September 9: Week 10 wrapup
The big news of the week is that my handlebar camera broke during the weekend ride. Nothing stupid, it was securely clipped into place. I'd noticed it was tilting more than usual and pushed it back into place, figured maybe a screw had loosened, but didn't feel any hint that it was not properly secure. Then I went over a speed bump, just the same as many others along the trip, and heard the clatter as it hit the road and tumbled. Hauled in the brakes, pulled over, then circled back to check the damage ... it was not pretty. There was some superficial damage to the body but the lens was cracked in three places and the ring holding it in place had been smeared out of shape - signs of a very hard hit.
I did have the presence of mind to look around for any parts that might have broken off, but not to take pictures or reaction selfies for social media. Not sure if that's something I should work on … I can imagine myself doing multiple takes of my reaction face and restaging the event on the other side of the road because the light is better. Actually I don’t like that at all.
From left to right: Early start, still a bit of mist around. Selfie in the (bike-friendly!) nature reserve, the beard is less wild now. The broken lens and damaged support ring.
Anyway, the camera still works even though the lens is cracked - but parts of the image are blurred. So it's not really usable, but it seems that the lens is the only problem - maybe it can be repaired.
Any EU dealers who I could contact to ask about repairs? Yes there are several, including one in Amsterdam! Benefits of living in a big city, we have these things: I'm feeling either optimistic or smug, this should be solved this weekend.
Except the webpage for the Amsterdam dealer is offline and the contact phone number isn't connected. And the next one is the same. Also the two in Rotterdam. I give up. Looks like the Ghost XL range is discontinued with a vengeance.
Google reveals that there's a replacement lens kit! The only place selling it in Europe is the same UK shop where I got the camera. Guess they bought a bit too much of the Ghost XL stock? They may be regretting that choice but I'm sincerely grateful for their mistake.
(Since this post is so late, I can add that it arrived, I was able to swap the lens out and it all works so well I’m thinking about ordering another one in case something like this happens again! Also: it doesn't have a manual, and did include parts for several other Ghost cameras and I'm a little bit worried that the rubber protective ring should be in there somehow.)
Back on the mount, the weird camera tilt seems to be by design; I’ve got the mount pointed straight up instead of horizontally, to minimize the shake over bumps, and this is a consequence I guess. (I can’t say for sure because the mount doesn’t have an instruction manual and I can’t find any useful info online...) So there's no handlebar camera this weekend, I'm not trusting the camera to the mount until I’ve found a way to lock it in place. I also want a safety cord around the camera in case it falls out again ... I'm sure it was properly clipped in when it fell! I'm never going to trust it again.
Other than that the weekend ride was great. It was 120km out east and then south through a nature reserve-ish area close to the Hoge Veluwe national park. It has some wild animals, the only ones I saw on this trip were a herd of wild pigs. They were crossing the road, and were not in a hurry until they heard me. Too far away for a good photo unfortunately.
From left to right: distant view of some wild pigs. Bit further along in the reserve. Another part of the ride, the nature+bikepath combination is pretty handy.
It also had 530m of climbing. For comparison, Sweden was all hills all the time and it was usually about 1000m of climbing per day. Needless to say this was lots of small hills, but it's the Netherlands, and it's still surprising it added up to so much.
The bike also went into the shop for a big final service - there's two and a half weeks to go. Nothing big or dramatic: the bike was in pretty good shape before it went in, it hasn't had many kilometers and they've all been on Dutch cycle paths.
I did ask them to put on two new tyres, which they have done. But I'm wondering if they put in latex tyre sealant. They probably did, but I still have doubts... and don't want to discover it got forgotten if I spike a tyre on the side of some barren, windblasted mountainside in the Andes. Taking the valve core out is the obvious first step, but any time you do that there's a risk the tyre milk will make a mess. So it's an outside job, which means daylight hours. And not in work clothes. And that means weekend. So it hasn't happened yet.
The last bit of news is that I got a beard trim. People who I didn't actually know that well were comparing my look to the wildlings from Game Of Thrones. I was planning to get it cut just before leaving so it'd be tidy for as long as possible but it clearly can't wait any longer... I suppose I do look more trustworthy now.
So that's the week. Trust issues everywhere.
