I enjoy tinkering with my bikes almost as much as I like riding them. Recently, I had an opportunity to attend a workshop about installing hydraulic brakes on a road bike. I needed a primer, as these brakes are a relatively new thing for us roadies. I mentioned this to my mechanic friend and he said, "All the new bike tech is about videos. The written manuals are rubbish, and anything critical you need to know, you have to watch on YouTube."
True -- not only for hydraulic brakes, but any of the other newer tech, like 11-speed drivetrains from Shimano, Campagnolo, and SRAM. Auto-sag suspension isn't much better, with tricks only mechanics know to make it function correctly.
As a blogger (I run Bikehugger.com), I was already interested in Google Glass. I imagined myself shooting videos on rides and for incorporating different kinds of narrated videos into my blog posts. But thinking about it more, I realized I could use Google Glass for learning this new bike tech, and for working on my bikes after the fact. Given a hands-free solution, I could call up instructional videos and follow along if I got stuck. Eager to take this device on all of my two-wheeled endeavors, I signed up for the Glass Explorer program.
There are two Explorer groups actively testing Glass in real-world situations. The first group is made up of 2,000 developers who signed up at Google I/O 2012. The second Explorer group includes 8,000 participants who were selected by sharing their ideas for Glass with the #ifihadglass hashtag. I posted to Twitter, outlining my idea about using Glass during complex bike repair, and during bike rides for shooting POV videos. Soon, I was invited to become an Explorer and to write about my experiences for WIRED and on my own blog.
My Glass unit arrived in time for the bike clinic. Wearing Glass as I worked with technicians from SRAM to set up the company's new hydraulic brakes, I recorded a few videos.
The real test came hours later, when I tried bleeding the brakes myself. With the syringes in my hands, I was using Glass entirely hands-free. I used a head-tilt-up gesture to activate it, and I gave it voice commands: "OK, Glass. Google. SRAM Hydro bleeding. Show Results. View Website."
I watched the YouTube video on how to bleed the brakes again. I also called up the video I recorded of the SRAM technician earlier in the day. As a techie who's never bled anything but his legs on the bike in a crash, having a head-up display was a real wussy-mechanic empowerment tool. Using the computer on my head, I was a nod, tap, and glance away from a DIY course in hydraulic road brake bleeding. I didn't have to worry about fouling a touch-screen with my bike-grease-stained fingers, and I didn't have to stop and put everything down to go search on a laptop or flip through a manual.
Later, on a ride with some folks from Specialized, I used Glass for a refresher course on properly setting up an auto-sag suspension.
These suspensions on mountain bikes usually require some adjustment depending on the trail you're hitting that day, so you need to learn how to calibrate it yourself. Wearing Glass, I referenced an instructional YouTube video and I called up an email I had filed away with tips from my mechanic.
And of course, since I was out on a bike, I also recorded the rides on the road and dirt. Glass makes a pretty sweet little POV camera. Just do the tilted-head gesture and say: "Ok Glass, Record a Video."
The experience wasn't without its stumbles. Par for the course with developer preview hardware like the "Explorer" edition of Glass are annoyances such as short battery life, a buggy OS, and a lack of useful apps. These had me initially grumbling a bit. But there was still a really stunning moment where I saw the awesome potential for this as a tool for journalists and bloggers like myself.
I took a photo of a SRAM quality control lab test apparatus and voice-commanded it to upload with a caption -- all hands-free and while in motion. The image only took nine seconds to upload. For those who massively multi-task, Glass allows you to shoot and upload photos while taking notes with your hands, or while capturing high-resolution images with a DSLR to compliment what Glass is seeing.
As if that blogging hotness isn't enough, you can also get updates from social networks, read incoming emails, make calls, and chat with people. Yes, you can do that on your phone -- we all do it all the time -- but not hands-free, and not while you're also able to pay close attention to what's in front of you in physical space. You can get your camera geek on with a triple-shot like this too.
Glass is also really good at showing me stuff at a glance without me asking for it. Here's an example: while caught up in the moment of installing those hydraulic brakes on my road bike, the Google Now app reminded me of my flight home, that it was on time, and traffic to the airport looked good. Thanks, Glass.
But while Glass was great at the workshop, while building bikes, and while out on a ride, it was a distraction during social interactions in real life. A computer on your head with a tiny projector is just plain awkward. It sticks out like a huge Bluetooth headset, and it's a flag to all onlookers that you travel by douche canoe, or possibly that you have a cybernetic implant.
You can't accept a page of terms and conditions with your face, so it's no Wi-Fi for you in places like hotels and coffee shops.Exhausted by repeatedly saying, "No I'm not recording you," I finally stopped wearing it in public unless I was working or riding. Connecting to available Wi-Fi networks while out in the wild is also an issue. Glass often neglects to surface the network authentication gateway you often have to click through when accessing public Wi-Fi networks. You can't accept a page of terms and conditions with your face, so it's no Wi-Fi for you in places like hotels and coffee shops.
I found it best to just use it in private -- on a ride, in the shop, or in less-close quarters. The mountain biking event I attended with the Specialized crew included many international attendees. The Americans I encountered asked, "What's that on your head, and can I try it?" Germans asked if I was recording them. Most other nationalities looked at me with some suspicion. When a stoned hippie girl saw me wearing Glass in Park City during an art fair, she stopped hula-hooping and stood there with her mouth hanging open.
From an outdoor sports perspective, something like this could eventually replace the GoPro, though several manufacturers -- both bike industry hardware-makers and POV camera-makers -- are currently working on ways Glass can be incorporated into their products. Others in the cycling industry are working with companies like Recon, which has been at the forefront of incorporating heads-up displays into sports eyewear and goggles.
Either way, I can see the action cameras of the near future moving off our helmets and onto the sides of our faces. The connectivity features in Glass are too great to pass up. For example, you can receive chats from your friends about where to meet up after the ride and get directions to the rendezvous spot, all while keeping your hands on the bars. And as you can see in the videos, the image quality is pretty high already, with a wide viewing angle and a not-too-shaky picture. If you didn't get to share your recorded videos during a ride by tethering Glass to your phone, you can select and share them later while you're eating dinner or drinking a beer. Glass automagically uploads in the background to a Google Plus account when connected to Wi-Fi.
During an adrenaline-rush moment on a Park City trail, I was pedaling downhill on a thin strip of single track with hip-high grass pulling at the handlebars. Don't look right, lean left, pedal. And breathe. Getting through that section unhurt and alive, I paused, turned around, and said, "Ok, Glass. Take a picture."
Sure, we fear we may become so-called Glassholes in the brave new Googlized world with this wearable computer, talking business loudly in coffee shops and airports. Or we can get excited about the personal applications, like capturing those moments that otherwise would have just drifted off into memory.
