The CTube

There are a lot of second-rate tall bike videos on YouTube. For instance, many filmmakers don’t seem to grasp that they want to keep the person riding the tall bike framed in the shot, leaving them with two options:

a) Have the person ride around in tight circles, or;

b) Jog after the tall-biker, jarring the viewer with shaky, “Blair Witch Project”-style camera work.

Neither of these options really captures the experience.

I was further disappointed by one video that purported to be a time-lapse capturing of the creation of a tall bike. Unfortunately, the video ends with the bike nowhere near completion.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find “Good Will Riding” three pages of search results into my quest. This video, shot by the Center for Appropriate Transport, a cycling advocacy and education group in Eugene, Ore., shows Will on his daily tall bike commute. Starting at “the butt-crack of dawn,” as Will says, he takes an hour-long ride into Eugene.

He built his tall bike – outfitted with an enormous basket in the lower frame – after one of his classmates started riding one.

“We kind of have to ride our bikes to school. Otherwise we feel bad,” Will says.

The video shows him meeting other students at the CAT, all riding crazy bikes including cruisers, recumbents and a tricycle. I can only imagine Will’s day gets even sweeter from there.

Check out the CT staff’s favorite videos at

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CommonwealthTimes

Looking for an entertaining video on YouTube can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. With users uploading at least 65,000 new videos a day, it’s hard to know what to look for and where to find it. That’s why the CT has created The CTube. Issue to issue, we’ll weed through all the good, bad and ugly that YouTube has to offer to find what we think, at the least, will hold your attention. No need to spend more time than necessary on YouTube when Facebook already consumes half of your day, right?