I give up, camera time...

[johnnyh]

I have always thought I wouldn't wear a camera, but this morning I have had 5 close calls with drivers who just didn't bother looking, or whose driving was ridiculously bad and caused me to question if I would make it to work in one piece.

As for the driver who decided to change lanes, on a corner, with me on his inside level with the front wheel arch... what a numpty! He looked most annoyed with the fact another living breathing human happened to be in the space he wished to occupy

Now I don't want to go mad here, so am looking at either a Dogcam HD or the Wide variant.
Can anyone shed any light on which is best for the job of recording such antics?
And are they best mounted on a helmet or on the bike itself?

Cheers all, hope your journeys were less traumatic than mine

 

[BSRU]

A couple of questions to ask yourself, what difference would having a camera make to you? and what are you going to do with any bad driving caught on camera?

Personally helmet mounting is the best option as you can record what you are looking at rather than what is directly in front of the bike.

 

[johnnyh]

I am hoping the camera won't make any difference to me, and I hope to heck that I never need the footage, but having nearly been sandwiched between a concrete and a car wing this morning - literally escaped with my legs by 6 inches, at least I would have a "witness". (although probably wouldn't want to record the dressing down I gave the motorist )

 

[gambatte]

Its not just you. I know I was in the cage last night - but it's bike related as I was nipping out for a new wheelset
Got to a large 2 lane RAB. Over a motorway. Me in the outside lane. WVM on the inside. It's busy, so max speed is 15-20mph.
Both lanes are painted to show both lanes are for straight ahead.
Both entered the RAB at the same time, passed the M'way entry.
We then pass over the motorway, towards the motorway exit, which is swiftly followed by my exit from the roundabout.
As we get towards the m'way exit WVM moves out of his lane and drifts into mine. I'm 3/4 alongside him and blasting the horn. I can see him in his side mirror. He hadn't looked or indicated. He moved back into the nearside lane and we both exited. 30 yards off the RAB there's a red light ahead. Traffic queuing in the nearside - he decides to pull the same manoeuvre. Another blast of the horn. I can see him still in the side mirror. Close enough for me to see the "Oh, F*** off!". It's at this point when he's already crossing the lines dividing the lanes that he decides to use his indicators for the 1st time and swings straight over into the lane I'm in.
20 yards on swings into a central reservation slip and its the last I see of him.
Basically if that's where he wanted to be it's all down to poor lane positioning as he entered the RAB.
Now at the time obviously it wound me up. I'd got thoughts of phoning plod straight away. Bad idea as I was driving. Remembered the reg (something GEK??) Remembered the company name on the back 'N.E. Construction' As you can see, I only remembered partial details as I quickly decided the safest thing to do was drop it and concentrate on my driving.
Thing is.. I'm now wondering if it was the best thing?.... 15-20mph round that roundabout. It could easily have been a cyclist..... without a horn. If this guy can miss seeing a Citroen C5 estate, what chance has he got of seeing a cyclist? What chance has the cyclist got?

 

[Sara_H]

If yo u're involved in incident, a camera can make the difference between the police taking the view that it's your word against the other party, and having evidence which they can use to prosecute.

I know it wasn't a bike accident, but it sure would have saved me alot of stress and hassle if i'd had video footage of my car incident when another driver slammed into my rear end twice and drove off in December.

The driver completely denied any involvement initially, though he has changed his story several times and currently admits to " touching my car lightly" with his and disputes that he could have caused the amount of damage he did. I strongly suspect the man driving the car that day is not the same man named on the insurance certificate.

 

[Matthew_T]

I had a driver approach me on Friday after him not wanting to wait behind me on a single lane country road.

If I had my camera on me, then I would have caught his face and reported him to the police for threatening behaviour because I felt he was going to hit me at one point.

One think I need to remember is to not actually tell people that I have them on camera, it seems to make things worse. Just remember that you have everything you need and try to descreetly captue all the evidence you need.

 

[johnnyh]

anyone have an opinion on the dogcam v its wide variant?

 

[GfromHull]

What ever you get, make it viewable. If people see they are being filmed they do tend to give room.

 

[numbnuts]

I do think a lot of cyclist out there like to “play up” to the camera
I've managed up to now (60) without one....

 

[johnnyh]

I kind of agree with you numbnuts, I have managed 40 years without, but then I also went 40 years without a prostate exam!

 

[Maz]

Why not have a painted Smartie tube (or similar) attached to your helmet? See if drivers give you more space...

 

[blazed]

Do the helmet cameras have a strap which constrains your throat? Always wondered why 99% of wearers seem to have little squeaky annoying voices.

I think forget the camera, who wants to cycle about reading out number plates because they past you an inch to close. Get a life.

 

[johnnyh]

to be honest I don't think that drivers who fail to see a cyclist are suddenly going to see one if there is a tube on the side of the helmet.
the only purpose is for an electronic witness - I certainly wouldn't use when riding in company (ie Sunday rides etc)

 

[cloggsy]

I'm going to buy a new camera for forward facing (helmet) mounting.

This one I think:

I'm then going to put my current (720P) camera facing backwards mounted on my bike...

 

[benborp]

I've got the MiniDVR HD from dogcam. It still surprises me how similar the footage from this camera is to my actual perception of what I see when riding. The angle is fairly wide and yet there aren't the usual problems of discerning just how far away any passing objects are. You've probably seen the footage from the thread I started the other day on the dodgy pedestrian crossing overtake. dogcamsport would be happy to tell you which model of theirs compares most closely with the current MiniDVR.