Hi Deelip. It's not just action cams either - you can generate video footage from a whole raft of sources - phones, regular cameras, other peoples cameras etc. If you're going use all of that to produce an end product that someone can (or would want to!) watch it's a lot of work for very little reward. It's a bit like writing the book of the trip as well - spend six months tapping away at the keyboard and then what do you do with the manuscript.

When we did our across the USA trip 18 months ago I tried to put some effort into filming but to do it on the fly is almost impossible. You video what you think will be interesting and then try to make sense of it all afterwards at the editing stage, but of course you've left stuff you need out, made a decision to get drunk rather than film something etc and there's nothing really to hang the clips you do have together. If you're going to do it well - research stuff, storyboard it, have a shooting schedule, interviews, pieces to camera etc it stops being a bike trip. That's that problem - film it well and feel guilty about losing the essence of the trip, film it badly and feel guilty about wasting the opportunity.

Until recently I had one GoPro and two Chinese GP copies but one of the copies ended up lost in a snowdrift when filming skiing some months back so now it's just two. The copies got the high risk assignments (like being fixed to a ski boot or on a suction mount on a bike) as they're cheap enough but compared to the GoPro they're lacking in flexibility. GoPro's free editing software is great for quick and dirty, just slap the clips together editing. If you've spent months staring at a Final Cut Pro screen and getting nowhere the simplicity of GoPro Studio is great.

One side effect of the availability of all this stuff is the amount of bits and pieces you need to take with you - chargers, cables etc. Below is a picture of about half of the electronic stuff we took on our recent Canada trip. Keeping this stuff serviced - charging batteries, checking cables, finding places to store it etc became a real issue. Do we prioritise charging the intercoms or the camera batteries overnight, that kind of thing.



I'm sure some will say just junk it all and enjoy the trip but without the GoPro I wouldn't have got stuff like this to look back on:

Yeah that is an issue ! I have managed to get to the stage where every thing is charged from usb either on bike or from 1 mains tranformer. It works well when we take our own bike as it is setup for it all. It does become a slight problem on hired bikes at the "low end of the hire spectrum..." Still we manage.

Trying to make a video for consumption after the trip does take a great deal of effort. I started doing them about 4 years ago and it was ............well crap to be honest. I made lots of mistakes but you do get better as time goes on. My most recent effort is worlds apart from the first. Some of the improvements are down to better editing, but the biggest gain is in the filming angles and content. It can take over if you are not carefull, and sometimes anoying when something happens and despite having 5 cameras you miss it! Well actually 3 cams, 1 phone, and now a flamin drone, it is getting out of hand.

Sometimes I do wonder if it is worth it, but for me and I think my wife too, it is great to look at from time to time as well as the 1000's of photos. Even some of our friends like to see them, but some really don't It's not normal you see

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Regards Tim

Learning my craft for the big stuff, it won't be long now and it's not that far anyway

I have to say though, one legitimate use of a GoPro is to keep it mounted on your handlebar etc. but not turned on (on a long exploratory ride, let's say). Then when you get to a good road... it's a quick move to turn it on and get it to play. You can do it blind with one hand and quickly if you're used to the thing.

This was me seeing "Tourist Road That Way" and reacting in time.