In recent times one of the best ‘toys’ around has been theGoPro Hero and Hero 2 cameras. If you’re into motor racing or any TV show that does in car reviews you would’ve seen footage from one of these cameras and possibly the camera itself (a little grey box mounted to the windscreen). These little cameras have offered high resolution images and video at a consumer price, meaning everyone can start recording their favourite rides.
On the last Long Ride I had one that recorded the entire journey and gave me some great photos of the special occasion. The camera worked flawlessly for the entire 4,000 kilometre ride, in either blazing sun or icy alpine conditions.
Since then it had been used for the occasional ride but only did a few hundred kilometres, the whole time using the rollbar mounting kit to attach it to my bikes handlebars and indicator mounts. It seemed to be perfect.
Recently I was riding, trying to get some images and footages to promote the next Long Ride, everything was going well as we rode around the Blackwood State Forest in Victoria until we pulled up in Trentham to refuel. To my horror I was told that something had flown off my bike about 30 kilometres back, at first it was thought to be road debris, it was in fact my GoPro.
There was no way I was ever going to find the camera and what was left of the mounting bracket, and even if I did, what sort of condition would it be in? At 100kph I doubt that the case would’ve survived let along the camera.
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The broken mount with the clamp still attached to the indicator
bracket.
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What really pissed me off was that the camera had been mounted to the left rear indicator mount exactly as the instructions suggest and yet the plastic mount for the camera had sheared straight through. One part of the sheared mount looked like it had cracked while the other looked like it had been flawed right from the start; the break point was clean and straight.
What amazed me was that this camera and especially the mount had been promoted as being for motorsport, hence it being a rollbar mount. Granted my bike is a V-twin and there’s some obvious vibration but nothing like what you would get in a racecar that this mount is marketed to, and yet it still seems that the vibration (and perhaps the harmonics caused by such vibration) was able to shear straight through the plastic mount. This would be bloody dangerous if mounted in a racecar and the same thing happened, this new loose projectile could be deadly.
Despite the fact that I suddenly found myself close to $450 down the crapper (camera plus memory card), what gave me a fair dose of the poos was that it seems the GoPro warranty doesn’t cover such a breakage and loss ... what bullshit, it was a clear fault in the mount that caused the problem, especially as I had mounted according to the instructions.
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Clearly if the mount can't handle a sluggish old cruiser, it
won't handle a motorsport application ... be careful.
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To GoPro’s credit they did offer a replacement camera at half price (better than nothing I guess) as well as a new mounting kit of my choice. This meant I got a camera with the motorsport mount plus the handlebar / seat post mount, and on top of the rollbar mount clamp that is still attached to my bike but the lesson learnt is: don’t trust the mounts that come with the camera. The camera might be great but the mounts are shite, obviously not very strong.
My suggestion is to attached some sort of cord to the camera case so that the camera can be tethered to the thing you are mounting it to. This way if the mount does break the camera still has some chance of surviving and not flying off into the wilderness. I was also regularily check the mount and the condition of it.
Anyway, out of pocket and slightly pissed off, the new camera will be put to good use and hopefully survive at least the next Long Ride.
