Have Helmet Cameras been Banned at UCI MTB races?

At the starting line of South Africa's season opening mountainbike race, the EQSTRA Spring Classic, we heard the announcer saying that helmet cameras, chest cams, bike cameras and anything of the sort were not allowed at the race. What a bummer! They said this was a new rule passed by the UCI recently as the helmet cameras are referred to as non-essential items on a race.

What a load of ****! Of course they're essential! Essential for catching the awesomeness of the race and for bragging rights afterwards. This announcement didn't stop us as we promptly clipped our cameras back onto our helmets once we were passed the race officials on the start line.... And we got some awesome footage from the race!

After a bit of research it seems that this is not a recent rule of the UCI but was in fact put in place in 2009. Although this is in the rulebooks of the UCI it has never been seriously enforced - as you can easily tell from all the awesome helmet cam race footage popping up on YouTube and Freecaster from all the big races. Part of this rule is that they reserve the right to use helmet cams for TV footage purposes if they choose (this seems a bit unfair to us!).

I can understand some of the reasons for this rule such as some people struggle to stay on their bikes without having the distraction of trying to operate a camera mounted on top of their helmet during a race. Some people may also arguably ride a bit more flashy (risky) if they know they'll be showing the video off to their mates later on.

But what about the positives of these races being filmed by the riders themselves? Surely event organisers would love that the riders are posting in-action videos and photos from the mornings ride on facebook! This would almost definitely bring more riders to the next event or to the same event the following year.

Having videos of the course online can also help potential riders make up their mind as to whether the MTB race they're considering is too technical or not for them.

And lets not forget that having these helmet cam videos being shared freely online would be awesome for the mountain biking sport as a whole!

Cameras like the GoPro, Drift HD and the Contour cameras have been around for ages and I hope the event organisers aren't going to start spoiling peoples fun by banning the cameras at upcomming events. Because, as it seems, this UCI rule on helmet cameras is only as enforceable as each individual ride organiser wants it to be. They haven't been banned so much as frowned upon but this ain't going to stop us using the cameras over the rest of the upcoming races this season.

Feel free to get hold of us at www.actioncameras.co.za if you have any questions on this.