I know I'll be preaching to any biker choir here, but not being able to get out on the bike sucks.
For me, my reasons are two-fold.
1. The obvious "bloody white stuff falling from the sky" that we've had on and off for a couple of days;
2. I normally wear glasses, so when riding I prefer to put in contacts
Now, I'll explain the second one more fully.
For short journeys, I would normally be OK with wearing my glasses. And my daily commute is short. However, at these colder temperatures, as soon as I stop [or worse, while moving] my glasses will steam up unless I ride with the visor open.
And my eyes have been sore from continual use of contacts recently. Largely because I've went from rare use - once a week on average, for a few hours - to having them in from 8am till about 7pm.
Couple this with the harsh lights that seem to be getting used at my work, and by about 3pm my eyes have been burning each day.
Therefore, I'm resting my eyes.
But gah, I want to be filtering through those lines of cars. Those people cursing other drivers for causing them to be stuck moving only a few miles an hour.
Instead, I'm stuck in public transport hell; sitting on a packed tram.
Pity me?
2015/01/30
2015/01/26
Clear sound!
This morning's ride had nice clear sound with no wind noise.
It still contains a stupid sounding voice though, but that can't be helped unless I get Morgan Freeman to narrate...
Next up: editing a video. Will likely include the journey home in any first video.
It still contains a stupid sounding voice though, but that can't be helped unless I get Morgan Freeman to narrate...
Next up: editing a video. Will likely include the journey home in any first video.
2015/01/24
How I got my license
I posted this on a thread in Reddit, but felt I would share it here too.
CBT
Did this with a place in Paisley [near Glasgow] called Bike It. 4 of us for the day, me, 2 younger guys, and this "old" ned/chav. I actually figured he was younger than me, but alchol and other abuses took their toll so he looked mid 40s.
The initial parts of the day were great. Explanations, etc.
Then, it came to getting on the bike. I listened and watched the explanation of how to get the bike moving, thought "yup, looks fine enough." Kicked into first, added throttle, let up the clutch. Stall.
Started the engine back up and tried again. Stall.
Repeat... I'm moving! Stall. And the bike falls over and snaps the clutch lever.
Once I was able to get moving - and didn't need to stop - I was fine. Slalom, figure 8, etc.
This set up for pretty much the rest of the day where I was nervous with the clutch, just uncertain on how to use it right. But, somehow I passed. I have a feeling it's because I went out on the road with the ned, who was terrible. And he probably distracted a lot from mistakes I was making. However, my road awareness was reasonably good due to 17 years behind the wheel.
It took me a bit to realise [as in a number of lessons] what I had done wrong to begin with, and why. I'm also not sure how the instructor didn't catch the mistake.
Basically, I misunderstood his directions. I was trying to release the clutch slowly the entire time I was moving, rather than waiting until the bike was stable. So, I was dumping it each and every time.
Lessons
I started off with lessons with the same guys. Mainly because they were highly recommended and I liked their attitude.
They'd joke with you when appropriate and politely point out mistakes. Never getting angry [as I'd hope from any instructor, really.] I acquired the nickname "Captain Chaos" from them, because "While 95% of the time, your riding's great for your level, and what we expect; it's the other 5% where I'm almost chewing through my helmet!"
I realised I'd need more frequent lessons than the one every other week I was doing, so put my riding on hold while I saved money. And then money fell on its arse.
8 months later, I finally got back to learning with them, and requested a day's refresher [well, 2 lessons] of clutch control and basic moves. I only needed 1, and was forced out on the road after accidentally proving I could do a U-turn in the width of a single car parking space.
Very soon started towards my DAS with them and sat my theory test. Just before I was ready for my mod 1, I got a job offer for Manchester.
Manchester -> DAS
It was almost 2 months from moving down before I was able to recommence lessons. But with the people I went with, it was a set course of training [although, not back to back days].
Started off on a Saturday, the whole day on 125cc. We pretty much did most of the mod 1 moves, being shown any tips and tricks we'd maybe need. Then onto a road ride.
It was actually quite gruelling, as we went to a block of streets that allowed for weird combinations of left and right turns as the instructor felt was needed, and helping us get the lifesavers sorted for the right timing.
Sunday was a short day. Just the morning, on 500cc bikes, redoing the mod 1 stuff with bigger bikes.
I had my mod 1 on the afternoon of the Tuesday. Started on the 500cc again, as a refresher, then onto Gladius 650s.
Almost straight off, there was problems. One of the guys taking his test that day - for the 3rd time at that point - was someone I can only describe as a fat useless bastard.
We were to move forward in a straight line on the bikes, at very slow speed, just to get a feel how much the clutch could pull. He drifted towards me [due to looking at the instructor rather than straight on]. Without thinking, I pull the front brake to stop from hitting him, and the bike goes down. Fortunately, I took him down with me.
He failed his mod 1 that day, and I later found out he continued to fail it at least 5 times [some people should just give up]
Ultimately, I failed my test that day too. Somehow, I screwed up the slalom [bike didn't turn when I wanted it to], got angry with myself and called a stop to the test, in case I injured myself. [I could have gotten away with a minor]
Resat the test 3 weeks later and passed - got a minor for not turning back in to the box after the swerve. He let me redo the move, because everything else had been perfect to that point.
Mod 2
I sat the mod 2 about a fortnight later, I think it was. [2nd October] Ended up with 4 minors. 3 of which I know for certain when they occurred.
1 was for going 35mph. 2 others for being too cautious around buses. "Are you planning on picking up passengers too?" asked the examiner in my ear...
The 4th was for missing a rear observation. No idea when.
While waiting to tell if I'd passed - although, I thought I'd failed due to a bit of sloppy cornering at one point [but was disregarded due to the level of the rest of my riding] - he grilled me about the buses. Going on about my acceleration and the bike being nimble.
"So, do you want to send off for your new license or just have me do it?"
"... I passed?"
"Well, anyone who rides like that around buses deserves to suffer. Yup, you've passed."
He hands me the certificate, "And hold on to that, you'll need it for the 3rd stage of your test."
While my brain, slightly mush right now, is going "... 3rd stage?" he walks out before I can ask what he meant.
CBT
Did this with a place in Paisley [near Glasgow] called Bike It. 4 of us for the day, me, 2 younger guys, and this "old" ned/chav. I actually figured he was younger than me, but alchol and other abuses took their toll so he looked mid 40s.
The initial parts of the day were great. Explanations, etc.
Then, it came to getting on the bike. I listened and watched the explanation of how to get the bike moving, thought "yup, looks fine enough." Kicked into first, added throttle, let up the clutch. Stall.
Started the engine back up and tried again. Stall.
Repeat... I'm moving! Stall. And the bike falls over and snaps the clutch lever.
Once I was able to get moving - and didn't need to stop - I was fine. Slalom, figure 8, etc.
This set up for pretty much the rest of the day where I was nervous with the clutch, just uncertain on how to use it right. But, somehow I passed. I have a feeling it's because I went out on the road with the ned, who was terrible. And he probably distracted a lot from mistakes I was making. However, my road awareness was reasonably good due to 17 years behind the wheel.
It took me a bit to realise [as in a number of lessons] what I had done wrong to begin with, and why. I'm also not sure how the instructor didn't catch the mistake.
Basically, I misunderstood his directions. I was trying to release the clutch slowly the entire time I was moving, rather than waiting until the bike was stable. So, I was dumping it each and every time.
Lessons
I started off with lessons with the same guys. Mainly because they were highly recommended and I liked their attitude.
They'd joke with you when appropriate and politely point out mistakes. Never getting angry [as I'd hope from any instructor, really.] I acquired the nickname "Captain Chaos" from them, because "While 95% of the time, your riding's great for your level, and what we expect; it's the other 5% where I'm almost chewing through my helmet!"
I realised I'd need more frequent lessons than the one every other week I was doing, so put my riding on hold while I saved money. And then money fell on its arse.
8 months later, I finally got back to learning with them, and requested a day's refresher [well, 2 lessons] of clutch control and basic moves. I only needed 1, and was forced out on the road after accidentally proving I could do a U-turn in the width of a single car parking space.
Very soon started towards my DAS with them and sat my theory test. Just before I was ready for my mod 1, I got a job offer for Manchester.
Manchester -> DAS
It was almost 2 months from moving down before I was able to recommence lessons. But with the people I went with, it was a set course of training [although, not back to back days].
Started off on a Saturday, the whole day on 125cc. We pretty much did most of the mod 1 moves, being shown any tips and tricks we'd maybe need. Then onto a road ride.
It was actually quite gruelling, as we went to a block of streets that allowed for weird combinations of left and right turns as the instructor felt was needed, and helping us get the lifesavers sorted for the right timing.
Sunday was a short day. Just the morning, on 500cc bikes, redoing the mod 1 stuff with bigger bikes.
I had my mod 1 on the afternoon of the Tuesday. Started on the 500cc again, as a refresher, then onto Gladius 650s.
Almost straight off, there was problems. One of the guys taking his test that day - for the 3rd time at that point - was someone I can only describe as a fat useless bastard.
We were to move forward in a straight line on the bikes, at very slow speed, just to get a feel how much the clutch could pull. He drifted towards me [due to looking at the instructor rather than straight on]. Without thinking, I pull the front brake to stop from hitting him, and the bike goes down. Fortunately, I took him down with me.
He failed his mod 1 that day, and I later found out he continued to fail it at least 5 times [some people should just give up]
Ultimately, I failed my test that day too. Somehow, I screwed up the slalom [bike didn't turn when I wanted it to], got angry with myself and called a stop to the test, in case I injured myself. [I could have gotten away with a minor]
Resat the test 3 weeks later and passed - got a minor for not turning back in to the box after the swerve. He let me redo the move, because everything else had been perfect to that point.
Mod 2
I sat the mod 2 about a fortnight later, I think it was. [2nd October] Ended up with 4 minors. 3 of which I know for certain when they occurred.
1 was for going 35mph. 2 others for being too cautious around buses. "Are you planning on picking up passengers too?" asked the examiner in my ear...
The 4th was for missing a rear observation. No idea when.
While waiting to tell if I'd passed - although, I thought I'd failed due to a bit of sloppy cornering at one point [but was disregarded due to the level of the rest of my riding] - he grilled me about the buses. Going on about my acceleration and the bike being nimble.
"So, do you want to send off for your new license or just have me do it?"
"... I passed?"
"Well, anyone who rides like that around buses deserves to suffer. Yup, you've passed."
He hands me the certificate, "And hold on to that, you'll need it for the 3rd stage of your test."
While my brain, slightly mush right now, is going "... 3rd stage?" he walks out before I can ask what he meant.
2015/01/23
Review So Far [Drift Ghost S]
Well, I've had the Drift for over a day so far, and used it on my commute to and from work yesterday. Couldn't today, as my back light has went, and there's nowhere in town - that I know of, at present - to get a replacement.
So, I thought I'd post my initial opinions of the Ghost S.
The very first thing is The Packaging...
Utterly beautiful. It's made to be displayed.
It all opens up nicely [although, I accidentally tore a bit of the black off while removing a sealing sticker ):
Then, the base all opens up to reveal the contents secure in place with clips.
It even comes with a couple of stickers for you :D
Battery only had minimal charge, so that needed done before I could use it.
Oh, yes. Important bits of information for prospective buyers of the Ghost S:
It does not come with an SD card [uses micro] nor a charger for the batteries. It charges through USB, yet it didn't even come with a plug adapter.
The lack of SD card I can forgive - people can be picky about storage - but no proper way to charge a device that costs over £300? That's just sloppy.
FYI: You can buy a dedicated charging cradle for the battery, which costs ~£30
In Use
The UI is a bit weird, and not incredibly responsive. It requires solid button presses to be accepted. But, I can see this as deliberate. If the controls were sensitive, then under heavy action, they could be activated when you don't want them to be.
When you record a video, you can play it back, but the way to do so isn't the most intuitive. You go into the menu, then a playback option, then what you want to play back [icons show how many there are for each]. You can scroll through the available playbacks once in, and this is where it gets the "huh?" - selecting a video [for example] then brings up a further menu, where you select whether you want to view it or not.
But since there are only 4 available buttons, and this menu also has the delete option, I can see why they had to do this.
For actually recording, it's simple enough: on the camera itself, same button starts and stops. And there's a light to tell you what it's doing.
Or, you can use the wireless remote that you can strap round your wrist. One button starts, the other stops. And it slow flashes red to let you know it's recording [and it's not distractingly so]
The Recordings
The recordings themselves, then?
I've got 2 examples - unedited at present, so can't post - one in the morning during daylight, and another in the evening in darkness.
The initial issue is the internal mic. It's pretty much useless. It claims to be noise reducing, but when moving - even down at ~10mph - there is nothing but wind noise in the recording.
But, I've received by external mic, so I'll see how that handles soon.
The daylight video is very clear. And I'm definitely happy with it. Can't complain.
The night video? Hmm... as a photographer, I can only imagine that its ISO response is, well, shit. Dark areas were just noisy as hell. And as I picked up speed, the noise went across the video. But hey, in the case of insurance purposes, it's fine.
Still, for a £300+ camera, I would expect a bit better ISO response. I'd not be surprised if it could be fixed by ISO, or possibly another setting like dropping the resolution
Well, that's my initial impressions. I'll hopefully make some proper videos soon, and let you all judge for yourself.
So, I thought I'd post my initial opinions of the Ghost S.
The very first thing is The Packaging...
It all opens up nicely [although, I accidentally tore a bit of the black off while removing a sealing sticker ):
Then, the base all opens up to reveal the contents secure in place with clips.
It even comes with a couple of stickers for you :D
Battery only had minimal charge, so that needed done before I could use it.
Oh, yes. Important bits of information for prospective buyers of the Ghost S:
It does not come with an SD card [uses micro] nor a charger for the batteries. It charges through USB, yet it didn't even come with a plug adapter.
The lack of SD card I can forgive - people can be picky about storage - but no proper way to charge a device that costs over £300? That's just sloppy.
FYI: You can buy a dedicated charging cradle for the battery, which costs ~£30
In Use
The UI is a bit weird, and not incredibly responsive. It requires solid button presses to be accepted. But, I can see this as deliberate. If the controls were sensitive, then under heavy action, they could be activated when you don't want them to be.
When you record a video, you can play it back, but the way to do so isn't the most intuitive. You go into the menu, then a playback option, then what you want to play back [icons show how many there are for each]. You can scroll through the available playbacks once in, and this is where it gets the "huh?" - selecting a video [for example] then brings up a further menu, where you select whether you want to view it or not.
But since there are only 4 available buttons, and this menu also has the delete option, I can see why they had to do this.
For actually recording, it's simple enough: on the camera itself, same button starts and stops. And there's a light to tell you what it's doing.
Or, you can use the wireless remote that you can strap round your wrist. One button starts, the other stops. And it slow flashes red to let you know it's recording [and it's not distractingly so]
The Recordings
The recordings themselves, then?
I've got 2 examples - unedited at present, so can't post - one in the morning during daylight, and another in the evening in darkness.
The initial issue is the internal mic. It's pretty much useless. It claims to be noise reducing, but when moving - even down at ~10mph - there is nothing but wind noise in the recording.
But, I've received by external mic, so I'll see how that handles soon.
The daylight video is very clear. And I'm definitely happy with it. Can't complain.
The night video? Hmm... as a photographer, I can only imagine that its ISO response is, well, shit. Dark areas were just noisy as hell. And as I picked up speed, the noise went across the video. But hey, in the case of insurance purposes, it's fine.
Still, for a £300+ camera, I would expect a bit better ISO response. I'd not be surprised if it could be fixed by ISO, or possibly another setting like dropping the resolution
Well, that's my initial impressions. I'll hopefully make some proper videos soon, and let you all judge for yourself.
2015/01/22
It Begins!
Picked up the camera yesterday, on the way home from work.
Charged it up, and set it recording on my way to work this morning.
While I still don't have the external mic - may email about that soon, as there's no indication they're even sending it... - I wonder if it'll pick up my random mutterings, since there is already a mic on it.
Therefore, I currently have 23 minutes of footage - I'd never actually paid attention to how long my journey actually took - and it'll be interesting to see if I can even make 5 minutes out it as practice.
Charged it up, and set it recording on my way to work this morning.
While I still don't have the external mic - may email about that soon, as there's no indication they're even sending it... - I wonder if it'll pick up my random mutterings, since there is already a mic on it.
Therefore, I currently have 23 minutes of footage - I'd never actually paid attention to how long my journey actually took - and it'll be interesting to see if I can even make 5 minutes out it as practice.
2015/01/21
Waiting sucks
Got the "delivered" notice from Amazon for my Drift Ghost earlier. A whole 2 hours ago.
These have been the longest 2 hours of the year!
Ssssh, I know it's only had 3 weeks. Don't judge me!
And while a spare battery has also been sent to me, I haven't received the external mic for it yet. Ah well, quiet videos initially.
These have been the longest 2 hours of the year!
Ssssh, I know it's only had 3 weeks. Don't judge me!
And while a spare battery has also been sent to me, I haven't received the external mic for it yet. Ah well, quiet videos initially.
Let's Create a Blog!
I always have these little scratchings in the back of my brain. Those ones that say "You should really do <insert something>", but I never do that something.
One of these recently has been a blog, where I can be reasonably open about myself [but likely not people I know, unless it's not offensive (: ], and likely post in Facebook sized chunks, but not deal with what Facebook brings [ie, friends and family (: ]
I've also got an action cam [A Drift Ghost S] incoming, so will one of those somethings is a vlog, specifically for the motorbiking I do. We'll see.
And, we'll see if I actually keep this up.
One of these recently has been a blog, where I can be reasonably open about myself [but likely not people I know, unless it's not offensive (: ], and likely post in Facebook sized chunks, but not deal with what Facebook brings [ie, friends and family (: ]
I've also got an action cam [A Drift Ghost S] incoming, so will one of those somethings is a vlog, specifically for the motorbiking I do. We'll see.
And, we'll see if I actually keep this up.
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