Trying out the Flip Ultra HD

The ride out to Nyack is a standard training ride for New Yorkers. Up the side of the island from Brooklyn for me, then over the GWB and up 9W, through Piermont, on to Nyack, then back again. An alternate and infinitely more beautiful route is to turn left after crossing the GWB and go down to the start of River Road. It takes you under the bridge and alongside the Hudson through some absolutely stunning terrain. And it culminates in a lovely climb up Alpine Hill – at least I think it’s called that. Then you get back on to 9W and continue to Piermont. Probably another 5-7 miles.

I shot the above film on my Flip Ultra HD, a camera I’ve been trying out for durability and ease of use while on the bike. Stuck a Gorillapod tripod in my jersey pocket to take the shots of me riding by. The editing software is limited – that’s the only drawback as far I can see. That and battery life (you don’t really know how the battery is doing until a little symbol suddenly appears indicating death is nigh). But overall, it has a lot of things going for it as a bike friendly camera. It also stuck it out underneath a Shower’s Pass jacket the week previously, got very damp and still kept on kicking. A little trick was to leave the silver wrist strap sticking out of my back pocket, then reach around and pull it out of the jersey without too much fumbling.

• camera
• fall
• nyack
• river road