dynodonn 

Get a portable heater, fix those brakes and squirrel away a small portion of money away each month. No excuses for deferring necessary maintenance. Oh, and the red pickup was a non issue in my book, maybe an issue in yours, but in not mine.

hotbike

I was able to dial-in more brakes! I only needed a pair of needle-nose pliers to turn the ferules ...

I didn't mean to hijack this thread... I was only debating the efficacy of using a camera, while riding, to record what motorists do.

In the case of the red pickup, I figured it out: I Should have Taken the Lane!

spoiledrotten

Check out the Poloroid X100. That's what I have. It's aerodynamic and take really good shots and vid. You can also set it up for time lapse pics along a ride. And it's waterproof without having to buy an extra little cage for it like you do the GoPro.

https://www.amazon.com/Polaroid-Extre.../dp/B00A81SXHI

spoiledrotten

That's what I saw, too. You have to be careful while you are getting shots of others possibly breaking the law. You will incriminate yourself in a heartbeat. You have to obey the law in order to catch others breaking it. You must have "clean hands"!

Digitalfiend

I recently picked up a Sony AZ1 ActionCam. It supports 1080p/60 and 30, has excellent stereo sound (compared to the GoPro), and the battery, which can be swapped out, lasts about 1hr 20min recording in XAVC-S mode (50mbit/sec) at 1080p/60. Quality is reasonably good and although the AZ1 is not as sharp as the Hero 4 Silver/Black, I prefer its size and form factor:
https://www.sony.jp/products/picture/...1_image001.jpg

SteadyShot works pretty well when riding on gravel or pavement; haven't tried it on the trails yet (still too much ice/snow.)

The camera is also splash proof without the case and can be run off an external USB battery; I use a Jackery 3200mAh battery and with the internal battery being 640mAh, that should give me a lot of recording time for longer rides!

Most of my cycling is done in rural areas and while traffic is generally sparse, I've had a few unnecessary close calls with yahoos driving pickup trucks and general idiots. Since many of the roads are remote, there likely won't be any witnesses if I ever do get hit, so having a video recorder is a bit of insurance in the event of an accident.

I-Like-To-Bike

Might also help to have a rational/credible reason to be out getting shots in order to catch others breaking the law.

I-Like-To-Bike

What would that have accomplished in the situation you recorded other than annoying the other users of the road?

JoeyBike

I know many police cars that have stickers emblazoned on them to the effect "Protect and Serve" but police are not really designed for pro-active "Protection". They are designed more like a street gang known as "The Blue Gang" who are hired to passively protect us from the other gangs i.e., the knowledge that if you commit a crime against me my gang is going to come and get you. Therefore, the cops are only going to go into action after a crime has occurred and their role is an investigative one and an "arrest the suspect" role. That's IT. Don't expect anything else.

In other words, cops are there to string yellow tape around your dead body and investigate the circumstances of your death. By removing known criminals from the streets we are more protected from crime later. Never on the front end. This is why so many people pack heat these days - the realization that cops don't, won't, and can't prevent crime person to person. Your job is to protect yourself best you can by not putting yourself in undue dangerous situations. The police will view your video footage after you are dead if you mess up and get squashed in order to do the job they are designed to do.

Tiny video cameras are cool and fun. If you think they are some kind of bicycle safety device, save your money. They are worthless for that purpose. Use the money for some obnoxious lighting visible day and night. You will be better off. And no one is forcing you to ride your bike on dangerous roadways. The cops wish you would stop doing that - it just creates real work for them.

RomansFiveEight

It's interesting that the ideology is that the only use for a video camera is personal protection or evidence. I have a helmet cam, I use it on my motorcycle (yet to use it on the Bicycle but I might). I didn't buy it thinking it would be useful in an accident; it probably would be. I bought it because I wanted to look at my past rides and stuff like that, which is fun! I even post some to YouTube. As a secondary effect, sure, if someone cut me off and claimed I was speeding or rear-ended me and claimed I had braked too hard; I could very succinctly demonstrate that what they were saying was not true. Assuming, of course, it wasn't. But I'm not much of a lead foot so lets assume it won't be.

If I wore a helmet cam on the bike it would be for the same reason. Just to have video of my rides. I think that would be cool! Especially as I train and advance and get better. How fun (and motivating) would it be to go back and watch myself suffer on a hill a month ago that I cruise right on over today. The overlay's using certain head units that some people put on their videos is really cool too.

hotbike

I was about to put my foot down on the curb, on the island, when the light turned green. The light turned green before I went through the light.

Aside from that, I just spent $45.61 on a 16Gb SD memory card for my camera.

Today, it is raining , but a few patches of packed black snow are in the bike lanes, intersections, street parking areas, crosswalks, wheelchair ramps, etc. Then there is Sand. I hope you don't wipe-out when you hit a patch of Sand...

Anyway, I mentioned earlier, I turned the ferrules/adjusting barrels on the brake handles, with a pair of needle nose pliers, so I have more brake now.

BUT, it always seems the camera has to be about 25 feet in FRONT of the car to read the plate number. This may be peculiar to just my camera, and maybe I should invest in a GoPro , or that Polaroid mentioned earlier...

So I have upgraded from 8 gigabytes to 16 gigabytes, because on Thursday, the camera ran plumb out of memory.

I will keep you all updated on the progress of the Bike Cam. I have published 143 Bike Cam videos on YouTube to date. NONE of them had to be used as evidence, or be submitted to the police ( although the camera once caught a scene, where a driver who did do something that annoyed me got pulled over by the police...)

spoiledrotten

Not really sure what you meant by that. Might want to make yourself clear as to who you might be criticizing.
When I take my cam, it's mainly to get shots of our rides. I hope I never have to use it to catch someone doing something stupid or dangerous. I also use mine in my Jeep as a dash cam to catch moments on the trail.

I-Like-To-Bike

Applies to those bicyclists (if any) who are out and about with their cameras with an intent "to catch others breaking the law" and a desire to snitch whatever to whomever in order to perform (in their own eyes) some sort of civic duty.

spoiledrotten

I thought that is what you may have meant. I'm not out to try to catch anyone. I enjoy catching scenery to have memories, not offenders of the law. That guy obviously was and I simply made the statement that if he's going to go out to catch someone doing something wrong, he better not be "catching others" while he's running red lights. He has to have clean hands before he starts accusing others of breaking the law. Just wanted to know what you meant by your statement. I see what you are saying now. Thanks.

hotbike

IMG_7656 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

Here's the photo that shows my non-existant "Bike Lane"^ .

The shoulder diminishes , the LTOL begins, there is a Pole, the sidewalk is dirt, when the shoulder widens it is piled high with snow. All I ask of motorists is that they wait until the bike is PAST the obstructions, so as to move onto the shoulder, before they begin passing the bicycle .
(From the opposite direction)...

IF one were to try to catch lawbreakers with a camera, it would be impossible without a second or third camera, to show the scene from another angle. I think that is the issue here... This was the first video I shot this year, as the roads were covered with snow and ice, I was just using it as an example, and do not intend to make a court case out of it...

snow_echo_NY

i've only read the first page of this thread and i'm absolutely amazed. incredible, the stories here.

hopefully will get thru the rest of this post.

ItsJustMe

You should stop buying your SD cards in 2011. 16GB SD cards are < $10. The best one I could find on Amazon, a Samsung EVO (top rated) was $12.

If you replace your cam, it should have a loop mode where they never run out of memory.

genesplitter

It is possible to run out of memory with the GoPro loop mode. Here is how loop works:

1) On Monday do a video on an empty card. I use a 32 Gb card in my GoPro Hero 3+. When you press "stop" the full video is recorded because my card is huge.
2) Start another loop video on Tuesday. Again I have the full Tuesday video and Monday as well and I still have 3 minutes of free space.
3) Start another loop video on Wednesday. When I press start I only had 3 minutes of free space on my almost-full 32 Gb card and I just get an error saying not enough space. GoPro *will not* write over Monday or Tuesday videos because they are not part of the current loop. Overwriting only happens with the current (Wednesday's) loop.

So I cannot press record on Wednesday unless I delete Monday and/or Tuesday files. If you think about this, this is actually good for me. Maybe Monday or Tuesday I had a horrible accident recorded. I want to be forced to manually delete those previous loops instead of having GoPro auto-overwriting them. Because of this I am now fast at navigating the "delete all" feature using the tiny camera buttons.

Chris516

Well, I was able to go to my LBS and get:

1. Chest Mount Strap(Gopro website price $40) 50% off
2. Battery(for Hero 4)(Gopro website price $50) 60% off
3. Lens Cover Kit(Gopro website price $20) 0% off

At Best Buy:
1. 64GB Memory Card(Gopro website price $80) 15% off

The LBS was having their annual sale in order to bring in the new bikes, biking accessories, and biking/outdoor apparel.

Best Buy was a coincidence. I had originally been told a couple weeks ago. That the card was only available from their website. I went in out of curiosity, thinking 'Just maybe it wasn't true'.

So, Now I just need to save up for the Hero 4, and the battery charger for the Hero 4.

hotbike

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention, I got screwed on the price of that SD card. I usually buy them "on sale", for $9.79 (8 Gig) , but I wanted one right now, so I paid top-dollar... I DID shop around, the other stores wanted $51 and $54 dollars respectively... I hope the SD card doesn't become like VHS tape, obsolete, too soon...

IMG_7714 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr
I was in New York City yesterday, and I did catch a Yellow Cab coming a little too close to me... I think he did it on purpose , the driver is looking right at me, I see his eyeballs...

RomansFiveEight

SD is a constantly evolving standard. Older devices won't work with newer, larger SD cards (SDHC and SDXC); though your newer devices should be backwards compatible with those older cards (though they are slower, and it might not be able to keep up with the video feed!)

And, yikes! But I'm not always convinced eyeballs mean they see you. I swear people have looked right through me on the motorcycle. Or looked right AT me, and pulled out in front of me anyway. The way that cabbie is looking at you, you might as well be a light pole or a trash can he's just trying to squeeze around.

Has anyone played around with DashWare? I know the purposes of this thread are mostly to catch lawbreakers and what not; but for those of us who just record the occasional ride for fun; it's pretty neat! It's free now, since the company got bought out by GoPro. It lets you take telemetry data from your ride (usually in the form of a GPX file) and overlay it on the video in the form of gauges. I played around with it yesterday. Got speed, heart rate, cadence, climbing data, and even a little map of my route on there. Anyway, I think it's neat

ItsJustMe

That's how loop works *on a GoPro* not with any other (properly designed) camera.

This is one of the reasons I sold my GoPro and went to, well, anything else. GoPro has horrible firmware, it's like they don't even know how this stuff is supposed to work. Loop mode is loop mode. Record 5 minutes, start a new one. Record over the oldest, whether it's today or 2 weeks ago.

Back when I had mine (a Hero3 White) it was hands down the worst firmware I've ever dealt with including $35 keychain cameras. It crashed, it had inexplicable bugs, it did dumb stuff like outlined on loop, it buggered up my SD cards so that they wouldn't work on anything else.

I was never so happy to see the back end of a camera more than that one. It's good that there are so many choices in action cams these days, so I don't have to give those guys money anymore.

JoeyBike

+1

I have been using Contour cameras since i was BETA testing them back in 2006. I was also sponsored by them. There were very few choices in action cams back then. I also sold Contour cameras from a retail bike shop. Then they switched to GoPro. I hate pretty much EVERYTHING about GoPro from the stupid shape, dumb mounts, tiny buttons, lost or corrupted files, unnecessary features that probably contribute to the camera's quirkyness, mysterious file deletions, etc. I could go on and on. My Contour cameras just work. Charge them up, point em down the road, turn them on/off with giant mittens while hang gliding and opening a breakfast burrito. Once the camera is on, forget about it. Just make sure the lens is clean and you are good to go.

I have never been able to verbally sell GoPro at the bike shop. I just ring them up at the cash register. Marketing does the selling. I keep my mouth shut.

ItsJustMe

yeah, if you walk into a store, they're still selling stock from 5 years ago, their prices weren't great then and they think that if they paid $25 for it then, they should sell it for $50, even though the going price for it has dropped to $8 in the mean time. I once knew a woman who ran a camera store and refused to drop her margin, so when she retired she had tens of thousands of dollars of completely obsolete crap in inventory, like an 8MM camcorder that still has a $1500 price tag on it, and was worth maybe $50 on eBay.

genec

Oh, so any other camera will simply write over previous days' saved recordings when you push a loop feature. Hmmmm that seems like a bug to me. You should never be able to overwrite a previous recording without some sort of intervention... at least a button that says "you sure you want to do this..."

genec