Cold temperatures definately shorten battery life. When you shop around, write to the manufacturers if you can buy extra batteries. And when you're riding around, you may want to keep your spare batteries warm with your own body heat.

Manufacturers' websites usually list their camera's operating temperature range. For all the cameras I have investigated, most go down to -10C and +55C as the hottest. A few have a narrower range.

Thanks for the tips. The camera will serve dual roles on the deck of a seakayak as well as on my bike. I doubt that it will ever see any days where the mercury takes a steep dive but more in the range of -5C to -10C max.

The simple shapes of some video cameras -- the Drift models, older cylindrical Ion and similar cameras -- would make it easy to fabricate warmers from neoprene. Just cut and glue or stitch the edges. The operating heat itself will keep it warmer in winter.

Wow.
I check the A&S forum fairly regularly and I also regularly keep an eye on the news and I cannot understand how I missed all of the recent truck driving homicidal maniacs you referenced.
Also missed all the heartless hit and runs you mentioned.
Based upon your comments I’m guessing there must have been dozens of them in the past month alone :rolleyes:

You really enjoy tempting fate, don't you? :lol:

They're out there. Most aren't as flagrant as this guy, who had a history of assault with a motor vehicle, and was finally sent to prison after a motorcyclist with a camera recorded the driver deliberately striking another motorcycle. And the driver's first response when confronted was "I don't care," before concocting a string of excuses.

There have been several hit and runs against cyclists in my area, most of them fatal. Only one to my knowledge resulted in an arrest, because it was caught by a surveillance video that was better than average quality, and there was a witness to help some with ID. Most such incident are never even reported by the news. We hear about it mostly through social media pages run by folks who monitor police and fire scanners day and night and post summaries of noteworthy incidents. Many victims are lumped into the "homeless, street person, vagrant" category of "nobodies" so their deaths are never investigated.

Several local cycling friends have reported assaults and attempted assaults or menacing by drivers swerving at them. But they still don't carry cameras for some reason.

Without video we'll never know the apparent intent of the many drivers who claimed "The sun was in my eyes!" or "I was distracted by blahblahblah" or "I never saw the cyclist directly in front of me! It came out of nowhere ... on the road ... directly in front of me ... wearing colorful clothing and flashing lights..."

I suspect many of these incidents are spontaneous, drivers with aggression and poor impulse control, who probably didn't set out that day to injury someone but couldn't resist a brush-by pass that went badly, or didn't think of the consequences of even a slow speed strike against someone on a bicycle or motorcycle. When I rode motorcycles I was struck from behind several times, always when stopped at intersections. And the drivers always said the same stupid thing: "I didn't see you!" If I still rode motorcycles I'd never ride without cameras facing front, rear on the bike, and on my helmet for POV shots.

In four years I've ridden without a camera once... the day I was hit by a car. I'd forgotten to recharge the camera battery and left it home. In retrospect I should have stuffed it onto a pocket with a USB battery to recharge so I'd at least have it available later. And some cameras can be run and charged simultaneously (I have a couple of those now).

They don't add much weight or bulk, even to my lightest road bikes. You'd barely even notice them, so they aren't really an effective deterrent to a hostile driver.

The only problem is camera mounts. I like Drift cameras but their bike mounts aren't great. Their primary market is motorcyclists and they supply a good, simple helmet mount with strong 3M adhesive -- but it's not quite right for vented road bike helmets. I tried rigging one to a new-to-me bike with a much thicker diameter seat post, and it expanded the clamp so much the thumbscrews chafed the insides of my thighs raw. So I'm back to wearing a helmet mounted camera on that bike until I can sort out how to mount a rear facing camera.

Other than that, I can't come up with a valid reason not to record every ride for my own safety. I've told family and friends if I'm ever struck and unconscious or killed, ask the police to check my cameras. And if the cameras appear to be missing, check the roadsides or find out whether the person who struck me stole them, because I will always wear a camera on my person or bike. No exceptions since being struck by a driver who denied any responsibility.

Hi,

FWIW I bought two cameras, one for front and one for rear to test out. They are the Crosstour CT7000 cameras. They come with a lot of different mounts, two batteries each and a Micro SD card. They are about $30 USD each. I've been using them for about a year and they work fine for what I do. I did loose one when it fell off the mount while riding and busted. They are plastic but they do come with a water proof case for mounting.

I'm looking for another type (better quality) camera to replace the one I lost. I certainly will use a front and a rear camera as you never know.

I will check out some of the cameras others mention here on this post to see if I find one that will work for my riding.

I use a Rylo 360 degree camera. Excellent resolution (it can capture plate numbers.) And, it really does 'see' in 360 degrees - behind, ahead, beside, above, and below. As someone mentioned, if you have a fixed view camera, and your bike is flying through the air, it may not catch that important bit of info. I have it mounted on the left hand end of my handlebars, so it gets a good view of traffic approaching, passing, and going by. Great for nabbing video of the pickup truck that "rolled coal" as he went past me. (Driver was cited after I showed the tape to the sheriff.)
Battery life is not ideal (about 45 minutes to 1 hour) so I have to bring spare batteries on my ride, but it gives me an excuse to stop, change the battery, grab a snack, and hydrate.
Unfortunately, they aren't made anymore. :notamused: Should mine go bad, I've already decided on a GoPro 360 cam. Pricey, but worth it IMHO.

We are on the same page! I have the GoPro 360 and the pipe mount (AMHSM-001) as it is low-profile and very adjustable. I have used the 360 on several rides and it is simply amazing how much it can get on the lower segment of the LH side. Can make for some good footage on mountain roads for fun, but is critical if a motor vehicle incident happens. I have a second batter as well, but for the longer rides, that isn't enough. The image stabilization from GoPro is also superior. I have thought about using the Hero 9 on the back and run with the 25sec rolling feature (won't record onto chip until you decide to capture event). But then if I'm hit and unable to save, then the critical footage is lost.

I wish that CycleIQ were better with customer service. I also wish that their products were more reliable. That company is really onto something for cyclists' safety and we need more of this from other manufacturers. Perhaps Garmin could buy GoPro and make the ultimate suite of cycling safety products. Covid has put more people on bikes, so the market is certainly more favorable for more cycling safety products.

Stay safe, and be well.

be very careful w Cycliq - their customer service has been awful of late. Still waiting after a week+ of emails, tweets, and requests for service via their website - no response.

Another thing to consider is the audio recording. Having video evidence of what happened during an incidence is one thing. Recording what was actually said in a conflict may be very important.

Unfortunately, the recordings from the built-in microphones are very weak. And if the camera is in its waterproof case, the audio is even worse. Even GoPro has this problem.

If anybody has used an external microphone or a separate audio recorder, please advise how they turn out. Can they pick up a conversation with someone ten feet away? The other day as I was riding out of a park trail, a lady yelled out from her car that she liked my helmet camera. On the video, you couldn't hear anything that she said.