I usually toss anything graphically motorbike related that I find onto pinterest.
Here is some motorbike bike art recently found mostly as is (but some photoshopped):
The photography in Performance Bike Magazine's recent article on the Kawasaki H2 on the Isle of Mann was fantastic. After a bit of photoshop it became my current background wallpaper.
The new Triumph Bonneville with a Scrambler kit
The bonkers new Honda RC213R - the $140k Motogp 1%er collector bike
The story told in a photo is told as much by the viewer as it is by the photographer, and it's non-linear.
Since I was solo on the circumnavigation of Georgian Bay I brought along some gear to capture the moment. I prefer photography. I think a good photo is an entire world you can get lost in, and unlike video it isn't forcing you to follow along frame by frame. In a photo you're free to wander with your eyes in a non-linear way.
Having said all that, I brought along some video gear to try out on this trip. I'd love a GoPro, but since they cost almost as much as my bike did, I got a cheap Chinese knock-off instead (and a cheap knockoff it is!) The Foscam AC1080 takes fantastic video (full 1080p) and decent photos (up to 12 megapixels), and at only about $140 taxes in, it's less than 1/3 the price of a GoPro. Where it falls apart is in the fit and finish. In a week of what I'd describe as gentle use for an 'action camera' the buttons never lined up right with the unit inside the waterproof case (I ended up having to remove the camera to start and stop it), the case itself was so rickety it would just blow over in the wind (the GoPro has a ratchet in the stand that locks in position, the Foscam is just a plastic screw), and the case itself snapped at the base after only a few uses. It also gets uncomfortably hot when it recharges. I have some concerns about the physical capabilities of this 'action' camera.
The Foscam takes nice stills too, when it takes them.
The other shaky part of the Foscam is its operation. You can start it up and it'll stop again for no apparent reason (though this might have to do with convoluted options buried in menus). You might think the GoPro lacking in options, but it has very streamlined operation and always gets what you're filming (which is vital in action video), and it does it without an LCD or menu options buried three deep. The Foscam also saves in a .mov file format which Sony Vegas seems determined not to render properly. If you can get past all that frustration you can get some very nice video out of the Foscam:
... and you can find you've got nothing because it shut off just when you were about to do a one time thing:
A quick video of the boarding of the Chicheemaun ferry in Tobermory - why did I take it from the Olympus Camera around my neck? Because the Foscam shut off for no apparent reason just as we were about to board. But hey, when it works it makes nice pictures.
The go-to camera was my trusty Olympus Pen. This is the best camera I've ever owned - a micro SLR with swappable lenses and full manual control. It also takes video in a pinch. This camera punches well above its weight. If I were to pony up for something better, it would be an Olympus OM-D that takes the same size lenses, and then go on a lens hunt for some macro and telephoto madness.
Also on this trip I brought along a Samsung S5, which takes nice pics and decent video. Smartphone cameras have gotten so good that I don't think about point and shoot cameras any more, they are redundant. My only regret is not picking up the bonkers Nokia Lumia 1020 with it's massive camera built in, but then Telus didn't have it. I'm not really through with the Foscam yet. Once I've got it worked out, hopefully I can still use it to get some quality video off the bike. The other day we were out for a ride so I decided to focus on getting some audio instead. Yes, riding a bike really is as fun as this sounds. I'm going to look into making some finer audio recordings to catch the sound of riding, it's a different angle on motorbike media. Over the summer I plan to look into more advanced 3d modelling and micro-photography as well as maybe some drone work. I'm looking forward to pushing the limits with motorbike media creation.
It can be done! Coast to Coast to Coast in Canada. It's a monster ride though, over twenty thousand kilometres, all in the second biggest country in the world. Leg 1: Go West Young Man Starting from home in Southern Ontario I'd strike west up the Bruce Peninsula and over Manitoulin Island and up around Lake Superior. From there it's a straight shot across the Prairies and then through Calgary into the Rockies. Through the Southern Rockies and Vancouver and then a ferry over to Vancouver Island and on to Tofino on the Pacific Ocean. Leg 2: True North, all the way
Dempster Highway, North West Territories
From Tofino it's back across Vancouver Island and then north up the coast before taking the ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert. The ride from Prince Rupert is where things start to get tricky. You're on paved if very remote roads all the way up to the Dempster Highway and then it's hundreds of kilometres up to the arctic circle and the mid-night sun. By 2016 they hope to have an extension of the highway all the way to Tuktoyaktuk on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, then it'll really be coast to coast to coast. Leg 3: Eastern Promises After dipping a toe in the Arctic Ocean it's back down the Dempster before striking east through Grande Prarie and Edmonton. The trip east retraces a bit of the Trans-Canada past Winnipeg before crossing Northern Ontario to Montreal. It's then up the North Shore to Quebec City before crossing the St. Laurence and making the turn at Rivière du Loup and heading into New Brunswick. Crossing New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, it's then a ferry ride to Newfoundland for the final leg to Cape Spear, the eastern-most point in Canada.
I think I'd have to make a point of crossing Confederation Bridge on the way past just to have set foot in every province and every Territory you can ride to in Canada. The round trip is over twenty thousand kilometres, all in Canada, crazy! Between higher kilometre days on highways and the lower mileage moments in the north, I'd hope to average 800kms a day. If I could keep that up it could be done in just under a month (27 days). Aiming at July of 2015, leaving on Canada Day (July 1st), I'd aim to be back home by July 31st, giving me four extra days in the mix to get the job done. Leaving at that time will also mean seeing the mid-night sun above the Arctic Circle. At about $60 in gas a day (3 fillups), a conservative $100 for lodging and $40 a day in food, I'd have an operating budget of $6200. BC Ferries look like they'll be about $260. To get on and off Newfoundland it looks to be about $180 in ferry costs. I'd land at Port Aux Basques and cross NFLD on the way to Cape Spear, but take the Agentia Ferry back directly to Sydney for the ride home. All in I think I'd be looking at about seven grand to cover the trip. Bike-wise I think I'd be considering sport touring options. The vast majority of mileage would be on pavement, with only the push north on gravel. Tire-wise I'd start on street tires and then switch over to something more multi-purpose in Whitehorse for the ride to the Arctic. If John Ryan can go from Prudhoe Bay on an FJR, I don't think I need to go full-SUV motorcycle with an adventure bike to get up to and back from the arctic. The rest is a high mileage ride on first world roads. I'd want to do it on a bike that makes corners fun.
My current choice would be a bike that handles long distance duties well. The Kawasaki Concours is just such a machine. Two-Wheel Motorsport happens to have just what I'm looking for, a low mileage 2006 that would do the deed. With a shaft drive and a bullet proof reputation, it would cover the miles enthusiastically. My other bike choice would be the new Honda VFR800F. It's another sports tourer that could swallow these huge distances with confidence. The final piece would be the media. A Gopro clipped onto the bike would be running whenever the bike was in motion. I'd also have a mobile video camera and my trusty Olympus SLR for other footage. The trick would be not to get hung up with the photography, I tend to lollygag when I have a camera in my hand. If the production was stepped up a notch, I'd meet up with my production crew at various spots along the way to off load footage and do some stock footage of me on the bike (which wouldn't happen so much when I was alone). Ideally I'd have a wingman for the trip and we'd both take turns at filming (and half the cost of lodging). The trip itself would offer a live webfeed of mileage covered and where we are, including uploads of recent images and footage. In the more fully-decked out version I'd go to OLN or Discovery Channel or the Travel Channel for some media support. Then Telus, Rogers or Bell for some communications support, and finally to Kawasaki Canada or Honda Canada for some bike support. It wouldn't hurt to hit up local, provincial and federal governments to help as well, this is a uniquely Canadian focused trip, and with the final leg of the Dempster Highway finally happening coast-to-coast-to-coast is at last a possibility, it'd be nice to get the word out. For more check out Coast to Coast to Coast 2.0.
I came across some motorcycle media recently that is a nice diversion if you're suffering from PMS. Eatsleepride.com has a series of motorcycle short documentaries that will keep you rolling on two wheels, even if it's vicariously. The Women's Motorcycle Exhibit video led me to the site; much better than the floozy on a bike photography you usually see. There is nothing sexier than a strong, capable woman riding a bike (as opposed to a skinny model draping herself on one). The other shorts were all new to me except for Long Live The Kings, which has since spawned The Greasy Hands Preachers. The reviews for that film have suggested that it's a shallow but pretty look at current motorbike customization trends. I was hoping for something that plumbs the depths like Matt Crawford's Shopclass As Soulcraft (a must read), but it evidently isn't that, though I'm still looking forward to seeing it.
I also found Brittown, a documentary about Meatball, a master mechanic and Triumph motorbike connoisseur out of California. It's a genuine look at a genuine fellow. You'd be hard pressed to find any hipster bullshit in this video. I also completed the set. Having already seen Faster and Fastest, I was finally able to see The Doctor, The Tornado and The Kentucky Kid, the middle Motogp video in the trilogy. It's a close look at a single race at Leguna Seca. The phoned in interviews are a bit low-rent, but the drama is as engaging as ever. If you want to get into Motogp, these videos will give you the background you need to get right into next season. In the meantime, the mighty Austin Vince put out Mini-Mondo, another motorbike short (poem!) that (hopefully) gets you out on two wheels and seeing what's around you:
We're buried in snow in mid-November and thoughts of riding are weeks behind me now, but at least the media I'm finding keeps the two wheel dreaming alive.
Setting up a 360 camera on your wing mirror using a gorilla pod and setting it to automatically take a photo every few seconds seems like the best way to catch some interesting self portraits while you ride. It's a set up and forget system so you can just enjoy the ride. Afterwards you download what the camera caught and then frame the photos as you wish (the 360 picture lets you move the point of view around until you've framed something interesting). I've been trying to replicate the tiny planet view that the Ricoh Theta could do in its software on the Samsung Gear360. GoPro makes a little planet capable app that they give away for free, so I've been using that. Here is an example of a time lapse video tiny-planeted in the GoPro software:
The photos are screen grabs of time lapse scenes on the Samsung 360gear. They've all been worked over in Photoshop to give them a more abstract look. I've included the original photo to show variations:
Here's the original photo.
Here is a posterized, simplified version.
Here it is with an oil paint filter and a lot of post processing.
Here is a tiny-world 'wrapped' image taken with the 360 degree camera. Below are some variations on it...
Below are some other 360 grabs - they'll give you an idea of how you can select certain angles and moments and then crop a photo out of them pretty easily.
One of the few things the Samsung does well is make time lapse video fairly straightforward (I miss my Ricoh Theta). The software Samsung bundles with the gear360 only works with Samsung phones (which I don't have). The desktop software won't render 4k video at all (it ends up so blocked and pixelated from artifacts as to be almost useless). And when you're first importing video it takes ages for the software to open a video for the first time. By comparison the Ricoh renders video almost instantly, has never had artifact problems when it renders and has never crashed on me (the Samsung software has crashed multiple times). If you're patient and are ok with crappy results, go for the Samsung. Meanwhile, here's what I could get out of the damned thing:
This is a 360 fly video sped up, the weekend after the April ice storm:
My birthday and Father's Day are within a month of each other, so I made a combined ask and got a day at S.M.A.R.T. Adventures in Horseshoe Valley. My previous off road experience was limited to a couple of hours on a dirt bike at a farm many years ago and a short and frustrating go with a KLX250. My goal in taking the S.M.A.R.T. (Snowmobile, Motorcycle, ATV, Rider Training) course was to explore those aspects of motorcycle dynamics that are beyond the range of typical road riding - unless you're in the middle of a crash.
There are a lot of people who try motorcycling then retire early. They often have a lot of advice. Many of these short-term motorcyclists liked to warn me earnestly and repeatedly about how dangerous it was to ride to early or late in the season when there was a chance of sand being on the road. Anything that wasn't table top smooth, grit free tarmacadam meant zero traction and an imminent crash for these earnest scare mongers.
That anxiety about traction on a motorbike runs deep in the limited experience motorcycle crowd, and that crowd contains a lot of people who have only ever done a single type of riding on a single type of bike. If you're going to call yourself a motorcyclist you owe it to your craft to experience as many different types of riding as you can. The SMART program is an accessible opportunity to do that in the trail riding/off road community in a controlled environment on someone else's equipment (they even provide all the gear).
You owe it to yourself to experience motorcycling in unfamiliar ways...
We started an already nuclear hot day before Canada Day with the affable Clinton Smout going over basic control and balance with a GasGas trials bike. In no time he had everyone from old guys like me to nine year olds balancing on two wheels while stationary. I wouldn't have thought that was possible prior - but I was able to stand on the pegs on the stationary bike until my legs got tired.
Clinton also gave the dry stick demonstration, showing how an old, brittle stick snaps easily compared to a young, supple one. He then went on to say that SMART is about to have its hundred-thousandth customer in the next few weeks and in the decades it has been running they've only had twenty-two ambulances, all of them for old, dry sticks over thirty-five years old. This forty-nine year old stick paid close attention to this talk.
Within minutes we'd been set up with Joe, the advanced instructor who has over thirty years of experience off road. I was worried about being put in the advanced group with so little off road experience but they're more worried about whether or not you know how to ride a bike; if you know the controls, you're advanced. There were larger groups of beginners and intermediate riders learning the basics, but we were just three: Joe, me and a German fellow with motocross experience who has ridden every pass in the Alps. I was still feeling a bit out of my depth and didn't want to slow anyone down.
We spent some time by the main centre going up and down the hills under the watchful eye of Joe. I suspect this had more to do with assessing our riding skills than it did anything else. We did some hill climbs, but on a dirt-specific bike with knobbly tires this was an easy thing to do. We were on Yamaha TT-R230cc bikes, which might seem a bit on the small side, but the characteristics of this bike were very forgiving; it would pull hard out of any gear. Joe described them as tractors, and they were. If it stalled, the electric start fired it right up again, and the massive suspension travel and tires made easy work of every obstacle. Soon enough we were off into the woods. We'd stop under the trees out of the blinding sun and 40+°C humidity and practice skills such as clutch control on walking speed turns, rear wheel lockups and eventually crossing large logs. As my confidence improved so did my speed on the trails, which we'd go and ride to make some wind and cool down between slow speed work. I was able to keep up with Joe on all but a steep, washed out hill covered in big rocks where I ended up pulling off to the side for a moment to collect myself. That had more to do with sewing machine legs than it did with bad technique. If you think off road motorcycling isn't physically demanding, you've never done it before. In forty plus degree temperatures, we were necking a bottle of water every time we went back to base. On our next run we focused on standing on the pegs and working the bike with body position and weighting the side we wanted to move to. This involved going over improbably deep ruts while soaking up the vertical movements with the suspension and our legs while also making micro-adjustments to clutch, throttle and brakes to keep things moving smoothly. If you think riding a motorcycle is dexterous, trying to operate controls with all four appendages while dropping into foot deep ruts ups the ante again. At one point we were purring through the forest (the little Yamahas are remarkably quiet for one cylinder thumpers) when Joe held a hand up and made the kill the engine sign. We all rolled to a stop and not fifteen feet away was a fully grown doe (a deer, a female deer). She stood there munching her grass while watching us from a sunny glade, looking like a scene out of Bambi. After a minute or so she ambled off into the brush. My son took the ATV course in the afternoon and they came across wild turkeys - you're likely to see some wildlife when out in the woods. As lunch approached our experienced German went and rode with his son and Joe and I went deeper into the woods, now on trails that would barely qualify as a walking path. The SMART program is based in Beaver Valley, which is part of the Niagara Escarpment. The Beaver River has cut the valley through the escarpment, which is also scattered with post glacial erratics (big rocks). You're working big elevation changes through thick forest including stumps and downed logs along with some very rocky sections; it's a challenging mix. Now that I was getting the hang of it, I was spending half my attention watching Joe's thirty plus years of trail riding experience as he picked out lines through this spaghetti. We'd stop every once in a while and have a quick chat about what was going on, with Joe giving gems like, "you'll see me going for the hard pack on the side of the trail, especially when you see all that loose stuff in the middle. The loose stuff falls into the gulley in the middle and can get pretty deep."
We had a quick lunch, but it was so hot I forced myself to eat something even though I had no appetite. More importantly was getting water into me. By now we were well into the forties Celsius with the humidity, and everyone was drooping. My son had arrived for the ATV training and soon enough he was off and doing loops in the compound, getting a handle on the thing.
As the dust got kicked up in the in-field we disappeared into the woods onto even tighter trails. I stalled going up a hill so steep that I had to roll it backwards down it to get the carb to feed again and restart it. Joe then showed me how to roll it backwards on the clutch while powered off and in gear in a controlled manner to get out of a tight spot on a hill. By this point I was keeping up with Joe as he was making tracks. It was then that he asked if I'd be interested in going out on a BMW F800GS for the last part of the day. We'd wrung the necks of the Yamaha dirt bikes doing over fifty kilometres, so I said, 'absolutely!'. It'd be a chance to try a different bike, which I never say no to. I'd ridden a BMW once before while riding the south end of Vancouver Island a few years ago. It was an F800ST - the sports touring version of the adventure bike I was going to ride now. The F800GS is a nice, tall bike which fits me well. The controls feel quality, as do the suspension and tires, which cornered so well I forgot they were knobblies. Joe took us out onto the road and we disappeared into the Copeland Forest for a couple of hours, skipping our water break and riding everything from pavement to fire roads, to dual tracks and, finally, single track trails. The BMW was obviously much bigger than the Yamaha we'd been on earlier (114kgs for the Yamaha, 229kgs for the BMW), but it's amazing how off-road capable it is considering that weight difference. It feels balanced and nimble. The only thing stopping you from trying the really gnarly trails would be if you got stuck (and what it would cost to fix it). Getting this out of a hedge wouldn't be anything like as easy or cheap as the simple, little dirt bike. Riding the BMW reminded me of the limitations I experienced with the KLX250 I purchased a couple of years ago. It was off road capable (I forded rivers with it), but as a dual purpose bike it couldn't carry me at what I considered a safe speed on the road (it would barely touch 100km/hr, which is what most traffic is doing on Canadian back roads). The BMW was quick and capable on the road, and when we went off road (though on nothing as gnarly as we did on the Yamaha), it did the job without any surprises. Like the F800ST I rode a few years ago, the twin engine felt agricultural and uninspiring, though it was certainly quiet and efficient. Compared to the exhaust popping and snarling, induction howling Tiger, the engine felt rather characterless which is a shame considering what a lovely thing the rest of the bike is. The suspension was so good it made me wonder if the wooden shocks on my Tiger are in need of some attention. We rolled back in at the end of the day just a few minutes before the other classes returned, and drank a lot of water. I'd covered well over 100 off and on road kilometres over the day on two very different bikes. Joe was approachable and willing to answer any questions, but better than that he used decades of experience to quickly assess where I was at and then lay down a series of increasingly challenging lessons that kept me on the edge of my learning curve all day. I'd been sweating for hours and was ready to get out of the armour and go and wash the caked on dirt away. My wonderfully wise wife who did all the photography you see here had also arranged a room at the Horseshoe Resort next door, so within twenty minutes I was flat out in a pool thinking about the day. I'd managed not to dry-stick my way into anything I couldn't handle and was in good, but muscle sore shape.
My son has always been a cautious fellow and reluctant to ride or drive, but he spent a very intensive two hours with Adam on the ATVs and rolled back in looking like he was ten feet tall. It's amazing what an accessible, patient instructor can do for your confidence. By the end of the day he was talking about driving the ATVs up at the cottage, which had never been a consideration before. I can't recommend S.M.A.R.T. highly enough. If you're an experienced road rider you own it to your craft to spend some time learning these skills, they might save your bacon one day. If you've never tried offroad powersports before and are looking for an accessible and relatively inexpensive (it's about $200 for a half day and $300 for a full day - all in including all gear and equipment) way to get into it, this'll do that too. We'll be back again. With amusement park tickets north of a hundred bucks, you're close to the cost of a day at SMART to park, eat, stand in lines and sit on roller coasters at Wonderland. Why on earth would you line up to passively experience fake thrills when you could get learn real world skills and experience real world thrills at SMART? The same could be said for increasingly expensive professional sports spectating. No line ups, no crowds, (though deer and turkey on occasion) and a great day becoming genuinely accomplished in the great Canadian outdoors. How could you say no to that?
The 230cc Yamaha I rode typically lasts 6-8 years. They do a lot of on-site maintenance. One of the instructors said that they don't wear out engine wise as they aren't ridden that hard, but the transmissions suffer from a hard life with many people new to bikes learning how to clutch and gear on them.
