Passing clouds of inconsequential observations
Another sunny afternoon tempted me out again. This time I found the Secret Lake which is neither a lake nor particularly secret.
But it is good to see a natural oasis amidst the suburban sprawl. Then upwards and, since Martine pointed it out, it is definitely upward, to the reservoir again which had noticeably more waterfowl this time.
A quick cummings on our bikes along the FLoop to Gorton Reservoirs and Debdale Park. Everyone else seemed to have had the same idea so there was more traffic on the FLoop than there was on the roads.
Blues skies, bright sunlight and a warm breeze…
Alas the video from an old post has gone missing.
The unpredictable weather is often cited as an excuse not to cycle regularly.
I commute six days a week cycling 20 minutes each way.  Although [wikipop]Manchester[/wikipop] has a reputation for being rather wet the reality is that it is probably no wetter than anywhere else in the UK.
During a year I will be rained on while travelling in both directions around 4 times and in one direction six times. Â A full covering of waterproof clothing keeps me dry but a couple of times I misjudged the weather and arrived wet but soon dry off. Checking the morning’s weather becomes part of your bedtime routines. 
The iPad has created a whole range of new ways for music making from recreating traditional instruments:
to rethinking the way instruments work:
http://youtu.be/cad2iWNop9A
and Smule have a range of apps that cover both ends of the spectrum. The latest is the MadPad with which you record sound & video samples of any objects you happen upon. These are then laid out in a grid for you to drum on to create your masterpiece.
One of the default sets is a range of bicycle sounds. So following in the footsteps of a young [wikipop]Frank Zappa[/wikipop] on a 1963 edition of the [wikipop]Steve Allen Show[/wikipop]
and our very own Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra:
I banged away…
The Fallowfield Loop (or Floop) follows the old rail route round the south of Manchester. It is mostly traffic free (apart from a road crossing at Fallowfield) and is much used… particularly on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
I went down to the far end of the Gorton Reservoirs and then back to Chorlton which produced enough video to make a movie (book your tickets now!):
Any suggestions to remove more of the narcissistic credits?
After recent observations about the state of local bike lanes it was amusing to watch the video by [wikipop search=”Neistat Brothers”]Casey Neistat[/wikipop] dealing with bike lane problems in New York:
Interestingly cycling with a camera is not a new idea:
From: The Cyclists’ Route Book for Great Britain and Ireland, Including the Isles of Man and Wight, etc. by William James Spurrier (1893). Found in the excellent [wikipop]British Library[/wikipop] History of Britain & Ireland app
April’s 30 Days of Biking came and went without our active participation. Our biking is mostly a daily commute to work and occasional shopping trips. But coinciding time off and some sunshine inspired us to venture out last week. Being new to the area we are still exploring various routes and are grateful for knowledge and insights shared by local bike bloggers (Note to self: Remember to sponsor Lorenza.) From the map we reckoned we could get along the [wikipop]towpath[/wikipop] on the [wikipop]Bridgewater canal[/wikipop] to Dunham Massey. So we set off to explore:
The Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle have produced a video that pretty much says it all in under three minutes:
When cycling in the [wikipop]Cotswolds[/wikipop] you could not go more than a mile without hitting a hill. Here you can cycle all day without hitting a hill. Although people do seem to buy bikes with lots of gears or, even stranger, mountain bikes. So without any hill climbing challenges one has to resort to speed. Starting from the bridge over the [wikipop]M60 Motorway[/wikipop] round the [wikipop]Sale Water Park[/wikipop], across the bridge over the [wikipop]River Mersey[/wikipop] and along the riverbank to Chorlton Water Park in under 4 minutes 
The recent snow has left everywhere wet and muddy 
I turned the camera upwards while crossing the motorway bridge thinking it might make a neat kaleidoscopic movie…
[video:http://blog.duncanmoran.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/bridgekaliedoclipsnd-desktop.m4v|http://blog.duncanmoran.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/bridgekaliedoclipsnd-desktop.ogg|http://blog.duncanmoran.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/bridgekaliedoclipsnd-desktop.flv http://blog.duncanmoran.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/bridgekaliedoclipsnd-poster.jpg]Before the [W:BBC] series Britain By Bike reaches hereabouts and shows you some fantasy rural cycling idyll I can reveal some of the real everyday horrors you can encounter…
The opening shots are from a head mounted camera hence the swaying effect.
This post was to test the [W:HTML 5] embedding thing but it did not work. And so there is a better mp4 version (25MB) and a full screen version (120MB) available.
The music is a version of The Maids of Mitchelstown by [W:The Bothy Band].
Update:
The HTML 5/ MP4 thing seems to be alive and well. Next stop the [W:Ogg] version.
Updated update: There is an Ogg version now and it is working on my Mac with Safari, FireFox, Opera and Chrome browsers. And in FireFox on Ubuntu in Virtual Box too.
So farewell Flash!