Cycling up the Col du Galibier filmed with a drone

gavinbay
gavinbay Posts: 144
edited October 2018 in Road general
Today cycled up to the Col from where I live in Serre Chevalier.

Road was lovely and quiet as one of the tunnels on the main road was closed.

First two clips I filmed with my phone as I was cycling along and then the rest is drone footage, and you can see I had a near miss, with the drone that is :D

Was hard work filming on your own as you can't carry the remote control and Ipad on the bike!

That's probably it for this year as we're in for snow this weekend and all next week so they'll probably close it.

And great news to return to in that the Tour de France visits our valley after Col de Vars, Izoard and then the final climb up to the Galibier before descending to the finnish at Valloire, stage 18 July 24th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLexBfWvRuM
Cycling Routes in the Hautes Alpes Serre Chevalier Briancon

Comments

  • lincolndave
    lincolndave Posts: 9,441
    That’s a good bit of filming Gavin, I bet it was a bit of a struggle though
    Also good news about 2019 tour ,it will sort the men out from the boys
  • surfercyclist
    surfercyclist Posts: 894
    That drone footage is an excellent idea!
  • crossed
    crossed Posts: 237
    What drone were you using for the filming?
  • gavinbay
    gavinbay Posts: 144
    DJI Spark - in active track mode - but have to leave remote control & IPad where I start from, then cycle back to stop drone filming and land it back to where I started, so a bit of a faff, so much better if there are two of you!
    Cycling Routes in the Hautes Alpes Serre Chevalier Briancon
  • crossed
    crossed Posts: 237
    GavinBay wrote:
    DJI Spark - in active track mode - but have to leave remote control & IPad where I start from, then cycle back to stop drone filming and land it back to where I started, so a bit of a faff, so much better if there are two of you!

    Thanks for that.
    I've been thinking aboout getting one that's small enough to carry with me on some bike trips for some filming rather than the usual GoPro footage and photo's.
  • apreading
    apreading Posts: 4,535
    I like the way that you keep looking up and the drone and nearly coming off, and going on the wrong side of the road. If on your own, how do you make sure nobody steals the remote/ipad? and if you are carrying them (and presumably the drone) when not filming, why can you not carry them when you are? Or do you have a vehicle that you are parking up in between shots?
  • gavinbay
    gavinbay Posts: 144
    I setup the drone to follow me, leave IPad connected to remote controller just off the side of the road, and start cycling - I don't go to far from where I left it, and the roads are not exactly busy, so it's safe and I can always see the gear.

    Then I stop turn around back to gear, land drone, pack it all up and then cycle further and do it all again.

    I'm still practising with the settings and modes and think on long straights I can set the drone up high in front of me, and as I cycle along it will move backwards so I will not be having to look up so much swerving over the road and should show more of the mountain.

    Today the Galibier is closed due to snow and that could well be it for the season.
    Cycling Routes in the Hautes Alpes Serre Chevalier Briancon
  • sampras38
    sampras38 Posts: 1,917
    Crossed wrote:
    GavinBay wrote:
    DJI Spark - in active track mode - but have to leave remote control & IPad where I start from, then cycle back to stop drone filming and land it back to where I started, so a bit of a faff, so much better if there are two of you!

    Thanks for that.
    I've been thinking aboout getting one that's small enough to carry with me on some bike trips for some filming rather than the usual GoPro footage and photo's.

    For size and carrying purposes you can't go wrong with the Spark. I've had a Mavic Pro for a couple of years now and have done a bit of Active Track work. Great pieces of kit.
  • cgfw201
    cgfw201 Posts: 674
    The Mavic Air is also great for this kind of thing.

    The carry case it folds into fits snugly into a jersey pocket. Stick the RC in another pocket and you can carry everthing you need just in your jersey pockets. Great bit of kit. Just a bit of a PITA to lug around and since Strava started telling the world how long it takes to get up a climb, who likes stopping halfway up for drone purposes?

    Still cool though.
  • gavinbay
    gavinbay Posts: 144
    cgfw201 wrote:
    The Mavic Air is also great for this kind of thing......

    Yes that's a great piece of kit in that it folds up even smaller than the Spark.

    I'm mainly practising with the Drone in active track mode for filming when we go ski touring, that's when we climb up to the likes of the Galibier but on skis and then ski back down.

    Skiing though is far trickier to use Active Track, however in some of the modes I've been using could well work better, but on the whole I have to film skiers manually.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_rQwmuxhqY
    Cycling Routes in the Hautes Alpes Serre Chevalier Briancon

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