I own, and use, mirrors every ride. I won't make a lane change without checking my mirrors. That said, I stand by my earlier observation that a mirror would not have been of much use in the incident that was described above. And, no, you are not supposed to ride in the lane. You are supposed to ride to the side of the lane out of the path of vehicle traffic. That's the law here and most everywhere else that I know of.

H

Glad to hear you're ok.

Where is "here"? Bikes are vehicle traffic. Your laws say that bikes have to ride on the shoulder? (if shoulders are even available)

I'm a realist. The cop was a bit of a dick, but he did his job. I have no desire to waste my time whining to his superior that he could have been more sensitive. I'll just ***** about him on the net like any good American. And I don't see how this crime could be solved, no witnesses, admittedly shaky description from me, and if I left a mark on the vehicle it's just going to blend in with the others (old pickup that had seen better days).

For the poster wondering where this happened, it was eastbound on 11th, just west of Garnet. I was "in" the right lane. It had rained and I was moving in the lane as needed to avoid puddles near the curb. When i was struck i was on the left side of the right hand lane. i have deduced that he probably hit me with the drivers side front bumper which means he just drove straight into me without attempting to avoid. Who knows, drunk, dirty windshield, no headlights, texting...the list goes on.

As a safety trainer for a large trucking company my day job is to prevent accidents, and I've been thinking about what I could have done to prevent this. Obviously I have no control over the other driver, I'll let karma take care of him, but what could I have done to try and prevent this? Maybe nothing, maybe no amount of flashers, vests, mirrors, or force fields would have helped. Nothing in life is without risk, and if you spend too much time trying to mitigate it, life stops being enjoyable.

I've been meaning to get a mirror, might have helped-as a truck driver I'm pretty used to monitoring them without losing my forward focus.- call it 50/50 but it's not a huge impact on my wallet or enjoyment of my ride.

Safety vest? considering the brightness of my flasher I don't think visibility was a factor, but I'm thinking better to have too much than not enough. No telling what is going to catch their eye. Add reflective tape to this list also.

Camera? Doubt it would have worked or survived the impact. It was dark and wet, add my flasher and the oncoming headlights and I doubt there would have been any useful information gathered. Too much money and something else i have to worry about maintaining for probably no payoff.

For the poster who mentioned my helmet, definitely getting a new one. no worries there.

Only other thing i can think of is the bike and my route. Even if I had spotted him coming in my mirror, I haven't really practiced jumping up the curb at speed in a long time, or if I don't want to be bike specific and go to something more suited to jumping curbs maybe my reaction to perceived threats should be to slow down or stop and get as close to the curb as possible. As for route, I might be able to vary it, but the area i would have to travel through, although it might have slower traffic, it might expose me to nefarious activities.

Is there any excuse for the guy hitting me? Nope, i was well within my rights to be there. Could I have done more to prevent it? I'm going to say yes and take action to correct my deficiencies. Could it happen again even though I've taken action? Of course, but who knows, if I'd continued driving my car, I might have been t-boned by a dump truck. You leave the house, you take the risk. heck! you're not even safe in your own house. Don't get me started on bathtubs and power tools.

Be safe everyone.

a) drunk asshat
b) asshat without a valid license
c) asshat, N.O.S.
d) all of the above


+1k

cops lack resources (everything from bicycle training to manpower) and if you walked away, that makes the incident low priority. video is a total game-changer; it turns the cops' job of finding a hit-n-run driver from something that could take hundreds of hours of resources with low probability of a prosecution, to something that could take less than an hour and result in a high probability of prosecution.

The only thing that really needs to survive the impact is the data card, and they almost certainly will.

Get the kind of vest with the silver tape. I have one and am amazed at how much they stand out when I see them on others while driving.

Also consider this http://store.dinottelighting.com/300...tery-p111.aspx

Even then, would they capture any valuable information in such poor conditions.

Sigh, another one of these threads...

Need to get a camera or get a car =X

one never knows. there have been times when i've been surprised by getting a plate capture, and there have been times when i've been surprised to not get a plate capture. there are no guarantees. all i can say is the HERO2s do better than any of the other cameras i've used.

it also helps to mount a wide-angle light (eg red-zone-4) near the camera. this will reflect off of plates and often results in some very crisp plate captures, even at night, even with headlights pointed at the camera.

the other "trick" is to run multiple cameras. four cameras = 4x the chance of getting a plate on video.

reflective vest and reflective ankle bands make a huge difference in your visibility in the dark

Looks pretty cool. Doesn't have the resolution options as the GoPro, but it's only a third the cost. My only concern is at 30FPS, I wonder if you could capture a tag# on a moving vehicle very well.

Go to Ram mounts and look at the smaller balls. They screw in the bottom of the Kodak, then there are brackets that you could mount to the seatpost.

Oh yeah, it's one of those Kodak Play Sport cameras. HD 1080 just like the GoPro. It's actually better underwater than the GoPro.

I don't have a rack, but I have thought about designing a holder that could attach to the seat post. I kinda sketched up this claw looking, Voyage to The Bottom of the Sea flying sub thingamajig in SolidWorks. But I'm not too happy with it. I could machine away most of the material to lighten it up, but I think it's still too bulky.

I'm really surprised with the technology that they put in cellphones and laptops, that they haven't come up with a good remote lens setup like I mentioned before. I bet you can get something like that, but it's probably wicked expensive. You know something like a surveillance camera....

in direct sunlight, 60fps may come out ahead. in other conditions (less light, low speed differential) 30fps may come out ahead. there are a lot of variables, and no One Right Answer™.

IMHO, the HERO2 is the best bike camera (and impartial witness) for the money, overall.

Agreed, the other thing that improves visibility is a good Planet Bike Super Flash. My neighbors are always telling me they can see me from long distances in the mornings as they leave for work.

Believe it or not.. I have been equally impressed with the little "Spock" lights too. They sure are bright for being such a small light.

Yeah, I have the Hero2. I really like it, but I was messed up when I took it on a drift dive in Florida, and the resolution is just like opening your naked eyes underwater.

That still really bums me out.

But as far as dry land, the GoPro should catch most any image if it's within aspect range.

Oh Yeah, I see what you are talking about...I was just wanting something a little more secure than just that one screw mount. That's just tapped plastic. I'm not too sure about the strength of those threads and the vibration that they would be subject to on my bike. But I will google it and have a look..Thanks!

Wow! aren't we just a load of techno-freds! Our bikes are going to become something similar to Darth Vader..More technology than machine...twisted and evil. :eek:

i'm not an expert on underwater use (i always ride the bike on land), but there's at least one after-market lens adaptor thing for using it underwater.

Gosh, no wonder it was so hard to pedal! I saw that when I started investigating the problem. Need to get one of those...

Hey New Zealand! Have you seen any Hobbits down under mate?

Can't wait until Dec 14th...

i haven't seen any hobbits.... but there are plenty of muppets, driving cars.

:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:

As long as they aren't rear-ending cyclists! Sorry OP, I don't mean to make light of your situation...

One thing I've found with my 1.3mp Vivitar camera is the audio sensitivity is very high. Visually in less than daylight(like mornings) the resolution is not particularly high, but usable. The place where it shines is when I talk to it. Even in traffic I can talk a little above conversation level and describe scenarios/licenses. There have been times where I have actually timed/observed cars from the behind until out of sight forward with the audio portion. It takes a bit of composure to call the situation while riding but it provides a constructive outlet and at least the 'black box' factor would be good in the event of a crash to determine forensically what the incoming car's throttle/speed was.

For real... this one just slays me... ...

Too right. It might be just me but I would also like to survive the $%^$# impact. Fat lot of good the #@$% data is going to do my corpse. Oh, did you see #40... four camera's... to get a plate number... so the insurance company will pay the ex you already gave a quarter million to even more money. Stop please, just stop, you're killing me here...

H

What part of "stop, please, stop" is so #$%% hard to understand?

Several years ago I was taking my 5th grade classroom on a bicycling field trip, and thought it would be good to have a police officer come in and talk to the kids about bicycle safety and rules of the road. So "Barney Fife" started talking about where to ride and not ride. He then commenced to teach the kids how to signal, but to my dismay, he had some of them wrong. After he left, I had to reteach them the correct signals and told them that some of the signals he was teaching could be disastrous. The next year I taught them myself.

You run 4 cameras?

Have you used the GoPro?

What works for you may not work for others. Remember, each person rides in a different part of the world. You are entitled to your own opinion but to be frank, this opinion doesnt really help.

Then why the he11 do you look at this thread? seriously.

PM sent. feel free to copy-n-paste if it advances the thread.