Dash Cam?

Recently I had a situation causing me to think about putting a dash cam on my bike. The incident involved a left turning vehicle on a very curvy rural road. The vehicle started a turn across my path onto an adjoining roadway, but stopped suddenly leaving me about one third of my lane when he realized I was there. I was traveling about 40 mph leaning hard in the left curve of the road and it took all my skills to look at the remaining gap between the car and the soft shoulder, steep drop off and large trees beyond to guide my wing safely around his offending front end without splatting myself on said trees.
About two weeks ago, I was browsing in a Target store and happened on a "Cobra" dash cam... I picked up the box, read about the "one eyed observer" with automatic overwriting memory, and said to myself... I need this. Cost $99
I have played with it on the bike, in the truck and at my desk. It was pretty cool. But today, wondering around Wally World, I happened (again) upon a dash cam on the shelf, selling for $49. OK, I bit. This one was easier to operate (by "Pilot")... 5 minutes out of the box and I was traveling down the road. Without going into much detail... I like this one better for several reason. THE QUESTION: How many of you are beginning to arm yourselves with video evidence of "the ride". I'm not talking about recording your ride for bragging rights, but rather for that unsuspecting moment when someone or something violates your rightful space.
The above incident caused me to realize, if I was not able to negotiate that small gap between the front of the car and the shoulder, I could have been down the embankment splatted against a tree, and he could have just taken off, not reporting the accident to save his bacon... leaving me to whatever condition I was in. Had that happen, and it was recorded, if I survived, there would be evidence to at least hold him accountable and his insurance company.

Checking out Amazon... they have a ton of these things, some are under $40! Some have duel lens...
It may be time for each of you to consider at least one of these as a must have farkle...

+1 but I haven't found a good way to mount on the bike.
So far it's only in the truck. Quality is poor but it works OK.
I got mine on ebay for about $20.

The one I purchased today came with a handlebar mount, windshield suction cup mount... full 1080dpi....

YouTube is full of vids showing crashes with both four-wheel and two-wheel operators at fault. Insurance fraud is so common in Russia that dash cams are pretty common. There's a thread on here somewhere with a video showing how an errant rider took out another motorcyclist and somebody tried to blame the videographer. Without that video the only accurate witness could have been responsible for damages. A clear video may establish your innocence. Or guilt.

vinny said:

full 1080dpi....

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That would be 1080p not dpi. Most of the cheaper dash cams are 720 or less. You should have some pretty clear video (lens permitting) Vinny. Maybe you could post some vids of your wheelies and steppes.

I have been looking at this for years. I've tried a couple of different cameras and the quality isn't there do to the bouncing from the bike. I just bought Fred's Hero and I'm going to try that from my helmet and see how it works out.

Lane splitting is tricky enough and the insurance companies like to go 50/50, meaning you are responsible for your own vehicle, unless you have prof that the cage didn't signal when lane changing (which is the case a lot of the time - which was also the case when [wasn't lane splitting at the time] I had my accident back in 2008).

Vinny, just looked at the Pilot dash cam on the web. Does it look like it would be much trouble to devise a mount for one of these on top of the instrument panel cover (for lack of the proper term) on a ST1300? Also does it appear to be water resistant?

I got a Drift ghost Hd a few months ago, I use a helmet mount on the bikes and a windscreen mount in the jeep. handy rotating lense to get the picture right,and it pairs up to the smart phone for easy set up.

Have several and use them on both the bike and car, prefer them to action cams (have several) as I feel the fiddle factor is less. current fav is

https://dashcamtalk.com/gt680w/

with gps

32gb card good for about 250 miles at the speed limit before it starts to overwrite. I think the video quality is excellent and so far operation has been flawless. Techmoan.com has many reviews of many cams and other gadgets
http://www.techmoan.com/

Don B said:

Vinny, just looked at the Pilot dash cam on the web. Does it look like it would be much trouble to devise a mount for one of these on top of the instrument panel cover (for lack of the proper term) on a ST1300? Also does it appear to be water resistant?

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You could easily modify the windshield mount to the instrument panel.... water proof... doesn't look the part. I suspect the cheaper dash cams were meant to be mounted behind auto glass. You may want to look at an action cam for that. Good point... if I am going to make this a permanent install, that is a very important aspect. For the price of a cheap dash cam that I am not gonna fiddle with unless I need to retrieve the video for a claim, then it's possible to encase it in a box of some sort and let it be.

Looking through the RAM website, it seems as if they have a mount for every imaginable gadget out there - from computers to phones, to cameras. Surely they have something for your new dash camera. One stumbling block, might be that RAM's mount will cost a whole lot more than the $40 camera.....

[video=youtube_share;NhqEdrPkLVQ]http://youtu.be/NhqEdrPkLVQ[/video]

My wife bought me a JVC Addixxion for Christmas. This is my first ride to the gas station with it. It is waterproof and you can operate the camera through a phone app.

Good vid. Liked all those "rolling stops". They let you do that in PA w/out going to jail?

JCB said:

[video=youtube_share;NhqEdrPkLVQ]http://youtu.be/NhqEdrPkLVQ[/video]

My wife bought me a JVC Addixxion for Christmas. This is my first ride to the gas station with it. It is waterproof and you can operate the camera through a phone app.

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The video was very clear... how did you have the camera mounted?

I picked up one of these:



It came with a bicycle mount - but looking at it I can put in some longer bolts and it should mount on the bike. I'll see for sure once it's out of storage. Cost like $83 plus I picked up a 32 GB SD card on sale for $12.00. I took some video tests and they look really clear.

Just remember, it can work against you just as much as for you...

Gearbest is the company. Lots of Chinese knock-off stuff. http://www.gearbest.com/car-dvr/pp_60637.html

I've thought about this awhile myself Vinny, contemplating placing one of those continuous recorders on the bike. Instead, I ended up getting a Drift HD Ghost which can do that same thing if I set it up as so. I chose not to have continuous recording as any of the video stored, prior to an accident, can be used by another's attorney to prove anything about your pattern of riding, 'demonstrating' that you were up to "hooligantics" at the time.

I've made a number of videos of my rides, showing them to my wife and family, and their reaction and hesitant question every time is "How fast were you going?!"--even my family, who generally trust me, at that moment wonder about my riding ability and decisions.

The video from these cameras, given their spherical lenses and optical distortion, give the illusion of great speed and often crossing lines on the road--for the uneducated jury (or judge or other non-rider and non-video expert), prior to an accident the video will convince a lot of folks that you/I were breaking the law frequently up to the accident, casting serious doubt on my/your case. I personally think such a continuous recording camera is more detrimental to your/my case than beneficial, except in rare instances.

Just my thoughts...

Mellow said:

Just remember, it can work against you just as much as for you...

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How often are we touring riders really beyond the law?
Yeah, also I like to open it up... on an abandoned road with literally no other traffic around...
Whenever within city limits, where imminent endangerment is in close proximity, out of pure self preservation no responsible rider/driver is going to "risk it"...

Here use of those dash-cams is prohibited... Privacy Laws and that...
While being out on the countryside, the use of a dash-cam to "record the nice road/landscape" is borderline, but generally tolerated...
But I'd had a hard time making that sound plausible while piloting the panel van from one site to the other through the city... despite that this would be just the application area for a small unit with G-sensor and GPS data, as the number of ignorant morons is progressing daily...

ST1100Y said:

How often are we touring riders really beyond the law?

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I can't answer that...

ST1100Y said:

Yeah, also I like to open it up... on an abandoned road with literally no other traffic around...

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oh look, you answered for me.. LOL

I know the video would be useful in many situations to prove someone ELSE is guilty of an infraction... but, if 10 mins prior to that you were speeding or doing something it might be used against you and the system gets 2 for the price of 1.. I don't know if that would work that way. I have a go pro and use it occasionally for scenic videos.. If I commuted more I probably would find a way to video every day just-in-case I needed some evidence but around here you almost have to ride outside the limits to keep from getting run over...