Introduction
Using action cameras to capture the essence and experience of extreme sports has become a huge trend within the last few years. It can put you right into the heart of the action and experience the same feelings that the person doing it may feel. These feelings are particularly felt when you watch videos of riders thrashing their motorbikes around roads and racetracks showcasing their riding skills as well as enhancing the sensation of speed at every given opportunity. However, in order to get the best footage from your camera, there are a few needs that you really need to consider before you start filming. After all, you will get different results as to where and how the camera is fixed to your motorcycle as well as looking for the reason you are filming your journey. With that in mind, we are going to look at the reasons on why and how you should ideally locate your action camera on your motorcycle.
Why Should I Use Action Cameras?
1.Safety & Insurance
Believe it or not, there are more basic reasons for using a camera other than for pure thrill-seeking. In fact, using an action camera to film a journey is a good piece of evidence should you run into any trouble or issues. Just like how drivers have dashcams in their vehicles, riders having an action camera on them can record an incident as it happens to showcase who might be at fault or any other circumstances that might need investigating. Not only can this be helpful when pursuing insurance claims or other legal matters, but it can also act as a lesson of what not to do if riding in difficult conditions such as rain or fog where braking times are longer and visibility is reduced to a few hundred meters.
2. Reviewing Performances
If you are using your camera to record footage of a lap or a timed run, recording your footage is a great way to analyse the good and bad parts of your lap. By reviewing the video, it is quite easy to see where you were fast and where you were slow. You can also use this to track the lines you took into a corner and put all the information together to work out where you can improve for your next lap. This is a skill that not only improves your riding but will also help you create a great video to upload onto social media sites once you have completed the run for your day.
Where is the Best Place to Put a Camera?
1.Placing on Helmet
Realistically, the best place to put a camera is not on the motorbike itself but rather on the rider’s helmet. The helmet is a useful place for several reasons as it can allow for cameras to be placed in multiple positions, gets a greater area of coverage and offers an excellent POV experience for the viewer. But how to select the best action camera for motorcycle helmet may not be easy.
2. Side Mount vs Top Mount vs Bottom Mount
A lot of people opt to put the camera on the side of the helmet as this reflects what the rider is seeing at eye-level themselves. Not only does this allow you to immerse yourself into what the rider is viewing but it decreases the chance of increasing unnecessary drag and helps avoid any vibrations caused by the movement of the motorcycle itself.
Placing the camera on the top mount will give a better view of the road ahead and allow the camera to capture more the area around you. However, top-mounted cameras can increase the amount of drag generated whilst moving and may force the rider to adjust their position to counteract these effects.
A bottom-mounted camera can capture the sensations of riding a bike immaculately well however the placing on the bottom of the helmet can become irritating and uncomfortable to wear over a long duration making it unsuitable for long rides or filming sessions.
3. On the Motorcycle
It has been increasingly common to see cameras mounted on different parts of the machine to enhance the sensations that a rider might feel when riding at high speed.
Some people opt to place it near the rear of the seat as it captures some great sounds from the engine as well as showcasing how far it can be leaned into corners before become upright again on a straight. Some riders also like to place it on the inside of the fenders to show off how they have calibrated the ride height and absorbers when riding off-road and how it handles different surfaces such as mud and gravel.
It can also be a good idea to place a camera on the inside of the dash screen as it gives a panoramic view of the road ahead and is not prone to severe vibrations like the handlebars tend to be.
What to Look for in a Good Action Camera?
1. Picture Quality
Of course, there are several important factors to focus on when choosing the right action camera for your needs. The most obvious aspect to focus on is picture quality to ensure that the video is easy to watch and showcases everything you wanted to capture. Most good action cameras can also now shoot video in 4k with a good frame rate (above 60fps) making it easy to pick up all the sights and sounds of the track.
2. Battery Life
Another idea to focus on is battery life as this can dictate the types of video you will be able to shoot on your camera. Many of the best action cameras need to be durable for several hours as it will allow you to shoot lots of footage in one go and reduce the need to come back another time to finish what you have started. Therefore, you need to look for a camera that can last around 2-3 hours in one go allowing you to capture everything you want. It is also a good idea to take some spare batteries along for the ride as not all locations may have charging points available especially if you are planning to spend all day filming or heading to a remote location.
3.Usability
It is also worthwhile finding something that is simple to use and meets all your needs. This can be something simple such as having easy buttons to stop and start recording or flicking between the menus to adjust settings. It is also worth exploring to see how the camera itself may connect with other accessories whether it can interact with phone apps to help capture and edit footage or investigating which sort of mounts it can or cannot attach too. Where possible, these apps should be easy to download for most major platforms such as iOS and Android devices in order to make it accessible.
How to Install a Camera to Your Motorcycle?
1. Using Self-Adhesive Mounts
Regardless of where you are placing your camera, you will first need to get a mount for the camera to attach to. Surface mounts are important as they not only stop the camera from flying off whilst moving but they also act as a key method of stabilizing the device and allowing for good footage. Most people opt to use mounts that will have a sucker cup or a sticky adhesive fixing itself to the body or helmet. Adhesive joinings are useful as they are easy to attach regardless of the surface or area they are being placed. If it is a self-adhesive, it’ll be a case of removing the cover and sticking it onto the surface before attaching the camera into the mount’s clips or holdings. Sucker cups may need to be moistened slightly to improve the grip levels so always be careful when removing them to ensure no bodywork is damaged when you take it off.
2. Using Screw Clamp Mounts
If you are looking to record the rider instead of the surroundings, you can also use a mount that can screw and clamp itself into place. These mounts will have a screw clamp which can be manually tightened to a surface ensuring that it remains in a fixed location. These clamps are found at the top and bottom of the mount and can be turned like a vice until they are secure on the adjoining surface on both ends. After this, clip the camera into the mount and check that it is stable before setting off These mounts can offer greater stability than adhesive bases although it may limit where you can place the camera as it will need a large surface area to be fixed too. These are best used for videos based around cruising or other less strenuous actions and can be attached to either the handlebars or front of the machine.
Conclusion
Overall, there are many reasons why people are now using actions camera when out on their motorbikes. They are a great tool for monitoring your overall performance and can also be a handy tool to have should you be in an accident.
Alongside that, action cameras can be placed in a host of different locations whether it is on the riders’ helmet or several places on the motorcycle including the front screen and behind the seat. It is also worth ensuring that you pick the right camera for your own needs and ensure that it has good quality and it is easy to use.
Once all these choices are made, it is simply a case of attaching it to the mount and press place to shoot your video. When that is all done, you can be sure that you have picked the right action camera for all your biking needs.
