Camera Mount-First Attempt

This is my first attempt at a handlebar mount for my video camera. I used a reflector mount instead of a headlight mount since it was all I had on hand. The headlight mount in the picture is the one I use for my morning rides. The camera felt really stable at home when I shook the bike and camera. When I actually hit the road I realized that this wasn't going to work, way too much vibration. I'll have to try something else. If I stick with this setup I'll have to run a bungee cord or something over the top of the camera for more support. If anybody has any suggestions let me know.

Cowtown Classic-I'll Try This Again

I had posted a short video clip from the Cowtown Classic Bike Ride that took place Saturday morning, unfortunately I accidentally deleted the video. After engaging in a futile search to find the original file I just deleted the entire post and decided to try again. Here's another video from Saturday's ride. This was taken with my Flip Ultra camcorder which I had mounted in my Wald basket. This is my first attempt at peicing together video using Windows Movie Maker.

The ride itself was great with temperatures in the 70's at the start. I rode part of the way with my son, the guy in the orange jersey thats towing me along. He's taken over my old TSX tubed Quattro Assi (8 speed Ultegra components, downtube shifters). I'm glad somebody's getting some use out of it. I was on my Kona Smoke 1x9 which turned out to be faster and more comfortable on the 20 mile ride than I expected.

Flip Ultra

While reading through the Eco-Friendly Bicycling Photographer blog I came upon the author's review of the Flip Ultra camcorder. This thing is super simple and takes 60 minutes of video. I ordered one ($124.99 at Newegg) and went about figuring out the best way to mount it to my Wald basket. Flip sells their "Action Mount", but that would be too easy, besides the helmet mount looks kind of silly.

I bought two electrical covers, about $1.50 each from Home Depot and screwed them together on the outside front of the basket. They came with thin foam pads which turned out to pretty useful. I cut a 8mm video case in half and taped it up with electrical tape for a little extra strength and support. The case holds the camcorder. I taped Velcro to the case and the cover plates and then attached the case to the cover plate. I wrapped a Velcro strap around the case for extra security and placed a piece of foam at the bottom of the case for a little shock resistance.

This setup didn't work so well. The vibration and camera shake was terrible, so I removed and reversed the elecrical cover so that the Velcro was on the inside of the basket. Yes, I placed a couple of straws inside the case to support the sides of the camera and provide some cushion, it looks cheesy but it works.

Here's a very short test video. There's still a fair amount of camera shake and wind noise but it looks much better that my first attempt.



I'm going to try to have this perfected before the Cowtown Classic this weekend. If anybody's got any ideas as far as mounting or vibration dampening I'd like to hear them.