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Click the following link for a video of Nick Wey taking a lap of Glen Helen with the helmet-mounted camera. You can also click the following link for a different video, where we were testing some of the different mounting options on our Vital MX truck. Don't forget, if you're a Vital MX member, you can comment on any of the photos in the gallery. Not a member? Join now! It's fast and free.

Finding a video camera to capture your riding adventures has always been sort of a juggling act between complexity and quality, vs. simplicity and…well, low quality. And in both cases, the products seemed to be at extremes. Either excessively expensive, or reasonable cost with questionable quality.

In the past we’ve tried some lipstick cams that had good quality, but required a fanny pack setup. They frequently also had horrible audio, since the accompanying microphones weren’t designed to work with loud engines.

When Team Yamaha’s Josh Hill showed up at Minneapolis with one of the GoPro Hero cameras on his helmet, we were intrigued. Yeah, it was a little unusual perched on top of his helmet, but when we saw the quality of some of the video from it on Yamaha’s web site, we were surprised…especially when we found out that the camera’s retail was only 179 bucks

For that price, you get a small camera, that outside of the waterproof housing that it’s normally mounted in, looks a bit like some sort of spy cam. It’s tiny…really tiny. It’ll shoot three megapixel stills, as well as video, and there are settings for video playback in your region of the world (International PAL, or the NTSC signal that we use here in the U.S.) You can event set it up to shoot upside-down, so you can get a bit creative with your mounting options. That’s good, because GoPro includes everything from stick-on quick-release mounts, to suction cups that you can use on hard surfaces. There’s a function on the camera to lower the audio level for motorized use, and everything is pretty straightforward. We would suggest, however, keeping the instruction sheet handy for a while. Some of the icons can be a little cryptic.

You can see how high Josh runs his camera in relation to his visor...and line of sight. You can use this shot as a starting point for setting up your own camera.

We took out our GoPro test unit to Glen Helen recently, and had Nick Wey head for a couple laps on the track. The results? While no one will confuse the picture with a broadcast-quality HD cam, it’s surprisingly good, even in varying light conditions. While the audio was a bit muffled, we found that preferable to listening to some of the blown-out exhaust noise with wind background noise that we’ve gotten from other camera setups.

The other challenge is aiming the camera. We’d noted that Josh runs his aimed high…it looked like it was really aimed at the sky, and we tried to emulate that…a bit. What we discovered afterward was that the lens isn’t really very wide angle (which isn’t bad), but you will probably have to aim it a bit higher than you’d expect. Check the video links above to see our results. Just for kicks, we also mounted it up on the Vital MX Toyota, and did some driving around our neighborhood. You can check out that video as well.

We also found that the on-board memory in the camera will only yield a short video. While it’s easy to download, to your laptop with the supplied cord (it shows up on your computer like another hard drive), it’s not very convenient to download a few minutes at a time. We added a 2GB SD card to the camera, and that expanded the time considerably. You should also consider buying some rechargeable AAA batteries, because like any digital camera, the GoPro Hero eats regular batteries at an amazingly rapid clip.

Overall, we were impressed with the Hero. It offers up decent quality and a small size, with a price tag that’s reasonable. Just remember to factor in a memory card and rechargeable batteries for when you go shopping.

Check with your local electronics retailer, or www.goprocamera.com