Allie's home made camera mount

[Allie]

Right now I'm eying the other training wheel to make a more rearward mount to get the gages in the picture. I just need to get ahold of someone with torches and the arms of a Thunder God (or at least the hammer ) to bend it. It may take some 'fancy bending' to make it as safe as possible - I definitely don't want my lower intestine challenging it to a duel in the event of an a collision .

[Skateguy50]

Just saw this now, been thinking of ways to mount the gps, but this would work great for the camera. I got one of them cheap tripods and a cheap camera that shoots video. My daughter should be done with her training wheels soon... couple more weeks maybe Only problem is they are pink... Ill see what else I got around.

[Skateguy50]

Right now I'm eying the other training wheel to make a more rearward mount to get the gages in the picture. I just need to get ahold of someone with torches and the arms of a Thunder God (or at least the hammer ) to bend it. It may take some 'fancy bending' to make it as safe as possible - I definitely don't want my lower intestine challenging it to a duel in the event of an a collision .

That is a good point when it comes to mounting solid objects up on the bars. Could use a breakaway system like they do on street signs, basically create the weak point where it mounts to the bike, or at the least make it so it will bend over the direction you would be hitting it.

[Allie]

Just saw this now, been thinking of ways to mount the gps, but this would work great for the camera. I got one of them cheap tripods and a cheap camera that shoots video. My daughter should be done with her training wheels soon... couple more weeks maybe Only problem is they are pink... Ill see what else I got around.

LoL what's the matter with pink? Trade ya!

[emjay]

LoL what's the matter with pink?

Pink's the new black.

[shirazdrum]

I tried anything and everything. I made more camera mounts and GPS mounts that i could care for but at the end i went with Ram ball mounts for both. The Ram mounts are absolutely solid easy to adjust to virtually any angle, and better yet, the balls are rubber and dampen the vibration really well. Of course i have a screen in front which helps with the wind noise and movement. It also helps keeping bugs out of my expensive camera lens. $40 for two mounts that will last my lifetime is a good investment in my book.

[Allie]

Woo that's quite a cockpit you have there! I plan to get a Maeir fairing, tho the smoked screen may not be ideal. I like it's look and low profile (and cost) and I think it will do for now. It may help my camera some.

I'm still sold on the RAM mounts overall. Movement seems problematic for some setups, though on all counts it seems there's no vibration. Vibration seems like it would be the killer, both for the image and the equipment. I'd take a little movement over vibration any day. I wonder though on setups where movement is especially present, would perhaps some kind of tie down at the end of the arm help by providing a little tension? The thing I love most about the RAM is its modular nature and adjustability. On the rearward angled setup I have in mind to get the gages in the picture I also think it would be safer than anything I can cook up on my own.

[Steve]

I plan to get a Maeir fairing, tho the smoked screen may not be ideal.

Don't worry too much about the tinted windshield. At least, not as long as it's not the dark limo tint.

I have a tinted shield on my Wing that is VERY tall, I have no choice but to look through it at all times.
I do a fair bit of night riding, too, there is no problem with the lighter tint.

.

[posplayr]

Allie,
I just saw this link Great work, and the video turned out as good if not better than most video's I have seen.

There are a couple of explanations for why this setup seems to work so well. The obvious issue is vibration from the motorcycle or the road. Ideally the camera lens would float above the bike and not be exposed to vibration coming up through the mount.

The classic solution is almost identical to the solution for handlebar buzz which is to increase the weight of the thing you don't want to vibrate. I'm pretty sure if I remember correctly the amount of deflection goes down to the square root of weight. So the obvious benefit you have is that camera is rather large. I see it is 7 Oz. I have a small Canon SD630 which is 5 oz so it is still rather light so you might benefit from adding some additional weight to the bottom of the mount.

In reality the actual magnitiude of vibration is related to the ratio of weight to spring stiffness. In this case the stiffness is related to the rubber damper. But putting the weight out at the end of a leaver arm decreases the effective stiffness and allows camera to have more freedom from the bike motion. This provides better isolation. It as if you had handlebars that were twice as long, there would be less vibration transmitted to your hands because the bikes vibration is trying to push your hand with a more flexible structure you feel it less at your hands.

With the addition of the placement of the big piece of rubber at the handlebar mount and the camera and ballast weight are then operating through a much larger moment arm and than if the compliance is right at the camera. So in theory the longer that arm the better.

I had thought about making the arm flex as well but that since there is no way to dampen the flexing bar, there is no reason to find something more flexible than that training wheel mount arm.
I took these few concepts and did a quick power point drawing if anyone is interested. I might do something like this as you have shown I don't need a expensive GoPro and mounting system to get good video.

The concept is to move out as far on the handle bar as you can go. This has one level of isolation from the motorcycle vibration. Then extend the mount back toward the center using the stiff rubber mount off at the spare clutch perch. The wights are optional but should serve to improve vibration as per the previously mentioned formula.

Jim

[Planecrazy]

Well thought out, Jim!

Greg (Nerobro) and I created a "last minute" camera mount for my Vetter fairing (that hung off the right side using the "lowers" mounting screws) the night before we did a track lap at the Indy Moto GP two years ago. Despite rubber dampening in various places it suffered from vibration at higher RPM's, and I now realize from your excellent description that the combination of a short bracket, along with low mass on the camera end contributed to the vibration problems (along with the camera having mistakenly been set to low res instead of high res - I'm still kickin myself for that one!). We also made a mount for his bike, which yielded similar results for the same reasons, although in his case the camera was set to record video "properly" ... it was just a lower resolution camera than mine.

If I ever use the mount again I'll remember to add weight to the bottom in order to improve the results.

Regards,

[posplayr]

Well thought out, Jim!

Greg (Nerobro) and I created a "last minute" camera mount for my Vetter fairing (that hung off the right side using the "lowers" mounting screws) the night before we did a track lap at the Indy Moto GP two years ago. Despite rubber dampening in various places it suffered from vibration at higher RPM's, and I now realize from your excellent description that the combination of a short bracket, along with low mass on the camera end contributed to the vibration problems (along with the camera having mistakenly been set to low res instead of high res - I'm still kickin myself for that one!). We also made a mount for his bike, which yielded similar results for the same reasons, although in his case the camera was set to record video "properly" ... it was just a lower resolution camera than mine.

If I ever use the mount again I'll remember to add weight to the bottom in order to improve the results.

Regards,

I just went and did a little trial fit thought experiment and it is important to get a diagonal arm (45 deg across the bike as shown in the pics) as well (like a camera mounted above the clocks from a mirror mount off the centerline and below the camera).

For example if you mount right off of the triple clamp then the any up and down motion will be transmitted right up through the arm. If the arm is perpendicular to that motion it allows the rubber to flex and the arm moves with respect to the bike but the inertial is actually keep it inertially stable (at least with respect to the nominal bike C.G. motion).

It is the offset that allows the weight operating at the end of the arm to deflect when the up and down motion occurs. With a completely horizontal arm you will not dampen and side to side motion either so 45 degrees to striaght vertical is best. There is not that much fore aft vibration to worry about. If there was you would need another degree of freedome and to a certain extent the handle bar gives that as well as additional vertical isolation.

[posplayr]

OK putting my mulla where my mouth is , I order a bunch of really expensive parts from Hong Kong so might take a couple of weeks but should have a pretty nice setup for a camera mount.

I splurged on the travel camera tripod for $0.99 BIN and $0.50 shipping. The cheap ones were $.99 BIN and free shipping.

This design will be a modification of the picture I posted before.

[Charlie G]

<a href="http://s911.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_0056.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/a...o/IMG_0056.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Here is the mount I made last weekend to try out on a ride on some new roads. It was mounted to the triple tee as you discribed. There was alot of vibration at high rev and a really poor set up. Will try the handle bar at a diagonal mount system next.


Charlie G


P.S. I'm alittle new at this photobucket thing, hope it works.

[Planecrazy]

<a href="http://s911.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_0056.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/a...o/IMG_0056.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Here is the mount I made last weekend to try out on a ride on some new roads. It was mounted to the triple tee as you discribed. There was alot of vibration at high rev and a really poor set up. Will try the handle bar at a diagonal mount system next.


Charlie G


P.S. I'm alittle new at this photobucket thing, hope it works.

Here ya go, Charlie...


There's a little yellow icon above the text box with a mountain range in it... This is the button you click to add a picture. A box will pop up, and you can paste in the address from your photobucket picture to get it to display directly here... By the way, I think you have a screw loose ... Thank goodness for the jar behind the camera mount!

Regards,

[Charlie G]

Here ya go, Charlie...


There's a little yellow icon above the text box with a mountain range in it... This is the button you click to add a picture. A box will pop up, and you can paste in the address from your photobucket picture to get it to display directly here... By the way, I think you have a screw loose ... Thank goodness for the jar behind the camera mount!

Regards,

It's hard to hide the plain facts. I think I need a larger container for loose hardware. I thought someone might notice. Full of candy.


cg