Take us for a drive in your country

On a side note: Studded winter tires are not allowed here, since the damage they do to the roads, exceeds their benefits by far.

We use rougher aphalt for that reason. It increases tire noise, but lasts much longer. I'm not sure, but they say that unstudded tires work because studded tires roughen the surface.
 
Well, on ice and snow unstudded snow tires obviously haven't got the controlled road behaviour studded tires have. So driving is probably much easier and safer with studded tires there. However, as far as I know, in slush, rain or on a dry road (which is the case about 90 % of the time in winter here), studded tires are much more critical (braking distance, side support). That's why they are limited to 50 km/h (same as snow chains, btw.), where they're still allowed.

To cut a long story short: We have completely different types of winter and therefore also use different methods dealing with it :) About 99 % of the time you get along fine with normal winter tires and when it really gets tough, you can borrow snow chains everywhere.

Btw., today I have the feeling, that we have the very first spring day here. Sun is shining, temperature is mild and there is that typical "spring air", if you know what I mean.
 
Last edited:
[video=youtube;yVWdBquHaUE]Pothole slalom in Germany. Speedlimit goes down to 10km/h because of potholes.
Indeed, it has become very bad. At least with a car you have suspension and can't fall over. I'm almost afraid to get my bikes out again. On the other side, with two wheels it's easier to avoid the potholes altogether.

It's not that bad where I live. Obviously we were lucky this year.
What you seen in D-Fence's video is on the outskirts of the Ruhr Area. Here basically every single town is broke, so they couldn't fix last year's winter damages properly so the same spots (and more) are cracking up again now.
 
Well, on ice and snow unstudded snow tires obviously haven't got the controlled road behaviour studded tires have. So driving is probably much easier and safer with studded tires there. However, as far as I know, in slush, rain or on a dry road (which is the case about 90 % of the time in winter here), studded tires are much more critical (braking distance, side support). That's why they are limited to 50 km/h (same as snow chains, btw.), where they're still allowed.

Yes, I can see why they're not allowed, and tbh I don't think you need them. Ice is the only thing that unstutted winter tire can't cope, otherwise they're really similar to drive. I mean, look at them:

Studded:
https://pic.armedcats.net/h/h-/h-p/2011/03/05/iso_nokian-hakkapeliitta_c_van.jpg
Unstudded:
https://pic.armedcats.net/h/h-/h-p/2011/03/05/hkpl_rsi.jpg

Spot the difference? I don't know why you guys limit the speed to 50 km/h, maybe because they're compared to snow chains?

To cut a long story short: We have completely different types of winter and therefore also use different methods dealing with it :) About 99 % of the time you get along fine with normal winter tires and when it really gets tough, you can borrow snow chains everywhere.
Absolutely.

Btw., today I have the feeling, that we have the very first spring day here. Sun is shining, temperature is mild and there is that typical "spring air", if you know what I mean.

Yeah, it's nice. We probably get it too in a month. :D
No, it's been at 0c for a few days now, feels really warm after nearly a month below -25c.
 
Last edited:
Roads are dry here too in the sun but I found a lovely piece of ice in a shady corner yesterday, and anytime I find ice I appreciate the studs. Might even wash the car next week if this weather continues. It's grey, which is strange because the sticker says it's supposed to be red.
 
Yeah, it's nice. We probably get it too in a month. :D
No, it's been at 0c for a few days now, feels really warm after nearly a month below -25c.

Wanna have a bit of it right now? Here's a vid I made this Sunday morning :)

 
I don't know if this was covered already but just in case -- on the Series 15 DVD/Blu-Ray set, there is an extra feature called "James May's Journey" where James May takes the viewer on a ride from his home to the studio. It's more James prattling than the road ahead, but I enjoyed it immensely!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CB1CBAAF645F0D21[/video]

[video=youtube;q-cg0mIHTfc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-cg0mIHTfc&feature=BF&list=PLCB1CBAAF645F0D21&index=1[/video]
 
Last edited:
That was already covered in another thread and I believe, this thread is about movies you made yourself to show us, where you live.
 
Bula fron Fiji. Following is a drive along a backroad heading towards the capital city, at about 3pm. It starts in a forest reserve, then goes through semi-rural area, then through suburbs and finishes just as were approaching the urban area.

 
I?m still trying to figure out how to do this propperly ... here are my first attempts.

The first one was pretty much to see what I could achieve with the camera-mount I already have (suction, one pin joint only) ... and the bad news were that I couldn?t mount it on the front window (or have the camera upside-down), so I tried the side window and even there the best I could come up with was this rear-view mirror view ... well, for a bonus you can see the speedometer in the reflection this way :) I did this early in the morning to see in what lighting conditions the Camera (3 year old point&click canon) could achieve what kind of result. It?s actually better than I thought (not that the results would be "good" in any sense of the word, but I was expecting something even worse), but in editing and converting the video, the quality is a lot lower now than when I view the source file :hmm:
Having the camera next to me on the window got on my nerves quite quikly so I turned it off again after a few minutes and tried again some minutes later to just put it on the dashboard. Wich went fine ... untill the first corner :)


Second Video is more of the same that I did a few days later with the Cam on the dashbord ... tried something different with the video-conversion (from the dreaded Format Canon uses for Video) and I think the quality is slightly better now.


As for Geography, both were made in Germanys Lower Rhine region.
 
Last edited:
Alright, here's something I cut together from the videos I already posted in the "secret driving roads" forum. I made it last year, while I had an Audi A6 and drove through the Harz mountains, starting in Goslar. At the beginning I was stuck behind some slow tourist in his Volvo, who obviously was afraid of falling down the hill, if he drives any faster. But once I got rid of him, some fun began.

Watch it in HD and fullscreen mode, then you get a feeling of the fun you can have on those roads.

 
I tried taking a video in the dark but it came out horrible. you couldn't see anything even with headlights on. :/
 
I liked it MacGuffin, dense forest there, too bad it didn't let us see into the horizon
I'm gonna try and get an HD camera to show a bit of "mountainy Portugal"
 
I liked it MacGuffin, dense forest there, too bad it didn't let us see into the horizon

Yeah, it was before I got the suction cup holder.
 
... with great music. Source? :)

Click me

And me, too

I love the combination of new age, classical instruments and oriental sounds very much. Currently I'm completely hooked on the tune at the beginning of the video. Does someone speak Turkish here? Because I have no idea what the song titles mean :lol:
 
Last edited:
Apparently, I must spread some orchestras around before giving them to you again. Thanks. :)
 
Top