Let’s talk Bike Cameras!

[Forrest Baum]

I’m big on recording rides and this seems like the right place for this, but these aren’t necessarily e-bikes only - I’m open to suggestions if someplace else would be better.

There are some great guides for recording bike rides, and there are good options for setting up a GoPro, 360º cam, or other action cam.


There are several Dedicated Front/Back Cameras and Lights, so let’s start there.

Cycliq has long been the bike-specific dedicated option, often described as a “dashcam for your bike”, and they work very similarly to a vehicle dashcam.

Fly12 is a front-facing Camera
Fly6 is rear-facing (these are named like a clock face, a la “on your 6” being behind, and 12 right ahead)

Garmin just released their Varia Vue front camera, and they have a Rear Camera & Radar unit, the Varia RCT715.

These are more expensive than Cycliq. If you use a Garmin Edge (or compatible) bike computer (or many of their watches), these can be more useful, however - giving you more options as you ride, and the ability to automatically start and stop recording with your rides.

Main features these all share:

• Waterproof bike camera and lights.
• Loop recording, which records over your oldest unsaved footage so your camera keeps working when the memory fills up.
• A save button which locks the previous and current footage.
• Incident protection which similarly saves footage in case a fall is detected.
• Date and timestamp options.

These can be expensive, but a rear-facing camera is a great start.

Additional specific features:
Cycliq give you the option to overlay strava data. (This is an additional step afterwards).

Garmin lets you overlay GPS and speed data, and sync front and back cameras. (These require a bike computer/app/Varia radar unit, depending on option).

The Garmin RCT715 is similar to a rear-facing Cycliq camera, and also works like a Garmin Varia Radar, detecting vehicles approaching from up to 150 yards / 140 meters away. The Camera can record video constantly, or when radar activity is detected.

Along with date and timestamp options, you can also overlay your GPS location and speed, and also the speed of the following vehicle!

These are expensive, but many find them worth it (US Prices):
$320 - Cycliq Fly12 Sport (front)
$240 - Cycliq Fly6 Gen3 (rear)
$350 - Cycliq Fly6 Pro (rear)
$550 - Garmin Varia Vue (front)
$400 - Garmin Varia RCT715 (rear)

Finally, some people have had Cycliq reliability (and specifically water ingress issues) over the years, while some love them and have had no problems.

And there are criticisms of Garmin’s image stabilization, blowing out license plates at night, and specs - especially at these price points.

I’ve used two generations of the Cycliq cameras, and find them very useful, despite some cons. I’ve also tried out the Garmin RCT715, and the feature showing the following vehicle’s speed is really a game-changer. My ideal setup would also have the additional ability to be wired into e-bike power, and turn on automatically when the bike does.

Thoughts on these? I know some of y'all have some great camera setups - I just wanted to start here!

 

[rik]

Have you looked at motorcycle camera units? I’ve been experimenting with a Carpuride CarPlay unit on my bicycle. It has front and rear cameras and a handlebar mounted display that connects to my iPhone. And it only cost $229 US.

I primarily wanted something with a handlebar display so I can see cars behind me.

 

[Bike Shop Girl]

Oh you are speaking my language.

I think Cycliq sadly still has the market covered but only for the Fly6 Pro, their front one is garbage... Garmin may be on the move with their new front Varia Vue unit that just came out. I can't justify another camera purchase this month

If you know me, I typically run the Fly6 Pro in the rear, and some action cam on the front. My state doesn't require front license places so that's why I struggle with just using the rear.

 

[Benjamin in WPG]

I missed this thread until today for some reason. My partner has a insta 360 that she travels with - the insta 360 seemed a bit too $pendy for me at first as I wasn't sure how much benefit I'd get from a camera, so I bought a couple of cheap Akaso EK7000's and mounted one facing forward and one facing rearwards.
I have them both powered externally via USB-C and get turned on by a switch on the front box (3s5p lithium pack) operating in "dashcam" mode so they start recording when they see power and stop when I shut the switch off. You can see the front facing one on the bars and the rear facing one on the rear rack.

they produce video like this little one after post production

 

[Timberdoodle]

Hey so thanks for starting this thread and providing all this great info!

I had an incident about 2 weeks ago where an aggressive driver pulled a gun on me, and it got me thinking that I need a rear camera as well as a helmet/sunglasses mounted one.

yeah the dude drove up alongside and pointed the gun right in my face from the next lane and yelled at me before driving off so I defs want to capture the gun-shoved-in-face part. forward camera has no utility in this job for me, lol

has anybody experimented with the helmet or sunglass setups?

 

[Benjamin in WPG]

I have a great vision care program at work, I looked into the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
In spite of showing really good performance specs, they could only do portrait mode, and unless I was streaming to Facebook or Instagram, I was limited to 32 second clips.
I bought two cheap Akaso cameras and put one on the front and one on the rear
Here’s a clip of what I got from them
(You’ll notice the “close pass” by the Toyota literally right at the 30 km an hour maximum speed sign - my bike, going wide open can travel 32 km an hour)

I’d give some real consideration to a good helmet cam like a DJI or Insta Ace