sailcycle

As promised my replacement camera showed up today. They even tossed in a few adhesive mounts for good measure. I feel warm and fuzzy.

Hi All,

I wanted to share a very positive experience that I just had with GoPro. I bought an HD Hero from their website last January, followed by the optional LCD backpack, an extra battery, memory cards and extra mounts. It was no small purchase, but the intent was to have the camera for our annual Vermont Rape, Loot and Pillage Run. I've only used the camera a few times, but the video quality and the camera's flexibility are top notch.

But as luck would have it, the camera experienced a software lockup last night that it won't recover from......48 hours before our trip. I filled out the support request form on the GoPro site and received a reply that they'd get back to me within 24 - 48 hours. Ugh. Out of desperation and with low expectations, I called them this morning. And they answered!!!! We tried to troubleshoot the camera, but it was of no use. I was going to have to send my camera in for a warranty exchange.

I explained about the trip and offered to pay for an expedited shipment. After talking to a manager, GoPro agreed to FedEx a camera to me as soon as I provided them a return tracking number. I did and they did......and for free!!

I work in customer service and I'm used to lousy service, particulary on consumer goods. But this experience was stellar. I wasn't even routed to Bob or Sally in Bombay! So if you're in the market for a cool gadget that can extend your riding pleasure vicariously into the winter months, I heartily recommend GoPro. Ask for Hunter!

Here's another one.

I love these sequence shots. Please share how you did them.

Hey Seb,

I'm glad that you and Jessica had a safe, enjoyable trip and that I was able to help a little bit. I enjoyed your write-up and pictures and look forward to my own trip back there at the end of July.

You did made my gut clench with that left-hander at 1:50 of your second video. This is where my friend died. This is an easy corner to drag peg on, but being downhill and with an unforgiving guardrail, it is very dangerous. At the risk of sounding like a Safety Nazi, for anyone else riding the App Gap this season, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE be careful and run it slowly a few times in each direction. There are several difficult corners and it is wise to "learn the course" before you ratchet it up.

Here's a tri-fold my group came up with back in 2004. We need to revisit it once in a while, I think.

Print it in landscape mode, fitting it all on 1 page. It will fold up nicely in a tank bag.

I had a custom set made by Now Hear This while at the Cycle World show a few years ago. This was the best $75 I ever spent (other than that one time in Boston's Combat Zone). They work great and have held up perfectly. They're all-day comfortable and they absolutley kill wind noise. :goofy:

I also have a funny ear canal on 1 side, and other plugs didn't fit well. These were injection molded into my ears and are mad from a soft silicon, probably similar to boobies. Mmmmm. Boobies! :unsure:

Maps took a while to download but they are done and installed.

Next was to install the mapsource software.

I got confused here...

once I started the mapsource software, it gave me a message about unlocking the maps.

wtf? (mental note... why oh why do I need to unlock maps?)

so I go thru the wizard to unlock the maps, I enter the 25 character code, it says they are unlocked and done.

I open mapsource and it tells me again to unlock maps.

:biggrin:

I repeat about 5 times, reboot PC, try and try again. the same.

I finally notice that the wizard has an option to grab unlock code from the zumo itself.

Let's try that... it worked!!!

Now, I have no clue on how to use mapsource.

I opened a route file I got from a friend. It opens, but not sure how to modify it.

I was able to sync it to the zumo.

I started to create a new route and I think I got it after playing with the tool.

I need to go back to read more about all this.

but why does the route on the map change from yellow to purple?

what's the diff between a route and a track.

Do I need waypoints on my starting and ending points?

I'm sure I'll find my answers reading this thread or the manual.

ok, back to mapsource...

I had this same problem. I called the very helpful folks at Garmin, who determined that the Mapsource program on the Zumo itself (not what was loaded onto the PC) had been corrupted. They sent me a copy of the Zumo Mapsource, which I re-installed following their directions. This cured my unlocking problem and all has been well ever since.

Drear Customer?? Have no to have already sent out the information! LMFAO :fing02:

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What is good, reliable US source for the R&G frame sliders? Has anyone gotten the kits from the UK? What was your experince?

I'd like to use RADAR's kit but he is out of 5th gen kits until the fall.

Thanks

I ordered directly from R-G. After I "tested" the sliders, I ordered replacement parts directly from R-G. They were great to deal with. :fing02:

I just tried your sound clip and it made the freakin' cat jump off my lap. It scared her so badly that she almost impaled the boys during her rather abrupt departure. :idea3:

Any nice pics to share with us? Thanks.

Way worth it to just send them to scott at bluegauges to do them. I sent mine to him in dec. of 06 right at christmas and he had them back within a week. I had him do mine all red with red turn sig indicators. It looks great, you will not regret it.

I had Scott do my 2002 right after I bought it and they have been stone reliable. They also look very cool at night. For the price, I can't see risking a botched job, and I'm an Electronics Technician by training.

I don't have a photo, per se, but this video was shot at dusk and I think will give you an idea of what they look like.

:goofy: Flying

http://www.helmetcamera.com/acart/agora.cg...lmetCamera_Kits

Sony 520 bullet cam into Canon Elura miniDV.

Well I had the 380-line version (same dealer) feeding into a Sharp miniDV and your images are significantly better. The 380 finally died and I just ordered a 480. They said there was a significant difference between the 380 and the 480, so I'm anxious to see.

PS: I just noticed that you're from the "other" Portland. You're named after us, you know. :thumbsup:

Got out for a short ride to test Rev2 camera mount, don't think its gonna work out.

The video quality you're getting out of your Helmet Cam is much better than mine. My 380-line Helmet Cam just gave up the ghost, so I ordered one of their 480-line units. I also run several different lenses and just picked up a 2.6mm for cockpit shots and a 16mm for zoom shots. We'll see how they work out.

In addition to the velcro strip on the side of the helmet, I have ram balls on the front of the tank, my left pillion peg bracket, the clutch mount and on the SportsRack I sometimes run. I use 3 different length arms, depending on what I'm trying to shoot. I like videos that combine different views, just to keep things interesting.

What kind of recorder are you running?

Though certainly not a Zumo expert (yet), I thought I'd share the experience I've had planning for my 4-day trip to Vermont this summer. Playing with the Zumo and MapSource is also the best way to learn how they act and interact and has been a fun way to pass PMS season. I'd also rather learn the nuances now than wait until I'm on the App Gap. :joystick:

My first bit of advice is to read through this entire thread and capitalize on the experience BonusVFR and others share. If you don't own a Zumo, you probably will before you get to the end of page 3. I would also recommend joining Zumo Forums although you'll be hanging out with a lot of Hardleys, BMW Dweebs and Wingers. Not that there's anything wrong with that. :unsure:

Our current Tourmaster is a wiz at planning routes with paper and pen, but he has a poor sense of time. His 3:30 lunches and after-dark finishes are the stuff of legends. My new Zumo will not replace his great routes, but it will certainly act to keep him honest. :warranty:

I used MapSource to plot 4 1-day routes for our Vermont trip, based upon the primitive list of turns The Tourmaster provided us in Word Perfect. Ugh. To map the general route, I loaded about 10 Waypoints (flagged and announced) for each day, then let MapSource do its thing. Then I forced the route down specific tasty bits by dragging the route to Map Intersections (Viapoints that are not flagged or announced). I then deleted the Waypoints that were no longer needed, leaving me with only the Start, Lunch and Finish Waypoints and a bunch of Map Intersections (PONIs).

Once I was happy with the MapSource route, I downloaded it to my Zumo to let it churn. Several of my Viapoints got flagged on the Zumo, so I renamed the Zumo-generated route and transferred it back into Map Source to compare with the original. Looking at the list of Viapoints, it was clear that some of them were either Points of Interest or Street Addresses, causing the Zumo to treat them as Waypoints. I simply re-positioned them to an intersection and all was well.

All in all, I probably transferred each route back and forth between MapSource and the Zumo 3-4 times until they were perfect. I suspect I'll get better over time, but I probably only spent an hour or two on each day's 300-mile route. Plus it was fun. My final steps were to fantasize about the trip by transferring it to Google Earth (not as much snow there) and to e-mail the MapSource file to a friend who also has a Zumo.

I also plotted one of my favorite local 75-mile loops and experimented with it while bouncing around in my stiff, old truck. I added a gas-stop Waypoint along the way, just to see how it reacted. I then went off-course a few times to test things out. I did get a few odd U-Turn voice commands, but I barreled through them with no apparant damage.

One thing I would like to see on the Zumo is a way to reduce the number of alerts. After you take a turn, Jill kindly tells you what your next turn will be. As you get within striking distance, you get her early warning announcement. When you finally reach the turn, she tells you where to go. That's 3 announcements per turn. I would like more control over Jill (I've been married for 29 years, so I'm not holding my breath) and decide whether I want her to badger me once, twice or three times per turn. :salesman:

All in all, this has been a great purchase and I believe it will add another dimension to our group rides. :thumbsup:

In addition to BonusVFR's excellent Tales of Zumo thread (got me hooked), I recommend joining the Zumo Form at www.zumoforums.com

In answer to your specific question about wiring, my plan is to use my Powerlet plug.

I hate to do this to anyone but posts 71, 77, 115 and 116 of "Tales of Zumo" AND most likely others too. If this does not work I will put up another Shaping Point try in Tales.

It's funny, because I read that post cover to cover. It wasn't until I had some experience that it finally clicked. I only had 1/2 dozen points that ended up being flagged. Mostly, it was because I had picked a spot in the middle of a road to drop a point. As your post said, these got interpreted as waypoints. I found the points that were flagged and simply moved them to an intersection. Problem solved.

One technique I used was to download the route from MapSource to the Zumo, let the Zumo do its thing and then bring the route back to MapSource. Any deviations were easily seen and corrected.

HOw about Shaping Points to eliminate Flags on the screen and directions to nowwhere/but control the route?

I couldn't find any option that discussed Shaping Points when I explored MapSource. Essentially, I used a handfull of Waypoints to generally plot the course. Then I clicked on the route and dragged the "dot" to a road or intersection to better control the route. Once the route was set the way I wanted it, I deleted all but the "real" Waypoints. I now have 100 or more markers along the route and they're listed in the ViaPoints tab. Are they going to create flags and alerts along the route? If so, how do I convert them to Shaping Points?

Thanks!!!!

Good news! Garmin has a solid reputation for service. Have you figured out Mapsource yet?

I've played with MapSource quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. I made 4 1-day routes in Vermont based upon a trip we took 2 years ago, plus some local recommendations. I used a fair number of PONIs to control the routes. I then loaded them into the Zumo and let it build the routes internally. After that, I transferred the routes back to MapSource to compare with the originals. I only found one small "detour" in the Zumo conversion that required adding a couple more PONIs to correct.

I've also played with downloading shared routes and tracks. Again, it seems pretty straight-forward.

Well, my new Zumo 550 arrived from PC Nation yesterday afternoon and I just couldn't wait to play with it. It came with all sorts of excellent mounting hardware for bike and car, so I took it for a nice mid-winter ride in my truck, using the breadcrumb feature. It was working great!

After getting home, I decided to be responsible and peruse the manual, register the unit with Garmin and download the latest software. As a reward, the unit now won't unlock the map! :rolleyes: I spend about 30 minutes on the phone with a very helpful tech support rep (not from India!) and he was completely stumped. We modified files, replaced files and ran utilities with him logged onto my PC. Nadda. He's sending me new map files in case something got corrupted. If that doesn't work, it's swap-out time.

Just thought I'd let y'all know the final resolution. Garmin sent me a copy of the gmapprom.img file to replace the one on my new Zumo. As soon as I did that, the map unlocked and all is well. I'm not thrilled that I had to go through this with a new unit, but Garmin provided very good support to get me up and running.

Well, my new Zumo 550 arrived from PC Nation yesterday afternoon and I just couldn't wait to play with it. It came with all sorts of excellent mounting hardware for bike and car, so I took it for a nice mid-winter ride in my truck, using the breadcrumb feature. It was working great!

After getting home, I decided to be responsible and peruse the manual, register the unit with Garmin and download the latest software. As a reward, the unit now won't unlock the map! :goofy: I spend about 30 minutes on the phone with a very helpful tech support rep (not from India!) and he was completely stumped. We modified files, replaced files and ran utilities with him logged onto my PC. Nadda. He's sending me new map files in case something got corrupted. If that doesn't work, it's swap-out time.

I just bought an Ohlins 46HRCL and I know that I'll need to do some serious work to the front end to balance things out. I've read Slammer's featured mod on the Race-Tech setup he performed and I'll probably head in that same direction.

A lot of posts I've read on the subject of spring rate have people installing .90 or .95 springs. Race-Tech's site suggests that my 180lbs would be best suited to a .991, which seems weird given that their highest rate is 1.00. As a matter of fact, to qualify for their lowest rate spring, a .85, a street rider would have to weigh 85 pounds without gear. Hell. My Thanksgiving dinner weighed more than that. To "qualify" in the .90 range, a rider would have to weigh 120lbs. Fess up. How many 120lb VFR pilots do we have out there? :huh:

I know that everyone says that Race-Tech tend to go heavy with the spring rate, but this just seems silly. Thoughts???

Well, after spending several idle days reading through this entire post and also scanning the Zumo forum, I was sold. As several of you have entrusted your cash to PC Nation, I went in that same direction. There are somewhat cheaper prices out there, but I didn't want to get something that had crumbs from a sandwich in their "sealed" box.

Although we are not big tourers, my little group does do a 3-day trip to Vermont every year, in addition to a bunch of 1-day rides in Maine and New Hampshire. Our planning is controlled by an evil being that we call The Tourmaster. While his routes are generally quite good, he has absolutely no appreciation of time or distance. Lunch is always just "45 minutes away", even if we later discover that we are 200 miles from our dining destination. We never even have a route map to share, just a Word Perfect file (which no one can open) listing the general route. I actually converted a day-1 route that he provided into Map Point 2007 and discovered that it was 474 miles long. Since getting this group moving is akin to herding cats, I immediately trimmed it down to 300 miles....and even that became a challenge to actually accomplish before dark.

We know most of the good roads up here, or at least we think we do. I can foresee recording a track and then seeking out unknown roads to add to the route. I can also see following The Tourmaster on one of his maxi-excursions so that we use the tracked evidence to pummel him as we arrive at our 3:30 lunch.

I'd like to thank BonusVFR for all the hard work he did in testing and sharing his Zumo experiences with us. I suspect, however, that he had a good time in doing so. :beer:

I'd also like to thank Hispanic Slammer for making this site and the sharing of such valuable information possible. It's been a while since I donated, so I think it's time again. :thumbsup:

I can't wait for winter to end, as it's been far more expensive than actual riding season. In addition to the Zumo, self-Santa also provided an Ohlins 46HRCLS that has spent several evenings being lovingly stroked. Now I'm going to have to do something with the front end, so I'll probably make a donation to Race Tech next. Make it stop!!! :idea3:

PS: I see that this post is up to 9,969 reads. I wonder if it will experience the same 10k scaling problem that the pre-3.8 Zumos experienced. Let's see if VFRD crashes when this post hits 10k. My apologies if I take you all down.

One of my favorite vanity plate sighting was on a true 1%er's bike. As I recall, it was AQUITD :salesman:

I met another Harley type who was missing his hand. Seems he'd been born that way. I asked him how he clutched and he showed me a forearm press method that he had perfected. His plate was MINUS5. His wife's plate was ALL10. :thumbsup:

The invitation is always open to any of you rebels or left coasters who would like a guided tour during the 5 annual days of riding we have up here.

While Trace, Rob and the Donisssses were scoffing up free donuts at the Casco Bay Inn to settle their Scotch-inflamed stomachs, I took advantade of an early morning ride. Yes, we are a State best described by post cards, but the season is short and tourists will be fleeced to fund the 360 days that they're not here. Thanks for my kids' educations, guys!

I bet that even Trace would have a hard time keeping up with this guy.

While it is true that we are under-represented by law enforcement on many of our back roads, they do actually catch us once in a while.

And once you get home, it's not a bad idea to make sure that some of our locals didn't make the trip back with you.

Y'all come back now! Ya hear!

I had this same failure this spring at 32k. I had accidentally left my key on and drained the battery for about an hour. I was able to jump it, but 10 minutes later it died. Later inspection showed the 30a fuse blown and the connector fried. I replaced it with an auxilliary fuse block with much heavier gauge wire. I doesn't take an engineer to figure out that that little pigtail just ain't gonna cut it! I suspect that my connector was corroded and that the extra current charging the dead battery was enough to overheat it at that point. A subsequent measurement showed about 10a travelling through the fuse block.