Burgman 400 to PCX 125

General Honda PCX chat, questions about the PCX, or questions about riding.

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TheMaverick
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Re: Burgman 400 to PCX 125

Post by TheMaverick »

Slowinitdown wrote: Thanks Maverick that's reassuring to know. Doesn't seem like the engine would ever be overly stressed being a 125 and the Honda name has reliability stamped all over it, my 80k cb500 proved that! Don't know why I'm being so fussy over which one to go for. I travelled NZ many years ago, spent most of it working in Wellington. you have some stunning places I'd love to come back one day and ride. Scotland is the place to go for nice scenery and good rides here in the UK. Don't think I'll be doing it on a PCX though! Thanks
LOL - "worked in Wellington" - I see you have suffered great pain! (I lived there for 6 months ... hated the place ... just too crowded for my liking). A lot of people call NZ stunning; I'm reminded of Prince Charles' answer when someone asked him "what's it like to be a prince" - he answered "I don't know - I've never been anything else" (apparently); bit like that for me - I've never lived anywhere else (although I do have a British passport) - so it's nothing special for me.

I don't know about Scotland, but I'd be completely happy to tour NZ on the PCX - I've done trips like Nelson -> Picton -> Blenheim -> Kaikoura -> Blenheim - Nelson, Nelson -> Cape Farewell -> Nelson, Nelson -> Rotoiti -> Blenheim -> Nelson in a day. She gets a bit thirsty at WOT, but apart from that no issues. For the most part it keeps up with traffic flows (I pass more than I get passed by).

I've got a gallery of my landscape shots - mostly shot around the Nelson region - they might bring back some memories of the country for you (or they might not!)

http://www.pbase.com/cjsouthern/scenery
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Re: Burgman 400 to PCX 125

Post by PCX150Rider »

Serious photos. . .looks like you used something a little more pricey than a Cannon EOS Rebel. 8)
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Re: Burgman 400 to PCX 125

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PCX150Rider wrote:Serious photos. . .looks like you used something a little more pricey than a Cannon EOS Rebel. 8)
To be honest, the camera doesn't make a lot of difference (we like to joke that it's a bit like going out to a friends place for dinner and saying "lovely dinner - you must have a great oven" :)) - in essence it's just a shutter and a sensor at the end of the lens.

But having said that, I do shoot primarily with a Canon 1D X and a Canon 1Ds3; The full frame sensor gives less noise for low-light work (which is my specialty), but it's mostly the firmware options that they have that just makes like a little easier (like the ability to shoot a 7 shot bracket for HDR, and lethal auto-focus when shooting things like birds in flight).

Both cameras cost more than a new PCX (and even a couple of my lenses got close!)
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Re: Burgman 400 to PCX 125

Post by GeorgeSK »

Very, very nice, Maverick. I'm trying to mess with HDR and RAW files, and having some success, but mostly I just get OK snapshots with some OK composition. I can appreciate what you are getting.

I may have to actually try, and break out a tripod.
On my scoot, getting there is WAY more than half the fun!

Please paste this address into a new tab and add yourself to the map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1NlP7xk7KMdJReQnm-iDhldFBdpQ&ll=4.995760578398276%2C0&z=2
but please, don't delete anybody, no matter how badly they deserve deleting :)
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Re: Burgman 400 to PCX 125

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GeorgeSK wrote:Very, very nice, Maverick. I'm trying to mess with HDR and RAW files, and having some success, but mostly I just get OK snapshots with some OK composition. I can appreciate what you are getting.

I may have to actually try, and break out a tripod.
Thanks.

HDR is seriously misunderstood by many; fundamentally it's a technique to capture a scene that has a dynamic range that's greater than the sensor can contain in a single exposure (ignoring the use of physical GND filters for dynamic range compression) - but the "rub" is that often the limitation isn't really a camera one in the first place - it's a display problem.

At base ISO (typically 100 for Canon and 200 for Nikon) most cameras will capture around 11 or 12 stops of dynamic range - but most monitors can only display around 6 and a print usually about 4. Often the problems start then we try to squeeze 12 stops of information into 4 or 6 and try to still have it look believable ... if it's compressed in a linear way then it usually just looks "weird" (cue the usual output from the likes of Photomatix) (and the often lower average levels usually have a side effect of increasing the effective saturation -- so you often end up with something like a Harry Potter on steroids look).

Good HDR doesn't have any particular "look" - it usually just takes a lot of experience pushing levels around and taking local contrast into account (where, say, something on the ground is shown as bright as something in the sky, but the brain doesn't make the connection because they're so far apart in the image (or has something darker to separate the regions)). Often a good technique is to shoot a bracket of exposures (on a tripod!) - stack them in Photoshop (darkest on top) - apply layer masks - then just start with a black soft brush on the top mask to progressively reveal the lower (brighter) layers for areas that are too dark - it's a very visual way of doing it which generally gives far more natural looking results than what programs attempt to recreate.

Happy to help with anything photographic if you need it - I basically eat/sleep Photoshop & photography and most issues don't take a lot to sort - just send a message through my images services page if you like: https://www.facebook.com/CJSouthernNZ/

Hope this helps :)
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Re: Burgman 400 to PCX 125

Post by forza300 »

Light 'n fun vs fat 'n cumbersome.

It's that simple.

The stability and added weight of larger bikes are sometimes nice but the flickability and general ease of use of the smaller <250cc bikes are unbeatable IMHO.

Hope you love the 125.
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Re: Burgman 400 to PCX 125

Post by Slowinitdown »

kramnala58 wrote:
Slowinitdown wrote:.... Appreciate your reply will update when I've bought it. Thanks
You have to post pics once you get it or it didn't happen. ;) :lol:
Took me a while to figure out how... Not like you folks haven't seen one before but here it is. 50miles in and I've never had so much fun on a scooter. Cannot recommend this bike enough, a friend has a Peugeot Django? Anyway it's ugly noisey and he's clearly envious of my new bike and is amazed at how quiet it is. Good job Honda :D. How do I add my pic to my profile?
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Re: Burgman 400 to PCX 125

Post by TheMaverick »

Slowinitdown wrote:
kramnala58 wrote:
Slowinitdown wrote:.... Appreciate your reply will update when I've bought it. Thanks
You have to post pics once you get it or it didn't happen. ;) :lol:
Took me a while to figure out how... Not like you folks haven't seen one before but here it is. 50miles in and I've never had so much fun on a scooter. Cannot recommend this bike enough, a friend has a Peugeot Django? Anyway it's ugly noisey and he's clearly envious of my new bike and is amazed at how quiet it is. Good job Honda :D. How do I add my pic to my profile?
Looks great!

I'd buy mine again in a heartbeat.

Adding a photo to your profile is easy - just click on "User Control Panel" at the top-right of the page then click on "Profile" on the left about 1/2 way up then "edit avitar". Let me know if you need help reducing the pic to 120 x 120 pixels.
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Re: Burgman 400 to PCX 125

Post by Slowinitdown »

Spoilt for choice for scenery in NZ, Wintery Bone is one of my favourites in there, That's the kind of view a good ride out rewards you with : ) I hitched around the south island with a friend seeing as many places as we could get to, by hook or by crook I think the saying goes. Made it to Queenstown and the fox Glacier. We stayed in Nelson and stopped at Kaikoura for a day too only because no one seemed to want to pick us up. Don't see hitch hikers much these days do you? Thanks for sharing the album will look again when on the laptop. Profile pic added. Cheers
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Re: Burgman 400 to PCX 125

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Slowinitdown wrote:Spoilt for choice for scenery in NZ, Wintery Bone is one of my favourites in there, That's the kind of view a good ride out rewards you with : ) I hitched around the south island with a friend seeing as many places as we could get to, by hook or by crook I think the saying goes. Made it to Queenstown and the fox Glacier. We stayed in Nelson and stopped at Kaikoura for a day too only because no one seemed to want to pick us up. Don't see hitch hikers much these days do you? Thanks for sharing the album will look again when on the laptop. Profile pic added. Cheers
Winter's Bone was part of the ultra-wide panorama ("on a clear day you can see forever") that I printed out over 2 canvas panels - over 3m wide in total (the latter, not the former - I didn't have a sale for it at the time, but it was just one of those images that would have been a "crime against humanity" not to print. Luckily for me it sold fairly quickly :)) I got the title from a Jennifer Lawrence film I was working my way through around that time. It was shot from the end of Princes drive - an area that I used to frequent in my 4 wheel drive days before it all got subdivided - it's only about a 5 min ride from Nelson (I actually head up that way quite often when traffic is backed up along the normal route). I try to shoot that scene at some point every winter now.

We don't see a lot of hitch-hikers in winter - but a modest amount in summer. Not sure how most fare. I'm in the process of upgrading my gallery - the photos at the beginning will have higher resolutions than many of the older work towards the end - there's a size control link at the bottom too (small - medium - large - original). They're all for sale at modest prices if you'd like a high-res version for printing. (<-- shameless plug!).
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