Motorbikes and riding is a passion like no other. Feeling the roar of your engine along the road and watching the landscape glide by can be an amazing experience. In that case, why not catch some of the experience on a GoPro? This is becoming an ever more common way to capture the moment while you are biking around.
This all sounds very nice and nostalgic. There are however a few more practical reasons on top of this as to why using your GoPro while biking has increased greatly in popularity. Whatever you reason, we have done our best to collect a few of the top ones and condense them into this post.
On top of providing you with the best reasons as to why you should buy a GoPro for motorcycling, we will narrow your selection down to three of the best products which can suit all styles.
3 Best GoPros for Motorcycles
If you are set on buying a GoPro for your motorcycle adventures, here are three of the best selections on the market at present:
1. GoPro Hero7 Black
The Hero7 is the latest in the long range of top-quality products from GoPro. There are a variety of features packed in which make it ideal for your motorcycle diaries or just recording the journey.
Chief among these features which could benefit you in the Hero7 is the ability to give voice commands to perform certain features of the camera. In essence this is vital in that you would never have to remove your hands to operate the device.
The camera comes in black, white, and silver as standard and with extremely smooth video stabilization. This is also perfect if you are moving over uneven surfaces at speed but wish to retain the best quality.
Among other features, the Hero7 is capable of delivering 4K quality video footage and a 12MP camera to boot. If that was not enough, the latest GoPro model is waterproof to a depth of 10m and features an amazingly high-rate as well as an intuitive touch screen which you should find easy to navigate. This model should also be easy to mount in a variety of areas of your motorbike which we will discuss in detail with the final section.
If streaming is your thing and you want your audience to follow your journey live, that too is no problem. This is thanks to the live HD streaming capability of the Hero7.
2. GoPro Hero6 Black
Next on our list of the best GoPro cameras for your motorcycle is the GoPro Hero6. This model can also be easily affixed to your motorcycle or even helmet depending on the mount which you are using. It is also a feature-laden model with can respond to voice commands conveniently.
The camera is capable of images up to 12MP and video up to 4K60 with 30FPS burst. Images stabilization on this model is also of the best quality. This makes a big difference when you are on the road and trying to achieve the best levels for all of you video and images.
When it comes to both videos and images, the Hero6 delivers as much as two times the performance of the previous model. It is chargeable by USB C cable and comes as standard with a mounting buckle, flat, and curved adhesive mounts.
The effortless quality is supplemented by excellent low-level lighting images and a waterproof capability of as much as 10m. There are as many as 30 different accessories which you can add, customizing the camera to fit your riding style and being on the road. This level of flexibility is another reason to recommend the GoPro6.
3. GoPro Hero5 Black
Finally on our list of the top three GoPro cameras which you can use to make the most of your motorcycle trips is the GoPro5 Black. This model may be third on our list but is certainly still considered a top-quality piece of kit. The model is also capable of voice activated commands. This makes it all the easier to control while you are on the road.
Again the Hero5 Black captures amazing 4K video along with 12MP images. This is exactly what you need to see the sites at their very best while you move around. Single, burst, and time-lapse features make it all the easier to control the images you collect while on the road. It comes well equipped with a flat and curved adhesive mount and mounting buckle as well as the USB-C charger to keep the long-lasting rechargeable battery going so that you don’t miss a thing when you drive.
The Hero5 can also automatically upload footage to your cloud account so you can keep as much space as possible free for the new and exciting road ahead.
Why Use a GoPro for Biking?
Everyone will have their own reasons for wanting to use a GoPro while biking. Undoubtedly the most common reason we think, will be to capture your ride and the beautiful scenery around you that we can sometimes miss when we are focused on the road.
It is really hard to capture the thrill of biking and share it with others, but with the amazing quality and realism of some of today’s GoPro cameras, you can be really sure that your audience is living and breathing the road as you watch.
That leads into another reason for documenting your trip, perhaps you have a social media following and want to share all of the details and vision of your trip with them. If that is the case, you certainly need to have a GoPro for your motorbike.
Finally, a more practical reason. If, in the worst case scenario something should happen to you on the open road such as a collision or other type of road incident, you can be sure that you GoPro will have captured everything in crisp, clear motion. This could make all the difference depending upon the situation you find yourself.
How to Mount a GoPro on a Motorcycle
Now that you have hopefully selected your desired GoPro from the list of the best three we provided, it is time to fit your new camera. This may seem like a daunting proposition but it certainly does not have to be.
There are a few different ways in which you can mount your new camera for use when riding. Here we will run through a few of the most common ways and give you some tip and tricks as to how to mount your camera in each way to get the very best out of it.
Getting Rid of Vibration
Getting rid of the vibration with your camera when it is mounted on your motorcycle is clearly a priority. This will not only help to produce the best quality video and images but it will also ensure that your camera remains safe from damage.
There are two key elements in this. The first is making sure your mount fits the camera. This shouldn’t be a problem if you are purchasing official products for your specific model.
Secondly you need to ensure it is securely mounted in a stable manner. From there, each model we have listed features fantastic auto-stabilization. The camera actually reads your intended movements and adjusts to take a clear picture. Amazing, right!
Handlebar Mounting
This is one of the more common mounts which should produce one of the most secure and stable images of the complete open road ahead. This can be excellent if you want to focus predominantly on the open road ahead while filming on the move. You can also attach it with specialized swivel mounts which would allow you to take in a full 360-degrees as you wish.
Using a Chin Mount
This would be one of the less common ways to mount your GoPro while riding, but it is still popular with some. This manner of mounting gives you a great front on view and naturally creates a sense of intense reality, moving wherever you move. Watching this footage back may feel like reliving the entire moment again.
On Your Helmet
Undoubtedly the method of choice for so many, you have the option here of mounting on the front or sides of your helmet for different perspectives. You can also engage the swivel functionalities to a certain degree.
This gives you the same excellent first-person realism as created by the chin mount, but with a greater deal of control over the camera.
On Your Windshield
A popular choice in terms of stability and viewpoint. The windshield option is a very secure and relatively easy place to position your camera. That is if your bike has a big enough windshield to place the camera without obscuring your own vision.
The only downside of this type of camera position is that you may lose the ability to really swivel the camera effectively, though you will certainly keep it shielded from the elements and some of the damages which could occur.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, it feels like GoPro and motorcycle riding goes hand in hand. With so many amazing sites to see and sounds to hear, you may well be missing out if you do not have a top camera the quality of one which we have listed to record your footage.
Once this is in place, as you can see from the above features, the camera will do a lot of work to ensure your adventures look as visually appealing as possible. The motorcycle GoPro really seems to be something that, once you try, you wonder how you lived without it.
