Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Thank God for Church!
I decided back in March that I was going to purchase a helmet camera system. I did my research and narrowed it down to Hoyttech because of the nifty GPS feature that displays your location, direction, speed, etc. on playback. But when I received the package, I couldn't get the software to work on my computer. Without a whole lot of time left to figure it out, I had to come up with another solution - fast!
Chris from Hoyttech agreed to accept the return, but I was now officially in a panic. Plan B was to mount a camcorder directly to my bike, but unfortunately there aren't many places for mounting anything to my bike due to its design. Just as I was beginning to think all hope was lost, the solution presented itself in the most unexpected of ways when my bike was vandalized! The Roundel (the BMW logo) on my handlebar had gone missing and revealed a hidden bolt hole.
The idea to attach the Panavise gooseneck came to me, but I found that the bolt size didn't match up. I went to a few hardware stores to find an adapter to make it fit but couldn't find anything. Determined to make it work, I got a hold of Orren Church, a local machinist who for a modest fee fabricated a custom adapter for me overnight. Woohoo! Problem solved!
It turns out that Orren helped build Washington State's Grand Coulee Dam's Third Tourbine Generator, a five-year project (see Peter's April 8th video post "Overnight in Eastern Washington".) What a small world! Orren's wife, Cathy Church, who affectionately refers to her husband as her "dam engineer" gave me the 'Grand' tour of the office, showing me all the dam pictures from the construction of the powerplant.
If you ever want a custom mount made or if you ever want to hear some dam stories, give Orren and Cathy a visit. Dam friendly folks!
Chris from Hoyttech agreed to accept the return, but I was now officially in a panic. Plan B was to mount a camcorder directly to my bike, but unfortunately there aren't many places for mounting anything to my bike due to its design. Just as I was beginning to think all hope was lost, the solution presented itself in the most unexpected of ways when my bike was vandalized! The Roundel (the BMW logo) on my handlebar had gone missing and revealed a hidden bolt hole.
The idea to attach the Panavise gooseneck came to me, but I found that the bolt size didn't match up. I went to a few hardware stores to find an adapter to make it fit but couldn't find anything. Determined to make it work, I got a hold of Orren Church, a local machinist who for a modest fee fabricated a custom adapter for me overnight. Woohoo! Problem solved!
It turns out that Orren helped build Washington State's Grand Coulee Dam's Third Tourbine Generator, a five-year project (see Peter's April 8th video post "Overnight in Eastern Washington".) What a small world! Orren's wife, Cathy Church, who affectionately refers to her husband as her "dam engineer" gave me the 'Grand' tour of the office, showing me all the dam pictures from the construction of the powerplant.If you ever want a custom mount made or if you ever want to hear some dam stories, give Orren and Cathy a visit. Dam friendly folks!
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Who knew vandalism could turn out to be such a good thing! That'll be a great spot for the cam, too. Well done.
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