29in·CH+

Well, hello 2012. I left the land of the holey cheese for Christmas and New Years and spent it in good old Northern California, which for my taste buds, makes much finer cheese than alpine Helvetia. The bikes had to stay at home and 29in.ch went forgotten while I overdosed on GT’s Kombucha, Maine Root Ginger Brew, Chai BaBa Chai and an occasional Zin. Yes, I was a regular at Whole Foods and wish they’d invade Switzerland so that the country would finally get a grocery store where choice isn’t a foreign word. One can always hope.

I’m glad to report that Apple USA fixed my MacBook without charging an arm and a leg and did so within a few days. Customer service and efficiency, Americans definitely got those down. Need another example? Went to Macy’s and bought a pile of clothes, 50-60% off. Telling the sales girl that we have no Macy’s card because we’re visiting from abroad, she pulls a bunch of extra rebate codes out of a drawer and scans one after the other until one goes through and takes another 15% off. The money saved on those clothes and the laptop repair paid for my plane ticket alone.

MacBook operating again, I whipped up a short video with the footage taken back in December. Still need to find the right settings to convert and upload an iMovie project to Youtube within a reasonable time frame. Any good tips on that?

★ collideous

Sunday already marked my last ride of the year, at least on Swiss soil. It had been raining a lot all week so trails were both super slippery and extremely muddy. It didn’t deter me to head out for a short loop, and surprisingly it didn’t deter hikers to head out in droves. I received some flashlight mounts from DealExtreme last week, which will be used to mount my Replay XD1080 action cam. A short, easy ride was ideal to test the setup, so the camera was taken along. Besides the simple helmet attachment with a single velcro strap, the rubber mounts now allow a quick placement of the cam on the handlebar, the seat tube or low hanging branches out in the woods for ride-by shots. For other mounting locations, the rubber block needs modification. For 2 dollars a piece, I have several to modify. Interestingly enough, the rubber block sort of keeps its shape if you bend or twist it. If the cam doesn’t point exactly in the direction needed (like pointing upwards on the seat tube) a slight twist will position the cam in the right angle and stay that way. The camera shot some descent footage and I learned a few things. Unfortunately, I will not be able to whip up a video clip as my 2008 15-inch MacBook Pro with the dreaded NVIDIA graphics card decided to die (fried logic board as far as I can tell). I’ll take it to a Californian Apple store to see if they can do something for me. The local Apple reseller in town said a repair would cost me about a thousand Swiss Francs. Not the amount I’m willing to shell out right now - neither for a repair nor for a new laptop.

Distance:	27.6km (17.2 miles)
Elevation:	1’536m (5’039 feet)
Time:	01:51:30
Speed (avg/max):	14.9/45.6 kph (9.3/28.3 mph)

★ collideous

Just received a Replay XD1080 action-camera. Time to get to know this little gizmo, test out different mounting positions on the bike and helmet and create some first trial clips. Just need a mountain bike yet again before shooting any trail action.

★ collideous