I'm not just a climber. I enjoy many other things like mountain biking, running, hiking, photography, etc. And because I'm sure you are not just a climber as well, I will be writing blog posts on other interests outside of climbing. This blog post is one such occasion.
I recently heard about Rays MTB. It's essentially an indoor mountain biking park. Picture a climbing gym for bikers. Pretty stinking cool huh? Here's the course map:
Here is a video of the park as well:
There are actually two parks. One in Milwaukee and one in Cleveland. They are made inside old warehouses. I think one of the locations was actually an old Menards. I really want to go and check this place out. Luckily we have had pretty good weather here in KC and I've had the opportunity to ride outside this winter. Even still, this looks like a blast.
Have you been to Ray's or any other indoor biking facilities? How have you kept up with your outdoor sports through the winter?
Earlier I promised some amateur photography DIY posts, and here ya go. Since I got my iPhone, I wanted to put that sexy camera to use. To do that, I really needed to stabilize the camera on a tripod. This would allow me to get steadier shots, time-lapse videos, etc. It won't get me any where close to Simon Carter's level of photography work, but it's a cheap start.
I found a few commercial mounts like the glif or this universal mount. However, I wasn't satisfied with those options. I didn't like that the glif required a "naked" iPhone, and the universal mount was made of flimsy plastic (which some reviewers say breaks very easily).
So, I decided to create my own tripod mount with some materials I found around my house and a quick trip to Home Depot. I went through a few designs before landing on the one shown in the video above. The most expensive piece was the 1/4" connecting cap nuts at almost 5 dollars for a 4 pack. If you wanted to substitute it for a bolt and some nuts, I think that could work as well, but would require some more work to get it attached as well as the connecting cap nut. I won't do a written DIY on this one because the video should be simple enough to follow. If you have any questions, just ask in the comments below.
Check out this time-lapse video I did using this mount and my UltraPod II tripod and some magnetic wide-angle iPhone lenses. The video shows Cameron and Phil cutting out an ampersand to be used for engagement photos.
More Videos and DIY to come. Check out our YouTube channel for more content.
