Talk to me about bike cameras

[Happy_Days]

I want to get front and rear cameras for my road bike, but I don’t know where to start. What advice could you give me?

The reason for buying cameras is hindsight: I wish that I had cameras when a car hit me in a (too) close pass earlier this year.

 

[steverob]

I only have their front facing camera, but I really like the Cycliq Fly 12 Sport (the Fly 6 Pro is the rear equivalent) because it has a light as part of the design and the battery life is tremendous. You can get around 7-8 hours of recording without needing to charge again. Yes it's expensive at over £300, but I've been very happy with the quality of the footage I've got out of it.

Now I'll admit the reason I got it was to get footage of some of the prettier places on my rides (especially as I was going to be doing LEJOG) rather than safety considerations, but that was an added benefit as well.

 

[scotsbikester]

I have the Cycliq 12 Sport on the front, Fly 6 on the rear. I use them to report dangerous drivers, mainly close passes. The police usually take action on the evidence of the cameras. Quality is good, certainly there's never been a problem reading number plates, at least during the day. The battery life on the rear one is far less than the front, which is a nuisance, charging wise. Some of the mounting accessories are a bit cheaply made - the strap to fit the rear to the seat post broke, for instance. Didn't matter, my rear is attached to the rack that lives on my bike.

Footage is timestamped, though you have to connect using the iPhone app to keep the time in sync.

Get a pair, then report every close pass/left hook to your local police forces OpSnap. The more people who get letters in the post, FPNs and points the sooner drivers will start to show cyclists some basic consideration.