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Anyone using a drone with Follow Me capability? regularly?

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Anyone using a drone with Follow Me capability? regularly?

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Old 08-01-25 | 05:15 AM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by Road Fan
I guess you’d be limited to riding with zero overhead trees, power lines, hanging traffic control lights (across intersections) and stop -hover-start control of the drone? Sounds like a big distraction for the cyclist, possibly.

What if a bird “likes” your drone?

Call me a pessimist but I don’t see an offsetting upside to running a drone while out for a nice bike ride!
Well, if you like flying drones and taking photos/video and telling stories, then you are adding it riding. If you're not into that stuff, that's ok too. I enjoy that stuff and do it on and off the bike.

Originally Posted by Iride01
john m flores I appreciate and envy those like you that can take a bunch of video footage and perform the tedious editing to put sequence together that make them enjoyable or just interesting to watch.

I use to ride with my son's camera's on my bike for certain events. And he'd do all the editing to put something interesting together. He also has a knack for that. But not the time any more. He's told me, now that I have my own cameras, that I have to learn to do it myself. <grin>
Thanks. You're not alone in hating editing. I do too lol. But it's kind of like climbing a big hill - you lowkey hate the process but like the end result!
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Old 08-01-25 | 09:31 AM
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Originally Posted by john m flores
Well, if you like flying drones and taking photos/video and telling stories, then you are adding it riding. ...
Thanks.
Was hoping some might post videos.
Maybe more to come?
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Old 08-02-25 | 08:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Wildwood
Thanks.
Was hoping some might post videos.
Maybe more to come?
Hopefully others post. I've got more riding videos on my YouTube channel
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Old 08-03-25 | 06:01 AM
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This is an interesting discussion. I think the product is amazing, but I'm with the others who say it's too expensive, complicated, and time consuming. I don't even want to buy a GPS computer or an action camera. I do obsessively record every ride (except when I forget), and I tried a GPS computer, and it was too much. Some feel an action camera is essential for assigning liability in a collision, and they have a point, but it's already too involved for me to start a ride: If it's a cold month, I have to bind my pants cuffs. Make sure I have my roadside toolkit, put on gloves and helmet, adjust my rearview mirror. Are my lights working and charged? Will I listen to podcasts? Sometimes I take Citi Bike just so I don't need to worry about equipment. I usually bring my helmet when I ride Citi Bike, but sometimes I don't even do that. When we were kids, to ride, we swung a leg over the bike and started pedaling.

I think drones are super cool, and I love what they make. I may need to learn to edit videos for my next job, but it seems tedious.
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Old 08-03-25 | 01:56 PM
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Originally Posted by noglider
This is an interesting discussion. I think the product is amazing, but I'm with the others who say it's too expensive, complicated, and time consuming. I don't even want to buy a GPS computer or an action camera. I do obsessively record every ride (except when I forget), and I tried a GPS computer, and it was too much. Some feel an action camera is essential for assigning liability in a collision, and they have a point, but it's already too involved for me to start a ride: If it's a cold month, I have to bind my pants cuffs. Make sure I have my roadside toolkit, put on gloves and helmet, adjust my rearview mirror. Are my lights working and charged? Will I listen to podcasts? Sometimes I take Citi Bike just so I don't need to worry about equipment. I usually bring my helmet when I ride Citi Bike, but sometimes I don't even do that. When we were kids, to ride, we swung a leg over the bike and started pedaling.

I think drones are super cool, and I love what they make. I may need to learn to edit videos for my next job, but it seems tedious.
The DJI Neo is game changing - $200 and with automated flight paths. You turn it on, set the flight path (i.e., - straight and down, fly away and rise and then return, circle the subject, follow subject etc... - and then launch it from your hand.



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Old 08-13-25 | 12:31 PM
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Originally Posted by noglider
When we were kids, to ride, we swung a leg over the bike and started pedaling.
yup. I didn't even have a water bottle cage
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Old 08-13-25 | 12:42 PM
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Originally Posted by john m flores
The DJI Neo is game changing - $200 and with automated flight paths. You turn it on, set the flight path (i.e., - straight and down, fly away and rise and then return, circle the subject, follow subject etc... - and then launch it from your hand.
hmmm
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Old 08-14-25 | 09:23 AM
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Originally Posted by rumrunn6
Recently saw(HEARD) something very similar to that at a tourist stop in Japan. It was really pretty annoying.
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Old 08-14-25 | 09:38 AM
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Originally Posted by L134
Recently saw(HEARD) something very similar to that at a tourist stop in Japan. It was really pretty annoying.
yeah & they remind me of the Ukraine/Russian battle field videos. just horrifying
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Old 08-14-25 | 09:52 AM
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At the end of the recent abbreviated London Edinburgh London ride, I was clapping for finishers, a dude came along with a follow drone.

My thought, whether 50+ influenced or not, was meh.
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Old 08-14-25 | 01:26 PM
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Editing, including music and narration, is the missing ingredient whenever I think about trying any kind of video thing. Do I want to edit out anything my cute kid said in order to make the video short enough for grandma not to lose interest?

Eric Porter posted a sequence of videos a few years ago when he lost a drone in a tree during a hike-up-ski-down trip with his son, and went back for it in the summer with lineman-lumberjack tree-climbing gear
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Old 08-14-25 | 02:40 PM
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Originally Posted by noglider
When we were kids, to ride, we swung a leg over the bike and started pedaling.
Originally Posted by rumrunn6
yup. I didn't even have a water bottle cage
And without a helicoptering parent, or an electronic nanny. Somehow didn't get lost, or suffer from the lack of a recorded metric or video from each day's ride.


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Old 08-14-25 | 06:53 PM
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
And without a helicoptering parent, or an electronic nanny. Somehow didn't get lost, or suffer from the lack of a recorded metric or video from each day's ride.
I respect both approaches. I remember the day of no pictures or videos. I wish I had pictures of me on my bike. I have none. I write a fair bit, and I realize that I need to journal, and I'm going to do it more than ever. But if you don't like to, I get it.
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Old 08-15-25 | 06:13 AM
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
And without a helicoptering parent, or an electronic nanny. Somehow didn't get lost, or suffer from the lack of a recorded metric or video from each day's ride.

I got lost plenty. I got pretty good at getting myself unlost. Once asked a farmer which way to the city, and he said, "which city?" That startled me.
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Old 08-15-25 | 07:41 AM
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for a few years I've been experimenting with aerial kite photography but not while cycling. however I did try one time! hahaha. did not have enough wind to get it up so I tried cycling & that provided just enough lift, but never got it very high, that day

I should try this spot again, it's really pretty

I've since moved on to a better kite & camera, but this was my setup at that time (2021)


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Old 08-15-25 | 08:01 AM
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Originally Posted by rumrunn6
for a few years I've been experimenting with aerial kite photography but not while cycling. however I did try one time! hahaha. did not have enough wind to get it up so I tried cycling & that provided just enough lift, but never got it very high, that day

I should try this spot again, it's really pretty

I've since moved on to a better kite & camera, but this was my setup at that time (2021)
What a super cool idea and unique perspective of a near area. Please post images if you do try this again!
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