Show your area!

Show off your new bike or favorite routes
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robber57
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Location: Heerhugowaard,Holland

Show your area!

Post by robber57 » Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:41 pm

The idea is simple : show us where you live, photos,video, its all welcome.

For photo's there is a max post limit of 3 per post so if you want to share more a external photo host will have to be the way, for video's of course youtube will come in handy or if you want to post something a bit longer Vimeo.com ( max 500 MB-no limit on time!)

TS will start : http://vimeo.com/25159510

A trip on my Honda SH150i in the surroundings of my hometown Heerhugowaard-Netherlands taken about 2 months ago, all the cheesy stereotypes are there, tulips,mills,canals,flat land etc etc :lol:
The trip goes from Heerhugowaard to Alkmaar(famous cheese city) and back.

The camera is actually a photo camera so image quality is not that high, some purple stripes can be seen in high sunlight and as i later found out the bracket is sometimes vibrating giving some audible ticking noise.
Speed is not so high but due to the wide angle of the camera it may seem sometimes that i am racing, believe me; i am not :-)
Last bit is through a new part of Heerhugowaard, its called "stad van de zon" translated "city of the sun" , its the first completely CO2 neutral city(part) in the world, every house has solar panels,city heating, extreme insulation etc etc.
The design is futuristic and is a landmark in outer space; it is recognizable as a big square perpendicular to the north/south-east/west line: http://maps.google.nl/maps?q=heerhugowa ... 9&t=h&z=15
Unfortunately the googlemaps photo is 3-4 years old so most of the isle on the photo is still under development.
Failure is not an option, it comes bundled with the package.

Activator
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Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2011 6:58 am

Re: Show your area!

Post by Activator » Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:25 pm

Oh, that was a treat! Thanks! Such a beautiful, clean and well-kept country. A lot of the route looks like what you might see in newer, more affluent Eastern coastal towns in the USA. It reminded me lot of someplace you might find in coastal New England (Rhode Island, Cape Cod, Maine), or in the Hamptons (Long Island, NY), or down South in the Carolinas.

A few things I noticed:

- People don't seem to come to a full stop at stop signs or intersections, unless there's a red light.
- I like the protected walking/biking lanes in some of the towns you passed through, and there seemed to always be a bike lane running next to the main road.
- Roundabouts are not as popular here in the US, and they are kind of scary. I know they are supposed to be safer, but American drivers are not as skilled or courteous, I think.
-So many people on bicycles and scooters! Put that same route in the USA, and there would have been 5x as many cars and SUV's driving around.
- I like the square trees near the beginning of the video!
-Your brakes squeak! :-)

Thanks!

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bigbird
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Location: Winnipeg Canada

Re: Show your area!

Post by bigbird » Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:00 pm

Fantastic video. What a beautiful country.

My brief first impressions:
1) The traffic flows very well, few traffic signals, excellent traffic circles.
2) I can't believe that you are allowed to take scooters on bicycle and walking paths and sidewalks, especially that elevated wooden bridge. I would be arrested for driving anywhere but on the street in Canada.
3) Your trees do not seem to be very lush with not a lot of leaves.
4) Your streets are very narrow.
5) And yes, your pads or discs are squealing.

I wish I had a mount to put my son's video camera on so I could do a drive around Winnipeg and the countryside. I'll see if RAM makes a Canon camcorder mount.
2009 Silverwing 600, black SH150i sold
Winnipeg Canada

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robber57
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Location: Heerhugowaard,Holland

Re: Show your area!

Post by robber57 » Mon Jun 27, 2011 4:57 pm

Thanks!,

Roundabouts are very popular in Holland because they are cheap, they are self regulating, they are cheap, if build properly they should be safe for bicycles and pedestrians, they are cheap,main advantage: there is no high speed traffic able to touch bicycles or pedestrians, did i mention they are cheap?
I am about 99.9999% sure that its the money argument which make them so popular at city council, traffic lights cost money and year after year, a roundabout is a one time investment so Holland has about 1 gazillion of them because we are cheap :| , "officially" its all about safety ( and they are safe)but i, and every dutchmen knows the real reason; we are cheap people, after all the expression is "going Dutch" :cry:
Traffic lights in Holland get large volumes of bicyclist to process and one of the criteria for safe crossing on a bicycle is that at the moment they are crossing you dont want any engine powered vehicles on the crossing,period.
If you're ever in Holland watch; at the moment the bicycles start crossing all the other traffic stops.
This means that Dutch traffic light controlled crossings are slooooow for the other users, a roundabout doesn't have that problem.

The stopping at a crossing: its only mandatory to come to a full stop when you see this sign:
Image, usually if you cross a major road where the crossed road has priority you will see one,in the real world nobody does it unless its a busy crossing and you have to stop anyway.
I am not aware that i do this but i am not surprised if i'm also guilty of this bad habit. :oops:

The driving on bicycles paths and such: off course this is not allowed but in comes the very small and "humble" footprint of the SH, it doesn't look like a race monster and doesn't make the sound of one.
In Holland the difference between a moped-scooter (45 Km/h max) and a SH is difficult to see, only the slightly bigger license plate can tell people that its a motorcycle.
Moped scooters in Holland come in 2 classes: 25 Km/h (no helmet,no license,same rights as a bicycle) and 45 Km/h(helmet+license+ not a bicycle), the 25 km/h class is very popular , they are often tuned,noisy and the driver is usually a rebellious adolescent.
They may drive on the (red) bicycle path if there is one and so are a menace to bicyclists and pedestrians.
The 25 km/h moped is called a "purr-bicycle" (like the cat sound) and is a legacy law coming from this:
Image

It is (was) basically a bicycle with a tiny 25 cc engine which propelled the bicycle through a rubber roll on the front tire capable of doing 25 km/h and had a special law introduced for it 60 years ago( a bicycle with auxiliary/added engine), now every 50cc scooter available on the market can have this license if it is tuned down officially so you can see this (below) doing 25 km/h on the bicycle path :roll: , a scooter which was designed to do 90 Km/h:
Image

These are restricted but the restriction is a joke, every idiot can de-restrict such a scooter in 15 minutes with almost no tools or knowledge and so is done overwhelmingly.

If you behave, are courteous(stop if needed and give the bicycles right of way) and your vehicle is quite people will tolerate just about anything without any problem, but of course this is risky behavior ;whatever happens its your fault if you are on a bicycle path on a motorcycle so normally i dont do this but for the video i made an exception because otherwise there is no possibility to show these nice features of the dutch landscape.
And of course: police in Holland are very predictable and 30 years scooter driving pays off on these situations ,i know the locations where i can pull this of and where not 8-)
btw; the little bridge is called a "chicken bridge" , they can be extremely old (200 years or more)because they are usually made off Azobé wood which is incredibly hard and water resistant, it has a purple/brown/black color.
The original finally gave way after a few hundred year and was replaced in 2005 for a plastic one, yes plastic, can you believe that?

The trees: it was still (a late) spring so not everything was green, i will make another video soon showing more of the dutch landscape and also more of my nearby neighborhood "the tree quarter".

And yes , my rear brake squeaks , sometimes i dont hear it for days and then it may be a whole week of squeaking, its only on slow speeds and at gentle braking.
Any tips how to fix this ? because i have never had this on a drum brake ,the pads are original and recently with the new rear tire i checked the whole brake and all seems in order....
Failure is not an option, it comes bundled with the package.

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bigbird
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Location: Winnipeg Canada

Re: Show your area!

Post by bigbird » Mon Jun 27, 2011 7:20 pm

You've inspired me, Richard!

I asked my son if I could borrow his camcorder. He grunted, which I assume was a "yes". I went to www.gpscity.ca website and see that of course they make a 1" RAM ball mount that screws into the base of any camera. I ordered that, a 5" dual end attachment, and another Silverwing mirror ball mount. I already have one on my left mirror for my GPS. Now I will have one on the right mirror, with the 5" extension, so I can get the camera out past the windscreen. Delivery should be on Wednesday or Thursday, so by the weekend I can also make a video of around Winnipeg. I also have a video mode on my Canon digital still camera that I can also try. I'm excited to really bank hard on those broad highway sweepers as if I was at the Isle of Man racing through the streets.

You've inspired me, Richard!

BTW, we have about two dozen very small traffic circles in our city of 800k people. I think they're great, but most people don't know how to navigate them. We have red light cameras everywhere and mobile vans with speeding cameras on the prowl close to school zones and road construction areas. Of course these school zone mobile cameras are only in operation on weekends and at night, when kids are nowhere near the school zones. It's called a cash grab.

More to follow.
2009 Silverwing 600, black SH150i sold
Winnipeg Canada

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bigbird
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Location: Winnipeg Canada

Re: Show your area!

Post by bigbird » Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:20 am

Nice videos Mike.
What were your responsibilities at the Chopper shop?
2009 Silverwing 600, black SH150i sold
Winnipeg Canada

smorris

Re: Show your area!

Post by smorris » Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:33 am

Thanks for the trip to Holland, Richard!

Here are two short clips testing my camera. They are sequential, but I somehow paused it for about five seconds. This is from my house, down the road, and into small neighborhood.

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEr7l7iTNS0

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robber57
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Location: Heerhugowaard,Holland

Re: Show your area!

Post by robber57 » Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:04 pm

He Mike, nice vid!, California seems so nice, the palms,beaches.
"I took my old drag scoot videos down showing my Nitrous Burgman 650 racing at 145 MPH"

Now you made me curious...

@Steve; thank you for the videos, nice to see some of Ohio!
Failure is not an option, it comes bundled with the package.

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ScottWally
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Re: Show your area!

Post by ScottWally » Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:29 pm

Thank you Richard - excellent video.

PhillipAbbott
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Joined: Tue Nov 26, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: Show your area!

Post by PhillipAbbott » Fri Nov 29, 2013 11:39 pm

robber57 wrote:The idea is simple : show us where you live, photos,video, its all welcome.

For photo's there is a max post limit of 3 per post so if you want to share more a external photo host will have to be the way, for video's of course youtube will come in handy or if you want to post something a bit longer Vimeo.com ( max 500 MB-no limit on time!)

TS will start : http://vimeo.com/25159510

A trip on my Honda SH150i in the surroundings of my hometown Heerhugowaard-Netherlands taken about 2 months ago, all the cheesy stereotypes are there, tulips,mills,canals,flat land etc etc :lol:
The trip goes from Heerhugowaard to Alkmaar(famous cheese city) and back.

The camera is actually a photo camera so image quality is not that high, some purple stripes can be seen in high sunlight and as i later found out the bracket is sometimes vibrating giving some audible ticking noise.
Speed is not so high but due to the wide angle of the camera it may seem sometimes that i am racing, believe me; i am not :-)
Last bit is through a new part of Heerhugowaard, its called "stad van de zon" translated "city of the sun" , its the first completely CO2 neutral city(part) in the world, every house has
solar panel ,city heating, extreme insulation etc etc.
The design is futuristic and is a landmark in outer space; it is recognizable as a big square perpendicular to the north/south-east/west line: http://maps.google.nl/maps?q=heerhugowa ... 9&t=h&z=15

Unfortunately the googlemaps photo is 3-4 years old so most of the isle on the photo is still under development.
Not many places in the world are nature friendly.. SO nice area with all houses using natural sources for energy generation..Would love to find similar building in my area..
Last edited by PhillipAbbott on Sun Dec 01, 2013 9:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

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