Finding my video groove
 

As the title says, I've been experimenting this week with different video mounts to record some trails I ride. I've done some diving videography using the gopro system but the only bike related stuff has been with on the road with a hand held monopod. Not really mtb friendly.

At first I tried my cell phone, using a HB mount rotated forward. It is in the video below.

First run I left a cable in front of the lens and recorded 10 minutes of a black line across the screen.
Second run I had the cam rotated too high and got some excellent video of the sky.
Third run I got a good view forward but not really descriptive of the trail and the view firehosed with each turn of the fork.

Next I tried my Olympus TG4 P&S camera in the same mount. It shoots 1080 but could not process the scene well enough and looked sketchy.

Then I tried my gopro 3 in the mount. It bounced way too much and risked inducing seizures in the viewer.

So.. I defaulted to helmet mounting the GP as I have the strap. As expected that gives a distorted birdseye view of the trail that makes it look slow and odd.

Finally, I bit the bullet and ordered a chest mount from Amazon. A "Stuntman" MUSA brand that was delightfully delivered in less than two days! I don't know if it was me or them who mixed it up but the chesty came with a gimble mount that I don't have but.. maybe one day I will. In the mean time I was able to work around that error by backing off the mounting bolt and attached a camera tripod/gopro clip I had lying around.

First run with that had the cam pointing too far downward; great video of my feet pedalling.

When standing upright the mount was fine enough, but when flexed forward on the bike it could not rotate up enough to shoot forward. More DIYing had me add a mount to the back of the gopro housing and adding an extra extension arm so I could get the forward angle needed.

Next run gave me the view I want. Whew!

Here's a pic of the setup that shows the new mount location and cam angle. One can see how, in its old mounting location on the housing, there was not enough room against the chesty to angle the housing upward. The tape is just for extra security while experimenting.

http://i.imgur.com/JFPbik5l.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gq75KaIl.jpg

And my first video which is a repeat of the weekday after work up and down cardio run I recently posted in the fatbike section.

Last weekend I avoided the rain by heading inland for a day trip to Merritt, a small town surrounded by several off road/mtb areas. In all I visited the Coutlee Recreational area, Iron Mountain and Swakum Mountain. The southern slopes were dry but north facing and higher areas still had pockets of snow and wet.

Still.. some riding was better than rain.

OMFG. Until today I had no idea I could rotate files in moviemaker.
I guess I'll experiment with that too to see how it turns (pun intended) out.
Thanks!

time for some wider handlebars ;)

Just added some 800mm wide bars from Spank. They are in the last video.

Another day, another ride.