I recently read a post on a the American Motorcyclist Association website about which roads in the US had been voted as the top biking roads in the US.
Here are the top five. I am very lucky to have ridden some of them.
Number 1 – The Beartooth Pass.
On the Wyoming / Montana border, this is US Highway 212 which runs 69 miles between Red Lodge in Wyoming and Cooke City in Montana. Rising up to 10,947 feet / 3,337 metres, the road climbs and falls quickly. Even though I rode the Beartooth Pass in August, it was cold and very windy on the top of the mountains, so careful riding was a must. Snow was still on the ground and the temperature had plummeted thanks to the strong winds. The term windchill factor takes on a whole new meaning when you are exposed to the elements on top of a mountain.
Occasionally you hear people say they are “feeling on top of the world.” On Beartooth Pass, I truly felt it was – as the overall impression when looking down from a mountain upon other tall mountains is – quite literally, like being on top of the world. It is a remarkable feeling to stand and gaze out over so much land. The road surface was in tip-top condition and the overall feeling of riding the road was simple – wow. Just wow.
No wonder it was voted as number 1.
Number 2 – The Blue Ridge Parkway
I haven’t ridden this road yet, but it is very close to the top of my list of those I want to do. The road is 469 miles / 755 kilometres long, mainly along the Blue Ridge mountain chain. The road connects the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. Its construction started in 1936 and took 52 years to complete. Those who have ridden it tell me the scenery is wonderful and the bends sweeping. The parkway is often closed from November to April due to the harsh weather.
Number 3 – The Tail of the Dragon
Photo by Tim Vines
From the longest road in the top five to the shortest. At just 11 miles long, you might not think this is much of a road, until you find out it has 318 curves in that short distance. The road is a section of the U.S. Route 129 along the Tennessee - North Carolina Border. Notorious in the biking community, this is one of those roads that people travel a long way to ride. I look forward to riding it one day.
Number 4 – The Million Dollar Highway
Part of US 550, the Million Dollar Highway runs between Silverton and Ouray in Colorado. As it cuts its way through the San Juan Mountains, the 23 mile / 37 kilometre road has many hairpin bends, narrow lanes and steep unprotected drop-offs, which is precisely why it is so exhilarating. There are very few guardrails. Cresting at 11,075 feet / 3,376 metres on Red Mountain Pass, the most exciting part of the road is at its Ouray end, where it passes through Uncompahgre Gorge and the roadway clings to the side of the mountain. One slip here and it would be curtains for sure. The scenery and views are dramatic, which adds to the effect and, of course, the thrill of this exciting road. My video of riding this road gives just a taste of what the road is like.
Number 5 - California State Route 1
I have ridden the main part of this road, between San Francisco and Los Angeles, twice. It is truly spectacular.
Sometimes foggy, this road runs alongside the Pacific Ocean, right next to beautiful beaches and the stunning rocky coast.
Very remote in places, some of the best parts are Big Sur, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel, Santa Barbara and many others. With so much to see and take in, this has to be one of the most relaxing, chilled out roads anyone could ever ride. The ocean has some of the best surfing waves in the world and there are plenty of opportunities to see surfers in action alongside the road.
These are some of the best roads in the USA. Have you ridden any of these and what did you think of them?
Some of you will remember the ABCD photograph competition I ran some time ago. It is time to have another competition, but this time even bigger and better!
The new competition is for motorcycle videos. They can be filmed from on-board a motorcycle, they can be about anything to do with motorcycles, they can be old or they can be new.
The last competition had a short time-frame, but this one doesn’t. You have until 31st October 2013 to enter your video, so there is plenty of time. There are three categories...
1. On-board motorcycle videos. Amateur videos that include a considerable amount of material shot from on-board cameras mounted on your bike, helmet etc. 2. General motorcycle videos. Amateur videos about any aspect of motorcycles or motorcycling. 3. Professional motorcycle videos. These are made by professional film makers or videographers.
Wooley has already pointed out that entering this competition means that you have to already have a video camera, in order to win a video camera. He of course is quite right, but look at it this way – it is a chance to win ANOTHER video camera.
So, if you have a video you are already proud of, you can submit it now. If you haven’t, then start planning now to film something brilliant!
Please feel free to re-post this on your own blog, or website.
What does it look like from seated on a Harley Davidson motorcycle as we cruise down the Great Ocean Road here in Victoria Australia? This Youtube clip was taken on a recent ride when we took one of our customers down the coast as a pillion passenger recently.
Talking to our passengers, seated on the back of our Harley Davidson motorcycle, as we cruise around is one of the joys of a Harley Ride . Do we use an intercom? No we don't. Why? because we don't need one. Its very easy to talk to you if you are a pillion on a bike with us. Here is a Youtube clips that show you what I mean.
Here is a Youtube video clip that explains the Harley Ride Experience:A Harley Ride is an experience, which once taken is never forgotten. In this You tube video we explain what its all about and why this experience is suitable for anyone who has never been near a motorcycle in their life. Its for people who have never thought of a motorcycle as being something that's for them.This is the perfect
In order to write this guide, I based it upon my experience of mounting a GoPro camera to my motorbikes. Whilst I have written specifically about mounting this make of camera, I have tried to keep it as generic as possible so that it could apply to almost any camera on any motorbike. I hope you find it useful.
The guide is quite long. You could go get a drink before reading it and then settle down comfortably to read it, or you could scroll down quickly mainly looking at the pictures, or you could go down to near the bottom, to see what I recommend!
I adore my GoPro camera. It is small, very flexible, not too expensive, has great sound (no wind noise on a bike) and most of all, produces fantastic quality videos. I cannot speak highly enough of it. But, I soon realised that how you mount a camera to your motorbike is very important to the end result quality of your videos. I have tried a number of different methods with varying success, so I thought I would pass on what I have learnt.
For those of you contemplating the purchase of a GoPro camera, or indeed and camera to use on your motorbike, or for those that have realised the standard mounts that come with a GoPro camera are not very good, I present the “Rough Guide to Camera Mounts for Motorbikes”.
Not that I am an expert, neither have I tried every possible mounting system, but I have tried a few and I now realise how to tell the good, the bad and the ugly apart. Having now tried mounts that range in price from the really cheap to the expensive, I now have a definite favourite mount and there are some I will continue to use and others that are consigned to the “no way” box in my garage.
I have written here about all of the mounts I have tried and having read what others have said about different mounts they have tried, I have been able to give a score to each of the different mounts. At the end of this post, I have included my scoring sheet which presents my views numerically. With a maximum number of points of 35 being available, I have assessed each mount under the 7 categories of....
Ease of Mounting - how quick and easy is it to fix the mount to a motorbike? Flexibility – can you use the mount in different ways? Rigidity / Safety – how well is the mount fixed and is it safe? Build Quality – is it well made and will it last? Street Cred- it is fixed to your pride and joy, so does it look good? Cost – is it cheap or expensive and is it good value for money? End Results – how good are the end results of your video affected by the mount?
Saving the best until last, here are my views, starting with the worst.
Rather surprisingly, for a company that makes fantastic cameras, GoPro’s own handlebar mountscome in last with just 17 points. These are very well made and are very easy to mount to either handlebars or crash bars on a bike. They are very small and inconspicuous and therefore score highly on street cred, plus they are rigid in the way they are fixed. However, they can only be fixed at 90 degrees to your bars, with no sideways movement at all, which in most situations makes them totally useless on a motorbike! OK if you have straight bars, but if your bars are at any sort of an angle, they are no good at all.
GoPro’s own Handlebar mounts
With swept back bars, the camera points sideways at an angle, with no way to adjust it.
As there is no way to change the horizontal angle of the camera, the mount is useless and scores very badly because of this. In fact, this lack of flexibility is so bad, this issue alone relegates the standard GoPro handlebar mounts into last place. GoPro tell me they are going to make a fully adjustable mount, but until they do, I am afraid, they come last in my review.
In 6th place is something not for everybody. Given the lack of flexibility of the standard GoPro mounts, while I originally waited for a different solution to arrive in the post, I decided to make my own DIY mount. I went to a local photographic shop and bought the cheapest mini tripod I could find, chopped the legs off and screwed this to an un-used old sat nav clamp I had lying around. Using a GoPro tripod mount with a ¼ inch threaded hole, I was able to get this set-up to work on my handlebars.
It was very cheap and had good flexibily, but it moved in the wind if I went faster than about 40mph. It got me out of a fix while I waited for a new mount to arrive in the post, but even I admit, it wasn’t very good. People more able than me might be able to make a better job of it than I could, but there are much easier and better ways of mounting your camera!
In 5th place with 21 points is the GoPro suction mount. I have included this as you could mount any lightweight camera to it with the right ¼ inch tripod adaptor.
The best thing to say about this is it is really easy to mount and the suction cup is surprisingly secure, although you might want to consider using a way of tethering your camera to your bike in case it does come un-stuck. Clearly there are not many places you can mount this on a motorbike, but I tried the tank, the screen and even on the headlight, which on my bike has very smooth glass.
It works ok, but on a bike it looks cumbersome and downright ugly. One added benefit as bobscoot showed us on his blog is that it can also be mounted inside a car on the windscreen.
Here are pictures of the suction mount on my tank and headlight....
Suction mount on tank
Suction mount on the headlight
Mounting it on the headlight may seem a bit odd, but as my GoPro has a wide angle lens, I did like the results when looking backwards at the rider, because you can see the handlebars and it gives you a great idea of what the rider is doing as you can see their hands. Check out the view looking back from the headlight on this clip....
Overall, this suction mount doesn’t score very well because of the lack of flexibility, the potential for falling off and the poor street cred, however, used for short duration fill-in shots during a longer video, the results can be quite good.
The GoPro stick on mounts come in 4th with 22 points. Personally, I don’t like these, but they have a lot of good points, including the fact they are cheap, easy to use and the build quality is good.
For me, the downsides are that I don’t like the constant changing view as the rider moves their head to check traffic, look in mirrors etc. I am also not keen that you have to stick the pads to your crash helmet! My last negative is that they are not at all flexible, because once stuck into place, they can only give one view from the helmet position. I can see however how some people like them and on his blog, RazorsEdge2112 is an example of this – he has posted some videos on his blog with a helmet mounted camera.
You can remove the camera leaving the sticky mount on the helmet, so people who ride (say) a motorbike and a bicycle could use the camera on two different helmets, with two sticky mounts.
In 3rd place we have the RAM mounts with a U-boltclamp. These scored very well with 24 points.
Chrome Ram Mount, with a U-bolt clamp fixing at the bottom, ¼ inch male thread ball connector and a GoPro tripod mount.
Here are some pictures of my camera mounted to my bike using this Ram mounts system.
Front view of the Ram mount on my handlebars
Rear view of the Ram mount on my handlebars
Until very recently, this was my main method of fixing my camera to my bike. It is nice and simple, very flexible and very rigid. The main place it is fixed is on the handlebars using the U-bolt as a wrap around fixing. The quality is very good and the parts are not very expensive. They are readily available via the internet. Numerous angles can be achieved and adjusting the camera position – up, down, sideway, forwards and backwards is very easy – just undo the large wing nut, move the camera and do it up tight again. You have to be slightly careful that you don’t scratch your handlebars and I used some electrical tape to do this by wrapping it around the bars where I then mounted the u-bot fixing.
There are only two real drawbacks I can see. First, it can only really be mounted to the handlebars and second, it takes about 10 minutes to fix the mounting bracket and you need to do this with a spanner. Not a great problem but moving the mounting bracket to gain some flexibility for different shot positions is not really practical.
However, you can ride all day with this mounting system, secure in the knowledge that it isn’t going to work loose.
Coming in at second place is the Ram Mount with C-Clamp. This has been awarded 25 points out of 35, so it is scoring pretty high in most of the seven categories.
I haven’t actually used this clamp mount myself, but my Canadian friend bobscoot has. He wrote about it on his blog Wet Coast Scootin.
The Ram C Clamp mount
bobscoots GoPro camera mounted on his bike using the Ram C clamp
The main benefit of the clamp is its flexibility – it can be fixed to just about any tube or rail on your motorbike. Used in conjunction with the same type of mount bar and ¼ inch tripod mount (as in number 3 above) your camera can be fixed in many different positions and configurations on your bike. I have also given it a good score for cost, as these C clamp arrangements are not too expensive.
The downsides are it doesn’t score very high on street cred – it is not the best looking mount and it is also slightly bulky. Bob has told me the build quality is reasonable but it would have been better for the Ram C-clamp had finer threads and perhaps more rubber between the "claws" for better "gripping" action. Perhaps electrician's tape would make it hold a bit more secure. Because of the coarse threads and the small tightening knob, you can't get a lot of torque on the screw. It would be better if the knob was larger to get a more solid grip for more holding pressure. Bob found that even if you turned the knob very tightly, the whole clamp with the camera mounted would tend to "slip" out of position. Perhaps the electrian's tape would have solved the problem.
Finally and in 1st place is a system I have recently purchased and tested. It is a combination of a Cardellini clamp and a Manfrotto head. This arrangement scored a whopping 29 out of 35 in my review.
I found out about this mount on somebody’s blog (sorry but I cannot remember who’s blog it was) when I saw a piece of film made about the clamp. It is really technology from the movie industry that has been borrowed by some people with motorbikes to mount their cameras, and I have to say, it out-performs just about every other mounting system I have seen.
From bottom the top – a Cardellini mini clamp, a Manfrotto 118 spigot adaptor, a Manfrotto 482 Micro Ball head, a GoPro tripod mount and my GoPro camera
The assembled mount
So why does this mount get the top score? I have given it 5 out of 5 in 4 categories: Ease of mounting – you just tighten the screw thread by hand and it is fixed; Flexibility – you can put it just about anywhere on your bike as the photos below demonstrate; Build Quality – it is superbly made and already incorporates neoprene pads to protect whatever you are fixing it to; End Results – the wide range of places you can mount this clamp means your end results are simply the best achievable.
It also gets good marks for street cred – it looks like a professional bit of kit mounted on your bike. I have scored it 4 out of 5 for rigidity / safety only because it is possible to and therefore you might be tempted to, mount it in potential risky places, like too close to a wheel.
The only area that I marked it down on is the cost – it is considerably more expensive than the other types of mount, but in my opinion it is worth it. If you have spent a considerable amount on a camera, why wouldn’t you spend a bit more than the other options to get fantastic results?
I have included here pictures of some of the mounting options that I found on my red bike. Bearing in mind there are far fewer places to fix a camera mount on my red bike than most other bikes, I think you will agree the flexibility this mount gives is a considerable benefit.
Camera mounted on handlebars
Camera mounted on frame downtube
Camera mounted on rear swinging arm
Camera mounted on rear number plate / rear license plate
Camera mounted on swinging arm
The results of using the camera mounted in these various and very flexible ways are amazing. The video I made of riding through London last week (copied below) was filmed using this mounting system and I am very happy with the results.
In summary, the different methods of mounting a camera are many and varied. Different systems will be better for different people – I guess it really depends what you want from your video camera and how you want to use it.
Whichever system you use, I wish you all the best with it and may it help you to produce fine videos. For those that are interested, here is my scoring sheet and you will need to click on it to read it properly. I totally accept that other people might score each system differently to me!
If you have managed to read all the way down to here, congratulations!
Friend and fellow blogger Ian Solley, of 7 Ages Custom Motorcycles and I went for a ride on our custom motorbikes on Thursday. Ian is a custom bike builder extraordinaire, as he mainly builds bikes for fun and he currently has 6 of them!
We decided to meet at 10.30am in Greenwich. Founded by King Charles II and built in 1675, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian of the World, making it the official starting point for each new day, year and millennium. As time is started there, it seemed like an ideal location for Ian and myself to start our motorcycle ride.
I live just north of London but Greenwich is way over in East London. I had allowed plenty of time to get there, but I was late. London traffic is unpredictable, but predictably it all seemed to be in the same place as me. Combined with the fact that I wasn’t exactly sure where the entrance to the Observatory was and I misjudged its location badly, meant I arrived late. However, as I rode along the Observatory's tree lined avenue, there was Ian - smiling and waiting for me.
Ian had bought one of his latest bikes, called Hamlet. It is a striking light blue bike rigid-framed bike with a Harley-Davidson engine, originally from a Street Bob. It has an S&S carb and the frame and all the sheet metal are to a one-off design. The exhaust pipes are wrapped and having ridden next to it, I can personally vouch for their volume!
The picture above shows the bikes in front of a statue of General Wolfe who commanded the British forces at Quebec against the French and won a great victory, at the cost of his life. The statue was erected in 1930 and bears the inscription “This monument, a gift of the Canadian people, was unveiled by the Marquis de Montcalm”. History lesson over.
Here are some more pictures of the Royal Observatory....
The bikes on the tree-lined avenue
Part of the observatory
General Wolfe looking out over London
The bikes draw some interest
The view over London with the National Maritime Museum at the bottom of the hill and Canary Wharf in the background
The weather was unseasonably warm – it fact it was a corker of a day – slightly chilly at first but then warm with bright blue skies all day. We had a fantastic ride – no rush, no time to get anywhere, just two guys out riding their bikes. We stopped at Warrs, the Harley-Davidson dealer in Chelsea before eating at a Spanish restaurant just around the corner.
Here is a video we took of the ride .....
As you can see, we tried the camera in many different positions and this was using a new recently acquired mounting clamp. I will write more on this blog soon comparing the different types of mounting clamp available.
Ian in the restuarant
Thanks Ian for a brilliant day out, and for lunch!
You might see some more of Ian and one of his bikes on this blog in the near future – we are both going to the 2010 Harley-Davidson Euro Festival in St Tropez, southern France and no doubt I will be doing a posting or two about that trip.
The sun was out, the skies were blue, the temperature was warm. What a perfect day for a ride!
I wanted to test my GoPro camera in a city, so I chose London - My City. I was born here and have lived here all my life. So I fixed the camera to the bike, checked I had a full battery and I headed south into Central London.
I love My City. It is so lively, so full of things to do and see. So full of culture and the arts. So full of magnificent buildings. So full of life.
Yesterday, so full of traffic!!! So full of tourists!!! The latter were nice to see. The former wasn’t.
I have cut down 2 hours of film into the highlights of the ride. Squeezing London into 10 minutes isn’t easy, but I enjoyed the ride and making the video. I hope you enjoy watching it.
You will see a few things worthy of a small note....
The Amphibious Tour Bus is called The Duck. It is unlike any other bus tour in London as after driving on the streets for a while, it plunges into the River Thames!
You will see Horseguards Parade, which is a large square often used for Royal and State occasions. This is going to be the location for the Beach Volleyball in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The London Eye is 135 metres (442 ft 11 in) in diameter and is the largest observation wheel in the world. It has become the most popular tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over three million people in one year. The construction management company I used to be a director of built the London Eye. It was quite a challenge!
At the end of the video is Tower Bridge, which I rode across. The wide angle lens of the GoPro makes it look squat. It is actually taller than it appears.
Lane splitting is legal in the UK. Just in case you were wondering.
I know there doesn’t seem like there is much traffic in the video. Believe me, there was – I simply didn’t include it in the final video!
I think the camera performed well. The only problem was I wrapped a strip of cloth around the handlebars to protect it when I fixed the camera. This has caused a “bounce” effect when I rode over bumps. A lesson learned.
From time to time we get called on by various Melbourne TV networks to do a spot on one of their shows. This time it was Cox's Big Break, a travel show which goes to air each Saturday on Network 7 at 5.30pm.Here is the episode that included Harley Rides :
The Great Ocean Road is probably one of my personal favourite Harley Rides. Anyone who books this tour with us never fails to come away feeling that they have just completed one of the all time great experiences of their life.
Recently, a Rider Safety DVD was produced by the Victorian Motorcycle Advisory Council (VMAC) aimed at riders taking on the Great Ocean Road Challenge. VMAC is the body
In Australia a Harley Ride means taking someone, os a pillion passenger, for a joyride on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. In Australia, we don't refer to our machines as "our ride". We go for a ride with friends, and we take people for a ride on our bikes....In Australia, we have a Harley Rides Industry - yes, people who have never been near a motorcycle in their lives, or have never thought of
One of my other passions, when not taking people for a Harley Ride is in the area of Motorcycle Safety and related issues. This video came to my attention yesterday and I encourage everyone to have a look at it. You can view it at:www.pleaselooktwice.comIts always a pleasure to share ones's love of motorcycles with others - especially when they are in the planning stages decidinh how to get
I stumbled over an excellent Video Page on the Visit Victoria web site the other day.It contains four magnificent Video Clips that showcase magnificent Melbourne.
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