Regular readers will know that I had my GoPro camera destroyed on the second day of my charity bike ride in September. For those that aren’t regulars, here is an extract from the blog post at the time…
A 2km run along a back road until we hit the Princes Highway. Turning right and heading directly south into a reasonable South Easterly breeze. We were going ok, pushing along at about 25kph, knowing it was going to be a long day. The GPS said it was going to be around 160kms. We were taking turns at the front. The road surface wasn’t great, but it wasn’t a disaster either. Just your normal “out in the middle of no where country highway” sort of surface. There was the odd car, and from recollection, at this point we might have seen 2 trucks. Hardly Parramatta Road during peak hour. At one point I noticed the GoPro camera, which was mounted on the handle bars on its shiny new GoPro mount, was vibrating a bit. I remember thinking the video wouldn’t be all that flash. On we pushed. About 50 minutes into the ride, I was second wheel behind Gary. I felt something hard and heavy hit my right forearm. Then it was one of those tiny stretches of time, probably no more than 5 clicks of the second hand, when time slows right down. I looked down to see the GoPro camera making a rather hasty exit from the bike. It could have made a leap to the left and landed in some soft grass. Nope, my little friend was hardcore, he chose to go to the right. As I watched him head towards the road, I was thinking to my self “He’ll be right, I have seen them take far more…” it was at that point that I turned to see if there was any cars coming. Nope, no cars, just a 62 tonne B-Double!!! Having seen a bunch of cyclists ahead, he was doing the right thing and getting off our side of the road. I had just enough time to to a bit of calculus in my head and realise that my beloved GoPro had just committed suicide! The truck got him with every wheel on its left hand side. It made a sickening sound. The sound of a camera crying out in pain, or was it my wallet screaming? I don’t know. Tony reported a cloud of plastic, with green bits, presumably the printed circuit boards, my cameras innards!
We pulled up. After quite a few WTFs, I let the boys know that video footage for the rest of the trip would be limited. It was then pointed out that if we could find the camera, or the memory card, it might make for interesting viewing. Yeah, if it isn’t your $300 camera being destroyed, sure. 🙂
We cruised up and down that part of the highway for 10 minutes, but no memory card could be found. Part of the housing, the lens, the battery and fragments of plastic were gathered up, but no memory card. if you some day find yourself on this part of the Princes Highway, please stop and see if you can find a 32G Sandisk SD card. I’ll pay for postage. 🙂
So there is the back story. The handle bar mount was only on its 3rd outing. Here is a photo of the aftermath, the failed mount.
Click for larger.
And the bits we managed to grab off the highway.
Click for larger.
Trawling around the interwebs, I found that it isn’t an uncommon failure. I was already going to contact GoPro, but knowing it wasn’t an isolated issue, I felt slightly more confident. Slightly. Having had to deal with large companies, I’m looking at you Apple, before, I knew it could potentially be a drama.
I filled in the web contact form and was contacted via email by Adam C at GoPro. He asked me to send him a copy of the receipt as proof of purchase. That received, he sent me an email with these few lines…
Update for Case #365746 – “Faulty mount causes camera to be destroyed.”
Hi Todd,
We can replace everything (camera, battery, housing, and handlebar/seatpost mount) except for the SD card.
I just issued the sales order for your replacement items. It should ship out by the end of the day tomorrow and get to you in about a week or so.
Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Many Thanks,
Adam C
GoPro Support
www.gopro.com/support
Well, how good is that. And, true to his word, a week later…
Newness!
I would just like to take the opportunity to thank Adam and GoPro for the professional way they dealt with my issue and the pain free replacement of my GoPro. Kudos to them.
Thanks also to Steve McKeirnan on Twitter for prompting this story. 🙂