It seems as if the GoPro issue I was having is resolved. I had broken the first rule of debugging by making two changes at the same time. I reformatted the SD card AND reloaded the firmware on the GoPro at the same time. I believe that the actual fix for my power problem was reformatting the SD card. Just to review, my problem was the the GoPro would re-boot after recording for a couple of minutes and when it rebooted, it would not reconnect to the GoPro remote. And there was some message on the LCD screen that I couldn't read due to the frost.
I think that I can now recommend the Switronix DVGP3USB battery eliminator as my latest way to power the GoPro. As it comes, it has a 10' long USB cable allowing it to reach from just about any mounting point on the bike to the USB outlet in the sidecar. It completely replaces the battery so it cannot be used to recharge the GoPro batteries as plugging into the GoPro USB port. The manufacturer's recommendation for use is to have the non-waterproof back to feed the cable through. Since I had the waterproof back with a gland fitting, i..e. waterproof cable pass through, I used that. To do that, I had to cut the 10' cable, run it through the gland fitting and solder the cable back together. Not a problem. I left a service loop coiled up inside of the waterproof back to simplify removing the camera.
PBC #36 and #37 were recorded on the same day. Shortly after starting, I noticed that the time/temp signs in town were showing a much lower temperature than I had measured at the start of the ride. So, naturally, I stopped and started a new recording. How's that for evidence of being obsessed. Besides getting more points (as if that mattered), it does allow me to have a video uploaded in advance. BTW, I am far from being the points leader this year. A dual sport rider in Utah took his GS on a couple of 300 mile rides and has almost double the points.
PBC #35
PBC #36
PBC #37
Also a maintenance note.
42,750 km
Torqued the heads (34 ft-lbs)
Adjusted the valves
Topped off engine oil 10w40 full synthetic
Checked transmission and final drive fluids (both full)
On Saturday, we went up to the Arctic Circle with Bridget's brother. He wanted to pick up a couple of geocaches north of the Arctic Circle. It seemed like a good opportunity to play with the GoPro again. The first video was taken with the camera mounted to the top of the truck windshield using the suction cup mount. It was taken on the Dalton Hwy as we were returning from the Arctic Circle. The first couple of clips were at 1 frame per second and the rest were at 1 frame per 2 seconds so you will notice that the video seems to speed up. You may also notice that the road is pretty nice gravel or pavement at least to the Arctic Circle.
The road was just a little muddy. Not as bad as it could be. My son offered to clean the truck after we got back home so it is all clean and shiny again. Thank you Kyle!
This second video was with the camera attached to the left turn signal mount on the Ural. Still trying to find a good place for the camera. This was my regular commute into the university with a few of the buildings highlighted. Ignore the invalid title near the beginning. I'm still getting used to the GoPro Editor...
Update - Mike Saunders is back from his trip to Prudhoe Bay on his 49cc Ruckus. Read about his adventure!
I'm not really sure where all of the smoke is coming from but it looked kind of grim this morning. Not at all like it was yesterday. From what I'm hearing, the smoke is from the Funny River fire down on the Kenai Peninsula some 300+ miles to the south. Rarely does smoke get across the Alaska Range but I guess there are some pretty strong winds from the south. This is the same fire that was filling the air with smoke in Talkeetna over the weekend.
I did take some video on my trip last weekend but didn't process any of it until today. Here are a couple of short clips starting at Healy Canyon and the bridge over the Nenana River. Note the windsock when halfway across the bridge. After a short time, I noticed the battery on the GoPro remote was dead and it was too long of a reach to the camera. It is mounted on a Ram mount fastened to the upper sidecar strut. The Ram mounts seem much more stable than the regular GoPro mounting options. I'm still looking for a better camera location.
As I had mentioned before, there are very few places in Fairbanks that motorcyclists like to ride. The Monderosa is one of these places. The loosely, non-organized BMW riders group went there yesterday for lunch and today, riders from our church rode out. As you can see, it was a mix of bikes with the majority being cruisers. The assistant pastor did have his new R1200GSW which he says is as nice as he had read about. He has an ADV bike rental business and this is the newest addition to his rental fleet.
Another "first", Bridget joined the group and rode in the sidecar. This is the longest trip we've taken together with the bike. Since the bike was set up for no passenger in the sidecar, it pulled to the right and with no steering mods, I got a pretty good upper body workout on the trip. She indicated that it was a little bumpy and kind of cold. The weather wasn't quite as nice as yesterday (61°F and partly cloudy) and the rain just caught us for the last mile. There were a lot of cross-winds trying to blow us around.
I set the GoPro to take a photo every 5 seconds and used the GoPro Studio software to put the photos together into a video. The 55 minute trip is reduced to a 22 sec video.
My first GoPro video with the camera mounted on the front of the sidecar rig. I think the front of the sidecar bounces up and down too much and there was a fair amount of wind noise on the highway. This may take a while until I find a mounting point and perspective that works. But here is my first video of my morning commute. As you can see, there is still some snow hanging around and the dirt road on campus is getting a little rough.
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