Triumphrat

dazco · 04-09-2006

Today i put the hand strap on my new cam and hung it from my helmet strap to record a short ride. I knew it wouldn't be good flopping around against my chest, but it was still fun to watch. So now i have the bug to record a ride with it and i was wondering if anyone has found a good way to mount a cam w/o buying a mount. I'd like to mount it to my body or helmet somehow because it would eliminate the high frequency vibes that would happen if mounted to the bike. Any ideas? If i can get some good video i'll post it here so you guys can make fun of my riding skills, or lack thereof. :-D Definatly worth a ride thru the so cal twisties if i can find a way to do it. Actually, this would be a fun idea if everyone here did this. Maybe even a ride video forum ! One way or another i'll find a way to mount it eventually, but maybe some of you can help me avoid a lot of trial and error. Any ideas?

jrussell6 · 04-09-2006

if you got a peice of neoprene or like material,,, you could make a holder that could strap to your arm.. if it's a small recorder,,, so its a rectangle with four more rectangles attached on each side of the original

_ _/ /__
_ _ __
/ /

fold the two vertical straps around the top and bottom of the camera

fold the two horizontal flaps around your upper arm,
attach both with velcro glued to the flaps.

just a thought

ohiorider · 04-09-2006

Dazco - This isn't a video success story, but it may keep you from making some of the same mistakes I did.

I tried video recording from my bike about 6 years ago. At the time I was using a Sony HandiCam which isn't nearly as small as today's units. Initially, I used a mount that attached the camera to the handlebars. Way too much vibration through the camera, which caused the video to be extremely blurred. I think it may also have screwed up my camcorder's 'antishake' feature. In an effort to isolate the camera from vibration, and although it looked totally ridiculous, I purchased a HelmetCam mount, which was held to my helmet with suction cups. The camera mounted to the HelmetCam. You don't want your neighbors to see you riding away like this!

There were several problems:
- the old CamCorder was too large and heavy. The first time I took a quick look sideways at 70mph, the wind caught the side of the camera and about took my head off.
- Aiming the camera. Since I had no way of looking through the viewfinder, aiming the camera was at best a guess. My first 20 minutes of video consisted of the road centerline moving back and forth across the screen.
- noise - no matter how you make your moving video, you'll want to experiment with the microphone feature of your camcorder, maybe using a remote mike under your helmet to cut down on the wind noise, which is considerable. You might also want to experiment placing the mike in various locations on the bike to pick up the sound of the engine.

I'm sure a professional sports video expert could recommend the right way and the proper equipment to take video from the bike. If there's one on this forum, I love to hear from him or her.

My next attempt will involve using a new digital camcorder (compact) with some sort of small remote lens that attaches via RF or small cable to my camcorder, which I can isolate from vibration by carrying it in a fanny pack or packed in insulating material in my tankbag. I'd probably mount the remote lens on my helmet, again to isolate it from vibration. I think the video would be more lifelike, since it wouldn't be taken from a fixed location on the bike. Or possibly using one of the small units (like from Radio Shack) that don't use videotape but solid-state memory card might work better in the high-vibration environment of our bikes. They are small enough they could directly attach to your helmet. You'd have to make a few trial runs to get the aim right.

BTW - we have gotten some good bike video when my buddy's wife (a) took the video going to Vintage Days at Mid Ohio while riding in a sidecar with a very clear windshield (b) riding as a passenger on a Road King as we rode through Southern Utah.

Good luck. Hopefully we'll hear from a video expert or two who has the solution.

Bob

ssjones · 04-09-2006

A couple of folks over on BonnevilleAmerica.com have trashed their new digital cameras by hard-mounting to the bike. The cameras croaked in a surprisingly short time period so be careful. ($300-$400 Point & Shoot brand name models) Best bet, get a passenger to hold/record OR buy a camera that can withstand the vibrations. I'm married to my camera holder! (so that means I overspent!)
I was surprised to find the camcorder format does surprisingly well in the small digital cameras, just get a memory card large enough.

dazco · 04-09-2006

I do realize the vibe problem by mounting it on the bike. but you'll see in my first post i said i don't want to mount it on the bike, but on my body. The arm idea won't work because it'll be too low for one thing. Hanging against my chest maybe 6" below my chin gave me a nice view of my speedo and the treetops. But i think it will need to be either up on my helmet or at throat level. that leaves me little to work with. (yea, i know theres a joke there but lets not go there

I had an idea just now tho....put the camera under my thick fleece lined levi jacket with the lens sticking out between the top button and second button down. The jacket should hold it against me while the lens sticking out should hold it in place and i'd also have the strap attached to the helmet strap as i did yesterday, but this time just as a lifeline in case it slips down.

Oh yeah....as for memory, i have a 1 gig card and my new camera does mpg4 which gives much longer recording times than most other formats. I can get an hour on the 1 gig card which is much longer than i need.

I 'll have to wait to try it tho since once again the weather turned to ****e. Man am i ever sick of this weather.

[ This message was edited by: dazco on 2006-04-09 10:12 ]

Silverado57 · 04-09-2006

I'd be afraid my ride would end up on America's Funniest Home Videos... :-D

FattRat · 04-09-2006

Tough call..... trying to mount it to the body somehow. I can't see how you could make it work, unless your camera will accept a "lipstick cam" through an external 'in' A/V.

I got my best images from my Sprint with a $100.00 mount from SportBikeCam.com...... but we don't have the kind of gas fill attachment that the modern/sleeker bikes have.
From the Sprint RS

The best, most vibration-free images will be via a miniDV recorder. Hard drives don't like the subtle high frequency vibrations of a bike..... even simply transporting them on the bike, they're fragile.

On my BMW, I stacked some cigar boxes, mounted a quick-release camera mount to the top of them, put a gel ProPad between them and the surface beneath, then strapped the whole affair to my gas tank. It worked, but was pretty laughable to look at.

If I thought I could afford something I wouldn't use very often, somebody posted a picture of Bogue camera mount made with a giant suction cup instead of for the traditional tri-pod. Strap that to the top of my gas tank, with the camera mounted atop it (much like my laughable cigar boxes), and I presume it could work.

I'm thinking you're gonna hafta hook/loop tape a 'lipstick cam' to your helmet, running the cord to your camera in a back-pack (if you can attach an external recording source to your video camera).

Good luck, I've got lots of video images from some of my bikes, but I need to upgrade from my wore out used DELL to something that would allow me to do something with them.

[ This message was edited by: FattRat on 2006-04-09 11:16 ]

ssjones · 04-09-2006

Quote:

On 2006-04-09 10:07, dazco wrote:
I do realize the vibe problem by mounting it on the bike. but you'll see in my first post i said i don't want to mount it on the bike, but on my body.......

Good deal, just didn't want to see you lose a camera. I'd love to see some CA footage, Van Nuys, Rock Store, Hollywood Strip, etc.

FattRat · 04-09-2006

Here ya go..... a cheap little $30.00 toy took the run in with the errant Pink Flamingo, I used the same gizmo to record from off my TV a video of a quick ride to 120 mph on the BMW, and a couple shots put together for me by a buddy with software to email images of a ride we took one afternoon.

Let 'em download (or upload, I always confuse them), then hit the little arrow on the bar beneath the videos. I think only the Sprint videos have sound......

Some (cheaply made clips)

badrufus · 04-09-2006

Daz,
If you want to mount it on your helmet, try finding some info on how acrobatic skydivers do it. Google around. That's one of the few sports I can think of where a cam has to be very firmly mounted to a hard helmet, like what you're talking about. I'd be concerned about safety issues mounted a cam near your throat. You go down, that cam ends up doing some nastiness to your neck, airway, upper chest.

If you eventually decide to mount it on the bike, check out RAM mounts at www.whitehorsepress.com.
Deb