Short Video

[Tarmac]

I took a short ride up the local mountains back in December, finally got around to posting it on Youtube.

I had some weird issues with the editing software, I think the frame rate is off.

Anyhoo, here goes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWy7PkhaQIo

[BigSmile]

Thanks for the video, those are some long sweeping turns on that route?

Looked like fun, and a lot dryer than it is here in Virginia right now.

Where did you have the camera mounted?

thanks,
Brad

[celticus]

Nice ride.

Mark

[Tarmac]

I had the camera mounted on the turn signal stalk. Next time Im going to try the helmet mount.

Lots of sweepers, but thats the only the 1st 5 miles. It's 23 miles up to the village at the top. But that ride was back in December, and I think I only made it up to mile 15. The climate in Southern AZ at 9,000ft is equal to Vancouver at sea level. Brrrrrr!

I'll see if I can upload the next 10 minutes of the ride later this week.

[peckhammer]

I had the camera mounted on the turn signal stalk. Next time Im going to try the helmet mount.

The R-Bikes are a challenge when it comes to finding a place to mount cameras. There are a lot of frame tubes -- which are perfect for using Cardellini clamps -- but the characteristics of horizontally opposed flat-twin makes placement crucial. I've found that "low and wide" works best. The closer to the center of the bike, the more the camera will shake from the motion of the pistons. If you've got crash bars, locating the camera at the outer edges (front or side) seems to work pretty well. The lower the better in my experience, but not so low that the camera touches down, or is too difficult to turn on and off.The luggage rack or grab rails work pretty well too, if you mount your camera on either side.

Places to specifically avoid on the R1200R are the turn signal stalks, mirror stalks, handle bars, windshield, forks, and gas tank. Each type of bike will have its own characteristics, so you just have to experiment.

Mounting the camera to your helmet is often the simplest solution. Personally, It's my least favorite place, but your body, neck and head do a pretty good job of stabilizing the image. Example from a week ago: http://www.vholdr.com/video/arizona-rou ... h-prescott

>--
Peckhammer

[Tarmac]

Peckhammer: Great vid, I love the single lane! Im sold on the helmet mount after that.

Im going to have to get up there and try that ride before it gets too hot.

What camera are you using? I shot that with the Oregon Scientific ATC-2k, but am thinking of upgrading.

http://www2.oregonscientific.com/shop/p ... 77&pid=709

[TT RDHS]

Yarnell hill is always fun, but watch out for LEOs, especially going up the hill (north bound).

[peckhammer]

Peckhammer: Great vid, I love the single lane! I'm sold on the helmet mount after that. I'm going to have to get up there and try that ride before it gets too hot.
What camera are you using?

Yeah, the single lane was awesome. I am using the VHoldR Contour HD which was passed along to me by http://www.filmtools.com. It's 1080p, which is pretty impressive.

The camera is small, light, and quite rugged. It's got an aluminum housing, which I managed to touch down on the road twice when I had it mounted low on the crash bars. The camera continues to work, despite the abuse. It's fairly simple to use, but it's kind of difficult to know if is recording or not. Feedback is provided via little leds that are hard, or at times impossible to see. And since there is no viewfinder, It depends on lasers for aiming, which requires some experimenting to get right. There is not much of a lens hood (as in none), so the camera is affected by sunlight. IOW, keep the sun at your back, if possible. The camera is not weatherproof, but there is a weatherproof housing available for it, and also a tripod mount which really opens up your mounting options when combined with this http://www.filmtools.com/cadellini484.html.

Here's a picture of my rigging on the R1200R grab rail, with a different camera as an example: