I keep forgetting to post about this thing. Getting the camera out to take photos is often prohibitively time consuming.

I mounted this little gadget onto my gear using the little needle screw. I went through the flap on one of the pockets.

The adventure camera gets attached to the retractable lanyard. Simply pull the camera to take a photo and then let it go and it snaps back into place. 

I'm going to try this with a GoPro. 

Hmm. I use it with my adventure camera which works out quite well but not sure how well it would work with a GoPro.

I aim to find out. It's only $20.

I bought one of these years ago but my camera was too heavy for it to work effectively.  This one has a 9oz retraction force.  Is that enough for you?
They also have one with 12oz retraction force.  Do you know what your camera weighs, and do you wish you had a little more retraction force so the camera doesn't flop down beside your feet if you drop it?

Thanks for sharing this.

I don't know how much my camera weighs but if I let it go it retracts but not that fast. The advantage for me is that the lesser force makes it easier to hold the camera steady with my left hand while riding.

So it looks like the one I linked to above with only 9oz of force is not strong enough. I bought one and finally tried it only to realize it was not the same as the one I already had. 

I'm ordering this one which has 24oz of force to see if it works better. I'll report back once I've had a chance to try it.

Third time's a charm. I apologize for linking to the wrong item. I've now gone through three of these but have finally found the right one. It's this one:
It's strong enough to hold my pocket adventure camera and I have just used it on a 6 day tour through West Virginia and North Carolina.

My experiment tethering a GoPro camera this way is over. I carried the camera everywhere but so rarely used it. The tether was too restrictive and cumbersome. I still have the tether, it works great.