Video: Scenic Drive - Waitakere's - Auckland - 27min

[WildBoarMouse]

Hi! I filmed this a couple weeks ago and finally got my arse in to gear and stuck it all together.

This is a 27 minute long video of Scenic Drive from one end to the other... and back again. I did this more for play than anything, but thought some people might like to see the road if they'd ever been considering going out that way for a short ride. It's not a bad little run considering how close it is.

I've only got 1000km of experience under the belt... :p so I wasn't really riding like a madman.

Challenges:
1) spot two "whoopsies"
2) spot the chicken (seriously) :)
3) name that biker

Please don't harrass me about my riding style too much... :dodge: I look at this video and cringe in more than a few spots. Nothing toooo bad, but obvious when you look back on it.

There are a couple of spots where the audio switches off for a second or so - this is because I now know that when I accidentally press the garage door remote in my pocket, that it screws up all the audio & video. :)

For those curious about the set-up... I had my digital handi-cam in a back pack, a bullet camera taped to my helmet, a stereo microphone in my front pocket, and a little amplifier to boost the mic audio signal to line-in levels. The bullet camera took a bit of playing with to get the alignment correct... and it's still a little off. But it does the trick :p

Hopefully someone gets some amusement out of this :)

NZ - GSX250cc - Scenic Drive - Waitakere Ranges (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=W3MH6J7H)
Click on the link and this will take you to the MegaUpload page. There will be a "ticker" in the top right corner that will count down from about 40 seconds or so. When the ticker has finished, close the little advert that appears in front of the link, then it will allow you to right click and save-as. Very easy to do, not so easy to describe... but free! :)

Video is compressed using DivX, and audio is in MP3 format. If you don't have the DivX codec, go to http://www.divx.com/divx/play/download/ and click on "Download DivX Play". You don't need to enter your email address, even though there is a box there for it.

Anyway, it's there, and free to download if anyone wants a look :)

[erik]

downloading... ugh it's going slow. 3.1KB/s and 6 hours remaining...

[edit: it's sped up a bit for me now, 7KB/s and ~2hrs remaining]

Bittorrent might be good in a situation like this... (I don't know how to set up a torrent though)

[DemonWolf]

hmm downloading now... started out with good transfer rates.. and then dropped to 17-19KB/Sec gonna take an hour or so.

[gamgee]

i'm getting 21, although thats slooow

[sAsLEX]

21k for me oh so painful! will leave it going while at uni and hopefully will be done on my return

[WildBoarMouse]

Sorry guys... :crybaby: If someone can suggest a faster download site i'll gladly use it!!!! I can only upload at 15-16Kb/sec (max) so downloading from there will definitely give a better result to start with.

[WildBoarMouse]

I'm just uploading to Google Video now... hopefully that's a little faster for the downloads. I'll post a link when it's finished.

[gamgee]

was one of that oh shit moments at about 3mins 50secs

[WildBoarMouse]

was one of that oh shit moments at about 3mins 50secs
I don't remember that corner being an issue... :) I think it's just a funny camera angle from having the thing mounted on the side of my helmet. It looks like I got close to the edge... If I did, I didn't notice at the time. The two times I did stuff up I looked at what I didn't want to hit... :p

[WildBoarMouse]

The first was between the 8 and 9 minute mark.... The second between the 22 and 23 minute mark. :)

[erik]

The first was between the 8 and 9 minute mark.... The second between the 22 and 23 minute mark. :)

The first one, I'm guessing you're talking about the corner with the barrier where you get a bit close to the gravel?
That corner is a tricky one, I know of 2 zzr250's that have come to grief on it.

On the way back, when you get to the Piha turn off, how come you stop? I'd be worried about people coming around the corner and hitting you from behind there. Maybe you pulled into the driveway more than it appeared in the video.

Have you been along Te Henga rd towards Bethells? (the one you stopped at before turning around at the end of scenic drive). It's an interesting road. As is Bethells road from the turn off back to Waitakere township. Then it's just a short ride along Waitakere road and Taupaki rd to get to Old North road. Then Peak rd... sh16... wellsford... mangawhai... where to stop? ;)

It was funny watching the video, I kept finding myself tilting my head backwards instinctively to see further ahead. I was starting to get a sore neck. You need to get the camera pointing a bit higher up.
And get the microphone out of the wind and closer to the engine. :yes:

[R6_kid]

chicken(s) are at 9.13!

[Sniper]

Hehehe, work is great. Done in 5 minutes.

[N4CR]

chicken(s) are at 9.13!


Oieh you, wanna go de-virginise the r6 on scenic tomorrow? I have a day off work.... (and anyone else that wants to come).

I'd be quite keen to make a vid on there as well. (On bikes of course :whistle: )

[R6_kid]

Oieh you, wanna go de-virginise the r6 on scenic tomorrow? I have a day off work.... (and anyone else that wants to come).

I'd be quite keen to make a vid on there as well. (On bikes of course :whistle: )

read my mind bitch, not sure when i am picking it up yet tho. And it wont be insured until friday afternoon when i (hopefully) pass my full licence.

[R6_kid]

you turn really early in that video man, me and tristan usually go end to end from titirangi to swanson/ranui. I know there are about 3 dif road that come off the actual scenic drive called scenic drive so it must be a little confusing.

When i first read the post i was like HOLY FUCK!!! this guy does Scenic drive twice in 27mins!!! Usually takes 30mins end to end at a decent pace! Pretty decent riding for a newbie tho man, keep it up. Keep practicing your cornering and just building your confidence and you will be a good rider in no time.

Anyone can go fast in straight line, but you have to be good to go fast around corners!

[WildBoarMouse]

Excellent spotting of the chicken!!! :p

Took me a little while to figure out where you mentioned that I'd stopped... In hind-sight, yeah, that was a kind of silly place to stop :)

As far as practice goes... the hard bit is remembering not to tense my arms when cornering! I almost always come out with rigid arms... not good.

It's the first time I've tried the camera on the bike, and at 50-60kmh the wind-noise wasn't nearly as bad. Next time I'll try to mount the mic to the outside of the backpack in the slipstream. That should reduce the wind-noise and still be close enough to hear the engine noise. Might throw a fluffy thing over the top too to help cut out any left over wind noise. Part of the problem is that those bikes are really quite quiet as well... :)

With pointing the camera up further, I think what I need to do is stick a dot on my visor (whiteboard marker) to let me know where the camera is pointing. If I point the camera up too far the white clouds tend to cause the camera to over adjust and everything else goes dark. But yeah, it could have done with pointing up just a little more. :)

And the google video was a waste of time too... no-go because of the music.

Thanks for the feedback... glad some of you got a few laughs :p