Educate me on bike cameras

[madsciencenow]

I generally ride alone and was thinking (yes I have more time than normal for hatching ideas) that a bike video camera might be a good safety feature to own and fun to look at from time-to-time. I also use Rouvy so the idea of making an outdoor route that could be shared is appealing. I loath getting my phone out to take pictures but often see things and think wow, that would make a good pic. My rides range from 90 minutes to five or more hours. Given this information what do you all recommend? I’ve done some initial checking and I thought I’d throw this out to the forum because I’m assuming others have already considered this question and probably have first-hand experience.


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[eddief]

than taking your phone out of a jersey pocket or a Revelate Mountain Feed Bag? Or a better point and shoot camera?

[madsciencenow]

Good question. I’m asking about a Garmin Virb, GoPro, etc.


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[Spaghetti Legs]

I ride with a Fly12 and Fly 6, primarily as a security feature and rarely look at or use the video clips. Since they record in loops of 5-10 minute segments, I have to use an editor and link the clips together to make a video. I started out with a Garmin Virb which I liked better for video quality and features but battery life was only about 2.5-3 hours. That being said, when I got it the Virb had longer battery life than other cameras out there. The Cycliq cameras will last 3-5 hours with the blinky lights on.

[tuxbailey]

I ride with a Fly12 and Fly 6, primarily as a security feature and rarely look at or use the video clips. Since they record in loops of 5-10 minute segments, I have to use an editor and link the clips together to make a video. I started out with a Garmin Virb which I liked better for video quality and features but battery life was only about 2.5-3 hours. That being said, when I got it the Virb had longer battery life than other cameras out there. The Cycliq cameras will last 3-5 hours with the blinky lights on.

Same here. On full charge both Fly12 and Fly6 can last 5-6 hrs.

[benb]

I'm not sure how running a full time camera makes you safer. Your behavior makes you safer. The camera unfortunately can't affect the behavior of other road users. It might or might not help you in court, but it won't cause you to not be injured if someone hits you.

More like might make you more "in your face" to drivers like so many of the Youtube cyclists who get themselves in bad situations as the camera makes them more aggressive with drivers. (Or they know getting into altercations gets them views.)

I have a GoPro Session.. it is about the right size for cycling. It works OK, but the battery doesn't really last long enough to leave it running for anything but a short ride. I want to say it only lasts around 30 minutes. It's not intended for an "always on" use case at all. 30 minutes is plenty of battery life to actually make an interesting MTB video for example or record a descent of a mountain road.

TBH after an initial period I rarely bother hooking the GoPro up on my bike. Road footage is super super boring and I don't MTB much. I made one MTB video and threw it on Youtube a few years ago. It was fun, and I should probably make some more, but at some point you're out making a video instead of enjoying the ride.

The camera is kind of like having too much electronics in general on your bike.. it's one more thing you have to setup, charge batteries, etc.. that takes away from the spontaneous free nature of going for a ride.

My favorite GoPro use by far is swimming/snorkeling/diving... it's pretty great for that.

[madsciencenow]

I ride with a Fly12 and Fly 6, primarily as a security feature and rarely look at or use the video clips. Since they record in loops of 5-10 minute segments, I have to use an editor and link the clips together to make a video. I started out with a Garmin Virb which I liked better for video quality and features but battery life was only about 2.5-3 hours. That being said, when I got it the Virb had longer battery life than other cameras out there. The Cycliq cameras will last 3-5 hours with the blinky lights on.


How hard is it to link the loops. What’s the purpose of recording this way? Do you think it would be possible to upload this type of edited file to Rouvy?


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[mdeth1313]

If you do your research on Fly6, you'll find lots and lots of complaints and really crappy customer service (which is in Australia). The battery life decreases significantly over time, especially with regular use in cold weather.

I never did much research on the fly12, but if you look at their website and some of the comments, it ain't pretty.

Unfortunately, their concept design is probably the best for cycling, execution leaves much to be desired.

[tuscanyswe]

How hard is it to link the loops. What’s the purpose of recording this way? Do you think it would be possible to upload this type of edited file to Rouvy?


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Its not hard at all to link loops but you have to have some video software.
The purpose is that the camera can then delete the oldest loop and take that space to record the next ongoing loop. Its not so much an action camera as it is a camera for safety purposes and liability. This means u never run of of space to record new stuff and situations as the older gets deleted. There is also a feature where you can choose to manually save a loop so it can not be deleted for the purpose of a new loop. The camera also has incident mode which means if your bike comes to an abrupt halt or lean more than 45 degrees (or similar) this loop containing this information will be saved and not deleted so you can have this info at hand later to check who did what etc in case of an accident.

[Old School]

The camera also has incident mode which means if your bike comes to an abrupt halt or lean more than 45 degrees (or similar) this loop containing this information will be saved and not deleted so you can have this info at hand later to check who did what etc in case of an accident.

Interesting. Does this then save a segment, if you start going again? Or does it just erase the aforementioned "loop" and just start all over again.

[madsciencenow]

Anyone with an action camera want to weigh in? Are these cameras generally controllable with a Garmin edge device such as the 1030?


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[tuscanyswe]

Interesting. Does this then save a segment, if you start going again? Or does it just erase the aforementioned "loop" and just start all over again.

Yes then that loop space is not available for the camera to use for new loops until u manually delete it from the memory card. This is at least how i remember it.

[daker13]

I'm not sure how running a full time camera makes you safer. Your behavior makes you safer. The camera unfortunately can't affect the behavior of other road users. It might or might not help you in court, but it won't cause you to not be injured if someone hits you.

Parenthetically, I wish cycling orgs would promote the idea that many cyclists have cameras on them, because if drivers started to think that they were caught on camera, I bet it would change their behavior. An ad campaign, or something like that?

Sorry for the thread drift... I have a cycliq, used it for a time, no longer do.

[Spaghetti Legs]

How hard is it to link the loops. What’s the purpose of recording this way? Do you think it would be possible to upload this type of edited file to Rouvy?


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Not very hard. I use the iMovie software on my Mac. I've put a couple on youtube and for some reason the video quality is worse in the upload than on my computer. I've never taken the time to figure out why. Here's a video with a transition about 1 minute in.

https://youtu.be/K7leMhrAGjY

[Spaghetti Legs]

If you do your research on Fly6, you'll find lots and lots of complaints and really crappy customer service (which is in Australia). The battery life decreases significantly over time, especially with regular use in cold weather.

I never did much research on the fly12, but if you look at their website and some of the comments, it ain't pretty.

Unfortunately, their concept design is probably the best for cycling, execution leaves much to be desired.

I've had my Fly 12 about 4 years and the Fly 6 about 5. Battery life has degraded but I wouldn't say dramatically and I haven't had any problems with the devices.

Regarding the post about making me safer, I mentioned in my post that I use them for security and yes, they probably don't make me too much safer outside of use of the lights. I never rode with lights in the day before getting these. I do feel more secure because if I'm run over and get disabled and unable to work for 6 months, odds are much higher that someone else and not me will pay for it.

[benb]

Also take into account how easy it is to get the video off the camera and how much of a pain that is.

The GoPro (at least mine, it's the first Session) is pretty terrible in this aspect.

The GoPro is the only digital camera I've ever seen which does not obey the standard for storage of files on the memory card.

This is not a big deal on Windows.. but it is annoying for anything else. The files don't show up in a "DCIM" folder like 99.999% of all cameras back to the mid 1990s.

So any software that wants to see a "camera" will not recognize the GoPro as a camera. For example this blocks plugging the camera into an iPad or similar device and downloading the videos via USB. You end up having to use GoPro's wifi scheme.. which takes 100x longer and is error prone than just plugging in the cable.

Can't comment on the other cameras...

[Old School]

Yes then that loop space is not available for the camera to use for new loops until u manually delete it from the memory card. This is at least how i remember it.

I'm thinking of using this feature for MTB crashes.