This is a complicated topic, and I'll throw some comments out there, to see if anyone wants any follow-up information.
All of this comes from my personal experience, from owning GoPro Hero4, 7, 9, and 11 cameras (and a Liquid Image action cam before them), and having mounted them in assorted ways on my own Burgman 650, Victory Cross Country Tour, and C 400 GT, and a rented Niken for a week.
Intended Use, e.g., Straight-Forward Documentation, Rider's POV, 360° Scenery, etc.:
You have to, um, focus, on what you want to get out of the camera. Are you interested in documenting a day (or more), or some short-term scenery, or, say, a vlog (ala that consummate professional Itchy Boots), and so forth.
Your choice will have a major impact on what camera you get -- say, a standard action cam vs. a 360° camera -- how you mount a camera, and how you power it, for instance.
Me, I like to document a full day's ride, with absolute minimal fuss, and select any highlight reels afterward. Hence my choice of bike power and fixed mount.
You can't record a full day of 360° video, because it would be too much data, you can't power one of those all day, and you'd have to swap memory cards. They do give you maximum viewpoints, after the fact, when you're editing the files, though.
World traveler Itchy Boots mostly uses a helmet-mounted camera, along with a mic, and has to pick and choose her time to record, and swap batteries, and maybe memory cards. So that's sort of in the middle.
On Helmet or Bike:
If you want a real rider's POV, you might favor a helmet mount. IB uses a motocross-style helmet, with a lot of room in the chin area, and a clip mount on the chin bar. A helmet mount has the advantage that you can turn your head sideways to capture interesting scenery.
Another helmet location is a GoPro mount that you stick on the side or on top of a helmet. That eliminates the possibility of mushing a camera into your chest in a get-off, but has the disadvantages of being out in the wind and not knowing whether you really turned on the camera, is it still recording, and so forth. As IB points out in one of your blogs, if you have the camera in front of you, e.g., her chin-bar mount, you can tell that it's still recording.
Back to my use: since I don't want to fiddle with anything -- a just set it and forget it setup -- I need bike power, and no battery or card swapping. So it's on-bike mounting for me.
For the last four bikes, I think it is, I've used rainproof USB products from 3BR Powersports, if anyone's interested:
www.3brpowersports.com
Of course, if you're a true professional at this, you can just do as IB does, and use multiple cameras: on helmet, on handlebars (and, on occasion, other parts of the bike, e.g., down near the wheels), and sometimes drone recordings.
In Front Of Or Behind A Windscreen (Or Someplace Else):
If your setup will be on bike, I've experimented over the years, and settled on mounting in front of the windscreen.
On a GoPro Hero, you have about 1 square inch to keep clean. And if you need to replace the lens cover (if it gets hit by a rock, say), you're out about $20, I think.
If you mount behind a windscreen, you have to deal with keeping a larger area clean, and reflections, and a loss of light if the screen's tinted.
If you mount it somewhere else -- on a crashbar, for instance, which I've experimented with -- you get interesting video, but, IMO, it gets old after a while, especially when documenting a full day's ride.
I've also settled on one or two suction cups. I used two on a Burgman for some time, but that was probably overkill, as I've also never had a problem with one. Here's a pic of that double-suction-cup setup:
(BTW, that uses some parts of a Delkin Dual Fat Gecko product; see
www.delkindevices.com/products/accessories/fat-gecko/ and
www.amazon.com/Delkin-Devices-Suction-Camera-DDMOUNT-SUCTION/dp/B0023ZK2TY/ . Interestingly, it's my assertion that the suction-cup components of that Delkin product are made by Panavise, or at least the two companies have a common supplier for those pieces.)
Where was I? Oh, right, I've had the Panavise 13101 for half a dozen years or so, and am completely pleased with it (and actually just recently bought another as a backup spare):
It's also available at Amazon, in various configurations (i.e., extra gizmos), e.g.:
Amazon.com : Panavise ActionGrip 13101 Shorty Suction Cup Camera Mount (Matte Black) : Electronics
www.amazon.com
The trick here is to clean the suction cup and the windscreen thoroughly with alcohol, let dry, and lock in place. Periodically, you need to unlock (but not detach), push the air out, and relock. And of course add a tether, just for good karma.
Something Else For The 1250 RT:
I was looking at the front of the RT, because of the mention of all curved surfaces. That certainly looks to be the case: I was looking at all the close-ups in this Cycle World review:
BMW’s R 1250 RT is a comfortable, tech-laden tourer. Cycle World’s European contributor Bruno dePrato takes it for a spin around Italy.
www.cycleworld.com
And it certainly looks curvy, all right. I was thinking that if I owned one I might add a 15mm rod in front of the windshield, using the lower two Torx screws on each side that hold the windscreen in place.
If anyone's unaware of this, 15mm (diameter) rods have become the de facto standard for extension rods for all manner of photographic supports. And because of that, there's a wealth of various brackets, connecting gizmos, etc.
For instance, I think something like this might work (and while I don't know the distance between those screws, the rods come in many lengths). This is just a possible mounting configuration -- something similar, or maybe these exact products:
Something like that.
A couple of quick notes on two of those:
- I have used a bunch of Smatree gizmos over the years. They're inexpensive, but well made, IMO.
- That Ulanzi quick-release bracket is the cat's meow, right up there with the Panavise in terms of being my favorite mounting product.
The Ulanzi allows you to pop the camera off in a second or two, to put in a topcase for a lunch stop, and then remount it exactly as it was positioned before, in another second or two. Most highly recommended for most on-bike mountings.
I have experimented with a
15mm rod setup, mostly on my Victory. This was a behind-the-screen setup -- hey, I was experimenting:
And here's a pic of some additional experimentation I did, a year or so later, using 15mm products (along with some standard 1" RAM products) on a Burgman:
Back to the Panavise, here's my in-front, suction-cup, fairing mount on the Vic (vs. the 15mm rod setup behind the windscreen). Note that it's offset, to the side, to avoid that ridge/creased area down the middle of the fairing:
And here's my current setup, on my current ride, the C 400 GT:
Fixed On-Bike Highlight Reel Examples:
In 2019, I rode a Niken (solo) during an Edelweiss "Touring Center Alps" week, and this past May (this time with my wife as passenger) I was piloting a C 400 X for two of their scooter tours, in Tuscany and Vienna. I used that exact same Panavise single-suction-cup, with Ulanzi quick-release, mounting system (minus the rainproof 3BR USB setup) for those tours that I'm currently using at home.
Here are a couple of my favorite highlight reels in the Alps, from that earlier trip, so anyone interested can see what sort of videos that kind of setup choice produces (when highlight reels are later extracted from a day's videos). For those trips I simply popped in a fresh memory card for each day, and downloaded them all to my computer when I got home.
The first, oh, half of this is probably my favorite, in terms of sheer scenic beauty:
This one was earlier in the week, and for the first ten minutes or so (until a regrouping after a construction zone, at which time I almost fell over) I was moving out on the Niken, behind the fast guy in the group (who was behind the faster guide):
More recently, here's a short video while riding the C 400 GT, two-up with my wife, just enjoying the fall foliage in the Catskill Mountains of NYS this past October:
So, in sum, that's the sort of thing I'm aiming for, with zero, or at least negligible, fiddling with equipment during the day. I'm certainly open to any follow-up questions, if anyone has any for me.
