Still Climbing the Motorcycle Video Learning Curve...

Made my second "Test Ride" yesterday... 'bout a 40 mile round trip... rolling to the Post office over in Dutch John Utah... to pick up our forwarded mail.

It's ugly... but I taped the visor on my Nolan Helmet, in a test to prove whether the excessive wind noise on the last test video I made was indeed, due to a helmet malfunction, or not... and... yup... it was...

*Nolan Helmet Taped to seal leaky Visor*

With the visor sealed up well... if ugly... and the microphone sensitivity on my Drift HD170 camera turned to it's lowest point...

... The audio quality turned out to be very good... 'leastways to my tin ears...

I mounted the microphone to the cheek piece on the right side... with it's lil' clamp...

That's a weak mount... I keep knocking it loose when I put the helmet on... so... I'll stitch in a small tab of fabric... to the cheek piece... to give that microphone clamp something it can more easily grip... and move the mic up and over a lil' more out of the way...

*Drift Innovation camera and Microphone mounting*

*Helmet camera and Microphone mounting*

The camera itself... is mounted on its Drift Innovation Helmet mount, using strong velcro... to the lower right side of the helmet... You can see the external microphone, just above it to the right.

Though the camera looks "bulky"... there is no weight to it at all... you don't feel a thing, either from it's weight or wind drag... You really don't know it's there...

With it's good field of view, mounted in this position, the picture shows everything from the the fuel tank forward... including a bit of the side of the helmet... a pretty nice; "Birds Eye view"... and, with the visor taped, the wind noise is pretty much gone...

I'd have an initial "test video" uploaded... but for the fact that where I'm parked now, the signal is so weak, I can juuuuuuust get a blog post made... uploading video is a no go... :)

It's been suggested that I try Roxio Creator to solve my "editing" issues with the XP laptop... I'm likely to pass on that. I checked it out... and it's "Format" looks a lot like Windows Movie maker... which is free... not the hundred bucks of buying the Roxio Program... 

Since I do have that functioning... on my lil' Acer (10" notebook) which has the windows 7 version that WILL FUNCTION, with the Drift Camera, I think I'll try to get along with that... until I can afford to upgrade my main laptop...

That... and the fact that it looks like I'm gonna need to replace a helmet a little sooner then expected... unless I get to liking the idea of riding around with duct tape all over my head! :) ... has me likely taking the "Cheap" way out... and making do...

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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Motorcycle Tires and Motorcycle Videos

Made some progress on a couple of fronts the past few days...

Good as it is... living full time, on the road in a Fifth Wheel... can create problems of it's own... like... the lack of good air card signal when you're fighting your way through a computer glitch... or hunting motorcycle tires...

After struggling with that dang computer and video camera for a couple days... and an email conversation with the outfit I bought my Drift Innovation Video camera from, I'm on the trail of getting videos into production... I've run into a couple of obstacles...which have turned out to be issues "outside" of the camera itself...

One being the Microsoft Movie Maker program I prefer... and the fact that the version on my "Old" laptop won't read the files from the new camera... and the second being, that Nolan Motorcycle Helmet of mine has developed its own issue. The face shield won't completely seal down any longer... so... it makes a lot of wind noise in the microphone... I've got it taped to test my belief that is the source of the excessive wind noise...

But... after fretting about the camera for a couple days... it's a good thing that the problems I've found are OTHER pieces of software and hardware, and NOT the new Video Camera... the camera itself seems to function pretty fine... gonna make another test in today's sunshine... to prove out my thinking...

Then, sitting in the Laundromat yesterday I finally found a rear skin for that big bad Raider of mine. :) My Droid phone is pretty handy for such searches in unfamiliar country...

Several Motorcycle shops could "order" one... I guess there are areas of the country where use of that 210 Metzler tire still isn't common enough for them to stock it... but ordering in a "Special" makes it a lot more costly...

I Did finally find a shop up in Missoula that had the next size bigger, a 240 that still fits on... Yup... and only $500! :) ... uh... Do YOU see something wrong with that song? :) Guess what tire I'm NOT putting on Red? Bad enough a Raider eats that back rubber in 8,000 miles... but... I'm not gonna pay $500 plus mounting... every 8,000 miles!!!

But... thanks to that good Ol' Droid phone... Sitting in that Laundromat in Vernal Utah... surfing and calling to find a tire somewhere along our projected route of yondering... I found the tire I need up in Hamilton Montana.

Their price is the goin' rate in a normal location (not out in the sticks) so I'll take it... but... a Motorcycle tire that is something around a 1/3 more then the tires on the truck... sure makes a fella wheeze a bit! ... good thing I'm in love with that bike!

So... when we pull out of this camp, Sunday or Monday... I'll be working my way toward Hamilton, Montana...

... and studying Motorcycle Video Making along the way!

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
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