Disclaimer(?) – not sure that’s the “best” word but in the modern social world I guess you have to announce all this right??
We do not sell GoPro bits or accessories. None of the pictured or utilized bits were provided in exchange for content or whatever. I bought them. Cause, it’s easier to buy stuff than to try to “bro” things all the time or EVER schmooze to a social media product manager, aka “influencer wrangler”. OK, off my soap box and onto something we think is fun.
Also – we make no claims that any of these bits are used as described and in fact some of our usages may void warranties with usage outside design expectations.
BikeCo is working to create a variety of additional video content this year. From mechanical advice to riding tips and tricks we’re gathering and editing a variety of media and as always working to produce it in new and interesting ways to our clients.
We don’t sell action cameras or accessories, but a TON of our clients use them and we thought we’d occasionally post ideas we’re working with to get something different in pixel form.
The footage and stills in the post, with the exception of the image OF the bits, was shot with the above bits. Chesty mount, modified mount attached to Roll Cage clamp, Roll Cage clamp was mounted around the gimble handle using a Hero 10 with the Max lens.
I wanted to try to find a way to better show how steep some of the trails we ride are. You know what I mean, like when you watch POV of UCI DH tracks and it looks like a park path until you see the trees or people at these extreme angles on the side and think, hmmm, they’re standing straight up and down!
Anyhow – this is kind of a BikeCo “UnBoxing” video, except I think its idiotic to show you a video of me opening a box…
But I bought a gimble to test, put it on the charger and then went straight to the trails. Didn’t sync it to the app. Didn’t sync it to the GoPro either. Figured I could do that later and I would lose light otherwise.
Here’s a quick edit we posted to social, a Tips in 60 look at it:
Like I mentioned in the teaser above I’m not shooting video to really impress anyone with my riding skills. It’s super hard when there’s so much content out there of people absolutely shredding right? Also, you tend to get the two factions when you send it to friends and family who don’t ride: those who are impressed you can even balance a bike and are amazed and those who kind of “hmm, oh kay” the stuff right?
I had the gimble in a “vertical” position, camera on top for this video. I tried it this way as I wasn’t 100% comfortable that the roll cage mount would hold it and figured if it was in the vertical position the camera and gimble head would hit the mount if it came loose giving me a second to deal with it.
I think I’ll try it with the gimble “inverted” with the camera lower to see if I can get a better balance point. I’ll probably use the 1/4×20 threaded bung at the bottom to mount a retention strap in case the thing slips out. If I get a dialed in rig setup I’ll post some pics down the line.
We capture video for a range of content we use to highlight product or tips and tricks. For my personal use I like to pull stills from the footage, which the new GoPro is amazing for btw.
Below are a couple images pulled from the ride with the gimble as well as a shot from the standard Chesty setup.
The gimble kind of holds a position, and then sort of swung back into the expected axis. This provided some fun shots that highlighted the front wheel and suspension.
So your chesty mount typically won’t have such an exaggerated angle, btw you should be turning your bike more than your body but trust me, I wasn’t leaning the bike THAT much more than my body here!
Screen grab from a ride prior to the gimble. Also, this image has the standard GoPro Hero 10 lens, the video and images above are using the Max lens which has some interesting advantages. More on that some other time perhaps.
So – overall what are my thoughts?
Well initially while riding I was a bit concerned with how the results would come out. The rig was bouncing around a decent amount (oh man, some footage of my climbing while the gimble is bouncing off my gut will make you seasick in about two seconds) but at least in the downhill the software was able to stabilize the footage pretty well.
A couple times the gimble seemed confused and rolled around, you can see it at the end of the video teaser. It was kind of a bummer / frustrating on trail. But, the reality is this setup was in its first test configuration and I had made ZERO attempt to fully setup the gimble interface as instructed.
Reviewing the footage and pulling some images I was overall pretty happy. I plan to invest some time and get the setup more dialed in: both the digital app setup as well as how I mount the gimble in the first place.
Hope you enjoyed this quick look at a gimble on a chesty mount and maybe it motivated you to try some different ideas to generate content.