My On-Bike Camera Setup

by Stacy on January 29, 2009

I’ve been shooting a fair amount of video while on the bike lately, and I wanted to share my camera setup for those who may be curious about it.

The digital video camera is a Flip Mino HD. The Mino is made by the same folks who created the Flip Ultra, the cam that started the mini-cam-straight-to-YouTube craze.

Here’s the Mino:

flip mino

And a little closer:

flip mino 2

If you’re trying to decide between a Mino and a Mino HD, I say don’t bother with the non-HD version. YouTube now supports HD video uploads and disk space is cheap these days. It’s not worth saving the $50 off MSRP, and good deals can be found on the Mino HD if you look hard enough.

I like the Mino HD because its video quality is quite good despite being cheap as far as digital video cameras go. It handles motion well instead of capturing a choppy mess. The camera is tiny, which is one of the easiest ways to reduce shake from vibration — the alternative is buying an expensive vibration-dampening mount. The Mino HD is also dead-simple to use, and the power and record buttons can be pushed even with gloves on. There are other buttons, but those require an ungloved hand before they’ll register being pressed. I’ve never needed to adjust the mic volume while riding so I’m not too worried!

Once you have the camera squared away, the next step is mounting it on the bike. If you do purchase a Mino HD, don’t be tempted to buy the “action mount” accessory. It’s worthless as a handlebar mount, and the only thing good that came from it is the knurled threaded knob that tightens against the camera base. Instead, I built my own handlebar mount:

handlebar camera mount

I’d love to say I created this mount design myself, but in reality, I followed these instructions: HOWTO: Cheap Camera Handlebar Mount. While it cost me a little more than the claimed $5, I was able to find all the necessary parts at Home Depot, with the exception of the aforementioned threaded knob.

That’s basically it. I’ve been using Windows Movie Maker to edit the resulting video, but I’m not too impressed with it and am considering using iMovie instead. We’ll have to fight over the macbook to see who gets to use it. Wish me luck!

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 tedder January 29, 2009 at 10:54 am

I have to recommend using the RAM system- it’s nice to go between bicycles, cars, motorbikes, you name it.

For instance:
http://www.gpscity.com/camera-mount/camcorders/medium

2 irondad January 29, 2009 at 11:44 am

How hard is it to get “stills” from the video? I suppose there’s software for everything. I’ve spent so much time concentrating on riding I’m a little behind on some of the other stuff.

3 Stacy January 29, 2009 at 9:39 pm

@tedder: Those RAM mounts look nice, but I’m not sure I’m ready to take the plunge just yet. Once I add another something to the bike (GMRS, perhaps) I’ll definitely need a better solution than an $8 mount made of PVC pipe.

@irondad: Not too hard. The camera comes with some software pre-installed, which you can use to grab still frames. Alternatively, you could also do it with Windows Movie Maker and iMovie, or any decent video editing software.

4 monkeyboy February 24, 2010 at 8:43 pm

Where did you buy the threaded knob? It looks nicer than the one in the tutorial you linked to.

How good is the vibration dampening on the mount? I plan on making one for my mountain bike.

5 Stacy February 24, 2010 at 9:18 pm

@monkeyboy: The knob came from a Flip Action Mount accessory. (http://www.amazon.com/Flip-Action-Mount-Ultra-Camcorders/dp/B000VJTKRY) The action mount is pretty useless I’m afraid, and the only good thing that came of it was the knob.

The vibration isn’t too bad, but it’s not as effective as a true vibration-dampening mount. I found the quality of video taken while on my motorcycle rides to be pretty good, but I’m not sure what the result would be from a mountain bike. It surely couldn’t be any worse than a helmet mount.

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