This is the occasionally updated blog of Paul O'Brien, founder of MoDaCo.com. It's nothing to do with Paul O'Brien the Australian soap actor. Just so you know...
// December 29th, 2008 // 3,188 Comments » // Random
Not a bad day’s driving eh…. view the tracker map (courtesy of CamerAware)!
A long day, a lot of miles, but effortless on those lovely French roads… 65 Euros of tolls not so good! The benefit – short journey up from Geneva the following day and hello Avoriaz and the slopes! Yay!
P
// December 22nd, 2008 // 529 Comments » // Uncategorized
’nuff said!
P
// December 22nd, 2008 // 1,822 Comments » // Uncategorized
The Scenario
Skiing, Avoriaz, New Year 2008 / 2009
The Car
Mazda 6 MPS
The Problem
So this year we are going snowboarding, as we do, and this year we’re going to Avoriaz, a resort in France. Now, in the past we’ve either seemed to end up in hire cars (sometimes with snow chains) or in our own car (generally naughtily without snow chains) and got away with such foolhardiness because we’ve been a) going to a lower altitude resort and b) lucky. This year we figured that since we’re going to a higher resort, we’d do the right thing and get snow chains for the mazzy. Simple enough right?
Not so much.
The solution (in theory)
First step was to phone the Mazda dealer. Upon requesting information about purchasing snow chains for the car, I was greeted by the response “Mazda doesn’t make snow chains available for any of their vehicles (at least in the UK)”. WTF? Helpful!
The next step was to scour the interwebs for info. This showed that, sure enough, the 6 (and particularly the MPS / Mazdaspeed) isn’t very accomodating when it comes to snowchains – due to limited clearance with a bar behind the wheel (see image). I did however come across a company called SCC-Chains which makes chains for limited clearance vehicles, chains that have been used succesfully by a number of 6 owners, so problem solved!
The next step was to order said chains. Being US based, I took advantage of a Seattle trip in December to order the chains from Amazon for delivery to my hotel. Genius! At 50 quid including shipping for the SZ129s (quoted model for 215/45/18 tyres), they weren’t cheap, but they weren’t hideously expensive either. They took up a bit of suitcase room and added a bit of weight, but being a bloke i’d packed light, obviously (V – ssssssshhhhhh!)
Being the sensible (very occasionally) person I am, I figured it’d be a good idea to test fit the chains before having a go halfway up a freezing mountain in a blizzard. Sunday morning comes round, and just before cleaning the car, I set to work.
The problem (2)
After struggling for a (long) while, they don’t bl00dy fit! 
I should say first that the chains are a great design, very well made, compact etc. etc. and if (like in the video / guide) there had been appropriate slack in the inner cable, then fitting them would have been a piece of cake. And therein lies the problem, there was NO slack in the inner cable, not even enough to do up the last clip. ARGH! I even tried jacking up the car, driving it back slightly (as in the picture) to see if this helped, but all to no avail. I had to give up in the end which I REALLY do not like doing!
The current state of play
I’ve mailed SCC-Chains pleading for assistance, so i’ll post here with what response I get. In the meantime, I guess i’d just hope for clear roads on the way to Avoriaz…
Problem shared is a problem halved so they say?
P
EDIT: The Update
The european office of SCC-Chains have been in touch, and have let me know that they do indeed seem too small, and they would be happy to send me the next 2 sizes up. I could then see which fits, and return the 2 that don’t. What great service! 
// December 22nd, 2008 // 1,251 Comments » // Uncategorized
Since YouTube announced they are now hosting HD videos (YAY!), i’ve been playing on my Mac with getting the optimum settings for high quality uploads. As a heads up for those also setting out on the HD adventure, i’ve used these settings with great results from my Xacti HD 2 and Flip Mino HD.
Hope this helps someone!
One word of caution – even on my quad core beast, these settings take a little while to encode! The end result is worth it though, and seems to be free of the sound sync problems i’ve experienced with other configs.
If you have any better settings, let me know!
P
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