Los Picos Progress

Last September I went to Los Picos de Europas with some mates from work etc. On the run back to where we were staying, towards the end of the week, I pulled over to switch on the video cameras as we were about to enter a section of the road which runs through a narrow scenic gorge between Potes and Panes going north on the N 621. The others didn't wait, they kept going. This is the resulting video as I made progress to catch up.

Catching the others Pt 1

Catching the others Pt 2

Catching the others Pt 3

Overtaking on a solid white line. Never seen that one in the Highway code.

No wonder the police are harsh on British bikers abroad.

I found the N621 to be usually quite busy, except for early morning and evening. Took a few detours off it and found isolated roads, especially C6314 (turn off at Linares, head for Puentenansa) or As114 from Panes to Cangas (probably my favourite road in the whole region)

The third section froze after a few seconds and would not start again.
Brought back happy memories.
What camera set up did you use as it worked very well?

Answers

Humbug - the video is warts and all, no excuses offered. Just wanted to catch up.

Shuck Raider - we were staying in Las Arenas on the As114. I should have some video of that somewhere. I will dig it out. I loved the N625 from Cangas to Riano, twisty and scenic!!

Wildbeeste - I checked the Pt 3 vid and it played OK for me. Try it again.

As far as the tekkie stuff goes, I was using two JVC cameras, one of which had an AV in port. The one with the AV in port had a bullet camera connected to it. The bullet cam was duct taped to my helmet (sophisticated eh?) The other camera was sat on top of my standard BMW pannier held on with - you guessed it, duct tape. The Pannier cam was sat on a small pad of foam rubber to reduce vibration but it would work quite well without the pad.

Here is a pic from an earlier holiday when we stuck the pannier camera on Blues'n'Two's bike. The vid from that holiday is also on you tube from this thread



Real hi-tech stuff!

The pannier camera is a JVC GR-D24

The helmet cam recorder is a JVC GR-D270 with the AV in socket

The AV in signal comes from an RF Concepts Ltd bullet camera kit using a 1/3" CCD Color camera Super HAD 480TVL from Sony. RF Concepts are at http://www.rfconcepts.co.uk/cctv%20cameras.htm#Miniature%20Cameras. I bought last summer and the web site seems to have changed a bit but I was able to buy something they called a Pack 3 for PAL which had all the cables, battery packs etc in a neat case.

If you want to play with bullet cameras, you will need a camcorder which can accept a signal in from an external source and many cameras don't. I did not speak to RF Concepts but I guess they could probably offer some guidance on other suitable cameras to run a bullet camera with. I found this camera after trawling round a number of shops muttering 'AV in' and getting blank looks from the sales people!

The video material was edited on Adobe Premiere to create a standard sized .avi file. Premiere cannot convert to MPEG 4 which is the file type you tube prefer so I loaded the .avi file into Pinnacle studio to convert it to the you tube preferred input format, MPEG4, 320x240, 30fps.

Hope that was useful

Fantastic vids. I am just starting to play with a video camera mounted on the bike and you have given me inspiration. I tried one yesterday but it came out at 425Mb so I won't be uploading it in a hurry!
Bob
http://bikesindordogne.blogspot.com/

Forgot that bit...

Should have said about file size. With sound, formatted as YouTube want, I was getting about 6m to 6m30s to 100MB. (YouTubes file limits are 10 minutes or 100MB whichever comes first.) If you miss the sound off and just do video image you will get more time but the question then is which would be a better result.

You can play around with smaller images or slower frame rates to get longer videos onto the web but I have stuck to their recommendations as the result seems good to me.

I am still working on the sound side of things. The raw sound of built in microphones on camcorders is typically cr@p. Loads of wind noise, not much engine noise. You can filter it in sound editing software (which is what I did) and add some royalty free music. I was quite pleased with that.

I guess you could put any music on you want but I don't know whether you would get copyright complaints if you put it on YouTube. I stripped all the sound off my earlier Stelvio and Fluella videos before putting them on YouTube.

The bullet camera kit came with a separate microphone but I have not yet been able to use it to good effect. Need to do some more experimenting

Neil

Tractorpilot said:

Wildbeeste - I checked the Pt 3 vid and it played OK for me. Try it again.


Hope that was useful

Click to expand...

Thanks very useful
Now on the internet trawl
Especially impressed with the highly sophisticated mounting system.
Thanks for posting
Paul

Just found this site which lists cameras with av in and LANC settings

http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/avcamcorders.htm


Saves a lot of looking at specs in ads

Nice one I rode that last year but was held up a lot by coaches and trucks.

Good link

Thanks Wildbeeste - that link has gone on my favourite list. V. useful for the next purchase, when the duct tape fails!

Noddy - we were in Los Picos at the end of September/ Start of October so the traffic may have been less then. Ferry to Santander was a pretty good price too at that time of year

I have managed to mount my camera now and even uploaded a few videos to youtube. Thanks for the resolution tip, they are now only 13 MB or so. I won't post links here as I am still learning about these things, but have just posted on my blog with pictures of the mount and links to the videos.
Next bit is how to edit them and make titles and nice soundtracks.

Bob
http://bikesindordogne.blogspot.com/

madman said:

I have managed to mount my camera now and even uploaded a few videos to youtube. Thanks for the resolution tip, they are now only 13 MB or so. I won't post links here as I am still learning about these things, but have just posted on my blog with pictures of the mount and links to the videos.
Next bit is how to edit them and make titles and nice soundtracks.

Bob
http://bikesindordogne.blogspot.com/

Click to expand...

Bob,

That's one hell of a drive up to/down from your house - and you do it on a R1100S - and your wife wants to do it on a K1200S!!!!

Surely it's time for a GS!

Andy

Sound good to me Humbug, but with my short legs a GS is out of the question. The wife would have no problems with a GS, but she loved her Blackbird and thinks that the K1200S would be a worthy replacement.
The drive is not so bad when it has not rained for a few days, but that is not now!
http://bikesindordogne.blogspot.com/

Nice start

Had a look at the blog and vids Madman, looks like a nice part of the world to be. You are obviously up and running with it - the rest is just a bit of practice and imagination.

What sort of editing software are you using?

How long does it take you to get to Blighty from your home there?

Neil

Hi Tractorpilot. The third part worked for me. It was the best - I must be getting used to your riding style now. They were obviously waiting for you
Thanks again

I am using something called muvee which came with the camera at the moment. I tried to download Windows movie maker, but it keeps crashing on me.
Trip to the UK takes about 6 hours to Boulogne and then 50 mins on the ferry, but I don't go that way much as the UK is far to congested and expensive. I know cos I lived there for many years! Not trying to put the old country down, but I fancied the idea of being on holiday all the time.
I am looking forward to taking some of the videos that I have planned and will upload them to youtube, they will be better than those uploaded so far. I hope that one day they might be as good as yours. keep an eye on the blog as that is an easy way for me to link to them.
As I have said before this place is open house for any bike visitors.
Thanks for the support.

Bob
http://bikesindordogne.blogspot.com/

Tractor pilot, where do you put the camcorder which has the bullet camera attached?

Camcorder location

The bullet cam camcorder sits in the tank bag along with separate battery pack for the bullet camera and a spaghetti farm of cables. You might see it at the start of the first clip (I can't remember if I edited that bit out). The bullet camera needs its own power supply which is 8xAA batteries in a holder. One set of batteries lasted me through a week in Spain with about 4-5 hours of filming. (They are still OK as far as I know). The controlling factor was the camcorder battery not the bullet cam battery. You can get rechargeable packs and probably hook up to the bike's aux. power but I did not bother.

Improvements? Next time I am considering putting the lot in a rucksack or bumbag rather than a tank bag. This is for two practical considerations
a) I can get off the bike without disconnecting cables etc.
b) Better security for the equipment if I keep it all with me

Incidentally, I found the page on the RF web site which shows the kit I bought, Package 3. It is here: http://www.rfconcepts.co.uk/helmet_cameras.htm#Camera_3...

that should give you a good idea what the kit looks like (and it looks like the price has come down).

Neil

wildbeeste said:

Hi Tractorpilot. The third part worked for me. It was the best - I must be getting used to your riding style now. They were obviously waiting for you
Thanks again

Click to expand...

Wow - I have never been accused of riding style before!!

open house for any bike visitors

Click to expand...

Bob - I'll bear that in mind if the bank manager lets me out to play in September.

Cheers all and thanks for the interest
Hopefully see some of you at Llangollen or the Gathering of the Clans or somewhere over the summer

Neil