Motor Cycle Tour Video Part 4 - Final

This video is the final video of the tour and includes Day 10 and Day 11 of the trip. Its starts in Port Campbell where we had stayed the night. We first head to the Arch/ London Bridge and then head up to Wodonga via Ballarat and Bendigo (no footage of these places though). From Wodonga we head over the Snowy Mountains and then up through Cooma and back to Sydney

Below are the blog posts for the corresponding days

Motorbike touring day 10

Motorbike touring day 11

Kayaking down at the Roseville Bridge, Sydney

A few weeks ago I took the Kayak out down to Roseville Bridge and paddled my way up towards the Suburb of Davidson. I have done this journey many times before but thought I would take the Go Pro with me this time. It turned out to be an excellent day for it as we have been having a very wet but hot summer here in Sydney. The water is a lot muddier than usual as a result of the heavy rains and there is a great deal of leaf litter floating close to the surface washed down from beneath the trees and from the creeks.

It was almost high tide which allowed me to paddle through mangroves and easily up some of the narrower creeks but as a result hid many of the little river beaches that reside along this stretch of water. The water was very still and reflective almost mirror like in places, which can be seen in parts of the video.

View Larger Map

Motor Cycle Tour Video Part 3

This video covers Day 8 and 9 of the trip which took us from Lakes Entrance west to Noojee just above Melbourne in the mountains where we camped for a very cold night. The next day headed on early to the Great Ocean Road staying in Port Campbell in a motel for the night. 

Below are the blog posts for the corresponding days

Day 8, Day 9

Motorcycle Tour Part 2 Video

This video covers Day 6 and 7 of the trip which took us from Sydney down to Eden where we camped for the night and the next day on to Lakes Entrance in Victoria. The bog posts that cover this video are below.

Motorcycle Touring Day 6 and Motorcycle Touring Day 7

Motorcycle Tour Part 1 Video

I mentioned in the previous post that I had only just started getting the video together for that trip last year. This is mainly because I didn't have any video editing software to do it. After almost a year I bought Cyberlink Powerdirector 11, after using the evaluation edition for a week. So now the boring raw videos that you might watch once or twice, now look hopefully a little more entertaining.

MotorCycle Tour Part one covers the following blog posts

Motor Cycle Tour Day 1 and Motor Cycle Day Tour 2

Finally some video

I have finally put together some videos of the tour which I will add as they are finished. Below is a short snippet of the trip near Tamworth, NSW on a forest trail/road. This was just after some heavy down pours the day before which had made the track quite slippery. The road was near the location from this blog post, Motorcycle Touring Day 3

Airhawk Cushion Review

I bought the Airhawk cushion for a motorcycle tour which I have blogged about previously. The ride was going to be considerably longer than what I had undertaken in the past. The longest previous ride being 200-250 km in one hit with generally no riding the next day. I usually felt sore after that, so I was rather getting worried about the 4000 km ride that was fast approaching. With this in mind I did a bit of digging on the net in the motorbike touring scene and the Airhawk seat appeared. There were only a handful of reviews at the time but it looked it promising. The Airhawk has been used by pilots of long flights which who it was originally designed for.

Anyway, to the seat review. The Airhawk seat arrived. I purchased the standard shape seat, this being the cheapest in case I wasn't happy with the purchase. The ‘Shaped’ version may  have been a better option for my bike. The next step was to install the cushion which involves attaching it to the bike as per the instructions and then filling it with air. Then sit on the cushion and slowly let the air out to basically empty. I followed the instructions for installation to get it right but in the end you will adjust it quite a few times till it actually feels ok to ride with. What I found was that it tended to move around while riding and cause more discomfort. It took a few rides and tests to get it fitted right. This might have been as a result of the standard cushion I bought over the shaped one i could have got. 

Airhawk Cushion Attached to the bike

The first initial tests were short rides of no more than 1 hour and in a city environment. I found the cushion to be comfortable but would move around and then cause some discomfort for the male crown jewels ;). The cushion isn't designed for this sort of riding; that being stop starting, tight cornering, and getting on and off. What I did find from the longer tests on more open roads that it was very effective in keeping you quite comfortable in the saddle. By comfortable I mean it it keeps your bottom cooler by allowing air flow under and also minimises soreness but providing an air gap between you and the seat. As a result this gave me confidence that it would be fine for the upcoming ride.

The serious test for me with the Airhawk cushion was on the 4200km touring holiday, which was basically all on tarmac. The average daily km’s ranging from 350 to 750km on winding back roads to long stretches of freeway. I realised after the first day that the cushion was very effective. There is no negative thought about getting back in the saddle of the bike at all. This continued for the rest of the trip which was great because you could focus on the road and scenery passing by. I found that you still did wriggle around a little from time to time especially when you would get back on after a stop, as the cushion might move or get caught on your clothing. 

To sum up I think they are really effective on all day rides and touring. You may want to take them off when on a dirt roads and around town but that's a personal preference.

Link to the Airhawk Seats below.

http://www.airhawk.com.au/