Looks like I’m pretty error prone lately.  Things haven’t worked out exactly as I planned on several fronts.  One instance involves my camera and the other my bicycle saddle.

Camera issue first… I had this idea to tape my camera to the front fork of my bike.  I would then go over Paris Mountain and record the descents.  The plan was to get a “wheels eye” view of the road.

I was able to get it securely fastened and headed off for my attempt.  I turned the camera on and started down the Furman side.  It struck me that this was the first time I had attempted this since February when I broke my finger.  That got into my head a little bit and I certainly wasn’t bombing it down.

At the bottom I turned the camera off and then started back to the top.  It was now time to record the descent to State Park Road.  The climb up was a good one.  Once again, I had no plans for a personal best, but I laid out a 12 minute 10 second climb.  I was pleasantly surprised!

When I went to turn on the camera for the ride down, it would not turn on.  My guess is that I had left it unplugged for too long and the battery went dead.  So much for recording this downhill.  My only hope now was that it didn’t go dead as I was capturing the earlier run.

I was taking it easy down the road – not even pedaling once I reached the all downhill section.  I glanced behind me and saw a car coming.  Typically drivers do one of two things as you come down the mountain. They either move around you quickly or they sit right behind you even when you move over as far right as possible to let them by.

Of course, it would be very hard for a driver to keep up with a bicycle on the winding road.  I decided to use that to my advantage.  So, I slipped into the big gear and put out a burst of speed.  By this time I was reaching some of the steeper portions of the road.  I tucked and let the bike roll.

We came off the mountain and I pulled over as we neared the traffic light to let the car pass me.  The car pulled up beside me and stopped.  I glanced over and a saw a woman rolling down her window.  She said to me with wonder in her voice, “That was amazing!  You were going 45 mph!”  I replied that I just didn’t want to be in her way.  In my mind, I was thinking… “You should have been behind the pros last weekend!”

Now for the knees… Well, actually it is my saddle.  Back when I broke my frame, I had stopped by the shop to pick up my saddle.  It needed some repairs.  Unfortunately, I had not marked my seat height and distance from the head set.

The result was that John was not confident about the fit when he built up the new frame.  Initially, it felt just fine.  However, as I have taken it for longer rides and put out more effort, I’ve found that it is hurting my knees a bit.

At first I thought the pain was bruising since I felt it mostly right beneath the healing road rash on my right knee.  I’m sure that is part of it.  However, my left knee also was feeling some slight pain.

I think I’m going to need to go revisit my saddle location.  Based on my own experimentation on the road, I think I need to move the saddle just a tad forward.  The height seems to be okay, but I might have to work with that as well.

Anyone out there able to tell me what might cause pain on the top outside of your knee?  It isn’t “inside” my knee.  It is right where some tendons appear to join from the thigh area to the upper outside of the knee.

Oh, I didn’t get that video.  The camera went dead shortly after starting my descent.  I’ll have to get out there again to give it a try.