7th Annual East Central Iowa Sidecar Rally Video

Here is a short video I made of the sidecar rally I attended two weeks ago. I uploaded it in 1080p, so make sure to watch in HD!

The pictures used in the video are here (170+ photos)

YouTube video:

 

Vimeo video:

 

Related Posts:

• Anamosa to Minneapolis – Exploring Parks 
• Sidecar Rally and National Motorcycle Museum

Flat Track School Videos

This post contains the videos mentioned in the previous post.
First the crash video:
Vimeo Crash Video:

YouTube Crash Video (make sure to watch in 1080p HD):


Vimeo Flat Track School Video:


YouTube Flat Track School Video:

Advanced Sidecar/Trike Training Video

Short video for this post: Advanced Sidecar/Trike Training

Vimeo Video:

Youtube Video:

Uraling Carlos Avery

Sunday, we took the Ural into Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area. I wrote about it before on: Exploring Dead Ends on a WR250R and in August of 2009. Watch one of the videos below in HD to see the above photo in action!

We were both very exhausted from our advanced riding class, so we though the Ural would be fun. (More on that soon. Uploading 400 pictures to flickr takes some time!) The weather was great both Saturday and Sunday! The first two days without rain in the last thirteen. You’d think we’d been transplanted to Seattle or something. On Sunday, the high was 81F!

I wore my new Firstgear mesh coat. My wife bought a new helmet on newenough.com and the coat was on closeout for $30! I couldn’t resist. A mesh coat in 80F is amazing. It felt like I was just wearing my t-shirt.

We arrived at Carlos after a quick ride up I-35W. I always get excited when I see a minimum maintenance road sign. It means fun ahead.

Carlos is normally very sandy, but I didn’t need 2WD at all. It was also surprisingly dry considering how much rain we have had.

We saw a bunch of geese and their babies running across the road. In one case, the goose ran away down the road. You have to see the video for it. I cut it down to about 15 seconds, but we “chased” him for over a minute and a half before it remembered it had wings and flew away.

There is some really amazing scenery up there.

My wife is turning into a great sidecar monkey. She leans into the turns with me making it much easier to enjoy the twisty roads. I’m still working on teaching her to ride the Ural, but she really enjoys just going for a ride.

We were there for about two hours and never rode on the same road twice. Granted, we were only going about 20MPH. The road was quite rough most of the time with large ruts and some wash boarding. We put in almost four hours and 120kms. It was a great ride and we both had a lot of fun.

Enjoy the videos below! They look best in full screen and with 1080p HD if your computer and internet can handle it.

Full Flickr Set:

Video on Vimeo:

Video on YouTube:

Uraling with a Manfrotto

My friend called me up the other night and was bragging how he had the entire week off of work. He suggested I take a day off too, so we could play with bikes and cameras. Fun!

The first thing we did was get the Ural naked.

Before:

 

After:

We removed the lower leg fairings, the windshield, and the sidecar windshield. The Ural seems to have a bit more energy without those big sails on. It was also much quieter as neither of us experienced any buffeting.

I also switched to my other riding coat since the hi-viz is a bit intense in photos.

My friend took a lot of photos of me riding my different bikes. He was really impressed with the T2i.

He said it was very light compared to other DSLRs he’s used. He also liked how easy it was to get good photos without a lot of effort.  Since I started taking photos with the T2i, I haven’t had to edit many photos in picnik. I’m already in love with it, so I’m biased.

Ural turning right

Ural turning left

Hanging off the Ural around corners is important to keep weight on the outside of the tip over line to prevent the rig from capsizing. It’s very easy to get one of the rear wheels off the ground if you’re not careful.

The videos below are partially inspired by bobskoot and partially mapperjay. Bob knows cameras better than I and turned me onto the Manfrotto line of goodies. I picked up a Manfrotto 680B monopod a few weeks back. I mounted the GoPro HD on top of the monopod with the tripod adapter. We had a lot of fun making the video. Enjoy!

 

Vimeo Video:

Youtube Video:

SV650 Meet T2i

The riding the last few days has been fantastic. It's been cool in the mornings (30Fs) and then warm in the afternoons (50Fs). I’ve been mainly riding my WR250R and SV650 with the Ural finally getting to rest.

Earlier this week I finally received my new camera. I ordered over a month ago. First, I had to wait for it to be replaced, and then I waited for the backorder. My new camera is a: Canon EOS Rebel T2i. It has been quite fun learning how to use it and I hope my overall picture quality will improve with a more capable camera. I also need to finish reading the inch thick manual! 

Here are a few shots I took this morning on the way in. For contrast, you can look at the same shots from Feb 10 here. No snow anymore, and not quite all green grass yet either.

 

On the way home, I stopped on the river bluff just to the South of downtown St. Paul and captured these two shots, and the pic of my SV650 at the beginning. Click on any of the images for a full 18MP version.

I’ve been spending a lot of time riding and trying to figure out my two cameras. I’ve easily put a few hundred miles on both the WR and the SV in the last ten days.