Waimak dirt ride 9/7/06

[laRIKin]

We that is SDU and I are going for a ride up the Waimak river on Sunday the 9/7/06 and are leaving across the road from the boat ramp on the North side under the motor way bridge at about 11 O'clock.

That is unless the weather is real crappie.

We are going to ride the tracks along the river and there is a softer route, which is the road and the stock bank that runs by the river.
We will be riding mainly between the river and the stock bank and or road.
Through the mud and ruts and the trees.
Some of the tracks are easy and tight and some are open and flowing.

So it will be a good ride for any one as there is a easy option if you need it, or are getting tired.

It is the first off road ride for SDU on her DR650 and will not be pushing her self.
We may also have one or two walking wounded and they will have to take it easy as well.
So do not be shy come along.

We are hoping to ride up to the gorge bridge.
But that will depend on the bikes and tank range.

And can ride home by the gravel roads (back roads and more like tracks) or the dirt tracks.

The ride will take more than a few hours so I suggest that your bike is in fairly good nick and bring a Hydro Pack or a small back pack with a drink/food?
And spare spark plug and spanner. (please)
I will be bringing tools and a tow rope etc.

[Transalper]

Yep J and I are in.
So as we can both ride I will expect to be on our trail only bikes, CRF230 and KLX125 so will have to skip the cafe part.
We will bring a snack for ourselves and either wait for your return or start back ahead of you depending how the days going.

[laRIKin]

We are still very flexible with our plans.
And after I did the post, got to thinking that our plans may cut out some people with off road only bikes and have no rego.
We have got so use to riding with people that have regoed dirt bikes.

And you have confirmed it.
And it would be unfair to break the group up because of that.
So we have decided to cut out the Oxford cafe part and bring some lunch as well and may take to hexamine cookers to boil up some water for coffee and cook something. (see how it goes)

And will change and up date the first post.

See you there

[cooneyr]

I'm in. I'll go and get a spare plug this week, other than that carry a decent set of tools. You mentioned going out to oxford for juice. If we don't, are you guys going to have enough ie would you carry extra? From Topomap I recon about 110km total in a directish line so need to allow about 160. I'm not planning on carrying extra (got 17l or about 300km anyway) unless you think otherwise. Mobile tanker Gerbil maybe? :yes:

See you under just upstream of the bridge at 11 on Sunday.

Cheers
R

[laRIKin]

Yeah it's about 120k's there and back.

We may because of the unregoed bikes only go up to the water wheel at the Downs Rd area.
So that will be a 60k round trip.
That may sound like a short trip, but not when you will not begetting out of 3rd gear that often and will be spending most of your time in 1st and 2nd.
That is unless you ride the road along side.

After the first 30ks it is really a grave road blast for the last 30k's, so we will not be missing the best part on the trip by not going all the way to the gorge bridge.

Before anyone gets scared, it's not hard just tight going.
And as you will see on a map, you can ride near by on the top of the stock bank.

And hear where we are and ride a long side.
It's all in sections so you will see us as well.

[Transalper]

J's poped her shoulder again (while assembling a daughters bed of all things) so she might not make Sunday.
If she don't go I will bring the Transalp out to play.
Either way we will see you Saturday night first.

[SDU]

Buggar about J. Hope it comes right soon.
Just ride whatever you feel like, we are flexible.
Looking forward to this ride, & meeting everyone.
I haven't been for a trailride for months. I'll say sorry now for slowing everyone down while I stop to pick the bike up yet once again. Not sure how I'll go with the DR but it'll be interesting- I just hope it has enough ground clearance left.:scooter:

If there are any newer (off road) riders out there who want to join us don't be shy.

[Transalper]

Plug called in today, he said he might be up for it on the F650Dakar.
Will not know what J's going to do untill Saturday night/Sunday morning

[laRIKin]

I hope that she recovers quickly.
If it is any help, Aaron it going to do the ride and he is still recovering.
So will be riding real slow and easy and properly on the roads, so not to hurt him self.

[Transalper]

Weather looks good, J's not riding but will come say hi and see us off, Plug is coming and I will take the Transalp so it will be a slow run for me too (but can go on the sealed road if required)

[cooneyr]

Weather looks great (from Rolly). Pitty about J. I'm off in 10 to get gas and mozy on over. See you there.

Cheers
R

[laRIKin]

Yep a great day, one out of the box at this time of year.

Our heads aren't to sore and just about ready to leave as well.

Pity about J , Aaron is coming as well so will be taking it easy as he is still getting over the hernia.

See you their

Rik

[Transalper]

So should we post picks and clips and tell everyone about our adventure here or in the "The Ride / Tour Report" sub forum or in the "Adventure/Dual Purpose Bikes" forum?
Helmet camera picture is about what i expected but not as good as i had hoped:(

[laRIKin]

Well I will make a start and here will be just fine to me.

Well it was a clear sunny morning and apart from a short lived light frost it was perfect day.

Six of us headed of in to the mud and flooded tracks.
That is Plug, Transalper, Green Meanie, Cooneyr, SDU and me. (good to put another face to a name)

Well it was apparent from the start the the tracks were very muddy and flooded which made some of them were near impossible to negotiate.
So right from the start we played pick up the bike. (I'm sworn to secrecy and no it was not SDU. that came later)
So we had to avoid the muddier tracks or we would get no where fast.
So we battled on though the better tracks, rivers and whoops, rutted tracks and small bog holes.
Once I got the right tracks sorted we made some ground up the river and back again.
We headed strait back down the gravel roads and did some of the easier tracks at the end so we would get home not to late and before it got cold.
I manage to wash the bikes and put them away before it got dark.

I'm sure that we all had a great ride and enjoyed our self's on a great sunny warm winters day.
We had no real dramas apart from readjusting wheel aliment and bark buster on some small persons bike.
I think on the trip home every one found it easier and had more confidence.
As some had either never ridden there bikes in this terrain before.

This may become a regular thing and maybe once a month.

It's a pity that the helmet cam was not as good as you had hoped for Transalper.

OK the pic's
1/ meeting and getting ready to head off.
2/ Lined up at the end of a stop bank for a small break.
3/ At a place nicknamed the water wheel.
4/ Cooneyr and the for ground and Green meanie in the back ground.
Getting ready to head home.
5/ One dirty DR that I will have to clean.

[cooneyr]

Six of us headed of in to the mud and flooded tracks.
That is Plug, Transalper, Green Meanie, Cooneyr, SDU and me. (good to put another face to a name)

Well it was apparent from the start the the tracks were very muddy and flooded which made some of them were near impossible to negotiate.
So right from the start we played pick up the bike. (I'm sworn to secrecy and no it was not SDU. that came later)


It was awsome to meet you guys and guyess. I realy enjoyed myself and the company. Glad that you forgot about my "sticky" incident L, thank god it didnt "stump" me like the other unmentioned incident.


This may become a regular thing and maybe once a month.

This becoming a regular monthly thing is a great idea. Hope that we manage to get this going. :niceone:


It's a pity that the helmet cam was not as good as you had hoped for Transalper.

Bugger bout the video T. I'm still keen to see some of the footage if there is anyway. Happy to supply a blank DVD etc if you are going to do any editing etc.

Cheers
R

[SDU]

Hey Guy's thanks for the great ride yesterday!
The weather was awesome. Had everyone stripping off in no time.:gob:
Ok I own up I managed to supply a few unscheduled stops (although not the 1st) it is just as well I love the mud. :doh: Everyone was wicked with their help!
Hope to do another ride with you all next time I get a day off work (- either that or get a new job that doesn't require weekend hours worked).

[Transalper]

So how big can i go with video file sizes? I mean like at what size will you not bother to download it?

Actually forget it, i see the maximum is 4megs in a post so i'll aim for a 4 meg highlights clip when i do it.

[laRIKin]

So how big can i go with video file sizes? I mean like at what size will you not bother to download it?

Actually forget it, i see the maximum is 4megs in a post so i'll aim for a 4 meg highlights clip when i do it.

We tight bastard's are still on dial up, so I will pay you for a copy on disc (CD or better DVD) to save on down load time.
That is if you don't mind, just PM me, and thanks.

[far queue]

I'm keen to see the video though. I want to see what I missed out on, sounds like you all had fun. Hopefully I can make the next one.

[Transalper]

Well, it's a steep learning curve on file size/quality/length of video and i think there may be room for improvement but this is what i have to offer right now...

The video clip is 2 minutes and 42 seconds long giving a look at scenes from over most of the trip.
Theirs a choice of a 9Mb file or the better quality is 22mb.
Using DivX meens you can zoom your player to full screen and keep a nice picture.
The codec is DivX (http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/download/)
The 9mb quality is pretty average, detail dissapears in areas. The 22mb one is better especially when you zoom the view.


Here it is... CLICK ME FOR THE 9Mb VIDEO (http://www.myfilehut.com/userfiles/149871/9mbKiwibikerWaimack9June2006.avi)

I'm on one of Telecoms ADSL 2mb download plans and it took about 4 minutes to download the 9mb file when i checked it was working.
A left click opened my default media player and started loading or a right click and choose save link as or save target as let me download and save it first.

HERE'S THE 22Mb VERSION. (http://www.myfilehut.com/userfiles/149871/22mbKiwibikerWaimack9June2006.avi) There's better detail in the backgrounds etc.

[Transalper]

Let me know what you think if you had a look, and wether you went for the big or small file.
Then i'll know wether it's worth uploading the next trip.

[cooneyr]

Let me know what you think if you had a look, and wether you went for the big or small file.
Then i'll know wether it's worth uploading the next trip.

Cool video! Makes me want to go out again!

Didnt realise that the back of my helmet has so much white. Kept thinking that Plug had a bike that look a bit small and supprisingly like mine :doh: Guess you had to include some "moments" but supprising how fast I stopped during my "sticky" one.

I got both files and can't actually see much differance when viewing at the small frame size. Maybe it would be better to have a lower frame rate. A TV is running at about 12 frame per second (correct me if I'm wrong) so much higher is not really that necessary. I have produce a few avi at work from a fly around in a 3d transport model and have found that larger frames (640*480) and lower frame rate (around 12-15) is more user friendly. I think you are doing 25 frames per second so halving the frame rate will roughly halve the file size (assuming no sound). Also removing or lowing sound quality will make a bid differance (I like sound though).

Cheers
Ryan

[Transalper]

Thanks for the feedback,
PAL TV runs 25 frames of two fields making it like 50 frames/sec.
You can blow these clips up to full screen in your player and then you see the detail around us in shadows and trees is crap on the small file but better in the big one (that's the main difference), sound quality is already dropped heaps from original.
I tryed bigger frame resoultion and got more blurring in the Trees,shingle and shaddows for the same file sizes.
I used the same method i used to use to convert DVD to CD sizes using Gordon Knot to calculate bit rates/frame sizes etc and do the encoding.

[laRIKin]

Well done Transalper, it was a good video clip teaser.
A lot clearer than I thought it was going to be, after your comments earlier on in the thread.

From some reason it would not play first time around on either format.
After a restart to would it both formats.
And on dial-up it took 40 mins to down load. (have to up grade to broad band, one day)

Can't wait to see the rest.

[laRIKin]

Cool video! Makes me want to go out again!

Well how about the Saturday the 29th or the next day Sunday the 30th?

Far Queue are you here?
I think that weekend maybe clear for you?

If we can agree on the 29 or 30 of this month, I will put it in events.
And we can do either the north or the south side of the river.

[paturoa]

i'm jealous!!!! - guess will have to get off my fat arse and join into something up this end.

[cooneyr]

Thanks for the feedback,
PAL TV runs 25 frames of two fields making it like 50 frames/sec.

I stand corrected. Can't wait for more. Thinking about how to mount our digi video camera on the bike/me now :wait:

Cheers
R

[cooneyr]

Well how about the Saturday the 29th or the next day Sunday the 30th?

You will have to put me down as a maybe at this stage. We were thinking of going to Nelson to help the inlaws with their renovating but still unsure at this stage. I'm definatly keen if we are in town. Will keep and eye out for a post if around.

Off to get some Mitas E-09 tomorrow if DAS open (not sure?????). Finally get rid of the kinda worn D605.

Cheers
Ryan

[laRIKin]

Off to get some Mitas E-09 tomorrow if DAS open (not sure?????). Finally get rid of the kinda worn D605.

Cheers
Ryan

They should be open until midday, they close at about 2pm.
It seems to depend on you is on duty.

[laRIKin]

Thinking about how to mount our digi video camera on the bike/me now :wait:

Cheers
R

I also have been thinking about it for awhile as well.
It would save having to stop take out the camera putting it away and then riding off.
Besides a still only shows so much of the track you rode.

[far queue]

Well how about the Saturday the 29th or the next day Sunday the 30th?

Far Queue are you here?
I think that weekend maybe clear for you?

If we can agree on the 29 or 30 of this month, I will put it in events.
And we can do either the north or the south side of the river.

I'm here. 29th & 30th are both OK for me. 1st choice 30th, 2nd choice 29th. Can SDU make it out for a play that weekend?

[laRIKin]

I'm here. 29th & 30th are both OK for me. 1st choice 30th, 2nd choice 29th. Can SDU make it out for a play that weekend?


I'm here. 29th & 30th are both OK for me. 1st choice 30th, 2nd choice 29th. Can SDU make it out for a play that weekend?

OK the 30th it is and I will enter it in events.
We can decide later which side we go up.

No I do not think that SDU can get that day off, as her job is to work weekends as a full in.
The main reason she got the weekend of last time was because it was her birthday. (still a bugger that it did not fit in with your plans)

But there is hope, with a re shuffle of staff as people are going to Uni part time and one leaving.
She is working on getting more hours and to get a day or a weekend off once a month.
It's still up in the air, but her bosses are trying to get her the days off, but like all things, it will depend on the new staff and the hours that one of the staff will be at Uni.
I have my fingers crossed as we can do FA in the weekends as a couple.

[SDU]

i'm jealous!!!! - guess will have to get off my fat arse and join into something up this end.


Either that or come back down south for a hol & join in.