Bike cam

I didn't know about these guys.
Steve

Steve

It looks worse coming back.
Steve

Large fire in Banning. Everyone had to slow down and look. 3 mile backup.
Steve

Here's a boring video of me trying to get through traffic. Very different from your videos, Steve, where there is actually room to get into 3rd gear.

It's marked private. Can't view it.
Steve

Oops. I forgot to hit the "publish" button.

Without making me re-read every post.. LOL.... What camera setup are you using Loud?
NIce and something I'd like to do sometime here before fall is over... it's coming up on the most fabulous time of year to cruise the Rockies!

I'll try to get a photo of my setups. I made the mounts myself using quick-release seat-post clamps from bicycles.

The camera's I use are super cheap ones from ebay so I don't worry about hurting them. They are really cool, and small. They are shaped like flashlights. I'll see if I can find a link on ebay.

They are usually called mini dv cams or sport cams.

Mine are old and no longer available. But the newer version should be on ebay in the $30 range.
They look similar to this:




Don't get this one:



It's super cheap and works ok, but is not convenient to mount, and the angle of view is all wrong. It's kinda zoomed in.


The important thing is to have the right angle of view. A narrow angle is like being zoomed in. You miss the action, and it makes everything appear slow. Wider is better, to an extent. Fish eye is a little too wide and makes everything really small. The cam I found seems to be a good tradeoff. I have info on the angle, but the advertised angle of view on ebay is often wrong, so there will be some trial and error. I bought a few cams before I found the right one.

I'll post more details when I get a chance later.

Motocomm Ridercam 480 is the camera I use. It is vga 30 frames/sec 640 x 480, but now there are HD versions available.

At 5ft., the screen field of view is 9 ft wide. So horizontal viewing angle is 84 degrees.
Front lens barrel O.D. is 28.8mm. I bought some bicycle quick-release seat-post clamps that were probably 28mm, then used a sanding barrel on a drill to open it up to the right size. Then I just had to use a longer bolt to fit the spacers and mounting perch.






It's very simple to use.
One button.
Press it to turn it on.
Wait for both LEDs to come on.
Press it again to start recording.
The green LED flashes while recording.
Press it again to stop. (Green LED stops flashing.)
It shuts off after a few minutes of non-recording.

The battery lasts long, and I've made continuous recordings that lasted over an hour.
I would guess you can get about 2 hours recording time or more on a good charge.
I've charged it, and let it sit in a box for almost a year, then took it out and recorded for about hour.



The microphone is the pinhole near the button. I usually forget, but it's probably a good idea to stick a piece of tape over the hole to reduce some of the wind noise. I think I may have damaged the microphone on one of cameras. But if you want good sound, you'll want a separate recorder for sound.


The backend unscrews with a watertight oring to access the sd card and the USB port. There is a reset button that kills power in case the camera gets locked up. I can't remember if I ever had to use it.

Here are the mounts up close. I just found some aluminum scrap at work to make the spacers and perches.
I needed a longer bolt to use for the fork pinch bolt.
The rear needed that extra spacer so the cam would clear the rear shock spring.