Video from my BSA

[shabashow]

Here's the results of a wee experiment I did last night by tying my tripod onto the seat and recording myself driving around east perhshire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFx1TeKSN94

For MkII, I'll need to sort out the wind noise and vibration, but I thought it was pretty good for a first stab.

[sinbad]

Looking forward to that,yes good start lets know how you get round the problems. Nice clear vid though. cheers.

[LJ.]

That was great... brightens up a dull Sunday afternoon! Brave you riding over them deep road chippings near the end of film, must have been an inch or two deep in places.

[shabashow]

Managed to keep the tyre in the relatively 'clear' bit swept by car tyres, but average speed around the 'globe' definitly was affected by teh chips!

[wilko]

I've done this quite a few times with a camcorder, and the wind noise and vibration drove me nuts watching it, The only good result i got was gaffer taping the camcorder to my hemet and glueing a piece of sponge over the mic! Try it! I also tried taping it around my waist which allowed me to see what was being recorded! Think i'll invest in one of those little lipstick cams.

[shabashow]

I think the next experiment will be with it taped to my chest. I'll wait for better weather, though

[a10 gf]

Nice roads. And a good first try. As for the sound, use a standalone mic with a cable, try putting a sock or some foam over it, and point it towards the rear of the bike (ie not towards the wind, but the engine\silencers), As for the vibrations, it seems the cam vibrates even more than the bike, maybe just strap it tightly to the frame would be better! and make sure the cams stabilizer function is on. Looking forward to MK2 !

Gave me an idea for the best road-video of the year competition (if enough interest).
e

[RichardL]

Inspired by Shabasow, I made a video yesterday by gaffer-taping my digital stills/mpeg camera to the handle bars. I taped a bit of foam over the microphone port but it didn't really help (any bigger and it would have covered the lens). What you need for windscreens, while using separate mics is something like you might see at a sporting event, that is, a substatial foam wind screen or one of the really fuzzy types they use on shotgun mics. Another problem was the noise of mechanical conduction from the handle-bar clamp bolts up into the camera. That noise could be isolated by sitting the camera on a bit of foam. The video istself is amazingly stable. What I would like to try is two cardioid-pattern mics on outriggers aiming approximately at the silencers, thus, stereo (anyone with the mics and time is welcome to beat me to the punch).  

I'm hesitant to post my video. It's long and runs through a lot of traffic in my suburb of Chicago (Naperville).  At one point I stalled the bike and at another I am stopped at a four minute red light. I cruised the local Harley dealer and tried to get a shot of the local biker watering hole, but the wind noise is awful. One interesting thing about the ride was seeing an MG A and an MG B at completely different locations (remember, this isn't the UK).

Richard L.

[wilko]

You have to remotely mount the camera to your body somehow to isolate the bumps.Works for me!

[iansoady]

I made this one a couple of years ago from my Velo. I strapped a Sony camcorder onto the tankbag (not very securely as it gradually slipped down on one side) and fitted a remote mike near the exhaust as suggested by a10gf.

Sadly the quality is poor as I had to reduce the resolution to get it onto youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73U-kdd4pfY

[shabashow]

Nice video in spite of the reduction in quality.
The remote mic seems to have done the trick regarding wind noise. Unfortunatly my camera doesn't have that facility, but I'll try tape over the wee holes at the mike position. I aso wanted to have some of the bike in the picture, hence my attempt at strapping it off the side. 

[RichardL]

I liked the bike being in the picture. Mine wasn't, which is part of the reason for not posting. I was trying to catch your hand action to compare to my own double clutching.

Richard L.

[shabashow]

I don't double clutch - more like a wee blip on the throttle while the clutch is kept in while going down the gears, mainly to get the engine speed close to gearbox speed.
I wouldn't know how to double clutch on the BSA. To me, double declutching would be used on an old 'crash' gearbox (one without syncromesh on old cars and busses) where you can pass through a neutral on the way from grinding one gear into another.
Never could work out why our gearboxes don't have syncromesh, but change (realitvely) smoothly compared to cars of the same vintage. My first car (a ford anglia) only had syncromesh in 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Slipping into first if you were even slighly moving needed a double declutch unless you wanted to create iron filings.

[RichardL]

Ah, yes. I mistakenly referred to the blip of revs (which is what I meant) as double clutching. It's only been 30 years since I had a manual transmission with no synchro into first, for which I now recall using real double clutching. Spontaneoulsy and quickly finding neutral to accomplish a double-clutched downshift on the A10, even between 2nd and 1st, would be stretch and, as you say, not really necessary.

Richard L

[wilko]

Of course you could also try one handed whilst riding!!