The Best Way to Chest Mount Your Camera for Dirt Bike Racing

In 2021, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) added a rule that all helmets must be intact and have had no modification made to their construction. This rule includes action cameras that are attached to the helmet in AMA sanctioned events.

For years I've had a GoPro mounted to my helmet to record my races. I have always found the best location to mount an action camera is to the front chin bar of the helmet for stability and for a realistic point of view. However, with this change I've had to obey the rules and re-think my strategy on how to record races. With increasing enforcement of this rule, I've had many questions as to how I am chest mounting my camera for the races.

The trouble when chest mounting a camera is the lower perspective. Lower on the chest will give a view that captures more of the handlebars than it will the terrain in front of you. Ideally you want to mount the camera as high as possible to best mimic the actual perspective of the riders’ eyes. One caveat to this is as you mount the camera higher up on the chest, the more likely the chin of the helmet is to block the camera.

I found the helmet blocking the camera to be a significant problem when chest mounting.

One solution to this is to offset the camera mount to the left or right so that the helmet does not interfere with the camera's viewpoint. Since I am always wearing a USWE Hydration Pack when racing, I utilized the strap of my backpack as a mounting point for the camera.

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There are a variety of "backpack strap mounts" available in the market. I use the Telesin Backpack Mount which Velcro's over the strap on my hydration pack.

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Because the strap mount will typically be at an odd angle, I use the GoPro 360° Ball Joint Buckle in the Telesin Backpack strap mount to aim the camera where it is needed. It can be difficult to aim the camera downward enough when mounted upright so I have found mounting the camera upside down to work better.

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Chest mounting will result in more shaky footage. Luckily the advancements in camera stabilization have made this less of a problem. On my GoPro settings I run HyperSmooth on. I do find that there are times where the stabilization isn't enough, or my helmet does obstruct the camera's view in which case I tend to edit these clips out and only use the best-looking footage in my videos.

A couple additional tips to reduce shakiness: 

1. Singe the Telesin Velcro mount as tight as possible.
2. Tighten the backpack straps on the hydration pack as tight as possible. I found as I drank my water down it became looser on my body causing footage to be shakier later in the race.
3. Zip tie the backpack strap to your chest protector.
4. Stand up on the bike for more stable footage!

Chest mounting your action camera is not ideal. When given an option to helmet mount my camera, I will. With that said, this offset chest mount method seems to work the best out of the options available. Hopefully this helps, and good luck capturing those epic races!