I'm doing some rental karts, and would like to get video, but I'm concerned about sticking anything to my helmet. Without the camera attached the mounts are pretty flat, so maybe I'm overthinking this. Any opinions?
I'm doing some rental karts, and would like to get video, but I'm concerned about sticking anything to my helmet. Without the camera attached the mounts are pretty flat, so maybe I'm overthinking this. Any opinions?
I've got a suction cup one for my GoPro. Works great. I made a short tether out of para-cord just in case it pops off.
Michael Schumacher is in a coma because he hit his helmet on the camera mount.
But did the mount stay on?
I find the chin-mount to work best for 1st person helmet shots. Looks weird, but seems better than a single square mickey mouse ear sticking up. Gets a nice centered frame, and stays out of the way.
With all respect to Schumacher, I think you will be fine.
I use a chin mount to record my commute on the motorcycle.
Australia has banned all helmet mounted accessories (cameras/Bluetooth devices) due to safety concerns.
I would check with the kart rental place to see if it violates their policy.
Javelin said:Michael Schumacher is in a coma because he hit his helmet on the camera mount.
Excellent point, one of the thumbs up on your post is from me. Not likely to go head first into a rock, but it's still a consideration.
Javelin said:Michael Schumacher is in a coma because he hit his helmet on the camera mount.
his helmet failed where he DRILLED holes for mounting the camera. never drill into your helmet.
When I'm mountain biking and see camera on a helmet I know to stay far, far away from that rider.
So...it might be a race strategy?
Floating Doc said:I'm doing some rental karts, and would like to get video, but I'm concerned about sticking anything to my helmet. Without the camera attached the mounts are pretty flat, so maybe I'm overthinking this. Any opinions?
Could you use a suction cup mount on the front body work or bumper?
Maybe clamp it to the steering shaft support or one of the chassis tubes?
Putting it on your helmet can work, but you need to make sure its aimed properly, I've seen a few where its aimed at the road and not up where the interesting stuff to see is.
You'll also want to make sure the camera has anti-vibration capabilities since your head will bobble around quite a bit more than you might think.
I like the paracord tether, makes sense and avoids causing problems for other drivers by having you camera rolling around on the course.
Double checking with the Kart place is a good idea in either event since they have to pay the insurance and they may also have ideas on how to mount them well (because you know they use them themselves).
In reply to Stefan :
I bought a roll bar mount, since the Sodi electric carts at the Andretti track have a roll bar-like hoop behind the driver's helmet. Hopefully they'll allow me to do that. The Orlando Kart Center rentals don't have a similar provision.
I am shocked that Schumacher drilled holes in his helmet! Is that for certain?
get a rollbar mount or something. First because it's safer. Second because nobody like watching vids of helmet mounts when your head is bobbing all over the place ;)
FieroReinke said:Javelin said:Michael Schumacher is in a coma because he hit his helmet on the camera mount.
his helmet failed where he DRILLED holes for mounting the camera. never drill into your helmet.
Utterly false. He used a GoPro stick-on helmet mount. 2014 article Another article
In reply to Javelin :
Not saying your wrong but that article mentioned nothing about how the camera was mounted and was at best wild speculation and hearsay.
In reply to Nick Comstock :
There was not one single article that ever even speculated on drilled holes in the 4+ years since the accident. Considering that absolutely no detail, including the raw footage, was left un-published, that's a pretty clear indication. Some articles even have photos of his actual helmet pre-crash showing the standard Go-Pro mount.
In reply to Javelin :
I'm not arguing that with you. I'm just saying the articles you posted to bolster your argument never mentioned how it was mounted and in fact offered nothing other than speculation that the camera may have been the reason the helmet exploded.
Let's also not forget that a ski helmet is constructed much differently than a Motorsports helmet.
Mount it to the helmet. The odds of smacking a tree on the ski slopes, Schumacher style, in a rental go-kart are absolutely zero.
I would avoid it because watching video from helmet mounted cameras is awful. The point of taking the video is to watch it, and when watching it makes you sick then what is the point. It moves around so much you can’t get any useful information
I use the suction mount for my GoPro stuck to the side of my helmet. Looks weird, but makes video just fine.
My local indoor karting place has GoPro clip mounts on most of their karts on the plastic up by the steering wheel. Pretty great idea.
I own an indoor kart track and we have GoPro sticky mounts on the helmets and the karts
Sonic said:I would avoid it because watching video from helmet mounted cameras is awful. The point of taking the video is to watch it, and when watching it makes you sick then what is the point. It moves around so much you can’t get any useful information
This was my experience when I did a helmet mount in a Lemons race: "Holy crap I look around a lot."
Call ahead and see if they already have mounting shoes on the karts, or take issue with you putting one on?
Sonic said:I would avoid it because watching video from helmet mounted cameras is awful. The point of taking the video is to watch it, and when watching it makes you sick then what is the point. It moves around so much you can’t get any useful information
But that is what the real world looks like.
Appleseed said:Mount it to the helmet. The odds of smacking a tree on the ski slopes, Schumacher style, in a rental go-kart are absolutely zero.
I used to have a camera mount on my helmet, and hit it once, luckily without the camera, but it still hurt a lot and cracked the shell. That was flipping my cart btw (off-road, but still).
ultraclyde said:When I'm mountain biking and see camera on a helmet I know to stay far, far away from that rider.
So...it might be a race strategy?
It's pretty common for DH and enduro racing. You video practice runs to help memorize the course(s). Plus, social media has become such an important part of a racer's sponsor package that posting helmet cam video is more common than not. My team does some videos, but not as much as we should. Of course, videos of a bunch of slow 40-50 year olds riding down a trail aren't all that exciting.
After the Schumacher crash, the UCI (international bicycle racing governing body) mandated cameras could not be fixed to the helmet body, so if became the norm to fix them to the visor. Chest mounts are also common. Sometimes both. It seems after the actual causes of Schumie's injuries became known, those restrictions were relaxed a bit as I've seen side-mounted cameras. I've also seen right-side mounted cameras for auto-cross video.
Knurled. said:Sonic said:I would avoid it because watching video from helmet mounted cameras is awful. The point of taking the video is to watch it, and when watching it makes you sick then what is the point. It moves around so much you can’t get any useful information
But that is what the real world looks like.
In the real world, your head's motion sensors move with the video, so you don't get motion sickness 
Doesn't bother me though. Some of my favorite games are the Mirror's Edge and Wipeout series 
(Reading in a car gives me bad motion sickness though)
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