All new bikes come with reflectors in the spokes of the wheel, on the handlebar and on the seatpost. Most people take off the reflectors and toss them thinking that they’ll never use this functional piece of plastic again but I think there is a lot of life yet to be extracted from the these safety parts.
Previously, I have found that the reflector holder can be easily converted into a cheap inside chain guide. I’ve used the plastic holder as an inside chain guide for the past 9 months and it has done an excellent job of keeping my chain on the front ring. In fact, over that period of time, I’ve only thrown the chain twice!
Sorry, I didn’t think to bring a 2nd camera to take a picture of the 1st camera mounted on the holder. Doh!
Another use for the useful reflector holder is as a handlebar camera mount. I found one reflector holder in my parts bin and attached it to the handlebar via the screw it came with. Then I found a 1/4†threaded screw and I forcefully threaded this screw into the front of the reflector holder. The reflector holder normally has two holes, but neither hole is meant for a 1/4″ screw. No worries though, it’s just plastic.
Mount the camera on and now you’re ready for video. A couple of quick lessons learned:
– mount as close to the middle of the handlebar as possible especially when using oversized bars. In the picture above I realized that the horizon was not going to be level after I installed the camera while on trail… without the proper tools to move it over to the middle.
– make sure to screw things down firmly. You don’t want to lose your camera when going down the rough stuff
– which takes me to my last lesson: this works better when you’re going slower, especially if the going is rough. When you’re going too fast the camera just tends to rattle around too much.
Cool idea Jeremy. I actaully made one of these before. I had an extra GPS handlebar mount and I took off one the screw (from the shoe) of a tripod. It worked great however the compact camera I used was too heavy where the mount eventually broke.
Moe had a “stem cam” that we used for a bit. The only problem with it was the amount of jarring movement.
Pretty damn handy, Jeremy — I’ve got a sack full of those mounts — I’ll have to try this trick!
Moe turned me onto the “stem cam” mount…the Pedco Ultraclamp, and it eliminated that “cocking” effect of mounting the camera directly to the handlebar. Because it has a ball pivot, I can level the camera to get a nice clear shot.
As for jarring, I’m not sure there’s anything out there that can isolate the camera from road or offroad vibrations, short of a “steadycam” setup.
Helmet cams are the best things to get rid of the bouncing.