Why vlogging is not that easy…

I’ve been away from this blog for a while now. I don’t know why, maybe lack of time, or motivation. Probably a wise mix of both reasons. What follows is just me trying to explain why.

Recent times have helped me figure out that you do need a relatively calm and organized lifestyle to be a regular vlogger. This is because vlogging not only is time consuming, but also requires the use of various tools such as editing software, cameras and microphones, etc.

The problem is that if you don’t have those things all in one place at all times, you’re probably not going to be able to vlog as much and as well as you want to.

What some motovloggers do is record videos all at once at one point, and then post them regularly over time. I don’t think that it’s such a good idea. The thing with motovlogging, as I’ve said multiple times in the past, is that at the end of the day it really is blogging, by way of video, while riding a motorcycle. And blogging means that you’re probably going to end up talking about stuff that happens on a daily basis, stuff that is only interesting at the moment when it happens and only for a few days after that.

Posting videos that were recorded two weeks before posting date isn’t necessarily interesting for the viewers if the contents of the video are very present moment related. Plus, if you use them to find answers to certain problems, the answers will come late anyway, so there’s no point in doing that.

To be able to post up-to-date, presently relevant videos, you need to be able to record it during the day, come back home, edit it, and upload it before you go to bed. That means you’ll have spent approximately two hours of your day totally dedicated to motovlogging. It’s not like you could study or be with your girlfriend while recording or editing. These tasks always require your full attention.

And when you have a working life, a student’s life, a social life, a life as a couple AND a life as a motovlogger, schedules can get overly busy really quickly.

I mostly address the scheduling problem with a little something called smart organization. You make it a duty to use all means available (in my case, an iPhone connected to iCloud that sends all the info to iCal on my Mac… yeah I know) to be able to organize the days, the weeks, and even the months to come.

Still, even if you can do that, which is already pretty difficult, there’s another problem.

Let’s say you have organized the following day, and that during that day you have reserved one hour for vlogging, and one for editing. One hour, because you can’t always vlog while commuting, otherwise your vlogs become dull and boring: always the same scenery, always the same roads, etc.

You’ve got the time. But hey, now you need a topic. That’s right. Unless you record countless life updates which, to be honest, not everyone cares about (and they’re right), you’re going to need something to talk about. Something in the news that’s caught your attention, something that you hold dear to your heart, or just plain blabbering or ranting about something that’s screwed up your day recently. The thing is, topics don’t necessarily always come easy. Sometimes, you can’t just “come up” with something. It doesn’t work that way.

You spend your day thinking about stuff and processing information that you mostly keep to yourself. Finding a topic means sharing a bit of that information with the world. But you have to remember.

I used to do that quite easily, because that was the only thing that I did during the day. My days were almost endless, because I didn’t have that much stuff to do. But now, I find that I don’t have time to sum up my thoughts and to explain them, and share them with people. I find that topics aren’t coming up so easily because I’ve processed them out of necessity and not out of desire to do it.

These are only a few ideas on why vlogging isn’t so easy after all. It used to be, because I had a free “mind”. My brains weren’t going all over every single thing that I did during the day, all the time. I had time to think for myself and to think about stuff that I would talk about later on. It wasn’t only operational, it was creative, if you will.

This doesn’t mean that it’s all over though. There are certain techniques out there to remember what you wanted to talk to people about. Mainly, taking notes. I’ve heard of other motovloggers using this technique and I guess it must work quite well. Taking notes on topics that have interested you, about which you have an opinion that you would like to share, would probably be a good solution for me.

I’ll try.

Until then people, thanks for reading, and stay tuned.

Cheers.

PZ.

P.S: In other news, everything’s fine. Life has been good recently. More vlogs to come.

The most important (ex-aequo) love of my life.

(a.k.a the ONE post on this blog my girlfriend shouldn’t read)

Sometimes I just want to write loads and loads of stuff while listening to music. Since I’ve got strictly nothing to do at work today, that’s what I’m going to do.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about means of transport. For some time before my trip to England I was actually thinking of buying a car in addition to my bike. Letting go of the bike was never a solution but I was getting close to buying a car for the longer trips.

Then I went to England and visited my moto-v-logging buddies there, and it all went really well. That being the case, buying a car was out of the question again. I realized that travelling long distances on a bike was not only feasible but also actually very enjoyable.

It is hard to see how a sore bum and neck would be enjoyable on such endeavours. It’s hard to explain to someone who also rides, let alone to someone who doesn’t. The thing is that when you actually reach your destination, you feel like superman. I’m sorry and it may seem a bit arrogant but it is true. You feel like you’ve surpassed yourself. Riding a sports bike is extremely physical, in that it does put a substantial amount of strain on your joints and muscles for long periods of times. But as everyone knows, it’s also very dangerous, and very open to the environment. You have to constantly not only watch for crazy car and lorry drivers, but also for birds, bird shit, cow shit, rain and fog, oil on the road, and so on and so forth. I guess that helps understanding that the mental strain is very important too. So the sense of having won a competition upon reaching the destination is very real.

All of the above doesn’t mean, however, that real bikers shouldn’t apply themselves to the pursuit of comfortable rides. I don’t think so anyway. Some riders do believe that riding a bike with no fairing whatsoever, a hard suspension and saddle, means that they’re real bikers (and by that they mean real men). I don’t believe in that shite (mancunian pronunciation here). I believe that having a customized sports bike for touring or a touring bike altogether, is the solution for long distance rides. Some have the capacity to bear the pain on real sports bike, and having done it before, it’s not the case for me personally. Maybe I’m a pussy, if that’s what you think then so be it.

These thoughts on comfort bring me to another point. When I first started riding real motorcycles (understand, not a 50cc scooter), I didn’t realize how much a fairing meant in terms of comfort. I was originally going for a Kawasaki ER6-N, since that was the bike I had trained on for the three months I spent at riding school. It was (still is, in my opinion) a good bike, with a nice amount of power.

That was the idea, until I rode the damn thing on the highway at 130km/h, and then realized that my neck was actually going to break pretty soon and that my ear drums were about to burst. I still thought that a small fairing would suffice, and so I kept the idea of buying an ER6-N with a small fairing.

ER6-N

Two weeks prior to obtaining my motorcycle license, I went to a motorcycle dealership to have a look around. Little did I know that I would be leaving about an hour later with 4850€ taken off my bank account. When I got there I went straight to the roadsters section and saw a line up of good-looking black Kawasakis. There were two ER6-N’s, with a price of about 4500€, two ER6-F’s with a price of 5200€ (those bikes would have suited me as well) and one beautiful Z750S at 4850€. You’ve guessed it, I went for that one.

'06 Z750-S

The thing is, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t go for the ER6-N’s because for a few more euros, I could get a 750 instead. That’s about it. I’d never read anything about the Z750, let alone the Z750S. But I went for that one anyway just because it looked brilliant, was reasonably priced, and oh well, 100 additional cc’s wouldn’t hurt.

When I got back home (without the bike, because I didn’t have my license yet), I went on the Internet to look for the bike’s specs. I admit I got a bit scared when I saw it had 106 BHP, just 106 times what I was used to on my scooter. The reviews of the Z750S were pretty good, but all said the truth: the bike is a bit uncomfortable, and there’s quite a lot of fairing buzz going on from 4.5k to 6.5k rpm. Meaning exactly the power band you’re on when you’re cruising. Not good, but oh well. Also, I thought that it would be a great bike for touring. Yeah, right. I’ll attribute this immense mistake to the fact that I was totally bike illiterate at the time. I still am, a bit.

Idiots

Anyways, I got the bike, walked it for 5 kilometres to bring it closer to home, where it sat for a week before I got my license. When I first rode it, I was simply happy. It was and still is such a great bike. I loved it. I still love every single little bit of it. I love the sound the engine makes, I love the riding position, I even love it when she starts getting angry by shaking and buzzing and sounding outrageous above 7k rpm. I love the fact that I can feel my brain slide to the back of my skull when I go from 0 to 62 in less than four seconds. And it became a “she”, too. I take care of her, I lube her (lol) regularly, I clean her and treat her well when she’s cold. It’s almost like a second girlfriend.

There’s the final point though. My motorcycle is like a girlfriend. And sometimes, you check out other girls out there, and you wonder… would I be happier with this one? Or that one? You start having strange thoughts about cheating and stuff (i.e.: testing a mate’s bike). And then you lay your eyes on another bike that really gets your attention.

The 2006+ Yamaha FJR1300, for example, recently got my attention. It looks brilliant, has a big powerful engine, is still a sporty bike but totally comfortable and made for touring, with an electric windshield and all that… And so I’m thinking that, well, if I make a bit more money and save for a few months… I could get it. And maybe “it” would also become a “she” right away.

Yamaha FJR 1300

Thing is. I love my current bike. But I want to move on. This is the EXACT same dilemma you get when you’re in a relationship and you’re still young. Exactly the same process. Bikes can do that to a man. I want to have them both. But I can’t. So what should I do?

I still don’t have an answer to that. I just love my current bike, I really do, and it would make me so sad to sell her to some idiotic fucking squidly bastard. I want to live all of her life with her. I want to put so many miles on her that it would be okay to not sell it and just keep it with me as an old friend. But it’s too new to do that, and my touring needs are growing bigger and bigger as time passes.

So what should I do? What should I do?

I’m sorry for those of you who thought there would be a conclusion to this post. There totally isn’t one. I’m wondering away. For the moment though, money is scarce, and the future is uncertain. But maybe, just maybe, I might jump off the cliff, say “what the hell”, and change bikes. One thing is certain though, I’ll always, always remember the great moments with my Z750S. The few times I made it travel under a sea, the first time I twisted its throttle, the maintenance, the sun on the road, the warmth of its engine on a cold winter day, its delicious scream when accelerating wildly, its simple and yet very secret ability to just. Make. Me. Happy.

There’s something essentially brilliant about planning long trips like the one I’m going to do from the 27th to the 30th of July, in England. For those of you who don’t know about it yet, you should check the page located on “trip reports” -> “England, July 2011″ or something.

Planning a trip with a car is quite simple, really. If you think about it for a second you realize that there are way less things to prepare. A simple example : you don’t really need to know where the service stations are because, after all, most cars can pretty much do 400 miles on one tank. You don’t need to be scared about the weather, and therefore to take two different pairs of gloves, and two different pairs of riding pants. You don’t need to think about resting too much – or if you do, it means that you’re quite old, or a pussy.

I don’t mean to be rude, but if I can do 200 kilometers on the back of a Z750S, you should be able to do 500 in one go inside of a comfortable car.

Now, all of the above seems pretty grim for the average person. I know that if my father read this, which thankfully he doesn’t (because he doesn’t know about all the ParisianZee stuff), he’d think that I’m crazy and maybe a masochist (which I’m not).

But it’s really not. It’s actually fun. It is. Seriously.

I like looking at maps and plotting courses. I like the anticipation and the fact that you have to plan for every little detail. And I like the MacGyver-type stuff, such as wiring a cigarette plug on my bike’s battery to power my iPhone and vlogging camera, or carefully thinking of what pieces of clothing I should take, while respecting a compromise between size and quality.

Another thing that is really, really cool, is that I got to talk to all the friends I’m going to meet during this trip. And that’s a cool thing to do.

I prepared a very specific Excel sheet with every detail in it, such as leg distance, total distance, estimated time en-route, estimated time of arrival, fuel flow and fuel on-board. It may seem like I’m basically a crazy accountant, but hell, whatever floats my boat I guess.

Why even plan fuel consumption ? There’s an easy answer to that. First of all it lets me see what kind of distances I can cover on one tank, if those distances are doable with a certain amount of rest, if there are services in the areas where I need them to be, and finally, it allows me to calculate a relatively precise budget.

If I had a car I would simply get in it, fill up the tank, throw tons of clothes in one bag and just go. Now that may seem better for the average person, but no, it’s not. It’s not fun enough.

The amount of effort one puts in travelling by motorcycle is quite immense to be honest. I don’t want to seem arrogant but it’s true. A motorcycle will break you in 100 kilometers if you’re not prepared for a long ride. Everything has to be carefully set up beforehand. There’s no doing that on car.

Let’s talk about the weather for a second. We’ve seen recently that just because we’re in July doesn’t necessarily mean that the weather is good. As I’m writing this, it’s actually pouring with rain outside my office’s window. (Yes, I’m writing this at this office, so what ?)

The possibility of both good and bad weather implies some specific preparation, especially because space is limited, so I can only select some pieces of equipment.

- Sunny weather :

• Dark helmet visor
• Summer gloves
• Jeans (ATGATT is useless if you die of a heat stroke) for the smaller rides

- Shit weather (probable scenario):

• Clear, fog proof, water repellant treated visor
• Winter gloves coated with Gore-tex
• Waterproof riding pants with protections

What you can’t do : chose between light leathers for sunny weather rides and a heavy textile jacket for the shit weather.

What you must do : select one of the two depending on probabilities. In my case, the light leathers will be chosen because :

1. It’s more comfortable
2. It offers more protection
3. If weather turns to shit I can always put a jumper underneath the jacket and a scarf

“So why take both pairs of gloves?”, you ask. Simple, because :

1. They’re small so I can take both and not lose valuable room in the top case
2. You can’t ride for shit when your hands are either very sweaty if it’s hot and you’re wearing the winter gloves or completely soaked and cold if it’s shit and you’re wearing the summer gloves. Not a risk worth taking.

“So why take two different visors?”, you ask. Again, simple answer :

1. They’re small enough too
2. Have you ever tried riding facing the sun on a wet road but in sunny weather ? You can’t see shit. It’s worse than heavy rain. You don’t want that. It’s the best solution to not see a pothole and die, or hit a car and die, or get smashed by a truck and, well, die.

I’ll soon post a vlog about the whole planning phase and the final configuration of my motorcycle for “long range operations”. I call her Z750S-LR when she’s in that state because, well, I’m an aviation fanboy, and the LR extension to an aircraft’s name and type just means “Long range”.

Makes me think of my Excel sheet. FF = Fuel flow, EFOB = Estimated Fuel On Board, ETE and ETA, etc. All abbreviations used in aeronautical practices.

Funny thing is, I’ve spent about ten times more … time … planning this three-four day trip then what I’ve spent planning my 13-day August Scotland trip. Because I’ll do it in a car. Simple as that.

Anyways, stay tuned to my Youtube channel if you want to know more about the long range planning. I’ll probably upload a couple of videos about it.

Oh, and by the way, I ordered a Contour+ yesterday, which should solve both my voice recording issue and my camera positioning issue. Which is good. Only if it arrives soon enough though.

Cheers

Z.