GO PRO TETHERS

[Lenny ZX9R]

lenny, in your experience, where are guys attaching the tethers, on the camera? Without either penetrating the case or wrapping around it, not sure how that would improve on my setup. The break in the case was the only spot that could be wired without a penetration, a wrap, or maybe some additional bracket. The tether on the bike side, at least in my case, would be to the bolts that hold the mount in place.


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In each case it almost always different depending where the camera is mounted, but in your case I would just wrap some wire around and through the case, as many folks have the case in the picture above. Yours in MY opinion would be one of the best possible ways to mount the camera though! We have seen many setups, so as long as the camera is secured and tethered its good to go!
Could you possibly get a picture up of your set-up? It would help alot of folks with their set-ups!

 

[dbarufaldi]

May have to shovel out to the garage but will send a pic when possible!

 

[physicistkev]

I have been running some type of camera for years now. I have never had one come off when mounted correctly. That being said, mine have always been safety wired. I use a locking clip on the end to attach it to a bolt and the other end is safety wired to the camera. If you want to mount it on the nose, like I do, just drill a small hole and put a bolt with a nut on the other side of the bodywork. The bolt is just there to pin the safety wire to. I am function over form, so if you want it pretty, then you are going to limit yourself on placement and ease of use.

As someone stated earlier, regarding ditching the camera and riding, make it easy or you will not do it or find it not worth your time.

 

[Brian16]

So the tethers that they sell on Amazon won't pass?

 

[Otto Man]

So the tethers that they sell on Amazon won't pass?

Looking at the kit, it's an iffy call. A tether is only as good as the mount it's attached to. And if the tether mount is an adhesive mount, what the hell good is the tether if the go pro itself is also mounted with the adhesive mount? It's also $14. Not terribly expensive, I'll give you that. Or you could put that $14 towards some safety wire pliers and a spool of safety wire, and secure your Go Pro about 100x more secure than that would be. Not to mention you'll get infinite more use out of it because you can safety wire the rest of your bike...

I think a BIG point a lot of people might be missing is that we know the adhesive mounts that come with the go pros are incredibly strong. No denying that. And you're right, the possibility of them failing is pretty small if installed correctly. But what about in a wreck? What happens when your body, your bike, or the ground hits the camera and breaks the clip that holds the camera to the mount? What's going to stop the camera from flying 100' or more? Nothing.

If you're involved into track days whatsoever (I'd say anybody that's done more than 3 TD's qualifies), then a spool of safety wire and safety wire pliers should be a required item as part of your packing gear. It's incredibly cheap insurance for keeping your bikes' bolts where they should be, and your $400+ GoPro secured. Even if you don't have the equipment, I would hit up any of the N2 staff, as I would bet that any of them would have the tools to get your GoPro fixed up and secured properly. I would gladly give up 10 minutes of my time and show you how to properly secure your GoPro than risk the possibility of another flying GoPro on track.

 

[Slow Steve]

I've never had the sticky mount fail. What always seems to fail are the articulating arms. Either a bolt backs out our they snap, usually under hard braking. I caught one once and had to throw it like a grenade into the infield (about 4 years ago before all the safety wire hoopla).

 

[motorkas]

I've never had the sticky mount fail. What always seems to fail are the articulating arms. Either a bolt backs out our they snap, usually under hard braking. I caught one once and had to throw it like a grenade into the infield (about 4 years ago before all the safety wire hoopla).

That's exactly what happened to mine - failed at the arm, not the adhesive mount. . .broke clean off and that was with it mounted on the tank behind the windscreen and positioned so it never came in contact with any part of my body.

 

[Dave561]

I tried to salvage two mounts from a crashed set of bodywork. One mount took the paint off and was unusable, the other took a chunk of bodywork, also unusable. When I get a chance I'll take a pic of the safety wire I used for mine. Even on a high end bike, the mount is going to be permanent so two 1/16 inch holes is going to do no more damage then the adhesive

 

[physicistkev]

Here is my mount setup. I have more pictures and a better explanation here in a better format.

You will need to use the base, 2 fins on the bottom of the case, as the safety wire attachment point without drilling. This mounts to, what I believe, is the strongest part of the GoPro case. When using this point for safety wire, you require 1 of 2 things to happen, for the strap to fail. One, the bolt has to back out. This is unlikely since there is a safety pin holding it. Two, the 2 fins molded on the bottom of the case have to come clean off. While I have seen this happen, its because the bike has rolled over the camera during a crash. While I believe that containment of parts during a crash is desirable, most trackday orgs don't require you to wire every part that could conceivably come off during a crash, so I think the effort we are going through on this is reasonable. Also, I don't believe that safety wire would hold the camera on the bike in a crash regardless of mount point. I believe that this setup should pass tech, but I have been wrong before. I would request that people chime in.

 

[Otto Man]

^ I'd pass that at tech! Nicely done.

 

[rhill]

If you use the open case with go pro, not the sealed water proof one, I wrap two zip ties through that opening. Then I safety wire to the two zip ties. I'm sure one zip tie would be fine, but I am a belt and suspenders kind of guy.

That's a great simple way to do it, and I really prefer the sound with the open case back!

Alternative solution: loop a piece of safety wire around the pin at the bottom of the cover and a sharpie marker....twist the wire to lock the loop, pull out the sharpie and snip the excess. As the cover is installed the loop will have to be formed to fit opening and closing, but it will sit right in the middle of the camera. From there I use a zip tie or two to secure it to the bike . It holds up very well, broken a few mounts in offs, but never the "Safety wire". Put one on each cover and you can swap between them for dry/wet conditions.