POLL: Do you record your rides?

[M0T0Geezer]

Searching YouTube for "truck crashes"  "train crashes" and "motorcycle crashes" quickly shows that having a video cam mounted on the dash, or handle bars, could be a valuable legal resource in any crash-related lawsuit.

What do you think?

'Geezer

[Lannis]

I didn't see my category.

(X) "I own a Go-Pro camera, but because the format of the pictures it generates won't display on my computer, I gave up on it and now it's sitting on my desk waiting for me to read "Go-Pro for Dummies".

Lannis

[Scud]

I don't see a category for me either:

(X) I only record special rides when I want to make a video to share.

Here's one in Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. If you look closely, you will see a few Moto Guzzis (per another current thread about seeing Guzzis in Europe).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=korsM6brT5s&t=1s

BTW - the camera was helmet mounted for use on the bike I rented. I have a RAM mount on the handlebars of my own bikes for mounting various things, camera, phone, GPS... depends on the day.

[pressureangle]

Poll needs option, "I have a GoPro but forget/lazy/battery's dead at ride time"

[pressureangle]

This poll also begs the question, "What's the easiest camera to use?"

My GoPro is easy enough to set up, but the processing on the PC later takes an enormous amount of space, and being...of a generation before digital recording...the software is not intuitive. (Despite the fact that every 14yo kid records his snowboarding/skateboarding successfully)

Chinese dashboard cameras can be had for $50-$150. Chinese and Russians seem to have them in every vehicle- is it possible that they're just that much easier to use? There are also many cameras that are more motorcycle-friendly, that is the aerodynamics of a GoPro are non-existent.

[nick949]

I use multiple cameras - often two older GoPros and one Chinese knock-off (which was a fraction of the price for 2/3rds the quality). I use them for my own pleasure for for boring people on-line who think they're going to find something interesting but all they get is endless forest, rocks, the occasional lake, more forest and bits of gravel (eh Lannis  ).

I don't use them to record rides for safety reasons as I find when the camera is running my concentration isn't 100% on my riding.

Nick

[pressureangle]

I live in S. Fla.- not a relatively safe place to ride- and I have a summer tour planned which just morphed into a probable 4 corners tour. I'd long been thinking about a bike cam with permanent mount, just to record any accidents/freak events. The GoPro is big, it doesn't loop, and the files are huge.
So I think there are two separate conversations to be had- one, recording to share the ride or educate- and one about recording for legal reasons.
So far, the legal angle is the one driving me closer to having a camera mounted.

[fotoguzzi]

  The GoPro is big,
it doesn't loop, and the files are huge.

not true, Gopro has a camera that's smaller than a 2" cube




you can buy an SD card that will loop..

save the files as MP4 before converting to editable format.. saves some space but yeah HD video is huge. If you record 4K it's massive.. I usually just save it on the original SD card and get a new card for the next project.

I don't see a category for me either:

(X) I only record special rides when I want to make a video to share.

SAME

[Moto]

Yes, I record my longer trips in a small notebook, a log. This has proved very interesting to me later, as I read what I did years before.

I think there is nothing more tedious than a rider's-eye-view GoPro video, so I don't want to impose one of my own on anyone, including my later self.

If you want to make an interesting movie you have do a lot more than glue a camera on your head.

Moto

[zebraranger]

No category for me either.
I sometimes record my rides, usually on out of state long trips, but that's about it. I don't use one in my 4 wheel vehicle.

[chuck peterson]

I use multiple cameras - often two older GoPros and one Chinese knock-off (which was a fraction of the price for 2/3rds the quality). I use them for my own pleasure for for boring people on-line who think they're going to find something interesting but all they get is endless forest, rocks, the occasional lake, more forest and bits of gravel......
V
Nick

And they're always too short...I mean that's perfect for my attention span..look, forest.....look, rocks....look a lake....ummmm, gravel...rinse repeat...more! More! I want more!

[chuck peterson]

I have fourty years of paper notebooks full of one entry for the start of the first ride of the season...

[Darren Williams]

Only special short rides, like of all the bridges I crossed on one trip, riding the Skyline drive, the Dragon or Push Mountain type things.

My son used to be a pretty active moto-vlogger and rides with a bunch of guys that do it all the time. They will have several cameras mounted to the bike and one on the helmet. Some of the video editing they put out are very well done and actually entertaining to watch for more than 3 seconds. Of course usually geared toward a much younger set than here.

Check out "Jake the Garden Snake" you-tube channel and watch his MotoFools video on the intro, set to the song "Give our dreams their wings to fly". Lots of short cool action and humor. No long boring stuff.

[M0T0Geezer]

SNIP
I don't use them to record rides for safety reasons as I find when the camera is running my concentration isn't 100% on my riding.

Nick

I understand the distraction factor, but would you say futzing with a video cam is any more distracting than with other on board devices like GPS, 2-way radio, music player, etc?

'Geezer

[nick949]

I understand the distraction factor, but would you say futzing with a video cam is any more distracting than with other on board devices like GPS, 2-way radio, music player, etc?

'Geezer

Music players have no place on a motorcycle IMHO. As for the others, I agree, that they are equally distracting. In my defense, when I'm playing with the cameras I usually stop, set them going, then ride. I may press the 'stop' buttons on the fly, but since where I usually ride I'm more likely to bury myself in a swamp than encounter another vehicle it's a minor problem. Even so, they affect how I ride, as I'm always thinking of what's being recorded and not what's under my wheels.

Nick

[Ncdan]

In my mind and in my heart:)

[V7Record]

I got a couple of the Innova cameras in the group buy a couple years ago, one is mounted on my V7.  It powers up with the ignition and records every ride I guess but I rarely download the rides.  If anything "interesting" should happen it'll be recorded though.

Brian

[Lannis]

Music players have no place on a motorcycle IMHO.
Nick

I don't know that I'd go so far as to say "a motorcycle", because it may be that other people process distractions differently.   For example, I have no problem letting the radio play in my car while I'm driving.

But I would certainly say "Music players have no place on MY motorcycle."    When I'm doing what I need to do to enjoy the ride AND stay alive on the road, I don't have any spare processing power left to sing along with a song, or digest the news, or laugh at a comedian, or change stations ....

The ride is enough for me.

Lannis

[Rick in WNY]

not true, Gopro has a camera that's smaller than a 2" cube




you can buy an SD card that will loop..

save the files as MP4 before converting to editable format.. saves some space but yeah HD video is huge. If you record 4K it's massive.. I usually just save it on the original SD card and get a new card for the next project.
 SAME

fotoguzzi, that's the GoPro Session series of cameras. I have one now, wish I had it 3 years ago, aka, before my big wreck, not that it really mattered since witnesses and evidence put 100% of the blame on the guy who hit me, but I digress.

Anywho, the Session is a nice unit, and once configured, only one button needs to be pressed to start recording. Press it again to stop. While recording it breaks the film into 12 minute segments, and with the wifi to your phone turned off the internal battery lasts for 2 hours.

As for mounts, sometime I clip it to the handlebars, sometimes to the engine guard, sometimes I stick it to my helmet. That thing is tiny, and the video is very clear. As for processing, just pull the micro SD card out, the files are a generic mp4 video format which anything can read, phones, tablets, or computers.

Most of my recording is thus: I start it at my house and record the ride to work. Once there, I shut it off and bring it into work. I plug it into a charger while I'm there so it's got plenty of juice for the ride home. I'd say 95% of the footage gets erased... if something interesting happens I'll pull it off onto my computer, but otherwise, I clear it at night and plug it back in to get ready for another day.

To each their own, but I've found I like having the camera on my ride.

[Scud]

I also have the GoPro session. It is very easy to record - and it also takes good still photos. Plus, it's submersible - I've used it to record underwater (removed from motorcycle first).

[Rick in WNY]

I also have the GoPro session. It is very easy to record - and it also takes good still photos. Plus, it's submersible - I've used it to record underwater (removed from motorcycle first).

You're right, Scud, forgot that it can be set to take photos every X seconds... and yes, it's waterproof, as long as the hatch on the side is closed. Maybe I should try setting mine to take pictures and see how that works sometime... I'd imagine it makes the battery last longer than running video...

[pressureangle]

not true, Gopro has a camera that's smaller than a 2" cube




you can buy an SD card that will loop..

save the files as MP4 before converting to editable format.. saves some space but yeah HD video is huge. If you record 4K it's massive.. I usually just save it on the original SD card and get a new card for the next project.
 SAME

*My* GoPro is huge lol. A couple years old.

How much better is the vid quality on the GP than the Inovva? I like the dual camera aspect.

[Perazzimx14]

I also have a GoPro Sessions camera and though I'd use the piss out of it. Turns out to date (2 years of ownership) I have recorded one 10 second video of the hound riding in the sidecar with her jowl inflated from the wind.

I'm sure its available but for luddites like me I haven't found (maybe because I haven't really looked) what i'm looking for. I'd like a Sessions sized camera that is on when the bike is on and a remote button I could access with my left thumb to snap pictures along the way. Many time when traveling I see stuff and commit it to memory (hotels, inns, restaurants, historical buildings, routes, etc) only to 1 minute later forget all about it. If I had still camera abilities a poosh of the button and its recorded.

[Lannis]

I also have a GoPro Sessions camera and though I'd use the piss out of it. Turns out to date (2 years of ownership) I have recorded one 10 second video of the hound riding in the sidecar with her jowl inflated from the wind.

I'm sure its available but for luddites like me I haven't found (maybe because I haven't really looked) what i'm looking for. I'd like a Sessions sized camera that is on when the bike is on and a remote button I could access with my left thumb to snap pictures along the way. Many time when traveling I see stuff and commit it to memory (hotels, inns, restaurants, historical buildings, routes, etc) only to 1 minute later forget all about it. If I had still camera abilities a poosh of the button and its recorded.

That's a good requirement.

By the way, I was asking several years ago if there was any way to buy a little cheap satellite-driven device that would simply "point towards home" all the time.   There is, it's called a "Backtracker", and I used it to get back to the town of Ivybridge when Fay and I were walking on Dartmoor and a Hound-of-the-Baskervilles-style thick fog closed in on us, several miles onto the moor.

Fay takes all the pictures from the back of the bike when we're riding - I'd like to be able to trigger a still photo or short video when I'm by myself with a Go Pro ....

Lannis