Bertus Ras | GoPro

A new bike-only racetrack opened about 80km’s from where I live mid-November. I only got chance to check it out on 10 December and man, was it a blast! It is truly an awesome and technical track. Here’s a map (with some parts coloured to explain my issues to someone else)

I was feeling pretty nervous as it was a new track, a fairly new bike and I wasn’t quite confident on it yet. After the first session all of that went away and I just gelled with the bike. A lot of time is still to be had though, I’d like to shave off about 15 seconds in total over the course of the next few months.

Anyhow, here’s some footy of the day (sorry, no forward facing action, didn’t even think of it, just wanted to try new and funky mounts)

GoPro recently launched their “Win everything we sell” sweepstakes competition on Facebook. I saw the post and thought, what the heck, let’s enter. The next day I got an e-mail saying I won! I could not believe it! A week later my prize arrived all the way from California. Thank you so much GoPro!

On 14 March 2010 I had another Zwartkops day hosted by Speed Queen Racing Academy. It was a pretty fun day, and turned out to be an awesome day for the GoPro (besides me forgetting to charge it before one session). Tried more content specific mounts this time around as I have loads of general overview footage already. Here’s what I managed to grab:

Some screen grabs:

For one of my modules for my BSc Construction Management course I have to survey and analyse a big construction site. Thought it might be a cool idea to take the GoPro HD Hero along on one of my site visits. The results turned out pretty well:

It’s quite difficult to shoot with it though as there is no preview, or review system. You’re basically shooting blind, imagining what 170 degrees FOV will give you.

I’ve had a few trackdays at Zwartkops raceway, but this was the first with the GoPro. Tried 3 new mounts on the day, here they are:

Some screen grabs from the ass cam:

One of the first artistic photographs I took with the GoPro is this one:

Here’s what the mount looked like:

Basically just popped it into “Photo Every 2s” mode and let it rip down the street

I had my first ever Kyalami Trackday on 19 December 2009, a few days after I got my GoPro HD Hero. I had some trouble during the day with the GoPro, but that seems to be caused by a faulty memory card. I did however manage to get some decent footage with the GoPro mounted on my tank using the suction cup.

Some screen grabs:

I’m a 20 year old South African, born and raised in Pretoria. Recently I’ve sparked two keen interests. Photography and biking. The keen photography came first and I’ve been actively busy trying to improve my personal skill and reputation. Sadly this has taken a slight back seat due to my studies keeping me busy. The tools of my trade are my trusty Canon 40, my tack sharp Canon 70-200 F4L, my magical Canon 85mm f1.8 and my now deceased Canon 580EX.

Less than a year ago serious track day biking got the hold of me, hard. Ever since I’ve been trying to get as much track time in as possible at the various circuits across the country, with the most popular being Zwartkops Raceway just outside of Pretoria. My scoot is my little Spanish/Italian/Japanese hybrid, a Derbi GPR 125. I love this bike to bits, especially on the track as it can shame some of the less experienced big bike riders. My long term plan is to definitely start racing, but scraping the funds for a 600cc together seems to be a problem.

Here’s some photos of the little beast:

So, I thought I’d start this blog up and show everyone what I’m up to. I recently (December 2009) bought a GoPro HD Hero and I am loving it! Superb package and the video quality is AMAZING. Great job by the folks from GoPro! Here it is on the day I got it:

I primarily planned to use the camera for my biking videos when I’m on the track, but have decided that I’m going to try and incorporate it in to my photographic arsenal.

I’m hoping to update this blog a few times a month with both footage and video.

Looking forward to hear what you guys think