Japan Meets Britain
Just got the bike back from my mechanic from its latest round of maintenance and modifications. I finally had the cable guide done properly for the speedo cable on the fender stay, and it looks much better than my earlier 'fix'. As well, I had a new chain guard chromed and installed. Fresh 15w40 Shell Rotella in the crankcase, new chain, as well as just the general going over. Took it out for a shakedown ride today, and it's all ready for Mid-Ohio.
I'm still working on trying to do a video of it underway....might try to clamp the camera to the bike somehow!
Last edited by Vince Lupo on Sun Jul 05, 2009 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
Hi Vince
As they say in On Any Sunday ... neat ! Catches the exhaust note really well, but I keep thinking you're on the wrong side of the road. Are you using an ordinary camcorder or one of the "action" ones ? Will you be doing a forward facing one ? I've tried 2 different types recording riding around a circuit in France on parade sessions. Last year I used an Oregon 2K on a handlebar mount - not great sound quality and no viewfinder so a bit hit and miss. This year I used a cheap camcorder with an SD card, on a suction cup mounting mounted on the speedo and the camera tied to the steering damper knob. The camera has a flip out screen so you can set it up and watch it back. The mounting is really meant for sticking a GPS set to a car windscreen. Good picture ( if you don't knock it into macro mode like I did **** ) and sound is pretty good but you get everyone else as well as the odd missed gearchange. cheers Phil
Hi Phil - good to hear from you. I did both of these videos this morning at about 7:30am, and what I did was use two Manfrotto 'Super Clamps', which are photo-related items (I'm a commercial photographer, so I have junk like this sitting around). One clamp went onto the passenger peg, and I coupled that one to the second Super Clamp. The second one had a hold of the camera, which is just a little Nikon S5 point and shoot camera with video capabilities (believe me, there are much better ones out there, as this is a few years old).
As far as the forward/backward view goes, I'll try a forward view next. There are a couple of reasons why I tried a backward view: i) the microphone is on the front of the camera, and I was concerned about wind noise hitting it directly, and all it would pick up is the wind noise. So I faced it backwards to avoid/reduce that possibility; ii) since the 'business end' of the mufflers is at the rear of the bike, thought it would be best to face the camera towards the rear to effectively get the muffler sound; iii) hey, you weren't expecting a rearward view, so I'm just giving you a perspective you wouldn't normally see on a bike! If it would be of any help, I can take a photo of my little setup to show you how I've mounted the camera. I went for another 70 mile run this afternoon -- man this bike runs great. Definitely the best bike I've ever owned. And even if it were totally stock, I'm sure I'd feel the same way!
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