Australia's Best MC Road? Ride it with me.

[Pterodactyl_imp]

The Ferret, in this thread, made this comment in his reply:

Nice road indeed. It was the Omeo Valley Highway and it would have to rate as one of the best, if not the best, motorcycle road in Australia. From Omeo to Mitta Mitta is 104 kms. The first time I rode the Omeo it was still, for the most part, dirt. Rain made it a very interesting ride. Some sections were being prepared for sealing and had been graded and compacted giving the impression of riding on a strip of brown ice. I was glad to get off it. Last year I road it in company with Cormanus and Jalalski enroute to the 2014 MotoGP. Cormanus gives a description in [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4453&pid=67128#pid67128]this post.

On the return from this years MotoGP I had my GoPro up and running over much of the Omeo. Ferret's post inspired me to put together a video to try to give forum members an impression of how good this road is. My first cut was just over three minutes in duration. I was satisfied with it but I felt it didn't convey enough about this road and it's many interesting sections over that wild 104kms. In particular it didn't give an idea of the stamina that is required to ride the Omeo at any pace. The final cut is just on 10 minutes. I hope the quality is such that you will ride the Omeo Valley Highway with me, and enjoy it. Let me know.

[Embeded link edited out]
Cheers

I have tried to embed the video in this post. I have not been successful. Here is the link to view on Vimeo:

 

[Rocky_imp]

WOW, what a great road!!!!!

 

[the Ferret]

Indeed a wonderful strip of highway. Just my type. Kind of like a flat lower portion of the BRP, a real good rhythm road, not much braking or serious change of directions just dip, pivot, dip. A real head swiveler. Loved the music and commentary and the credits at the end. Showed better quality small than when I made it full screen. Nice video Ptero, looking forward to some more.

 

[redbirds_imp]

That was splendid. I would call it the "Wonderful Dragon of Oz". Hope there is more of this to come from Dactyl Enterprises. Sparky loved it also but found your continuous left lane riding to be unsettling :excited:.

 

[Django]

Really nice video, good music and peg scraping sound.

Enjoyed it. Cheers. But, it causes severe wanderlust. That's right up my alley.

 

[Nemo_imp]

Most excellent!!

 

[Pterodactyl_imp]

Thanks for the feedback. I have a lot to learn and my patience is sorely tested by a computer that has limited graphics capability. Nice to get some encouragement.

Cheers

 

[Cormanus]

Yeah, keep at it Pterodactyl! Made me homesick watching that.

Some of us are still waiting for Dactyl's US adventure.

 

[noroomtomove]

Dactyl
On your recommendation rode to Mitta Mitta and back (605 km) the Monday prior to Melbourne Cup, fog rain and sunshine just another day in Mexico. The Omeo valley road was all I hoped it to be and then some. I think it was mostly dirt when I was last on it in the early 80's have a foggy recollection of going to Albury via Mitta Mitta on my way to QLD..

Thanks for letting me know.

Will post at Seat time when the IT support returns home from university in a few weeks.

Regards

 

[Cormanus]

It's a bloody ripper, isn't it NRTM?

How was it both ways one one day?

 

[Pterodactyl_imp]

NRTM, no worries mate. Let me take this opportunity to thank you for your recommendation of an alternate road for Sale - Bairnsdale via the Princess Highway. That Highway is dangerous. Death by boredom is a real and present danger made even more lethal by roadworks which, one hopes, might be aimed at putting a few bends in place or even, heaven forbid shriek the revenue raising bureaucracy, allowing the speed limit to be raised a tad. The C106, while not being massively challenging, is a pleasant country road and a pleasure to ride. Very little traffic was an added bonus. Thanks.

Indeed a wonderful strip of highway. Just my type. Kind of like a flat lower portion of the BRP, a real good rhythm road, not much braking or serious change of directions just dip, pivot, dip. A real head swiveler. Loved the music and commentary and the credits at the end. Showed better quality small than when I made it full screen. Nice video Ptero, looking forward to some more.

Thanks Ferret, your comment alerted me that something might have gone awry with the upload to Vimeo. The video was made at 1080p and I was satisfied with the resolution on a large screen HD TV. The upload to Vimeo was done at 720p even though I ensured my subscription (yes &#36 was enabled for 1080p. Either Vimeo was slow in upgrading my subscription or it was finger trouble on my part. No matter, latter today I will pull the 720p and replace with a 1080p. Tomorrow,when it's up and running, I would appreciate you having a brief look and letting me know if the quality is better. It should be.

Cheers

 

[the Ferret]

Will do

 

[Pterodactyl_imp]

The upload to Vimeo is complete. For the information of those using Vimeo (and YouTube) the video I uploaded was at 1080p and 60 fps. Vimeo uses auto compression to convert the file to 1080p and 30fps. YouTube also does this. The original Dropbox file remains uncompressed.

Dropbox: 1080p 60fps

Vimeo:

Cheers

 

[the Ferret]

Ok Ptero watched the Vimeo 1080p 30fps version full screen. Took a long time to download for me lol. Anyhow, I think the quality full screen was generally much better than the view I saw previously and what graininess and lack of clarity available in spots I will attribute to the recording device itself (the GoPro) rather than any equipment that plays back the images recorded if that makes any sense.

note: wish you could have seen me sitting upright I my desk chair setting up for the right left curve transitions..and there were a lot of them thank goodness lol.

 

[Pterodactyl_imp]

Thanks for that Ferret. Video posting platforms are a bit of a disappointment to me. When playing the raw GoPro files and the completed video on QuickTime player the quality is crystal clear. True HD. The compression process used by both Vimeo and YouTube markedly degrades the quality. Maybe I need to learn more about encoding.

As an aside, in my first post I attempted to embed the Vimeo file. Not successful as all I saw on the post preview was a large blank space where the embed was made. I had selected the Vimeo option from the drop down "TV" and pasted the Vimeo URL. Maybe the size of the file delays the completion of the process. Any help regarding any of the above from yourself or any other member (video making/posting gurus) would be appreciated.

Darling watched about thirty seconds of corners and left the room, hurriedly. Motion sickness. Mmmmmm.

Cheers, and thanks for your time.

 

[rmack_imp]

pterodactyl your right about that road i just got back monday from a 3 day run in that area doing hotham,falls creek,omeo to blue duck to mitta mitta several times etc best 1400 round trip on a bike i think i have ever done most fun you can have with ya pants on

 

[curlyjoe]

Thanks for that Ferret. Video posting platforms are a bit of a disappointment to me. When playing the raw GoPro files and the completed video on QuickTime player the quality is crystal clear. True HD. The compression process used by both Vimeo and YouTube markedly degrades the quality. Maybe I need to learn more about encoding.

As an aside, in my first post I attempted to embed the Vimeo file. Not successful as all I saw on the post preview was a large blank space where the embed was made. I had selected the Vimeo option from the drop down "TV" and pasted the Vimeo URL. Maybe the size of the file delays the completion of the process. Any help regarding any of the above from yourself or any other member (video making/posting gurus) would be appreciated.

Darling watched about thirty seconds of corners and left the room, hurriedly. Motion sickness. Mmmmmm.

Cheers, and thanks for your time.

I've had the same experience with uploading GoPro videos to youtube. Bummer.

BTW, great road, ride and excellent editing! :beerchug:

I especially like the bits w/ the sound of the staintune.

 

[quietguy_imp]

Excellent video... great scenery and roads.

 

[Pterodactyl_imp]

Thanks, Quiteguy.

Cheers

 

[quietguy_imp]

I watched your video again... It would indeed be a real treat to visit your beautiful country, and to ride it would be incredible.

I will admit to almost toppling my chair a few times - I found myself leaning into each curve. I had to laff at myself...

Thanks again for sharing a bit of your homeland.