Way back in September I posted a short video about making room in the garage, but do to computer issues I was never able to bring you the rest of the story, until today that is.
No matter how unlikely you think it is that you will win an auction, only place a bid if you are prepared to pay. I did just that, I can't really tell you what was going through my head when I set up auction sniper to bid on this scooter. There was about 12 or 15 hours left until the end and the price was incredibly low. So I set up sniper to bid one increment (about $50) 6 seconds prior to the end of the auction. The next day to my surprise I read the email stating I had won it at a price well below the going average.
The worst part was knowing I would not only have to tell my wife that I bought a scooter with out consulting her, but that it was located about 1000 miles from home in Charlottesville, VA. It turned out she was much more accepting than I thought she would be.
So I'm currently the owner of 3 bikes, my latest seen in the video above is a: 2009 Kymco Xciting 250Ri, it had just around 1500 miles on the clock when I bought it. It's not the ideal bike for me on a cross country trip as I'm just to tall, you may have noticed my knees almost touching my hands in the video, but for the 10 miles on suburban streets that is my daily commute it is just about perfect, plus it gets 70mpg.
I have to say the folks at Jarman's Sportcycles were very gracious, considering what I paid for the scooter. The sales man even picked me up at the airport. A lot of less reputable dealers would have just told me it was a mistake and not completed the deal.
See you on the road.
GAW
Monday, December 5, 2011
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15 comments:
Congrats on the new scooter. And you got a nice road trip in the process.
GAW/Gordon:
congrats on your new Scoot. I had a Kymco X500Ri for a couple of years, great bike. Same frame for both models. Even tho it has the larger engine it still didn't feel like a cross country touring machine, even though I did ride it to Oregon when I got it
I have a T2i and was using PREL7, but I just bought PREL10 as I needed the 1080p30 preset. Your video is very smooooth.
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
@Richard,
Thanks. It was an adventure on a slower scale.
GAW
@Bob,
I remember reading about your Kymco a few years ago when I was looking at new scooters. This 250 has been great going back and forth to work, but I don't think I will be taking it on tour any time soon.
I bought the T3i about the same time as the scooter, another eBay bargain. I just finished building a new PC and I was going to us PREL8 as that was what I was using on my old computer, but I found out #10 runs native on a 64 bit system and also found a great deal on it over Thanksgiving. It took very little time to render as all 4 cores were running at 85-100%. I shot my PC build up and will be putting it together next, it will include some screen shots off all the cores @ 100%.
GAW
@Bob,
There's your answer. If you are using Premier, then rendering will make use of multiple cores and 64-bits! I haven't used Premier since 1999 and all of my recent experience is with Apple products.
GAW/Richard:
I was looking for a new laptop (no, I don't want a desktop), something i7 2670qm (quad core) but then I noticed this: (see link)
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere-elements/tech-specs.html
PREL10 only runs in 32 bit mode, which means you can only access 3.5G of RAM, and does not make use of additional cores when rendering. I am not interested in Premiere Pro CS5.5 as most of my videos are around 5 min (max 10 min), but I already have a problem with low resources and I have 4 gig RAM installed, that is the max that my OS can handle. Even if I upgrade to 64 bit and put 8 GIG or more RAM into it, the application will only run in 32 bit compatibility mode and only utilize 4 gig RAM max.
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
Bob,
The way I read the specs is that it only runs in 32bit mode with XP, but with Windows 7 it runs native in 32bit and 64bit. If you are looking at a new laptop with a i7 processor and Windows 7, I would suspect they would have 64 bit OS.
The PC I built has a i5 proccessor and Windows 7 64bit OS, and I was using Pre. Elements 10 when I was getting all 4 cores running at 100%. As for memory I have 8gigs, but I think a total of 4.5 was being used when I rendered the video.
I will post a photo later when I get home.
It seemed to render at about 1:1, so with an i7 it might be even faster.
GAW
Bob, here is a screen shot of the above video rendering. It shows 95% cpu usage and all 4 cores running and 3.8gig ram usage.
@Bob/GAW,
What other applications are part of Pre Elements besides the editor? The specs in the link say that the editor runs in 64-bit mode and will, therefore, use all of the memory. The "other applications" run in 32-bit compatibility mode. In my opinion, editing is where you need access to all of the memory.
The only things in my (x86)folder is the Elements Organizer (sort of like Picasa or iPhoto) and some templates. I haven't used The Organizer, but I believe it does run in 32 bit mode.
GAW/Gordon:
thank you for this info but I thought that running in 32 bit mode only uses up to 4GIG max, as it is only running 32 bit "compatibility" mode, NOT 64 bit mode. We need Richard the computer Guru to explain this from the PREL tech specs.
I am having some problems right now with a dropped frame. I am trying to find the clip which is having the problem. I even converted the clip(s) to AVI and it still crashed. Could be a corrupt file straight out of the camera but plays fine using WMP, but stops rendering and crashes. It may have something to do with "low resources" and large v080p30 files right out of the T2i. I have spent 3 evenings on this already and I still can't produce an 18 minute video. I tried to add a title and it crashed.
this weekend I am going to resize to 720p and convert to 8Mbps to reduce file size and try again. I can't give up because these are from a Celebration of Life ceremony with guest speakers that I wanted to give to the recently widowed husband.
BTW: I purchased the dual pack the other day which included PREL10 and PS elements 10 for $100.
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
Back to riding guys!! :)
The long ride wouldn't bother me by itself. It's starting out on such a long journey on a bike I knew nothing about mechanically.
Glad it's all worked out and congratulations!
Irondad,
Thank You for the refocusing. It wasn't so much the long ride as the ergonomics of the new scooter...
I put my faith into the general goodness of people and trusted the dealer to not be selling a lemon. Fortunately guys at Jarman's Sportcycles are top notch.
I worried more about my luggage not making it through airport security, as I had to check my tool kit (including a small compressor) and riding suit. I carried on my helmet and camera with me on board the plane. I have no doubt if my tool kit had not made it I would have needed it.
I figured the worst case (beyond needing an ambulance) would be needing to rent a u-haul for mechanical problems.
I love planning for this type of thing, hard to explain, but it's like having a box that needs to go through a door that is to small...
Great post, looks like a sweet ride. Always look forward to reading more
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