My New Favorite Camera: The Sony HXR-MC1 1080i High Defintion Lipstick System
There are a ton of fun toys in the motorcycle world - heck, some folks even call bikes themselves toys, though I’ve never quite liked that description for a purpose built machine myself - however over the weekend I got a chance to try out what quite possibly might be the coolest motorcycle toy ever created, a pre-production unit of the brand new Sony HXR-MC1 1080i High-Definition Bullet Camera System.
Granted, calling the HXR system a toy is totally not fair because it is a professional grade video production tool - however it is by far the best combination photography and record system I’ve seen in the POV camera market to-date.
I suppose a short backtrack is in order here — We’ve used a variety of POV Camera systems on a number of our projects over the years. None was ever perfect. System after system, one thing or another always left me wanting more. Either the cameras didn’t handle the vibrations on a motorcycle very well, or the record unit wasn’t exactly user-friendly, or the battery life just flat out stunk.
And ever since the Television world went High-Def, I’ve been actively searching for a stellar High-Definition POV camera system (sometimes referred to as a Bullet Camera or Lipstick Camera) that met Broadcast specifications in order to capture those great Point-of-View shots from various angles on a motorcycle that we as riders love to see. The shots that make you feel as if you’re part of the action.
Well, Sony it seems has answered my prayers…
The HXR-MC1 system shoots 1080i High-Def footage and records it seamlessly to a Sony Memory Duo HG Stick. The interface on the unit is superb thanks to the LCD-touch screen, easy to navigate menus and simple record features. The best proof I can offer is that because the unit was a pre-production model it didn’t come with a manual - because the manual apparently is still being written according to our Sony rep - but that didn’t matter at all. We were up and running in less then five-minutes. It’s really that easy. If you can run iTunes, I feel fairly certain you can operate this gizmo…
The embedded Vimeo video below is a quick and dirty camera test we shot up in Malibu, California, with the HXR unit set to auto-exposure in the highest quality setting. While it’s not nearly as crisp as a true 3-chip professional HD camera, it’s damn good looking stuff. Especially if you take in to consideration that a high-end professional HD Camera can run from 40k up to 100k. The HXR is anticipated to come in at just around three-thousand dollars. I’d say that’s some nifty bang-for-the-buck!
But, don’t take my word for it, take a look yourself 
Unfortunately we didn’t have to time to run the unit through a million paces, but as I understand it the lens is also capable of being set manually (most seem to suggest underexposing three stops). My primary concern was simply seeing if it a) worked and b) could handle the stress and strain of the specific vibrations from a motorcycle. (Historically that’s been the real undoing of a number of POV options we’ve tried in the past)…
So while this isn’t nearly as complete of a review as most folks will do, my gut tells me we’re going to be using this little’rig a lot on our next several upcoming sportbike projects 
Quick snap-shot of the record unit.
Another quick snap of the unit gaffe taped to the tank of a Ducati Monster.
Favorite Book of The Year - Hodgson’s Back on Track
With the year quickly coming to a close there’s a certain amount of self-reflection hanging in the air. That quasi-introspective light that reveals both the magnificent and the less then stellar, the things you admire and the thing you’d like to alter when next season comes.
Clearly this hasn’t been the best year for my personal riding because I just haven’t had enough time to actually do it and I’ve spent far more hours away from the bikes than near them. On one level that eats away - rather constantly - at my sense of ‘what’s right in the world’, however the desire to be ‘near’ bikes has shown itself in a variety of different forms. Some of which are relatively obvious - like the hours spent working on moto-docs, while others were surprisingly unexpected.
In particular the vast amount of moto-reading that I found myself consuming over the course of the past year. Some of these escapes where brand specific while others era specific, and a few were merely tangentially moto-related, yet of all the books I flew through this year none was nearly as illuminating as Back on Track
Generally speaking I’m always somewhat hesitant to pick up a biography written with or by the subject themselves, as often times these sorts of books are crafted in the glowing light of perfection and rarely shed insight into the person themselves. Instead these sort of ‘tell all’ experiences feels less like the truth and more like you’re reading what is essentially one very hefty Nike commercial that’s sole purpose is to help stir the subjects celebrity status. However Back on Track is remarkably different than other puff-piece Bios — Because it isn’t one.
The book was not written during a Championship season, nor does it paint a perfect picture of Neil or pretend that he is in fact a perfect person. Instead Back on Track offers the most candid look that I’ve ever read on what it takes to run among the big boys in WSBK. From the highs to the lows to the constant search for that little bit of extra speed in every corner, Hodgson and co-writer Neil Bramwell lay it all out there for the audience to relive and learn from.
Perusing the pages you get the sense that the actual act of racing is almost the easiest part of being a professional World Superbike rider. Rather it’s the constant movement and motion from one place to another and the assortment of issues that go along with living a vagabond existence that seems to be the most trying part of professional racing.
In addition to the absolute sense of honesty that the book portrays, Back On Track is surprisingly open about what works and what doesn’t when you’re racing. Considering that at the World Superbike level of racing it is truly everyman for themselves and an arena where success is often predicated on secrecy, it truly astonishing that Neil is as open about what goes on in the pits and how that ultimately affects his outcomes during a race. He and his team spend the year constantly plagued with parts that don’t work, bikes that blow up, a lack of factory support and a somewhat elusive search for better results. The way that they go about sorting these issues out is really the core of the book and the journey from the first race of the season to the last offers a surprising amount of knowledge that applicable not only on the track but in the everyday real world when you’re not even around a bike…
“The Honda Myth: The Genius and His Wake” - Go Read It!
A few weekends back I was kicking tires and telling lies inside the paddock during the AMA races at Fontana when the topic of Honda Motor Corp’s rapid historical ascent to the top spot in worldwide manufacturing came up in conversation. Even though I’ve clearly been hooked by the uniquely articulated passion of the Italian motorcycle industry, I’m not naive enough to ignore the tremendous historical contributions and implications that the Japanese motorcycle industry, and the Honda Motor Corp. in specific, has offered to motorcycling in general. In relatively short order, a mere twenty to thirty years post World War II, Honda went from a bit player in Japan to a dominant force worldwide. That’s an amazing amount of growth and a tremendous story to say the least.
My fascination with the brand’s history undoubtedly hit a high point during the Twist The Throttle shoot, when we visited one of the Honda factories in Japan and spent time with some of their folks inside their Tokyo headquarters. The way their “associates” (what Honda call its employees) spoke about the brand seemed remarkably different then the rest of the companies we visited. They were equally as passionate, but in a much more concrete way - almost as if the presence of Soichiro Honda still existed.
The tangible nature of the old man’s impact is one of the key differences that separates Honda from the other brands, partially I suspect because unlike the founders of Suzuki or Kawasaki for example, both of which started in the late eighteen-hundreds and in completely different business, Soichiro is still part of the company’s relatively ‘modern’ history. In the grand scheme of things, he really hasn’t been gone all that long. Therefore the fact that his drive and ambition still strongly echo probably should be all that surprising to the general motorcycle fan.
As I recounted my respect for what I’d seen and for what Soichiro accomplished, one of the folks I highly respect in the moto-landscape suggested that if I really was curious about how Honda got its start, then I ought to pick up a copy of “The Honda Myth: The Genius and His Wake” by Masaaki Sato (a former writer for the Nikkei paper in Japan, which is effectively their equivalent of the Wall Street Journal)… More After the jump… (more…)
Riding With Rilke : Go Read It
With all the holiday parties now squarely fixed in the rear view mirror and life getting back to normal - whatever that might be - I’ve found myself in dire need of something a touch more mentally stimulating. Enter “Riding with Rilke” by Canadian author Ted Bishop. It’s a Ducati themed non-fiction novel that is part travelogue, part history lesson and equal parts motorcycle memoir.
Bishop as it turns out is both a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada and also just happens to be a long time motorcycle rider. After years in the classroom, he takes a sabbatical from teaching in order to pursue a research project on famed author Virginia Woolf at the University of Texas in Austin. Like all riders who have long trips in their not to distance future, Ted views the trip from Alberta to Austin as the perfect excuse or rational for a great individual motorcycle adventure. This of course necessitates the purchase of a brand new motorcycle - which anyone with motor oil running through their veins will fully understand - and while kicking tires at a local dealership Ted falls in love with a Ducati Monster.
On the surface this seems like a pretty straight forward trek with a clear end in sight, but a few pages later Bishop launches the reader into a whole other world — the world of an academic scholar in search of the authors he idolizes - and while it might seem overly educational or “to deep” it’s an absolutely marvelous adventure for the reader that transforms a simple road trip into an exploration of riding, writing, reading, living and in some cases dying.
At this point I don’t really remember how I got my hands on a copy of the book or why I bought it, but I haven’t read something this engaging in quite some time. Months. Maybe years. But I knew I was on to something special when I realized that I was dog marking pages and underlining passages to re-read later. “Riding with Rilke” is simply one hell of a read. A “I can’t put the book down, alarm clock be damned” kind of novel and inside the pages lies something entirely more interesting and profound then the usual Point A to Point B travelogue. If you’re looking for something to read I’d highly recommend it. (If you’re interested in reading more about the novel, check out this Austin Chronicle Review).
The Haydens: Nicky, Tommy & Roger
So late last night in an attempt to escape my near-addiction to the wall-to-wall local TV News coverage about the SoCal the fires, I finally got around to cracking opening the first few pages of Chris Jonnum’s new book on the Hayden Family, titled appropriately enough,” The Haydens: Nicky, Tommy, and Roger, from Owb to Motogp
The Black Widow Motorcycle Ramp
Pick-up trucks and motorcycles go hand in hand, however getting your bike into the bed isn’t quite as simple as it seems. For the past several years I’ve used a variety of ramps and steps, but none of them ever seemed as solid as I would have liked. So last week in preparation for the arrival of the 1098S, I decided it was time to try something new. There had to be a better way or at least that was my theory. After furiously scouring the ‘net for alternatives, I stumbled on to MotorcycleRamps.com, a site that offers a variety of ramps for just about any kind of motorcycle enthusiast. After checking out their wares I finally found the mother of all motorcycle ramps, aptly called The Black Widow.
Measuring either 94 inches or 108 inches long by 40 inches wide, The Black Widow offers far more space then most traditional single or dual ramp solutions. The system is actually comprised of three separate aluminum ramps that you tie together before tying the entire piece down to the bed and bumper of your pick up.
After spending a few hours researching the system, I finally decided that it was worth the gamble so I plunked down the $289 for the ramps plus $50 for shipping.
All in all I have to say I’m pretty pleased. The system works as advertised, offering a heck of a lot more space for loading and unloading a bike. Setting it up is pretty simple, though the one-page manual is pretty suspect imho. Not that ramps are extremely complicated pieces of equipment mind you, but I would have preferred a bit more of a warning explaining the importance of using a tie down to lock each of the separate ramps to the bed even if you have all of them tied together.
My greatest complaint is that the powder coating on the ramps absolutely sucks. After three days of loading and unloading bikes these brand new ramps already look like they’ve seen dozens of years of work. The black powder coating is chipped in any number of locations. That issue not withstanding, the extra space allows you to walk a bike up into the bed of a pick up with far more confidence then any other solution I’ve tried and the delicate balancing act that those other systems required is now a thing of the past. Plus there’s no more jumping on a cooler or a step stool which is extremely nice! The side to side stability is remarkably solid and getting a bike out of the bed is super simple, as you can sit on the bike, pull in the clutch and roll the bike down the ramp with ease.
So if you’re in the market for a ramp, it’s worth checking out the Black Widow. For the money it seems like a heck of a deal.
A Day of Days (& Video!)
Man it’s good to be home. That’s got to be my overriding thought for the weekend. During the past forty eight hours I’ve continually found myself thinking about how getting away sometimes is the only way to remind yourself how much you really enjoy something or in this case, somewhere. Not so much because I dislike other parts of the country, but rather because I truly enjoy the LA experience. It’s a sick satisfaction I know, but flying in to LAX I actually was happy to see traffic on the 405. Somehow that said something to me.
Of course coming home is nice, but having a free weekend to enjoy is much more exciting. Yesterday I once again woke up way to early and ended up hitting the road around 6:15 AM. Normally I’d be annoyed about the lack of sleep, but being out on the road that early turned out to be just glorious. Seldom in LA do you get the PCH all to yourself but yesterday it just opened up when I hit the Santa Monica grade and stayed that way until I hit Las Floras Canyon. Between the early morning light, the cool ocean breeze, the vibrant sea smells and the lack of traffic, there was just to much good karma going around to ignore.
Las Floras Early In The Morning
Sitting here now - about twenty four hours later - I’m still smiling about the ride. After ten straight days of working this weekend was well worth the wait. And yesterday in particular was just one of those magical days when you remember why you enjoy riding. One of those days when you hit the apex of every corner and everything feels supremely planted all the whole way through and when you get on the gas the bike just speaks to you as it stands up and rockets away.
After shooting up Las Floras, I made my way up and over the mountains on Piuma and Saddlepeak. From there I hit Las Virgines and took Mullhulland all the way back to The Rockstore. Because I had hit the road so early in the morning the parking lot was basically all beemers once again. Man those guys ride early! Of course by the time I left a good portion of the sportbike crowd had showed up and filled in the gaps.
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Twisting Asphalt Trys Out A Helmet Cam
Over the course of the past year and a half I’ve pretty well documented every ride that I’ve taken with my super compact Canon SD10 digital camera. It’s an absolutely fantastic gem of a camera. I would recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat - whether they’re a rider or not. Whats become clear to me is that it’s absolutely amazing how quickly you can become enamored with digital photography when it applies to areas of your life that you enjoy. However, during the past several months even though I’ve greatly enjoyed taking digital still images of the rides I take, my mind has increasingly moved in the direction of digital video. The chance to document the absolutely amazing natural beauty of the Santa Monica Mountains and the SoCal experience of canyon riding with video seems to picturesque an opportunity to pass up.
Due to a number of factors based on all of this, a unique opportunity has presented itself. As some of you might recall in a previous post, I wrote a short bit about how a company called Twenty20 Camera has recently introduced a new line of helmet & motorcycle cameras. A short time after I posted about it, one of guys who runs the company named Jason Green was kind enough to offer me a chance to actually get my hands on a unit and take it for a spin this weekend while I’m out at the CLASS course on the Streets of Willow racetrack.
Long time readers of this site will know, in the past I’ve reviewed some other items on this website simply for kicks. This is the first time that a manufacturer has asked me to review their product on their dime. So that’s pretty cool. That being said I want to be clear that I only agreed to this if I was allowed to give an honest evaluation of the product, not a tit-for-tat feel good piece. I feel I owe everyone who reads this site whether it’s regularly or not at least that much… (more…)
Ducati People by Kevin Ash
Once The West Wing wrapped earlier tonight - seriously, has there been a better season? - I stole a few moments and finished the last few pages of Kevin Ash’s book, “Ducati People : Exploring The Passion Beind This Legendary Marque”. After ripping right through “Ducati 999 : Birth of a Legend” picking up another Ducatisti based book seemed like a no brainer.
Usually I find that most motor-related books that deal with company histories tend to be very bland on the character and very heavy on the details. Ash however treats the history of Ducati a bit differently. Instead of turning each page and finding what feels like a monotonous desmotronic valve discussion, he focuses on the people instead. The book features a rather large ensemble cast of twenty-four folks for whom beign associated with Ducati is a passion. They all have a varying degree of importance to the marque, but each is given their own chapter in essence to tell their unique piece of the Ducati story. By no means does this offer a comprehensive history of the brand, but instead small glimpses into the very foundation of what I would call the essence of the brand. None of the chapters are amazingly long in length, but they’re distilled down to one basic core element; feelings. What it felt like to be somewhere or do something. On a personal level I find this sort of editorial slant much more satisfying because let’s be honest here, I don’t really care what millimeter bolt the factory used in ‘73 but I do care about how the factory got from 1973 to today.
The book also offers some interesting perspectives by way of dedicating individual chapters to people you normally would never hear from in the more nuts & bolt history books. One of the women interviewed is a female factory test rider who started on the assembly line. Another is a rather ordinary desk jockey with no fancy title. Both offer very glowing opinions about working at Ducati, but not in an overhanded PR sensibility. (more…)
Ducati Design In the Sign of Emotion
In my continuing quest to read as much as I can about Ducati Motorcycles, tonight I’d like to add one more rather opinionated review of yet another Ducati book. For the past month and a half I’ve been working my way through “Ducati Design In the Sign of Emotion” by Decio Giulio Riccardo Cagugati and earlier tonight I basically wrapped up reading it.
Usually this is where I gush endlessly over what a fantastic read such-and-such book was, only tonight I can’t say I feel very passionate about “Ducati Design In the Sign of Emotion”. While I’d love to say that it’s yet another fantastic read for the Ducatisti faithful, sitting here right now I find it hard to describe how little I feel personally invested in the book. Completely let down might be to strong of a phrase to use, but I had hoped that Cagugati’s book would shead all sorts of light into the design process at Ducati over the years - much like “Ducati 999 Birth of a Legend” did in a very specific manor for the new 999 and 749 models. Yet ‘Ducati Design’ makes me feel less connected to marque perhaps because even though the words ‘design’ and ‘emotion’ are in the title the truth is this is really a history book - not a thesis on the creative process within the walls of Ducati over the years.
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Ducati 999: Birth of a Legend
Apparently in my continuing quest to become all things Ducati, I have one more opinionated review to pass forward into cyberspace…
Tonight I found myself completely engaged and engrossed in Alan Cathcart and Marc Cook’s recent book, “Ducati 999: Birth of a Legend”. Luckily for motorcycle fans in general and Ducatisti everywhere David Bull Publishing had both the guts to bring this wonderfully open and at times honest feeling book to the marketplace and also the ability to get the Ducati factory behind its creation.
The book details in no uncertain terms how the Ducati 999 came to be. As the sucessor to the venerable and iconic Ducati 916 motorcycle platform that revolutionized the sportbike world, the team at Ducati clearly had their hands full when they set their sights on redesigning the “it” motorcycle of the ninties. Alan & Marc capture this monumentual design journey from the inital sketching and pre-planning stages all the way through the final assembly and in the process shed a wonderful amount of light on what goes into rethinking a living legend. They share early design sketches, CAD drawings, mockups and mules that give the reader a wonderful sense of how the process works and truly gives you a behinds the scenes look at how this bike platform was created.
The book is not for the faint of heart however - while they clearly had tremendous access at Ducati, both to the people and the facilities, they go into rather amazing detail about some of the arguements and disagreements that took place while rebuilding and reinventing a legend. This is not a glossy new bike write up by an of the moment motorcycle mag.
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