DIY: Bicycle - Steady Cam - mount

Step 8 Putting it all together

Now we bring it all together, the arm assembly gets attached to the handlebar mount bracket with 2 - 1/4" x 1" bolts. I had to cut a small amount of the 4" x 4" "L" angle brkt to clear one of the bolts that holds the hinges straps together. I also had to drill two holes in the "L" angle bracket to match the holes in the hinge strap (see the picture). One of the bolts goes through the two hinge straps, the other bolt only goes through the very end of the "outer" hinge strap and a 1/4" hole drilled at the bottom of the "L" angle bracket.

The Camera sled is attached to the other end of the arm with the 3/8" x 1-1/2" bolt that acts as the pivot shaft. Insert the end of the 3/8" bolt through the hinge strap and secure it with a 3/8" lock nut.

You'll need to check two basic functions of the spring arm;
1) To keep the camera in a neutral (balanced) position.
2) Make sure that as the sled moves up and down, it keeps the the camera level.

--Balancing procedure--
Place your camera in the sled and secure it. Now you may need to try several different springs or combinations of springs as I did to "equalize" the weight. Ideally it will require the same "pressure applied" to move the camera up or down when it is in the middle of the range of motion. I secured the ends of the springs with some brass washers and the #10-32 nuts.

--Level checking procedure--
To check the "level" of the arm place the entire assembly in a vise or mount it on your bike. Then put the small "bubble" level in the sled in place of the camera and move the arm to the extreme top position. Now check the position of the bubble. NOTE: you may want to tweak the position of the assembly in the vise or on the bike to center the bubble and then retighted the clamps or the vise. Now move the arm to the extreme bottom of the range of motion and compare the bubble position. If it's off by more than a small amount, then you'll want check the measurements of the parallelagram (hinge corners).

Once you're satisfied with both of these requirements, you're ready for a road test, place the camera (mine is a JVC Mini DV GR-D250) in the sled. I also put a bungie strap around it just to be safe. Place the PVC "T" halves around your handlbars and use the two hose clamps to secure the assembly. One note here, you may have to remove a little bit of additional material on one of the two halves, in order for it to clamp tightly enough.

You can see clips of my tests in the attached video file.