GoPro HERO actioncams are proving to be pretty popular with mountain bikers, although not everyone wants to wear one of the cameras on their helmet or chest. Riders can always mount it on their handlebars, although now Paul Components is offering an alternative – a GoPro mount that replaces the handlebar stem cap.
First of all, why wouldn’t you want to mount your camera on your handlebars? For one thing, you might already have things like a light, a bell or a computer taking up space on there. Additionally, be it ever-so-slightly, the camera has to be mounted a little off-center to allow for the stem clamp. Finally, it’s always nice to be able to get the bars in the bottom of the shot – it helps gives viewers a sense of perspective, putting them “in the action” more.
The 24-gram mount is made from solid 6061 aluminum (anodized black or silver), and replaces the top cap of a 1 1/8-inch threadless stem. It works with all three generations of HERO cameras, which can be tilted up or down as they’re being tightened into place on the mount.
Should you like the idea of putting the stem cap to use, but you’re not into videography, Paul also makes a stem cap light mount (see above) ... you can also always replace your stem cap with a clock.
Paul Components’ stem cap GoPro mount is priced at US$49 – video shot using it can be seen below. The light mount costs $36.
Source: Paul Components via BikeRadar
That's a matter of opinion. Some of us don't want that intrusion.
What I would prefer is a mount that sticks the camera in front of the handlebar clamp and adds some kind of Steadicam-style image stabilization to help reduce the jitter from road shock that's transferred up to the camera.
The last thing I'd want to attach my expensive video camera to is something DESIGNED to break.
A static mount is also going to produce boring video. It is one thing to have a camera mounted in this manner to use for 4 second clips inserted into footage but another to use it entirely. A helmet mounted video allows for changing both the angle of view downward and upward as well as from side to side and would produce infinitely more interesting video - and isn't that the point, make it interesting for others to watch?