WOW! Pretty sad, kids, parents, walkers, joggers, OLD PEOPLE, all out there without masks. I guess they figure the threat is over.  OK whatever, still protecting myself, my wife, and my Mom.

But a nice day overall. More people at the coast today and much more vehicular traffic on PCH comparing to what I saw yesterday.

Did see Bad Bob fly by. Tony and Thai at the coast for a quick stop and visit. I'm starting to think these two guys are brothers ha ha! Always together, not one ever alone.

I had planned on a video but my gosh, go pro mounts really suck! The handlebar/seatpost/pole mount is actually totally useless to me. The cheap plastic vibrates like nothing I have ever seen before in a mount. Waste of $30. I ordered the cheap Chinese ALUMINUM  mount. I'm betting it works way better than the go pro for half the price. This cheap plastic crap sucks.

                                                            Getting ready to roll!

Gina wore the chief and I a medical mask. Thinking maybe she would let me play doctor later on. :-)

Happy after the ride, no suffering.

Solo Go Pro Mount Testing Ride

46 miles at 16.5 average speed today. Solo ride. Man it felt really hot. You know the first one or two hot days of the season feel especially hot. I think the temp said 93 max today on my Garmin. Either way, I think everybody started early because the lot was full when I arrived at the parking but totally empty when I got back. Didn't see many at all on the return once I was beyond the wooden bridge heading North.

Ran into Alex at Yorba Park. He did another 100 miles today. Short chat today then we headed off. I placed the new mount on the top tube to get a new view, trying to mix it up. But boy it was hard to pedal with the camera barely hitting the inside of my knee. May have to slide it up a bit because it was tough riding to the coast bow legged for 20 miles ha ha!

I took about 6 scenes with this handlebar/seatpost/pole mount and maybe 2 came out ok after some stabilization during editing. But I will have to say this mount sucks ha ha! I just ordered a similar one off the net for half the price of the Go Pro. I'm thinking it's going to be much better as it is made of aluminum like my K Edge mounts. These cheap plastic connectors and buckles from Go Pro vibrate way too much! I'm hoping the cheap Chinese will be better, matter of fact, I'm betting on it.

As far as a handlebar mount, this thing sucks being upward. I couldn't even post 1 of the 10 clips I recorded. Way too much vibration. When I flipped it, maybe 3/4 of the clips came out OK, that's about it. So the K Edge it is because Go Pro sucks. Good cameras but the mounts suck. I bought this one hoping it would be an improvement. Nope, maybe one or two different angles for a video but other than that, it might sit in a box till I learn to water ski or something ha ha! Not worth the $29 I paid for it.

But it was a good day on the bike. New headset was real smooth. Cleaned my oldie bike before the ride and it performed well. Heck, if anyone couldn't keep up, it was me not the old bike ha ha!

By the time I reached Edna Park 20 miles in, I was sweating pretty good with the heat. Been a long time since my legs have dripped like this.  But approaching the beach, it was foggy, wow! Of course leaving the beach, a mile in and back to the heat.

I did get taken out by a beach cruiser! Well forced off the trail is all since I have those cat like instincts ha ha!

I was approaching some dude on a beach cruiser from behind.  Ringing my bell, shouting out so you would figure he heard me but he kept a straight line so I thought he might go straight as we approached the first off ramp leaving the coast, just before the first underpass. I did slow knowing too many non users don't know the procedure so I thought this guy might do something stupid. I slowed, if I lose .1 off my average so what! I don't want to get hurt.

Sure enough, just as I get on his side, he turns left without looking, exiting the ramp. I was expecting something  so being careful, I just went with the flow rolling up the ramp on his left like we were riding partners ha ha! He looks at me startled and said, "Oh man, sorry dude, I didn't see you there!". Of course he didn't and didn't hear me either as he had headphones on. Good thing I keep an eye out for morons. I wasn't upset but I gave him the stink eye anyway. So I had to roll up, slow then turn around to get back on the trail. But, most important, I'm not hurt and a good lesson I have learned over the years, don't assume and slow down if you have to! Not worth getting hurt and we should know all the newb users on the trail really don't know much about trail etiquette. Heck, 70% of the roadies out there are lost too ha ha!

Really short video of Alex testing my new Go Pro Mount.





                                                                Action shot of Alex

Bow legged riding ha ha!

After the ride. Sometimes putting the bike away in the heat is harder than the ride itself ha ha!

Been along time since I've seen this sweat.

Hot inland, fog at the coast

But I did get my old baby all cleaned up for today

Foggy baby!

Hot and lonesome on the return. Feel like I just crossed the Sahara

Where did everybody go?

$30 junk. Well one cool feature is pressing on the tab, the mount will swivel 360 degrees. Maybe a trick shot or two.

Stimulus Package, Hmm let me see!

So yeah, I am stimulating the economy! With bike stuff! ;-)

Let's see, I had the headset on my old Cannondale replaced, smoooooth as butter! Mark had flipped the races for me about 2 years ago making it smooth again and saving me money but finally caught up. So heck, replaced it this time and it's great! Mark is the best mechanic in the country! Plus a couple other little things I might not remember like a back up derailleur cable just in case.

Along with that I bought some chamois butter for Gina, couple more Mark water bottles, a Polar bottle, some gloves, bar and tape.

I also bought a go pro mount, seatpost handlebar, pole mount. Pretty nice, the connecting plate swivels around 360 degrees to get different shots.

A charge Spoon saddle that people rave about. A few dissatisfied reviews but hey, for $30, if it is not fit for the road, I'll use it on my MTB as the saddle is pretty torn up. If it does work, great, I'll order another. BTW, "trailthis" on ebay has a lot of good reviews. My order was supposed to arrive Monday but Friday 1 pm and it's here USPS. The saddle has a reflective strip built into the rear edge. Pretty cool since I ride at night too.

I got another skeleton jersey from Love2pedal dotcom. All the other jerseys I have came from them as well. Some good deals and Primal stuff is good. Deep pockets, long, well built and bright colors and definition with their graphics. Love em! Up to 5XL but I wear the 4XL (5XL in Suarez brand running a bit smaller). But some great prices. I got my Fat Bastards for $24. Most times I received a $5 gift card as well so one of the Fat jerseys was actually $19. I saw the skeleton for $28 so I ordered it. The dude has fast free shipping as well. Great customer service too.

I also bought 3 Continental GP tires from PBK. Man, DHL delivery service sucks! They sent me messages for 2 days, like every 4 hours saying my package would be delivered at a certain time. The day of delivery, more messages but saying timeline was ALL DAY! That sucks so get up in the morning and wait though I had other things to do but wanted to sign for package.

About 8:30 PM, WTH, no package! So I look back on the tracker and they say the recipient refused the package, WTH! Then it says they will be sending the package back to the shipper. OK, now I'm pissed waiting all day long and this!?

Trying to call, night or business hours, one can not get a hold of anybody. A recorder taking you in circles. Give tracking number and it says recipient refused package. WTH! Called during business hours next morning, same thing. Looked up business office numbers, all the same as the 1 800 number that takes you in circles.

Finally I looked at several DHL facebook pages. Found a form on one that allows complaints and issues. So I wrote a not so nice message and complaint. Some dude actually responds hours later. He says he will look into it asap and thank goodness I actually got to interact with a human being. But it is frustrating when you think you're screwed and your package will be heading back to shipper.

So he emails them my complaint word for word. Great, hoping they would so they would know how much they suck! One of my comments was that I checked all info and everything was correct so either they have lousy drivers that can't read an address, or DHL was playing some kind of stupid game seeing they could not keep their promise of delivery times while misleading me and wasting my time waiting for a signature.

So finally  the guy gets them to update saying it has been rescheduled for the next day. At least all is not lost now. But the delivery guy finally rings the doorbell about 6 pm the next day, actually 2 days of my time wasted waiting to sign. I run to the door and the sucker is in his truck and heading out! OK, what the hell, what about my signature?

So some dude tells me that is the way they work. They are overloaded with packages and if they do not get them delivered, DHL actually fines their employees for each package. So the courier actually states the recipient refuses the package so that they do not get fined for that package. Wow, so even then, DHL must really treat their employees like crap. That sucks! Hopefully I don't get any more packages through them, the shipper hopefully deals with another source.

So some reviews on the saddle, some dude gives them a lower rating saying the sides are not reflective as stated. Really dude?! The above pic taken with some daylight and it shows. This image no flash so looks normal, I can't tell by the naked eye it is there. But then the lower image, less daylight and it shows pretty well! Great because I ride at night so I like it.

The jersey! Not bad $28 sale.

The Polar bottle, not bad. I like valve tops. I don't care for the insulated models so wantie! :-P

The mount. Front tab depresses allowing the mount to swivel around click by click. Supposedly much better plastic this time than the GP mount I had back in 2012.

Late Night Testing Headset

10 miles late night around the industrial center, 15.5 average speed. Testing the new headset installed in my 1997 Cannondale CAD3. I usually just roll around relaxing and stretching out but today, after knowing some of the segments, I pushed hard. So I got 3 PR's holding 27 MPH for a bit ha ha!

The new headset, smooth as butter thanks to Mark's Bike shop. The only dude I have let touch my bikes since 1996. Great Mechanic in Rancho Cucamonga. I never leave his shop without a smile knowing I got the best!

I did get an email this evening when I got home. Some dude dethroned me on a KOM. I had one? Really? I had no idea unlike the fools on the forum who have like 10 of them and all because they created their own segments so they could get KOM's being the only rider ha ha! What a bunch of fools. Now I see a bunch of wussies crying about riding up to Big Bear. The tough guys ha ha! Well, I've done it 5 times but these tough wusses are crying just thinking about it ha ha! Ride Around the Bear was the best ride ever. 100 miles with 10,000 ft of gain. Going to miss that ride as I wanted to do it at least one more time but they did away with it. Made it into a sissy ride starting up in Big Bear, Meh I'll pass!


                                                             I'm such a rebel ha ha!

Smooth as butter! Thanks Mark!

1997 Mr. Beans Mobile

Such a poser ha ha!

Driving around town, I often see these old vehicles by the tracks on San Antonia Ave in Ontario. Figured I'd take a few pics now that the lot is empty and there aren't any customer cars parked next to them. Treasures N Junk antique shop. Couple HDR style.

This is cool, changing the sky background. The original is dull so I used one of my cloud sky pics to replace the background.