General waffle | Moto-Abruzzo

15/01/201416/01/2014

Lights, camera …….. action!

Video on bikes ……. Nothing new of course, it’s been going on for ages. But for what it’s worth, here’s a potted history of moto-abruzzo’s fumbling’s as a videographer.

This pic is probably where it all began, back in 1992 on a hot day in Italy when I was bored. I strapped my analog camcorder to the cylinder head of the 1500 Goldwing and had a fun afternoon playing. The low perspective added drama to the shots and I could watch the front end working in corners …. Well as much as you can corner on a Goldwing! But of course the kit was bulky and not waterproof in the slightest, Sony Video Walkman GD-V800 so once I’d had a play I never touched it again – especially in the rain soaked confines of the UK.

It was 2001 before I used video again. Now working as a full time Motorcycle Instructor I could see the value of using video as a training aid, so I fitted my Triumph Trophy 1200 with two 720×520 colour bullet cams (front & rear) and used a Sony Video Walkman GD-V800 deck to record. The cameras were interchangeable with PIP (Picture in Picture) so one image was primary while the other was a thumbnail in the corner. It all worked very well and I learned a great deal about camera placement, lens choice, filming and editing video from those days. Sadly, when the Trophy was written off in 2005 the video gear just sat in a corner of the workshop and never got fitted permanently again – mainly because no bike stayed long enough until I got the Caponord!

GoPro Hero 3+ Black And that brings me up to date I guess. 2014, a new year and all that jazz, will see moto-abruzzo once again playing with video. Hopefully this time it will add a new perspective to the website and move things in a slightly different direction. After a few weeks of internet-homework, weighing up the pros and cons of some amazing kit, I’ve chosen the GoPro Hero 3+ Black as the camera platform to use. I’m not going to bang on about the camera as a zillion websites and YouTube videos are available to review this kit, it’s enough to say that in comparison to previous kit I’ve used it look fantastic, is a magnitude more advanced and ……. well lets just say I can’t wait to get filming!

24/12/201328/12/2013

Santa and his sack of Capo goodies

Ho, ho, ho ... dashboard inlay for MrB!!!!! I’ll start off by wishing you all a hearty Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year wherever you are on this wonderful globe of ours. For the Capo and I, it’s proving to be an extra special one this year, with Santa dropping off a few extra goodies for the riding-year ahead.

The dashboard has been especially good, and so merits the star prize of a new OEM quality inlay with all the new graphics in place. So as I write, the old one is on its way to Lockwood International Ltd in the UK to act as a template, meanwhile the plastic chassis has been cleaned and preped ready for the big day. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I’m all on edge – and I’ve got to wait at least three or four more weeks yet before it’s installed!!

Probably the most needed bits are for the (very) overdue service. Yes folks, I’m hanging my head in shame as I admit that the Capo’s mileage overran a tad ……. a couple of thousand tads give-or-take! Now I’m waiting for a few packages to arrive for this truly international service to take place – Hiflo HF564 oil filters and ‘O’ rings from the UK, Hotcams valve shims from the USA, Athena air filters from Germany and 15w50 engine oil from Italy. Cosmopolitan or what!

That just leaves the parcels snuggling together under the tree …… a Shoi Neotec or a pair of socks? Slippers or a slipper clutch? Hmmm ….. roll on tomorrow!! 😉

11/11/201307/09/2017

Olive oil 2013

Olivel For us the olive picking season is over. Picked, pressed and the deliciously aromatic end product, our liquid gold, is safely stored in stainless steel tanks. A good job really, as last week’s balmy 20-25c has given way to ‘cyclone Venus’ as I write this post. Temps down to 7-8c and gale force winds are busy stripping the land of anything not nailed down. This however is nothing in comparison to the devastation that has recently befallen the Phillipines ……..

So while I reflect on our soggy situation, I’ve put together a few photos of our past olive exploits. Some were on my old website back on 09-10 and I think they deserve another outing.

Oh and what’s with the Thunderbird 2 pic? Click on it and have a look! I just think the similarity is absolutely amazing. You’ve just got to love nature!

So here are those extra pictures, some taken at the Loreto Aprutino olive oil museum …. once a working mill itself until the 1920’s, it was then occupied by German forces during WWII. Thankfully they left the old machinery intact. Here’s a link to another blog ….. I think he puts it across much better than I could!

07/09/2013

Happy Birthday to you ………

What is it they say about best laid plans? I wrote this piece on the 3rd September ready to post it on the 5th. Unfortunately, a complete loss of phone and internet in our area for three days screwed this plan up nicely. Anyway better late than never I guess …. here it is.

The ‘Certificate of Origin’ for my Rally-Raid says that it was manufactured in 2002. This is quite odd as every removable plastic part with a date on it has a moulded stamp dated sometime in early 2003. So when are our bikes actually ‘manufactured’? Is it the date the frame was made and given a chassis number or when a completed bike roles off the production line? My guess is the former.

I suppose I’ll never really know the answer, so I decided to give it a birthday like the Queen, you know, the ceremonial one rather than the official one. As the date of first registration is known and on the V5 (Registration Document), I thought this was the most appropriate date to use.

So that makes today, the 5^th of September 2013 the 10^th Birthday of my Rally-Raid!

Exactly how do you give a 250Kg motorbike the bumps! At least it’s a fine excuse for jelly, ice cream and lashings and lashings of beer! And afterwards ……. presents!!!!!! 😀

06/09/201326/05/2016

That time of year again

Fresh back from another whirlwind trip the Capo and I are quietly recovering at home and taking stock of the events over the last two weeks.

2,931 miles in total
Average fuel – 48.6mpg ( 5.98l/100km) with a best of 53.5 mpg (5.19l/100km) and a worst of 43mpg (6.22l/100km)

Throughout the Rally-Raid behaved impeccably, doing exactly what it was designed to do. Not once did the over inflated media fragility give me any concern, no pyrotechnics under the fuel tank or gushing fountains of fuel anywhere, hell even the wheel bearing didn’t disintegrate into pixie dust. It seems as though the only victims of this trip have been the Anakee 2 tyres ……… now squared off at the rear and cupped at the front, although still legal (UK) with 2.2mm/2.3mm tread still remaining – and now with a total of 14,762 miles under their belt! Will these things ever die?

The trip itself had highs and lows ….. after 13 years I’ve decided to walk away from motorcycle training, at least for the moment. That bulky laminated card issued by the DSA (Driving Standards Agency) has lived in my various jackets an awful long time and I somehow feel naked now that it has gone. And of course I feel a little sad at giving up something that has given me immense enjoyment over the years. But it had to happen.

On a brighter note though, I got to meet up once again with Andy (Beasthonda on the AF1 forum), this time at the Oxford Hein Gerricke store. We had a great chat about all things Caponord (especially electronics and dashboards! 😉 ) and a fine cup of tea while ogling a wide variety of bikes as they came and went. Sadly for both of us, time was short so we couldn’t put any miles under the wheels together, but next time……………

Many years ago I used to love reading the American ‘Flying’ magazine, especially a column entitled, ‘I learned about flying from that’ – tales of near disaster and mortal mistakes etc. So here’s my bike rider version.

I LEARNED ABOUT RIDING FROM THAT

Never pass a viable fuel station with a reserve light on, even if you know by experience that you’ll reach the next (and better in your eyes) station with ease – just because you’ve done it before a hundred times. Big mistake, because today you’re going to get bitten.

So I’m heading North past Colmar in France with 20-30km to go before the Aire du Haut Koenigbourg services …… except at 5Km the traffic suddenly slows and bunches up. Our two lanes are being merged into one. Now I’m almost at the services with a solid concrete wall either side funnelling us onward and no sign of the exit for the services. Then I see it, walled off, bright red and white barriers cheerfully letting me know that the North bound traffic can just jog on by, no exit for fuel for you lot. Oh bloody wonderful!

And so I ride on in this concrete funnel trying to juggle my options. What bloody options! Best I can hope for is not to conk out in this one-lane hell hole. After another 10km (eternity!) we spew out again into two lanes, except now I’ve got to ride in Über-economy mode to stretch out whatever vapour I’m running on. This whole landscape is fields either side for pretty much as far as you can see, but finally the GPS pipes up and offers me a way out, at lest I’ll be off the fast duel lane and on quieter country roads.

Fuel at last ....... and a fine patch of diesel to park on! After another 15 minutes of lefts/rights, bends and roundabouts I spot the fuel station ahead …….. and it’s one of those 24hr unmanned jobs. The Capo rolls to the pump with 263.7 miles on the trip. 1st card goes in (UK) …. we don’t accept it. 2nd card (UK)…. nope, we don’t like that one either. 3rd one (Italian) …. Wahay thank God!!!!! I swear the French still have a grudge with us Brits you know. The pump clicked off after 22.27 litres and I think that’s about as close as I ever want to get to pushing a Caponord home! Lesson learned ….. until next time! 😉

23/05/201328/11/2017

A trundle up to Silverstone

Force_India While over in the UK I popped over to Sahara Force India Formula 1 team at Silverstone to meet up with Andy (Beasthonda) from the AF1 forum. We’ve been exchanging emails on and off for months now and this was a great chance to put a face to the name.

I took along my netbook and OBD cable and remapped his Capo while Andy hooked a patch-box and oscilloscope into the instrument panel wiring loom so we could accurately measure a particular signal from the ECU. It was certainly a whirlwind exercise – all done with one eye on the storm clouds brewing overhead! Everything went smoothly and afterwards Andy gave me a guided tour of the team headquarters, it was fantastic. So I’d like to thank Andy once again for his kindness, hopefully we’ll meet again when I’m next over on the Capo. Cheers!

UPDATE: See the foot (bottom right) of the picture above? A fine example of a foot I think you’ll agree …. but it’s not mine and it’s not Andy’s. It belongs to Rob Ashworth who tried desperately to get out of the shot but didn’t quite make it. Rob in fact supplied the oscilloscope and twiddled the knobs in a flurry of practised professionalism. As they say, better late than never ……. Rob, thank you for your assistance and it was a pleasure chatting to you.

26/03/201326/05/2016

Slip slidin’ away …..

Ok I admit it ….. I posted these shots up on the AF1 forum first, but I thought I’d load them up here for posterity. If you’ve seen them already – tough, get over it! 😉

The Capo and I got caught out on a little muddy patch that appeared after a particularly windy day blew some of the neighbours field across a local road. Harmless when dry, but it took on the consistency of a melted hazelnut choc bar …. the one you left on the car dash when you went shopping last summer, yes that one.

So as I rolled on in, it peeled off with the stone surface wrapping around my wheels and jamming everything solid …… enough to leave stress marks in the plastic where it was trying to lift the mudguard off! Oh joy, what fun! Stuck in Beelzebub’s play-pit on tip-toe and not a soul anywhere in sight to help.

How I got out and back home is just a blur, a snapshot of tears, tantrums and praying to any passing deity within earshot … but we made it. Like Thunderbird 2 on telly, the jet-washer was rolled out and away we went, me blasting away, the sun mercilessly trying to bake this stuff on …. it was a close call I can tell you. This stuff sets like cement!

Note to self …… when it’s winter, fit the bloody winter tyres you Muppet.

Keep it shiny side up – KarlB

19/03/201320/03/2013

A courier conundrum

Sorry folks I’ve just got to get this off my chest before I explode in apoplectic frustration ….

CGK

Have you seen the film ‘2001’? Remember the computer – HAL? Did you know the name was a little in-joke by the director because if you add a letter, H becomes I, A becomes B and L becomes M making IBM the (then) biggest and most memorable of computer companies.

So now I’m going to bemoan a courier company, not a little provincial one, but a global name known to most. Let’s call it CGK (work it out!). Here is a company that can prove a committed and sustained level of incompetence that is truly inspirational, indeed the sheer magnitude of its ineptitude is breathtakingly staggering and that takes some commitment. Why?

Because every time we have been unfortunate enough to have an incoming parcel handled by them, they have delayed, mislaid or attempted to deliver to a completely wrong house – all while having parcels that are clearly marked with our address AND phone number. We invariably get embroiled in numerous (premium rate) phone calls trying to track the damn things down. The first bit of glorious stupidity comes in the form of the tracking number. The number that should tell you where your beloved brown box is at any one time … but stops at the border, changes from 12 digits to a new 10 digit number and is known only to some secret squirrel in a call center!

And so it goes on, more phone calls … ‘the name is wrong on the package, but the address is OK’ …… ‘the courier tried to deliver twice yesterday’ ….. ‘they only deliver on a Tuesday or Thursday’ …. ‘it’s on a canoe heading for Nova Scotia’. OK, I made the last one up, but the others are genuine. Frankly, I give up. If these bunch of clowns were the only postal/courier company in existence, I’d buy some new boots and start walking the package to its destination, it can’t be any slower that’s for sure.

Deep breath …..and release slowly ……. ahhhhhhh, I feel so much better now!

UPDATE: 5 minutes after posting, the phone rang …. it was a courier. In the end I got the parcel an hour later, after a 16km round trip to a local village because he didn’t know the area and frankly didn’t want to. So there we stood in the piazza as I signed his 21st century electronic gizmo, him cutting a dash in his corporate sweatshirt and cap while his 20 year old van wheezed and creaked on its springs in the wind. I don’t think it would have survived our road after all!

11/03/2013

Calling all over the World ……

My wife came up with a great idea recently. Why doesn’t moto-abruzzo host a collection of guest authors from around the world on the lead-up to the 2013 ACIM event?

Hmmm ….. I thought, she just might well have something here!

So I’m looking for budding Caponord owning authors from around the world, willing to submit a piece of 1 to 1½ sides of A4 – about 400 – 600 words. At a minimum the subject should be about motorcycles, preferably with the Caponord in their somewhere, maybe not the central subject but somewhere on the fringe none the less. Talk about your country, what seems day-to-day for you will be intriguing and interesting to others. Your best places, best roads, breakdowns, frustrations, living with the Capo – ANYTHING! Just try to view your world with fresh eyes. And of course, plenty of photographs!!!

If enough participate a new post will be uploaded weekly from early May until the ACIM meet on the 12th-14th July – 8 to 10 weeks or so would be nice. The event will end with a final write up about ACIM and hopefully something a little special! Depending on the number of people who may be interested in doing this, then I’ll either post a little more frequently, or start earlier – who knows!

Interested? Then either PM me through the AF1 forum or use the contact page above for more information.

Quills at the read Caponaughts!!!

10/03/2013

Bad contact page

Sorry folks, only found out yesterday that the contact page wasn’t sending me anything. If you’re reading this and sent something recently – and no doubt thinking I’m a miserable sod for not responding, I can only apologise. I think it’s sorted now and you should get an auto-response as confirmation you’ve sent me a message. Isn’t technology so wonderful sometimes!

Cheers KarlB

So that makes today, the 5th of September 2013 the 10th Birthday of my Rally-Raid!

So that makes today, the 5^th of September 2013 the 10^th Birthday of my Rally-Raid!