The picture above is a test of another iPhone photography app called Hydra. It takes quite a few pictures in a row to generate the HDR photo. I'm not sure of the number but more than three. It has another interesting mode where it'll take a bunch of pictures (43 on the last test) and somehow morph them together for an 35 megapixel image. Electronic magic.
I just heard back from Mickey, the Anchorage Ural dealer, and my parts have been mailed and should arrive in by the weekend. Time to get started on reassembly of the Ural. I hope I haven't lost any parts.
The first PBC video is the continuation of PBC #38. From where I stopped in the Goldstream Valley when I noticed that it had cooled off. Still a nice moonlit night. One thing I "added" was slowing down the video as I was riding over the Trans-Alaska pipeline.
The second video was just a ride out and around the north side of town that I rode after work. Just something to post on the PBC site. BTW, here is a link to the PBC site for anyone who is interested.
The third video was a ride to fill up the rig. It had warmed up to -18°F by mid afternoon and with the bright sunshine, it was a really nice ride though it was starting to cool off by the time I got home. Plus, the heated grips on the Beemer are somewhat broken again. Also the right blinker and brake light on the sidecar. More broken wires.
Friday Evening Update - The parts arrived from Ural in today's mail. One lifter assembly, one pushrod plus two valve cover gaskets. I had ordered the valve cover gaskets earlier to be delivered whenever the speedometer came in. They were "no charge" courtesy of Mickey. Tomorrow the Ural gets reassembled plus another oil change.
On the BMW, there were two broken wires under the sidecar. The ground wire from the bike chassis to the sidecar body and the brake light wire. There is some flex necessary as the body rides on rubber rings suspending it from the frame. The bouncing just caused the wires to fatigue and fail. This isn't the first time they needed to be repaired.
Is riding against the sun as difficult as it seems on the vid? Looks mighty blinding.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on whether or not the visor is partially fogging up and going directly into the sun. Many times, I need to open the visor to get a clear view.
DeleteToo bad most of the snow has fallen off the trees at the beginning half of the third video...I like the look of the snow-clad trees along the roadside that came along later in the video.
ReplyDeleteAre you putting any HEET in your gas when you fill up?
Glad to hear the Beemer rig is running well, good to have a spare sidecar rig in Winter up there eh?
How is Whojigger's rig doing in the all this cold?
When it's this cold, we rarely get any snow. But I'm sure there'll be more coming soon.
DeleteNo, I rarely put Heet into the tank and the last I checked (last weekend) there was no water in the tank on the Beemer. The slight mod of the crankcase vent eliminated the moisture problem that has been plaguing me for the last couple of years.
It IS nice to have a "spare" sidecar rig. It makes me re-think my summer plans.
Whojigger is back in Fairbanks again and he is storing it at a friends house until May. I believe that he is still in town until sometime next week. And he's still having problems with the vent freezing. It probably has blown out some seals the way he's losing oil.
I haven't seen any snowmobiles in your videos. Where are they allowed to ride?
ReplyDeleteThis is probably a dumb question (because if it was a good idea you would have already thought of it), but could you wrap a hand warmer around the GoPro battery?
Generally, the only ones who ride around town on the bike paths are kids and even then, there are much better trails away from the road.
DeleteI suspect that it could help though there isn't a lot of heat without some sort of insulating wrap around the camera. I think a better solution would be to just use an external power source. Fairly straightforward to make though I think that the parts would need to be ordered. And there is only 9 more days of PBC videos.
I suppose that's what I was thinking- not many more days to go, so why tinker with wires. But you are a wirey guy, so that's no problem. It would be nice to know how to do the mechanical things you do!
DeleteI ordered a clone GoPro case from Amazon that I wouldn't feel bad about drilling a hole in. Then I could just run a USB cable straight into the camera and run it off of either bike power or one of several external USB batteries that I've accumulated over the years (for charging cell phones).
DeleteI really like the colors in that photo Richard. I am continually surprised (although I shouldn't be) at how well phone pictures come out.
ReplyDeleteThe phones work well when there is plenty of light but are horrible in low light conditions. I'm not sure how this new app works. It claims to be able to make a 35 megapixel image with an 8 megapixel sensor.
DeleteThe PBC site was interesting too Richard. Looks like the challenge will soon come to an end, but something tells me you will be tempted to continue snow riding!
ReplyDeleteProbably not as tempted to ride at these kind of temperatures. The PBC was sort of an incentive to keep riding plus I did want to make some videos.
Delete