The Ride Report

As promised in an earlier entry, I finally got around to taking pictures of my camera mount. Inspired by this how-to on making a smaller camera mount here, I made a heavier duty one for my Sony TRV22 video camera.

I used a T section of PVC pipe cut in half and mounted on my crash bar with hose clamps. I threaded a PVC plug into the T-extension, drilled a hole in it, ran a screw through it, and bolted it to a heavy piece of angle iron for the camera to mount on. Then I spray painted it all black — because black is faster. So here ’tis, my roughly $15 motorcycle camera mount. (And, yes, I know the bike is dirty. I ride it, not wash it.)

Here’s the side view:

An angle from the front:

…and from the rear:

The camera from the side. I couldn’t get the handstrap off the camera without cutting it, so I left it on and rigged it up as a safety line. The velcro strap wrapping around the camera vertically is also a safety because redundancy is your friend. Also, redundancy is your friend.

…and a 3/4 view of the camera mounted. The microphone windsock professionally installed with consumer-grade Scotch tape is the ear covering from a set of United Airlines headphones. I knew hanging onto those things would come in handy some day. Also, that’s a wide-angle lens on the camera. $40 at Best Buy.

One thing I really like about this rig is that I can look down through the fairing and make sure the camera is on and recording (or find out that I left it off or forgot to hit “record”)

…and finally, a couple of wide shots so you can see exactly where it sits on the bike.

I have a remote control for the camera, but it’s actually easier not to use it. I put the camera in “camera” mode when I put it on, then lean over and hit the “record” button when I’m ready to start taping. It’s a bit of a reach to get to the button so I only do it when I’m stopped, but that’s what editing is for.

Here’s some video I shot using the mount. It’s rock-solid: