and so begins the training

It's strange that a trip that is only a week long requires training and preparation 12 months before the event. Having said that we do intend on riding Tasmania and New Zealand not long after.

Shortly I will be scrambling up Pomona Mountain with a few experienced mountain climbers to learn the basics of survival on a cliff face. I'm pretty fit now but I feel that I've got a fair bit further to go if I want to do this trip comfortably. I may look at utilising a personal trainer for a bit just to see where I stand.

At the same time as going up and down mountains I'll be receiving professional off-road/adventure riding training. So soon I'll be better off-road than on! Once I get my unrestricted license I'll do further on-road training to make sure I'm good to go on a new bike should I get one.

Oh, Google Reader is awesome.

Helmet Camera

I may have mentioned that I ordered a helmet camera from the UK. It's a 4Kam bullet camera that came along with a Goodmans GPDR1 (rebadged Mustek PVR-A1) portable multimedia device. I also got the optional litium-ion battery pack and splitter to power the camera and the recorder although the recorder has it's own lithium battery.

So far I've only just worked out how it all plugs together and did a quick record test to make sure it was all working. Now I'm charging the batteries since the battery pack requires a good 6 - 8hrs of charging.

If the weather is looking good for tomorrow (Isolated showers. Light winds and afternoon seabreezes) then I might give it a run. Although at this stage it will most likely be on Monday.

Here's a picture with a 20c coin for size comparison:

So far I'm very happy with the camera unit and its battery pack. The 520tvl resolution is fine for the PAL 4:3 ratio output (effective pixels: 752x582) apparently quite high for such cameras. It would be nice if it provided a wide aspect option like the V.I.O POV camera. It does get warm during use which makes me wonder how much power is being wasted - I think I read somewhere that it's difficult to make such things efficient. I'll have to reseach that further.

I have yet to test the longevity of the battery. Given the size and weight of the pack and the draw from the camera I should see at least 6hrs of use between charges. Its simple enough to use as it only has as single socket that is used for both charge and discharge. The power pack has a green light that shows when it is charging (drawing a current I guess).

I'm looking for a HD (720P or 1080i) recorder with some kind of solid state storage (SD, SSD) to go with the camera. I only got the recorder with the camera to test as it was cheap enough. The recorder provides quality that YouTube considers 'High Quality' when recoding with SP (Standard Play) however its limited by its 320x240 resolution. Mind you that such a low resolution means less storage required - 10MB a minute with SP and half that with LP. The specifications of the recorder stipulate a maximum of 512MB flash can be used but I'm testing with a 2GB SD card to see if its a false limitation.

The free microphone is fine if you plug it into a suitable pre-amplifier. The little inline thing with a 1.5v battery hardly boosts the signal. I guess its why they say its suitable for loud engine and wind noises. I have a suitable microphone coming my way so I'll test the sound further when it arrives. Otherwise you will need a microphone with inbuilt preamp or something that produces a line-level feed for the AV input to the recorder.

Today I got a Camelpak to carry the recorder/batteries and to tidy up the cable to the camera and eventually the microphone. Worked out neatly I reckon:

So I bit the bullet and bought a 'bum bag' or 'fanny pack' to stick all the batteries/cables/recorder into. The camelpak made it too difficult to quickly access the recorder and also made it hard to stick the camera on the helmet properly. I feel so wrong wearing it but then again I have a frickin camera stuck to my head...

Currently trying to queeze the most quality as possible from youtube. It's bad enough being limited to 320x240 and then having youtube distroy what is actually a pretty good quality image. I've been ending up with a colourful pus that youtube deems to be sufficient video quality. Now I'm exporting videos as High Quality FLV files at 427 x 320 output - lets hope youtube accepts these for what they are and not try to 'correct' them.

Update on the microphone. The one I had ordered from EyeSpyWorld never arrived and they're not responding to e-mails or phone calls. This is after three weeks so I've lodged a paypal dispute on the amount which is a ridiculous sum for what is basically $15.00 worth of components and even then that's probably over estimating. So I spent days hunting around for another microphone and finally found Jaycar Electronics CCTV Microphone. This is half the price of the other one and appears to have a higher gain too and looks better constructed. So I've ordered one and I hope Paypal favours me in the dispute against 'EyeSpyWorld'.

How I'm composing and editing my videos. I've used a few different editing tools such as Adobe Premiere, Kino, Open Movie Editor, Cinelerra, PiTiVi Video Editor and even Picasa 3. My favourite though is Avidemux. It's just plain simplistic in the way it handles videos and doesn't try to do anything for you such as converting the output to PAL resolution.

Steps I use for processing a video for youtube:

Convert the video from ASF to MPG using FFMPEG like so:

ffmpeg -sameq -r 25 -i IMAG001.ASF HelmetCam_date.mpg

Then I open the resultant MPEG file with avidemux add the selection start and end points and simply 'copy' both the video and audio to a another file. Then I open the other file and then apply any FX etc and then I render the file in Xvid/MP4 with 1000kbit/sec bitrate, +20% contrast and sharpened filters. I also tweak the audio to joint stereo since its only mono anyway. I never change the resolution from 320x240. This I find makes a reasonably quality youtube video. Make sure you check out the manual/wiki for avidemux for things like keyframes, indexing and other possible gotchyas when dealing with various video formats.

Update: I got my Jaycar microphone today. It's pretty damn sensitive so I wraped it with electrical tape and stuck a Tasmanian Devil finger puppet I happened to have (doesn't everyone have one?) on it.

Update: So the tassie devil didn't work as well as I had hoped. So now I've wraped it up with a chux cloth. The trick is that I want to maintain a reasonable sound range so I don't sound like I'm talking though a sock but I don't want to peg the microphone with background/wind noise. Ultimately a throat microphone or a preamp with adjustable gain is best but alas space and power is at a premium.

Nup, chux was just as bad. Seems I was right the first time with the electrical tape. Try that tomorrow.

Update: No luck with the microphone - just too sensitive. The actual cable was picking up wind vibrations So I'm going to relegate the bullet camera to bike mount only. I have just purchased a Sony DSC-T90 and modified the helmet to accommodate it. The benefits of this is that this camera while being very small it records 1280x720 movies at 30FPS, and its a CCD sensor with optical image stabiliser. Only problem is the touch screen but that's easy to deal with.

Things you see on the road

I saw this on the way in to work this morning. Ouch.

Malaysia Trip 2010

Yes that's right I'm part of a group that's planning on heading over to Malaysia (and maybe other parts of South East Asia) sometime June next year. The highlight is that it will be on motorbikes!

We'll be doing it though Borneo Biking Adventures. It looks like it will mainly be day trips from a central location with support vehicles. So I'm keen as mustard to go. I guess it's about time to stop being ignorant of the world and organise my passport and go look at some countries.

I'll update this blog with the lead up to the trip and I guess the actual trip, with helmet camera footage I hope!

QLD Netrider Group Ride Sunday 17th May 2009

Ride Organiser: Muttly

Participants:

• Avon (Suzuki GSX650)
• BalmyBrowny (Suzuki GSXR600)
• Benjamin78au (Honda VTR250)
• Cuvy (Yamaha XT600 “Bovine”)
• Muttly (Yamaha FJR1300)
• Godspetmonkey (Honda VFR800)
• Lawrence (Suzuki GSX1000)
• Righty (Honda CBR1000RR)
• Dooper (Kawasaki ZX6R)
• Sooty (Kawasaki GPX250)
• TheBigD (Honda VFR800)

An awesome ride that went without a hitch due to excellent organisation and participation.Woke up to a clear sunny morning that was making promises of a warmer than usual day. So I decided to chance it and wear my clown jeans (Hornee's that are too big). The bike still had about 300km of fuel left so I went straight from Nambour to Dayboro via Narangba at 8am. Not 10 minutes on the highway and I was wishing I had my other pants. I experimented following various cars to see which felt the warmest.

I had not taken this route to Dayboro before which runs along the western side of Lake Kurwongbah. Normally I would go all the way into Petrie and jump onto Anzac Ave and then onto Dayboro Rd which is a long way for nothing. I thought I was royally lost somewhere between Burpengary and Nerangba when suddenly I popped out onto Dayboro Rd. I did a happy dance and hiked it west and found myself in Dayboro at 9:15am for a ride starting at 10am. So I went for a quick cruise around the back streets since I had only seen the main roads throughout the place before and it is quite a nice area. Topped up the tank, checked the oil and that was me ready to go.

The Group at Dayboro

The larger part of the group arrived at 9:30am on the dot from their ride via Mt Glorious. Everyone was pretty much ready by 9:45am which is always a good sign. Muttly and TheBigD did the headcounts and then Muttly gave the general run down on how the ride will go – all straight forward and nothing strict. We departed Dayboro heading up Mt Mee Road at 10am with me grinning like an idiot.

Everything was great over Mt Mee, views, temperature, road, all except for a section on the northern side, Delaneys Creek, where they have recently fixed the shoulder using what appeared to be gravel mixed with sewage thus there was loose gravel all over. It's interesting watching other peoples lines through the bends since I don't know what mine are like – someone on another ride said that I take 'touring' lines?

We all made it as a group to Woodford for a break with a few taking advantage of the bakery. This was us just getting warmed up though so shortly we were on our way to Mountain View (near Maleny) via the Maleny Stanley River Rd. I was following Benjamin78au on his VTR250 during this stage and was amused as he was jumping up and down on his bike trying to squeeze more speed out of it during an overtake.

My bike at Woodford


The "bovine"

Arrived at Mary Caimcross Park and lined the bikes up along the edge of the car park in what appeared to be a organised manner that would have impressed the onlookers. Here we met Di (Suzuki GSR600) and her husband Russel (Triumph Tiger) who are locals to the Sunshine Coast. Another rider on an intense sounding MV Augusta F4 pulled up and had a chat to us about various things. It was great in the warm sun enjoying the good company and views. It was one of those rare days where you can see right out to the ocean past the Glasshouse mountains.

The group at Mary Caimcross Park

After a good 30min we set off towards Beerwah. I corner marked the first corner of this leg and didn't catch the TEC so I waited for what felt like ages in a passing lane wondering where the others were. I was starting to confuse the cagers so I took off and managed to catch up as the group was heading through the ice box where I regretted removing my jacket's thermal liner. We turned right down Old Gympie Rd and then right again towards Peachester along a set of finely crafted curves of the asphalt kind. I was following Avon on his Suzuki GSXR650 trying on his lines. Onwards to Woodford for the next stop.

Twenty or so minutes in Woodforward and we were on our way back over Mt Mee but this time stopping at the lookout. This presented me with a funny moment as I negotiated the gravel strewn corner of the lookout. I think my front and back tyres took turns loosing traction and it felt like I rode in diagonally. By this time a rather forboding storm cloud had drifted overhead and made me doubt if I could ever get away with not being rained on during a groupride.

View from the Mt Mee Lookout

Did the mandatory group photoshoot with the Glass House Mountains under an ominous cloud in the background. The rain held off and our downward path off Mt Mee went smoothly with only the tail end of the group being stuck behind a car or two. We concluded the day at 2pm, said our goodbyes and went our separate ways while looking forward to the next ride. Then it rained on me.

It was a uneventful ride home and everyone checked in on the forums so all in all a successful day which I think everyone will be happy to do again. Many thanks to all.

Coming up shortly

Last night I purchased a '4Kam' helmet camera kit from the UK. It would be nice if it arrived before this weekend however that, I believe, is very wishful thinking. I could have gone the 'shove a cheap camera in ya helmet' route but I like my breath deflector. I will be getting a compact DV camera like a Creative Vado HD for when I'm walking around bikeless.

Reason for the cameras is that I want to start vlogging my motorcycling adventures. At the very least start to nut out the gadgets and technical bits of it before going on planned motorcycling adventures such as the Malaysia one next year. I might follow the trend and post random trips about the place while blabering on about some topic or another.

I've added a few links to my favourite 'vloggers' in the side bar.

While I'll host the videos on YouTube I'll try and use this blog as the main site for viewing them and keep all my *logging in the one location. Reckon that's possible Google??

I'm going to be the official 'ride reporter' of my first Netrider QLD ride planned for Sunday May 17th (this Sunday). I look forward to the ride but I better take pen and paper because I'm a shocker with remembering names.

I haven't been on a group ride for a while. Kinda lost touch with the usual group I ride with and I've been enjoying the solo rides or ones with just my mate Rob or my dad. I can be such a recluse sometimes.

The Sunshine Coast Twisty Tour - 15th March Legends Ride

Ride participants: Adrian (Yamaha FJ1200), Ben 1 (Kawasaki GPX250), Ben 2 (Suzuki Weeee-Strom 650), Jeremy (Kawasaki GPX250), Lawrence (Pillion), Rob (Suzuki SV650), Todd (BMW F1200GS), Toni (Kawasaki Vulcan 900 Custom), Steve (Kawasaki Vulcan 1600 Classic) and Vinny (Yamaha Virago 250)
Ride Leader: Ben (aka Me)
Ride TEC: Steve
Photographs: Toni, Steve

I woke up at around 5:30AM as I do most days, check the weather and then go about my usual pre-ride morning routine. However this time I organised the BBQ since it will be a sought after commodity this afternoon for the ride lunch. It was about 7AM when I was sitting on the bike sweet talking it into starting after having neglected it for a week while cyclone Hamish was giving us grief. Once I got it on the road it was all good. Popped into the local BP servo to check the tyres as I still had a full tank from after the ride last week. From the BP I went to Rob's place in Wombye and did laps of his street until I saw him pop his head out the front door to rage at that noisy sewing machine that woke him up. Once he was sorted we started off at about 7:40AM to the Beerwah train station to pick Ben and Todd up.

So the four of us Sunshine Coast dwellers (except Ben who's from up Gympie way) made it to April Bella's in Beerburrum just a tad late, I think it was 8:20AM. Introductions were done and we were off at about 8:30AM. The others started off with a lovely breakfast at the new Legends Cafe in Redcliffe before leisurely making their way north to meet at Beerburrum - such hard lives I don't know how they do it.

So begins the first of many Sunshine Coast rides. I say many because it would appear that the Sunshine Coast has a premium of nice roads that must be ridden upon.

The first stretch went as planned. Heading down Steve Irwin Way and turning left at the Mooloolah BP service station heading towards the Mooloolah township. I must say that this road is much nicer without the sun in your face and I think the group enjoyed these first set of twisties and everyone stayed together nicely so there was no need for any lost biker posters and emu parades. Everyone liked the 'duck ponds' at Palmwoods which was our first group stop over.

Once we were rested it was off to Yandina via Keil Mountain Road and Bli Bli. I think this section now has a new set of fans with the assortment of hills and valleys and new views making for a interesting and fulfilling ride. However we did manage to part the group through some roundabouts but the group managed to consolidate at the Bli Bli castle where I stopped for a short time to gather everyone before the next few corners which weren't signed. Everyone liked the long straight in the valley - we'll have to think of a cool name for it. Personally I think it was a lot more interesting when a cane train once cut right in the middle - made for some interesting races - the tracks are no longer there.

The Yandina stop was a bit confusing. I had planned to stop over at the Lion's Park just before the township, which we did, but people needed fuel and more importantly - coffee. So in future I'll modify the ride plan for the stop to occur in Yandina itself as the Blue Moon Cafe is quite good and there's a BP servo just down a bit. Once Ben and Todd had finished interrogating a rider who had made the mistake of pulling up on a new BMW F800GS we were right to head off to the Obi Obi Road intersection. I opted out of going to the Bell Bird Creek Cafe because it would mean doubling back though Kennilworth and we had already had our coffees at Yandina.

The road between Yandina and Kennilworth is a nice one, particularly the stetch between Eumundi and Kennilworth. A wide road with 100kph limits with a few 80kph stretches that had some nice bends. Some beautiful views of the rolling hills around Eumundi and rural areas around Kennilworth. Everything was a vivid green due to the weeks worth of rain. The stop over at the Obi Obi Road intersection was on a bit of disused road where the views were good and the grass soft. It's a park area but I've forgotten the name of it.

During most of the ride we did see a few motorcyclist but no where near as many as we would see around Mt Mee and Mt Glorious. Personally I find this better since I find them a tad more difficult to contend with - overtaking in the same lane and whatnot. It's nice to have a good road with just your group on it sometimes. We were over taken by three cruisers (Harley's ) and that was it for the entire ride.

From there we took off up the wonderful Obi Obi road to Mapleton. There's a few one way bridges that I didn't remember to put in the plan - bit of a pain since they are definitely noteworthy as we were the ones giving way on them. It was good not having to worry about on-comming traffic however half the group had to deal with a caravan and then we got stuck behind a cruiser and a ute heading up on the good parts. I guess it was still somewhat fun but it could have been a lot more interesting. I located the turn off to the Mapleton Falls National Park - it's quite a sharp left hand up hill corner best taken in first gear.

Everyone was very impressed with this stop. While the parking wasn't particularly bike friendly with it's steep slopes we managed okay. The lookout is just a few meters from the car park and is something worth seeing since you're put right above the waterfall looking down what must be 200m at least. Very cool and pleasant - just what you need after tackling Obi Obi Rd.

Refreshed and ready to go we started off towards Montville to battle Palmwoods - Montville Road. This raging set of twists that rapidly find their way down the steep slope to Palmwoods is an excellent lesson in gears, engine braking and steering. I think everyone fell in love with the road and would probably have stayed there all day going up and down if allowed. Rob was quick to say that he lives just nearby and rides it all the time. The only problem was on coming traffic but there's plenty of space as long as you're not trying to break any speed records. Back through Palmwoods and this time dropping onto Nambour Connection Road heading north and turning onto Pringle/Panorama Drv and to my place for a BBQ at I think was about 1:30PM. I then spent the next 30min slaving over a hot plate to serve up what must have been the best cooked meat ever, because I cooked it Thanks to Steve/Toni for the snags and bread. Also, Toni, check this link out

Once people had their scoff and rest with a bit of conversation thrown in for social/politeness they said their good byes and parted ways. All in all I think the ride was quite a success and I've learnt a few things to improve 'Sooty's Circuit'. Plus Ben, Rob and Todd have pointed out a few other nice roads to include in other Sunshine Coast ride plans.