Oops! Now what?

Ok, here's the rest of the story. I can't believe that my so-called friends were so cynical about this.

"Looks like a set-up." "Somebody is leading us down the garden path." "Look's like you're getting ready to teach us how to pick up a bike."

Sheeesh.

I somewhat sheepishly have to admit that the cynicism was justified. Technically this isn't a post about how to pick up a bike. It's a behind the scenes look at making the video. Sort of like the extra features section on the DVD's you rent.

Meet Pat Hahn. He's the guy in the red 'Stich in the photos below. Pat is the Communications Manager for the TEAM OREGON motorcycle safety program. His duties include our website content.

Pat, knowing that I have an interest in photography and own a camcorder, called and asked if I would like to help him make a short video on how to pick up a bike. Always up for a bit of fun, I immediately agreed. Besides, I like Pat a lot. Thus we found ourselves in a parking lot with a hapless, but perhaps not totally defenseless, ST1100. This also happens to be our Eye Tracker project bike. That explains the paint scheme. More on that in a later post.

It seems like in every class past the basic training somebody asks about the proper way to pick up a tipped over bike. Pat's idea was to post a short video on our website which is in the process of being updated.

Pat came to us from Minnesota. He did a similar video back there and claims the page was the most frequently visited one on the website. It will be interesting to see what happens here. The best bet is to not drop the bike in the first place but it happens. Been there, done that myself.

Before you can pick a bike up you need to get it onto its side. One way, of course, is to simply tilt the bike up, kick the sidestand out from underneath it, then let go. Since we're true bike guys neither of us had the heart to do that. Here's a photo sequence of Pat lowering the bike so it could be picked up again.













Pat looks good, doesn't he? His glasses aren't steamed up and it hardly looks like he's exherting himself. Actually, done properly, it's much easier than it looks.

Pat did the lifting while I played the part of the off-camera narrator. Kind of like the old Wonderful World of Disney shows like "Charlie the Lonesome Cougar" narrated by Tex Ritter. Come on, I know some of you are old enough to remember that.

If there's enough interest I'll ask Pat's permission to post the finished video here. The video is on my SD card and also loaded into my computer's Adobe Premier Elements video production program. One of the takes was video only with no sound. Maybe I'll be playing Bobskoot and doing some sound dubbing.

The video is more or less the intellectual domain propery of the program even though I have physical possession of it. I'm sure permission won't be a problem, though.

Miles and smiles,

Dan