Why the old GoPro-from-a-bike bumps videos aren't coming back

Every now and again someone tells me, or tells the world, that things were better in the good old days, when I did breathless following-on-the-bank GoPro videos on my bike.

And in one key respect things were indeed better in those days: I was younger :-)

In case you're too young to remember, Mays 2022, Saturday M1 is a good example of the genre. And who could forget those wonderful "pick up" moments when you got to see the towpath and my front wheel.

That video also illustrates a minor problem: CUCBC aren't happy with people filming. Technically, as not a member of the university, I'm not bound by their rules. But as a law-abiding (cough) citizen rule-breaking does distress me a little.

But the real problem is the inevitability, at some point, of something terrible happening. Particularly on wet days the tow-path becomes sloppy; and people's dogs jump out randomly; and people jump out randomly; and bank parties stop in the path or clear badly when bumps happen; and one day I was just going to fail to take a corner and cycle straight into the river. Or something. I had dreams about it.

Quite arguably, the drones - even with my top-quality wurbling - aren't as thrilling, even on the rare occasions when my thumb slips on the height control and I nearly take someone's head off. But they do offer much better race coverage; the ability to go back and forth is particularly good, or so I think.