How-To: DIY Chesty Cam Gimbal Mount

The quest for improved POV footage is never ending. Who wants to get car sick when we should be getting stoked watching videos from our favorite local trails or last weekend's trip to the bike park? Having heard your feedback in some of our ONE LAP videos, we decided to give a gimbal a try. A gimbal is a small, mechanical gizmo that the camera is mounted to, used to stabilize camera movement. We picked up an EVO SS 3-axis wearable gimbal for our test. At $329 USD, these things will run you close to what you paid for your new GoPro Hero 5 Black, but we're hopeful the investment is worth the improvement in footage quality. If you're not willing to drop that kind of coin there are generic, off-shore brands which are reported to be of similar quality, but lack the convenience of having a domestic warranty facility for North America.

The obvious place to mount a gimbal for seeing the trail as well as rider movements is on the chest, so we grabbed the obvious GoPro accessory, the GoPro Chesty Mount. The Evo SS gimbal includes a mount for this specific accessory (which also works for most GoPro accessories). As most people will do, as soon as we got the gimbal in the mail we mounted it to the Chesty with GoPro attached and ran around our house to test everything out. Even with the Chesty straps cinched down to their tightest, the weight of the of the gimbal made the whole thing flop around quite a bit. While the footage was still fairly stable, we knew this would be a problem on the trail. The easy solution was to add a DIY strap around the top of the Chesty to keep everything in place. It works, but it's not very elegant and can get loose or move around.

While brainstorming alternative security methods, we remembered seeing riders mounting GoPro cameras flat mount on their MX roost guards instead of running the strap-filled Chesty. Most gimbals have a standard camera tripod shoe mount, so we figured we could just drill out a roost guard and mount the gimbal with a bolt through the guard. Easy-peasy!

Before running to the hardware store we still googled "gimbal chest mounting ideas", and low and behold we weren't the first with this idea. EVO Gimbals actually recommends this trick. But, we figured since we're going to do it ourselves we might as well give you guys (and gals), a quick "how-to" on this easy DIY solution.

Before we dive into that how-to, here's a quick video of our maiden voyage with the new setup. Grab some tools, hardware, a chest protector (we used a Troy Lee Designs 5900 Chest Protector), and get to work (with there's not much of).

Tools and Hardware Needed

Roost guard or chest protector
POV camera Gimbal
Shoe mount screw (1/4"-20) - We used a 1/2" long machine screw based on how deep the shoe mounting hole was and how thick our roost guard was. Your needs may vary.
1/4" washers (grab extras just in case)
1/4" self-locking washer (we'll be adding this in the future)
Ruler
Philips screwdriver (or whatever tool you need for the shoe mount machine screw)
Drill with 1/4" bit (smaller if you prefer to drill a pilot hole first)
Sharpie
Mastic tape
Spanner wrench (not needed in our case)
1/4" nuts (we didn't use these in the build, but they're handy for transport when the gimbal's not in place...don't want to lose that screw!)

As you can see from the list above, there are a few things that you may need that we didn't. We picked up some nuts in case we wanted to build a more-traditional style shoe mount setup where you can cinch up a washer independently of having a secure mounting screw. We also went to our local photo store and grabbed a brand-name shoe mounting system to see if it offered any advantage, which it didn't in our case.

Step One: Measure and Mark

We picked a location on the roost guard that wasn't low enough to smack our saddle in the steeps but high enough to keep out of the way of our full-face helmet's chin bar. This location happened to be pretty much as high as we could go on the TLD chest guard we used.

We measured our gimbal, as well, so we knew where the shoe mount hole was. We aligned everything up and marked the spot using a Sharpie.

Step Two: Drill

Welp, we tried going at this with a 1/4" bit right off-the-bat, and even though we dented the plastic of the chest guard before drilling, the bit still drifted. So, we'd recommend denting the plastic and hitting it with a 1/8" bit first and working your way up to 1/4".

Boom, hole drilled, drift damage and everything. It still pains us to blast through that logo.

Step Three: Install the Shoe Mount Screw

We ended up using a 1/2-inch-long, 1/4"-20 screw (standard for most shoe mounts) and a single 1/4" washer. Though the mount never loosened during our initial test, a simple self-locking washer will be making its way onto our rig for added security.

Just pop the screw through with the washer on the inside to provide a little bit of extra surface area for a stable mount.

Step Four: Apply Mastic Tape

We cut two small lengths of mastic tape to line the shoe mount. This will help keep the gimbal snug against the chest protector, as well as prevent any noise from vibrations.

Step Five: Put the Gimbal On

Our shoe mount screw required a Philips screwdriver to install. Use the appropriate tool for the screw you purchased. We got the best results by mounting the gimbal with the arm underneath the GoPro to aid in keeping it out of frame when getting back on the bike.