Francis Cade - 10% Off Offer! £36 inc. shipping and unlimited length warranty
We proudly offer any followers of Francis a 10% discount from the normal purchase price of our Axle Camera Mounts™ taking the price down to £36 (inc. Worldwide shipping and unlimited length warranty). This offer will be available for a limited period. Note: This Camera Mount is only suitable for Quick Release Wheel Axles. To register your interest for the future Thru Axle or Solid Axle Camera Mounts (for single speed /fixed gear) and be contacted when they are for sale please follow this link.
Our Relationship With Francis
We have known Francis for a long time and he was one of the early adopters of the NUT-R® Axle Camera Mount™, loving its unique perspective and showcasing it on many a Youtube video. Ever since his move from Quick Release Axles to the "darkside" of Thru Axles, his Axle Camera Mount™ has unfortunately been gathering dust. But now, with some engineering tact on our part, he is back in business!
To show our appreciation for the effort Francis puts into his captivating channel and to reward his long time support we happily pass on a proportion of each sale to his beer fund. So both you and Francis can enjoy a beer on us. I encourage you to buy a Camera Mount so that we can have a chance of not being dropped by our nation's favourite camera yielding, guitar playing cyclist!
Why the Axle Camera Mount™?
The NUT-R® Axle Camera Mount™ replaces the Axle Nut of a conventional Quick Release Skewer system allowing the Action Camera to be positioned much closer to the ground compared to Handlebar or Seat post Camera Mounts. This change of viewpoint boosts the intensity of footage and provides a unique and thrilling viewpoint for riders to record their rides. Another benefit of mounting the Camera to your Axles is that it saves buying both a Handlebar and Seatpost Mount to film both front or rear perspectives. One Axle Camera Mount™ can do the job of both as it can be fitted to either Axle and can be swapped over in seconds. The Mount's extreme stiffness and its unique GoPro® Side-Mount™ Camera interface combine to give unparalleled smoothness and near vibration free footage. So whether you want to use the Mount for recording fast descents or you want to buy a Mount that gives you the best chance of picking out a car registration plate on your commute (in case of an accident), this Mount will provide you with the best possible footage quality.
Vibration Elimination
No matter how good your Action Camera is, if it is subject to excessive vibration, the footage quality will suffer.
During our prototype testing we investigated how to best combat vibration and subsequently found that Bicycles are subject to two main sources of vibration that impact footage quality:
1. High frequency, low amplitude vibrations; found whilst travelling over small but tightly packed road surface imperfections.
2. Low frequency, high amplitude vibrations; found whilst travelling over large potholes or up/down kerbs.
The issue with a large variation in vibration frequency is that it is difficult to reduce vibrations over such a wide frequency range. Think about how much time and investment Automotive Manufacturers undergo into solving what is is essence the same problem...uneven tarmac!
From experiments, we found that the best method of reducing vibration was NOT introducing dampers between the camera and the mount but rather, joining the two together to make the STIFFEST possible connection.
Our Vibration Solution
To eliminate as much vibration as possible, the goal was to make the connection between the Camera and Bike as stiff as possible. The decision to use Stainless Steel for the Mount Body (later discussed in the Material's section below) provided a very stiff foundation as Stainless Steel is 2.8 times stiffer than say an Aluminium Alloy alternative of comparable geometry. [Aluminium Alloy is a bad example here as it is never used in Quick Release Axle Nuts anyway due to its low strength in threaded application and high risk of corrosion (even if coated) but you can understand the philosophy...]
The other notable stiffness improvement came from a complete re-design of the standard GoPro® Camera mounting method. The Mount utilises a revolutionary GoPro® Side-Mount™ camera interface that provides a direct preload path to retain the camera and also retains the user friendliness of the standard GoPro® interface. So what do we mean by "direct preload path"? This means that a greater percentage of the torque applied to the retaining screw ends up preloading the connection to the Camera, making it less prone to vibration. The stiffness of the Camera Mount ended up being so great that even when the camera was attached to the front wheel, not only were rear gear changes and braking audible but even the rear hubs free-wheel ratchet could actually be heard during playback.
The GoPro® Side-Mount™ interface also allows the Camera to be mounted at any angle (through a full 360 degrees) without the requirement for disassembly or adding additional linkages (which increase vibrations transmitted to the Camera).
The positioning of a Camera on the front or rear Wheel Axle also benefits the quality of the footage compared to a Handlebar Mount as the radius of rotation around the rear axle is reduced by roughly 10% (based on a 54in Cervelo S5 frame). This directly affects the vibration amplitude which reduces by the same percentage.
Reliability
At NUT-R®, your SAFETY is our highest priority. Even though the Camera Mount's main purpose is to attach an Action Camera to your Bicycle Wheel's axle, we have in no way forgotten the importance of its wheel retention ability. This was why so much effort and expense has been placed on qualifying and testing the Camera Mount and finding the most suitable material for use. You will be unlikely to find any similar products that have been as rigorously tested as this Mount.
There are three main reasons for the focus on reliability:
1) The Wheel retention mechanism is one of the most important safety mechanisms in bicycles. Inadequately designed Axle Nuts could literally cause your wheels to come off...
2) Quick Release Cam Mechanisms have become ever more effective over the years resulting in more force being applied to the Axle Nut's thread.
3) The NUT-R® Axle Camera Mount™ is designed to be universally compatible with all bicycles with quick release axles. This means our design must accommodate the "worst case" in a number of scenarios and have a product strong enough to retain:
- The force generated from the most effective Quick Release Cam style mechanism matched with a user applying more force than necessary,
- Whilst having minimum axle thread engagement and axle threads.
Qualification
The Mount was designed by an in-house ImechE accredited Chartered Engineered and was qualified in Germany (to current ISO standards for mountain and racing bicycles) by a dedicated Bicycle Test House.
Quality Assurance Testing
Ensuring the quality of each supplied mount takes time and effort on our part but it gives you the piece of mind you expect from a professional supplier. We simply do not receive these mounts and supply them - the Mounts undergo visual and dimensional inspection, assembly, interface tests and thread pullout tests in-house to ensure the quality meets our requirements.
Material Selection
With the vast emphasis on utilizing lightweight Aluminium Alloys and Composites within cycling technology you would be forgiven for believing that the use of Steel has no place in current bicycle technology. However, apart from Titanium Alloys being used in really high-end applications, Stainless Steel is the only material used for Axle Nuts due to its high thread capacity and proven reliability in corrosive environments (e.g. Road salt). Aluminium Alloys and Composites simply do not have the thread capacity or long term reliability to be used in this threaded application.
The other benefit of Stainless Steel is the high quality surface finish that can be obtained without secondary coating processes. The NUT-R® Bicycle Axle Camera Mount™ has an extremely high quality surface finish which will compliment any exotic machinery and never fade or corrode over time. We 5 year old prototypes that could still pass for new!
- The Mount's Body is CNC machined from solid Stainless Steel Bar (Cold Worked for Strength).
- The Spacer is manufactured in-house using our 3D Printer and ABS Plastic.
- The supplied Hex Screw is also made of A2-70 Stainless Steel so will not corrode.
Technical Specification
This section gives a brief specification of the Camera Mount, for more information please visit the Product Specification Page.
Axle Compatibility: Quick Release Axles only. Thru Axle and Solid Axle concepts are currently being tested and will be available for purchase soon. (If you are interested in Thru Axle or Solid Axle Camera Mounts please contact us here so that we can keep you up to date with progress)
Camera Compatibility:
- All GOPRO®
- Garmin VIRB®
- Shimano CM-1000 Action
- + other cameras that use the GoPro "2 leg" mounting system.
Weight: 70 grams
Dimensions: 56mm Length x 19mm Max Diameter (Mount Body).
Mount Material: High Strength Stainless Steel.
Reliability and Testing: The Mount was designed by an in-house ImechE accredited Chartered Engineered and in addition to many road/offroad testing miles, it was qualified in Germany (to current ISO standards for mountain and racing bikes) by a dedicated Bicycle Test House.
What is included: 1 x Mount Assembly with Stainless Steel Hex Screw and Assembly/Safety Instructions.
Please note: The GoPro® Camera and Case are not part of the sale :-)
Warranty
Our NUT-R® Bicycle Axle Camera Mount is SOLID and as a result it comes with an Unlimited Length Warranty Period! If it fails through normal use you deserve a medal!
Delivery
We deliver our Camera Mounts worldwide free of charge within 5-7 working days. However, due to the COVID-19 Virus, we are seeing a lot of variations in our 3rd party shipping times so we appreciate your patience in these circumstances. Thanks!