The Dekatria Project - Great Britain 2012 & Greece 2013

[Dekatria]

This weekend, the Drift camera finally came in - it's a HD170 Stealth. It's a pretty much plug and play kind of thing, and very easy to figure out. The display shows what the cam sees, and you can choose for it to shoot a video, take a picture every few seconds, or just one pic at the press of a button. It's got a 300 degree rotatable lens, which has a wide-angle, 170 degree fisheye view, and the whole thing is very light. It basically is a universally attachable digicam, and comes delivered with all kinds of mountings, for on the helmet, your torso or your beast.

Oh, and it looks like something out of Predator when attached to the side of your helmet *enter obligatory Stig-pose*



This week I've got another week off, so I'll be doing some more work on the bike, and maybe shoot a proper riding clip too

I'll keep you posted

[zandesiro]

Originally Posted by Dekatria

This weekend, the Drift camera finally came in - it's a HD170 Stealth. It's a pretty much plug and play kind of thing, and very easy to figure out. The display shows what the cam sees, and you can choose for it to shoot a video, take a picture every few seconds, or just one pic at the press of a button. It's got a 300 degree rotatable lens, which has a wide-angle, 170 degree fisheye view, and the whole thing is very light. It basically is a universally attachable digicam, and comes delivered with all kinds of mountings, for on the helmet, your torso or your beast.

Oh, and it looks like something out of Predator when attached to the side of your helmet *enter obligatory Stig-pose*



This week I've got another week off, so I'll be doing some more work on the bike, and maybe shoot a proper riding clip too

I'll keep you posted

post a clip to see how is recording....

[Dekatria]

Well here we are, Friday the 13th so time for some more Youtube-ishness (this time fully English-spoken )! Some updates on the progress, but mainly an excuse to ramble about the Drift camera and show off its footage

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wZ5zXdd5_G8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(What is up with the embedding? Just shows code here...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ5zXdd5_G8

The page on the upcoming tour of Great Britain can be found here.

[Dekatria]

Completed the mounts on the cases yesterday, and this is how the Alp now looks in travel-mode





Mounting them isn't really that tough, as long as you take your time with it. I'll leave it to you whether I did a good job

[kopeli]

Dear Greg,
as I see in your video http://youtu.be/wZ5zXdd5_G8 you allready have the Hellas Flag at your headquarter.
That mean's that your goal is Hellas ,"as Zandesiro" said.

keep on "trip planing."

Originally Posted by zandesiro

I suggest to design your return route from North greece and Balkans.....keep your "long way down" make a "New way up".

He is right +650

[Dekatria]

Originally Posted by kopeli

Dear Greg,
as I see in your video http://youtu.be/wZ5zXdd5_G8 you allready have the Hellas Flag at your headquarter.
That mean's that your goal is Hellas ,"as Zandesiro" said.

That's correct - I'm hoping to enter your country in 2013. Still a long way to go though

He is right +650

I still leave all my options open regarding the Balkan route back - that'll depend on how things have progressed up until then. For now, I'm a bit tentative about some of the countries to the North of Greece, but it could very well be I'll still add them to the route in the coming year.

Does anyone have any good information regarding touring through Albania, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro in the like? How safe (or unsafe) is it?

[zandesiro]

Albania, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro is safe and cheap....!


Your video cam quality is awesome..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ5zXdd5_G8

[Dekatria]

Originally Posted by zandesiro

Albania, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro is safe and cheap....!

Alright! Do you have any further information regarding sights to see or places to avoid?

Your video cam quality is awesome..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ5zXdd5_G8

Thanks just the sound quality leaves alot to be desired. It's pretty weird - it won't register your voice when you speak to it, but I heard myself shouting when the Drift was mounted to my helmet and engine noise is also audible

When I get around mounting the microphone Drift supplied, I'll shoot another on-board vid to see whether things have improved.

[Dekatria]

Quick update - Holland has been in a deep winter these past 2 weeks so I haven't ridden much. Tested the Drift mic on-board before the snow fell though, and it still needs some tweaking as it's really sensitive and tends to overload easily once the helmet's closed and I'm at speed. The mounting then needs some thinking through.

Also took the time to flick through the images since the start of the project in late 2010... and that's pretty confronting I must say. You don't really see what you've done when you're busy with it, but once you look back, it's some view I gotta say.



Hopefully next time some proper Drift-mic images

[Dekatria]

A week of vacation, and riding has been resumed the past week. I found that the windnoise is still tiring on the long run (say, when I ride a 100km of freeway in one go) even though I've got Alpine plugs - tomorrow I'll be fitting some custom plugs just so long distance touring will remain bearable. Already have a taller windscreen, and even though there is a huge difference with how it was before it still makes the noise annoying after 45 minutes of fast riding. I've also been looking into another helmet - Shoei's Neotec might be a good successor.

Hopefully I'll be able to use the new plugs this week, as I plan to make a trip to northern Holland for a few days along with all the fresh camping equipment. When I do, I'll ofcourse update on the progress - it would be the first time the Alp will be fully laden, and the first time I'll do several hours of riding.

I also took some time to take the best footage of the Drift camera thus far, and make a compilation out of it, paired with some writing. The video can be found here (embedding won't work in trip planning) or simply by clicking the below image.

Enjoy

[zandesiro]

[Niels1449]

Hey Greg,

Nice initiative, I hope the drift cam is to your liking. I've used the contour 1080 myself and recently bougth the go pro 2 since it's waterproof.

I'm also working on a long Journey (amsterdam-sidney) so I know what you'te going through with the preps ;-)

If you want we can compare some stuff or perhaps catch a ride sometime. (living near arnhem)

Here's a fun vid of me trying offroad with roadslicks:-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eeHxCoIsZY&nomobile=1

Cheers, Niels

[Dekatria]

Originally Posted by Niels1449

Hey Greg,

Nice initiative, I hope the drift cam is to your liking. I've used the contour 1080 myself and recently bougth the go pro 2 since it's waterproof.

I'm also working on a long Journey (amsterdam-sidney) so I know what you'te going through with the preps ;-)

If you want we can compare some stuff or perhaps catch a ride sometime. (living near arnhem)

Here's a fun vid of me trying offroad with roadslicks:-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eeHxCoIsZY&nomobile=1

Cheers, Niels

The Drift has really nice images and is really easy to use, so I like it alot. With the universal clip, it's also really easy to attach or detach with gloves on. Goes really well with my 'meat-'n-taters'-personality

But Amsterdam Sydney, that's not even the same league as my plans... very nice! Have you got a website of some kind?

Anyways, thanks for the compliments, I'll PM you about a ride

[Dekatria]

Still going strong!

Today I arranged the ferry crossing to Great Britain for this summer, so the dates are now final. Friday the 13th of July for departure, and return for the 22nd. This should leave me with both enough time to explore the island of Ol' Blighty and make it challenging enough for me to average a certain mileage per day - something I'll need to be able to do when taking the trip to Greece.

Just thinking about how close everything's getting almost gives me cold feet still, I'm also very excited about it all. Coming weeks the bike will get some fresh rubber, and I hope to make a small fully-laden trip as well (didn't get to do that yet, and seems kind of important...)

Further info on the GB-trip can be found by clicking the image

[jorrizza]

Ooh, interesting trip. Subscribed. It sure sounds like a lot of fun. Can't wait to read the ride report next year.

Nice bike by the way. :)