Camera Mounting

[303 cycle]

My wife got me a GoPro for christmas and I'm planning on mounting it up on the bike for the race season.

Are there any rules as far as "teathering" these? I was going to mount it on the front and saftey wire it to the upper fairing stay but thought I would check and see if there is any potential 2013 rule on this?

[rybo]

Dave-

Use the supplied mounts and you'll be fine. There is no current (or proposed) rule on the subject and it hasn't been much of a problem. In the event that it becomes a problem I'm sure we'll do something about it.

For now the biggest things to worry about are:
1) Making sure it's not a distraction / hazard to you or another rider
2) Being OK with the thing being jettisoned into oblivion if you crash

We don't spend a lot of time looking for them when riders fall down. You could form a search party after the track is cold if you wanted, but I'm guessing that places like HPR could have you searching for days with no find.

Congrats on the great gift

Scott

[303 cycle]

Thanks Scott,
I was looking at getting a RAM mount but I don't really want it near my controls. I'm going to make a label to put on the case with my name MRA# etc. in case of a lunar launch :lol:

[AdamandNoahsdad]

We used one for quite a few years in supermoto,RMMM and the MRA. They hold on quite well. I would still tether it somehow if you can. We only lost ours twice. Once at a minimoto race and they let us look for it during lunch. We found it and had some good footage of sky ground sky ground and then 20 minutes of face down in the weeds video. We also lost it at an MRA race at HPR when Adam crashed his 250. The corner workers were nice enough to pick it up when they were picking up all of the other pieces of the bike. Unfortunately, it took a direct hit in the crash and came out of its case and no longer works. They are a great learning tool and we miss ours.

[Fastt Racing]

I have lost mine a couple times, and found it no problem. It came out of the case once and bounced off the track into the weeds, and I only lost the memory card. It still works fine in the zip tied case even. You have to grab three hundred fifty dollars, crumble them up, and throw them over your shoulder before mounting it the first time as a gesture. If you do you'll be fine when it gets wasted in the first practice session. Oh and I learned that the curved style mount bracket typically used for helmet views of yourself will not take the vibration or force of being mounted directly to the bike, and will break if you ride fast enough.

[spideyrdr]

I've tethered my GoPro onto my bike in all three positions that I've used (tank mounted, mounted on the tail, and mounted on the front of the windscreen) using safety wire. Just run the long length of safety wire through some 1/4" clear tubing or something once it's twisted to keep it from scratching anything, and it would add a little extra insurance should it try to spontaneously fall off. Sure, it would be dangling from the safety wire but that beats having it fall onto the track. I have my doubts that it would keep it from flying off in all crashes, but if I'm off the bike in the weeds, the GoPro is probably a secondary concern.

Jamie

[spideyrdr]

RE: Finding a LOST GoPro:

I ran across this product the other day, and decided to give it a try on my GoPro in case it's ever lost in the weeds:

http://www.indiegogo.com/sticknfind

"Ultra small Sticker with Bluetooth, that you can stick on any device, person or animal, and find them with your Smart Phone (Apple iOS & Android)."

This product is being funded like a Kickstarter-type of project, and pre-orders are supposedly shipping in March. Phones and devices that support Bluetooth 4.0 and the Bluetooth Low Energy feature should work with this device, so that means the iPhone 4S and 5 and some newer Android phones like the Galaxy S 3 or Nexus 7 tablet should work.

Clearly not all devices will work with these, but I am willing to give it a try using my wife's iPhone and my Nexus 7. If anyone is interested in the outcome, I will try to do a write up once I get the Stick-N-Find and get to test it out. If it works, I will probably put it on my GoPro and transponder as those items seem to most likely to get lost in a crash.

Jamie

[303 cycle]

What are people using for settings? 1080/720? 30/48/60fps?

Got my update done, remote and phone linked so all I have to do is mount this up!

[rforsythe]

RE: Finding a LOST GoPro:

I ran across this product the other day, and decided to give it a try on my GoPro in case it's ever lost in the weeds:

http://www.indiegogo.com/sticknfind

Jamie

Let us know how it goes! I saw that site about a month ago but didn't think to try it on transponders and such. That could save a lot of time finding that stuff out in the weeds.

[spideyrdr]

What are people using for settings? 1080/720? 30/48/60fps?

Got my update done, remote and phone linked so all I have to do is mount this up!

I've moved to 720 w/ 30 fps on my Hero 1 since the 1080 resolution was negligibly better when going 140 MPH into turn 4 at HPR. I admit I haven't played with the frames per second much, so 30 is just what I went with. Plus with the Hero 1 (and maybe the others) the 720 setting captures a wider field of view, which I liked. Final reason, though minor since I have 3 batteries and a 32GB card, is it takes less space and I was getting slightly longer recording times at 720.

Jamie

[spideyrdr]

Let us know how it goes! I saw that site about a month ago but didn't think to try it on transponders and such. That could save a lot of time finding that stuff out in the weeds.

You bet! Once they get here I'll put one of them on the GoPro back door and have my wife "hide" it outside and see how long it takes me to find it. :)

[Fastt Racing]

I tried a few resolutions, and unless you plan on playback being on 40"+ screens you would be hard pressed to even see the difference in resolution because of the frame rate. However the frames per second showed up big time in action recording on the track. The 720p @ 60fps was descent, but 30fps @960p or 1080p came out really choppy at high speeds during action, passing, etc.

[TRK]

FYI

For 2013 if the camera is mounted to the bike, it will need some sort of tether in addition to the factory mount.

thanks fellas,
Shannon