FPV RC Motorbike racing? Or just a man playing with his toys?

I'm outgunned at home. With the wife and my two daughters, I seem to spend most of my time with Hello Kitty and the entire cast of the Disney store princess collection than bikes sometimes. It is no secret to my wife that I'm trying to introduce my girls into the world of two wheeled fun. I asked Santa nicely and was rewarded with some Motorbike related toys that I could share with my oldest. Not to leave anything stock with my bikes or my toys, I took some time to have some dad level fun. See what I did below and also see just how bad I am with my Obsessions.

Here are the RC bikes that I asked for. I wanted a pair of bikes so that my daughter and I could race around the driveway to get her hooked on motorcycle related fun. It worked a charm. We must have spent a couple of hours racing around the block. She picked the green bike and I got the red one. I did have to disassemble the green bike to fix a broken antenna, but these have been great fun. Taking apart the green bike to fix it gave me an idea to have even more fun.

And here are the results of 5 minutes of GoPro work based on my idea that popped into my head while I was performing surgery on the green bike. I mounted my Black Friday acquired GoPro Hero Session in place of the rider. No cutting was involved. I kept the arms in place so that the camera gets them in frame and adds to the FPV illusion. The size of the camera works perfectly to make it really look like the rider's eye view from the WiFi preview screen on my camera.

The sad rider looking like he is jealous of the GoPro. The Hero mounted up with just a little double sided tape. I have a roll of the tape and that allows me to put the GoPro mounts anywhere I choose. I used a curved mount and slid the Hero into it. The bike was a little top heavy with the Hero on it, but as you can see in the pic above, it looks cool.

Here is the quickie test video I shot for a proof of concept. I tried for a bit to use the Hero's WiFi with my iPhone as an FPV system. It worked well, but even in the close confines of my driveway the time lag made the results less than optimal. I could get some of the RC airplane gear that people are using for FPV Drone Racing and hook it up for a better race platform. That might be a bit of overkill for a couple of cheap RC motorbikes. That type of stuff would be best saved for mounting to my full sized race bike for real Moto GP like camera views back to my pits.

Here is the rest of my bike toy collection. Every store I go into I look to add a new toy to my menagerie. Here is the results of the depths of My Obsessions. To my defense, most of these cost $1.00 or less. Some were gifts. This is just the home version. 

I have a few more at my office at work. These are like the desktop Zen gardens people have. I use the little bikes to take a break from the spreadsheets and slide shows I have to create and ride around my desk. My body may be locked down, but my mind is out on two wheels.

Christmas doesn't escape the Obsessive nature of Motorbike mania. I have a hog riding Santa delivering toys and I managed to insert my FZ1 into the family Christmas cards. I won't even go into my wardrobe, but needless to say it is Motorbike centric.

I know this isn't the most fascinating of posts, but you have to have some fun with your hobby and not take yourself so seriously. I'm working on a project for the FZ and I have an idea to improve my race trailer. I also have some gear I'm mulling over before I lay out my hard earned cash. Come back on by for more Motorbike content soon!

Blue