awa355
6th August 2015, 18:14
GoPro after market handlebar/tripod mount.
This arrived yesterday so I have been playing around with places to mount it. The intention was to be able to swing the camera left or right to capture more of the countryside than just straight down the road. I tend to keep stills from my videos rather than endless videos.
314420
The main clamp seems to grip the handlebars well, the quick lock release lever feels solid, from there, the one weakness shows up. The small square U bracket inside the yellow oblong in pic 1 can be rotated 360 degrees and has a small screw to hold it in place. Unfortunately, no matter how firm I tightened that screw, that bracket stayed loose. It meant the rest of the clamp including the housing was able to wobble quite a bit I could move the housing in all directions up to 1-2 cm. . There was too much movement to warrant a road test. The camera would have shown far too much shaking.
I decided that with the tripod mounting I am not likely to utilize the lower swivel function of this u bracket so I pulled the thing apart and ran some super glue between the two surface’s and screwed the two pieces together again. The clamp was only $15 so I’m not going to lose much by modifying it. If it does not cure the looseness of the housing, I will cut the bracket off and glue a gopro base mount directly to the bar clamp. All those connections look messy and must add to possible movements showing up in the recordings.
I tried the clamp out today in three different places. First was high up on the handle bars.
314421
My first effort resulted in the knurled locking wheel not gripping the tripod base well enough and the camera swung down through 180 degrees. I fixed a strip of duct tape over both pieces and had no more issues. This high on the bars gave a noticeable shaking effect. The handle bars feel firm to gloved hands but the camera picked up on the tiny vibe’s and that showed on the video.
My next position was off lower down.
314422
This was a lot more steadier, although the camera blocked most of the speedo.
The clamp is supposed to grip tubing from 15-35mm so I chanced the camera by clamping the mount to the left fork just below the indicator.
314423
This was the most stable of the three positions tried. It was quite neat watching the front wheeel seemingly rotating in reverse at times.
314424
Too sum up, on a motorbike the tripod mount seems nowhere as secure or stable as the standard GoPro buckle mount. I did like the basic handlebar clamp. It was easy to fit, and I could tighten it very firmly to the bars or forks. I will probably butcher the rest of the mount, keeping the main clamp and adapting a regular buckle base to it. Having the ability to swivel the camera did not achieve much as the handlebar and cables came into the picture.
My original DIY mount on the right fork still gives me the best playback as far as smoothness goes.
This arrived yesterday so I have been playing around with places to mount it. The intention was to be able to swing the camera left or right to capture more of the countryside than just straight down the road. I tend to keep stills from my videos rather than endless videos.
314420
The main clamp seems to grip the handlebars well, the quick lock release lever feels solid, from there, the one weakness shows up. The small square U bracket inside the yellow oblong in pic 1 can be rotated 360 degrees and has a small screw to hold it in place. Unfortunately, no matter how firm I tightened that screw, that bracket stayed loose. It meant the rest of the clamp including the housing was able to wobble quite a bit I could move the housing in all directions up to 1-2 cm. . There was too much movement to warrant a road test. The camera would have shown far too much shaking.
I decided that with the tripod mounting I am not likely to utilize the lower swivel function of this u bracket so I pulled the thing apart and ran some super glue between the two surface’s and screwed the two pieces together again. The clamp was only $15 so I’m not going to lose much by modifying it. If it does not cure the looseness of the housing, I will cut the bracket off and glue a gopro base mount directly to the bar clamp. All those connections look messy and must add to possible movements showing up in the recordings.
I tried the clamp out today in three different places. First was high up on the handle bars.
314421
My first effort resulted in the knurled locking wheel not gripping the tripod base well enough and the camera swung down through 180 degrees. I fixed a strip of duct tape over both pieces and had no more issues. This high on the bars gave a noticeable shaking effect. The handle bars feel firm to gloved hands but the camera picked up on the tiny vibe’s and that showed on the video.
My next position was off lower down.
314422
This was a lot more steadier, although the camera blocked most of the speedo.
The clamp is supposed to grip tubing from 15-35mm so I chanced the camera by clamping the mount to the left fork just below the indicator.
314423
This was the most stable of the three positions tried. It was quite neat watching the front wheeel seemingly rotating in reverse at times.
314424
Too sum up, on a motorbike the tripod mount seems nowhere as secure or stable as the standard GoPro buckle mount. I did like the basic handlebar clamp. It was easy to fit, and I could tighten it very firmly to the bars or forks. I will probably butcher the rest of the mount, keeping the main clamp and adapting a regular buckle base to it. Having the ability to swivel the camera did not achieve much as the handlebar and cables came into the picture.
My original DIY mount on the right fork still gives me the best playback as far as smoothness goes.