Anyone have cameras on their bikes?
 

So a buddy of mine was involved in a car/bike collision. To make a long story short, after the collision he put a combination light/camera on the front and back of his bike. The camera records to some internal flash memory and can hold five hours (I think) of riding. For him it provides a bit of mental insurance should he ever be involved with a crash again.

Are you guys doing this too? I just take my chances out there on the road but maybe having a bit of video evidence isn't such a bad idea. Thoughts?

Yes. Rear always going. Front when I think I may need it (battery life is much less).

I've used video coverage in court for dogs twice myself already and once for someone else (which is why I got the cameras in the first place).

OP: Yes, get one ASAP. People lie, and adrenaline can alter our own perceptions of what really happened. Cameras don't lie, and never blink, daydream, or make stuff up.

I've been considering the Cycliq Fly12 and Fly6 front/rear cam combo, more for capturing action vid than evidentiary content, but they certainly function as the OP described.

I have a Fly 12. Some typical footage:


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...81641aecbc.jpg


If I want good photos, I carry a real camera. The Fly 12 footage does not look that great photographically to me. The fisheye lens can't be turned off, so everything is distorted. Colors are not very vivid. I find the camera mainly useful for evidentiary purposes. Details beyond whether a traffic light is red or green, or digits a plate number if you pause the video at just the right instant, are really not there. You may catch an occasional pleasing shot like the ones below, but lets face it, it ain't a freakin' Leica.

Even with zoom, in the pic above, neither plate number is readable.

Edit: patrol car "05" is readable,tho.

Yeah, my eyes, as bad as they are, are 100 times better at picking out details than a $400 1080p bike camera. I was a little disappointed at the image quality, but such is the state of current bike camera technology. Check back in 5 years and I'm sure the tech will be much better. Cheaper too, though you might get run over tomorrow, so you just have to jump in at some point if you really want one of these.

Car dashcams are about the same. 1080p for a tiny battery-operated camera is actually really good if you look at what camera technology was like 10 years ago. But it's still not quite enough to capture readable images of far-away license plates; this is why the high-end car dashcams are going to 2160p and 4k. My car's dashcam is 2160p, but is also probably is more power-hungry than a bike cam which needs to operate on a battery.

camera? yes! experimented with it on helmet facing forward & back but haven't worked on doing both simultaneously

I use a front action camera, Polaroid XS100, when commuting, but the battery doesn't last long enough for recreational rides (2 - 2.5 hrs vs. the 60-90 min typically gotten with GoPro-style cameras). The quality is ok enough to usually spot a license plate number if I step through the video frame-by-frame. I've been tempted to report close call and traffic violation incidents, but never have because I've heard that the police do nothing unless there was an actual injury.

The Cycliq cameras seem to be the only ones designed for cycling but I've just seen so many complaints about their reliability that I'm very reluctant to drop hundreds of bucks on one. While GoPros don't have much battery life, there are lots of external battery options, so I've been considering something like the new Hero 7 Black.

The memory can hold five hours, but the battery life will be much shorter. That is why I do not bother, the battery life is too short to be useful. Do not want to change batteries mid-ride.

Lot's of threads on this topic I'm pretty sure. I don't have cameras but plan on getting them soon. I agree with the others - people lie, leave the scene, etc. My hope is that one day as cameras get cheaper and cheaper, most cyclists will have them, and most drivers will know that, thereby hopefully creating a safer riding world.

I got a good price on the shimano cm-2000.
It has lots of handy features, including:
- phone app for monitoring the image and remote control
- records location and ant+ sensor data along with the video
- can be programmed to start/stop recording by position, speed, hr
- uses the same mount as a gopro

The battery life is only about 90 minutes, which is ok for the commute but isn't that great for longer rides.
I guess there is a spare battery available now. I may get one.

I've got two Ion Lite cameras:
https://www.amazon.ca/Ion-1011L-Lite.../dp/B00FZ3JTGI

One on top of the helmet for front facing and one under the saddle for rear view. The battery life is decent at 150 minutes, which exceeds most Go-Pro type cameras. Quality is 1080 at 30 fps. It's good enough for my needs, and besides, at $90 CAD a piece, it's pretty worth it. The only glitch is the mounting hole on the bottom of the camera is plastic and the thread can be stripped easily if you are not careful, but there are work-arounds for it.

Not for me.

They may come in handy as some people say and have experienced, but they don't capture everything, in fact, they can miss the most important things. They can capture your own negligence too. The other day I watched a guy in a high-vis vest on fendered hybrid, all Safety Sam looking with a camera strapped to his helmet weaving through traffic against the light at an intersection. Nothing particularly hazardous, but I wanted to ride up behind him and smack that camera off his helmet, just for being so self-absorbed and such an egregious scofflaw. :rolleyes:

Ever since I was a kid, early '70s way before the technology was widely available or anything like what we know now, I was aware of "spy cameras" and imagined that someone could be recording anything and everything. I thought it was creepy then, and I still do.

A camera won't offer any protection or prevent any mishaps, and the idea of dealing with hours of boring video footage just to find an interesting clip makes my brain hurt. I have a hard enough time managing stills.

If you're into gadgets, have at it - just don't expect me to get one.

Almost every ride I see something interesting worth a second look, unfortunately it's often a dangerous pass. But ... it's better to have what happens saved on video than not, even if you don't survive the incident. Your family might use the video to sue some driver for millions, who would have otherwise escaped scot-free. And the police might use the video to arrest the driver who killed you (hey, anything is possible).

I use both a Fly 6 and 12. Mostly so that my family can see the license plate of the doofus that kills me and runs.

The image quality is little concern given the use case.

The batteries last 8 hours which is enough for my century rides or a week of commuting.

As for the interesting things I see on rides, much of the time, it's on the side of the road, not in front, i.e., not something a camera aimed forward (or back) is likely to capture well. Maybe if I weren't such a terrible photographer I'd have more faith in the ability of such a camera to capture a view worth keeping.

As for the other part, well... it sounds like a very morbid kind of lottery ticket. I guess it's cheaper than life insurance, but what are the chances that the person who caused ones death or disability would have assets or a policy worth millions from which to recover? - and that's assuming that they were sufficiently negligent or less cautious than the cyclist, such that damages could even be awarded. Remember, it's not enough that the other person is negligent - they have to be more negligent and less cautious than you, and if the video shows you doing something that those on the jury wouldn't have done (doesn't matter how safe you thought you were being), your estate could be SOL. :( Sure, there are a lot of negligent drivers out there, and sure, people use videos to prove it to their advantage, but that's not the kind of thing I want to be involved in.

I prefer my positive speculation to your negative speculation. Let's face it, no one knows how such a situation would ultimately play out in court in front of a jury. 99% of civil cases never go to trial anyway.

I will let someone else worry about all that, because i will be dead at that point, and probably have more pressing concerns on my mind. I'm just gonna do all I can to capture evidence, let the cards fall where they may, and allow our often-useless and generally ineffective justice system to do its job.

Besides, I already bought the damn camera, might as well use it. And I would buy one again, I've had a lot of fun with mine so far, no regrets.

I'd say it depends where you ride. When I lived in NYC/NJ area, I rode with front & back Fly 6 & Fly 12. Every day, every ride. I found that it was pretty good at capturing license plates (in the above footage, since it's a still you can't go back but in the actual video you could rewind to where the cars are just passing the camera and you'd probably be able to read the plate). However, they really prove useful if you're in an accident and the car doesn't run, then there's no doubt whatsoever that the car that hit you is the one that stayed and can prove very easily that you weren't doing anything illegal. On the other hand, if you run lights and stop signs etc...you may not want to record all that.

Now that I've moved back to NC, I don't use either the 6 or 12 anymore. Sure, I get a close call here and there but it happens so rarely that I don't feel the need to run either camera anymore. Hopefully I don't regret this....

:thumb:
Although I think its negative speculation in either case (its all about getting in a serious mishap, which is pretty negative), I think you have it the right way around: something you like could come in handy in a bad situation. Sometimes I just feel cameras and I are a bad situation to begin with. :o

Its becoming pretty routine nowadays (and to the cyclist benefit in most cases), but I don't use my gopro specifically for that purpose however.

ya i installed a 4k action camera in front recently for commutes.

i just dont trust the city drivers..also lot of double parked cars...4k is clear enough to record number plates

also lets me record scenic rides and take photos.

Actually HD (1080p) is more than enough for clear footage and is much more space efficient -- you can record for a lot longer. Just make sure its 60 fps or higher.