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Dashcam!

2K views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  Buskman 
#1 ·
I purchased a new action camera complete with water proof case etc. on ebay for $21 (memory card not included). I will leave this mounted on my bike and run it with continuous looping 10 minute video capture clips.

In less than 7 minutes of having this installed I caught my first idiot in a BMW cutting into my lane with about 1 foot of room to spare. The video quality is not that great because the camera is looking through the lower portion of my windshield and it needs a good polish. I may mount it is a different location later. The actual video quality of the camera is pretty good considering it was only $21 delivered. I have a 100 watt blueish high beam bulb with modulator running and in addition I wear a high viz safety vest, so if the person had looked they would have noticed me.
https://youtu.be/adIr9LVkCmg

There are two reasons why I will run a dash cam from now on.

1) Folks are too distracted with phone calls texting, and the like.

2) A lot of people are just not very honest anymore and don't want to accept responsibility for their own actions. I have seen this several times with accidents where someone is dead wrong but try to blame their mistake on the innocent party.

Had that BMW pulled into my lane and slammed on the brakes for some reason, I would have hit them and good chance they would say it was my fault, which is assumed if you rear end someone.

A dashcam is an inexpensive witness should you ever need one. There are lots of very good dashcam apps you can add on your phone for only a few dollars, but since I use my phone as my GPS etc. I have not been able to find a suitable angle to mount the phone so it can point the camera at the road and have the screen visible to me. If you have an old cell phone you are not using you can get a dashcam app for it and repurpose it as your new dashcam.

WB
 
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#4 ·
I started riding with a camera many years ago. I told my wife that if anything happens to me, get the camera! It's my attorney! It's an older one so it doesn't overwrite old files, but a simple wipe of the sd card and it's ready to go again. I won't ride without it. Fortunately, I've never needed it but it's fun to watch some of the things it's caught.

I used to mount it on my helmet but it kept getting in the way. Now it's mounted on the handlebars behind the windshield where it stays clean of bugs and dirt. $21 is a heck of a deal if it works for you.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Car Guy,

Yes I thought $21 is very reasonable. The battery life is not that great rates at 90 min. so I will use a power cable and drill a small hole in the waterproof case for the usb power cable. Currently mounted on the handlebars, but I may move it down and mount it on my crash bar. However this will require a new mount as the one that came with it will just fit a 1 "inch bar, my crash bar is 1 1/4" . This camera is certainly NOT Go Pro quality but then it isn't $400. I will just leave it on the bike most of the time and it it gets stolen, I won't be all that upset.


SJ4000 Full HD 1080P Camera 30M Waterproof Sports Action Camera DV DVR 2.0 | eBay

WB
 
#6 ·
I picked one up off of amazon for my suburban and my family teased me with the fact that after 25 years of driving, why would I want one just now? Three days later, I had a guy take a corner way to sharp and almost raked the side of his car down my front bumper. If he had made contact, he surely would have hopped out and said I rolled into him. I would have had proof of the contrary \m/
 
#7 ·
That guy definitely saw you. He knew what he was doing. Forcing you back so he could squeeze into his lane. Probably didn't occur to him that he could be behind you.

The "I have to be first" culture on the road is so strange. For one, there's actually way more road than we need in the U.S. There's no need for us to have traffic. We have traffic because of maneuvers like that. These squeezing lane changes and the like create a domino effect that slows everybody down. If we (collectively) drove more efficiently, there'd never be traffic. Including filtering in and out. The right way to do it is to wait for a safe opening. Instead, he figured he could just squeeze in, forcing you to brake.
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
That video reminds me of an incident that happened to me many years ago back in my sport bike days. Four of us were riding in the middle lane of a three lane road. There was absolutely no one around us for about a quarter mile with the exception of a single car in the far left lane. He was going faster and was lined up to pass us. We came to a point in the road where it went from three to two lanes. The far left lane had to merge to the right into the middle lane.

The car's driver had a fair amount of warning before the merge occurred. So he could have easily moved to the far right lane and passed us or just dropped in behind us. Instead, he proceeded in the left lane as far as the lane went until he absolutely had to merge. He squeezed in between the front two and rear two bikes splitting the group. Mind you, there were no other vehicles around and only about 20 feet of space between us. It was a total jerk maneuver.

My buddy was so livid, he rolled up to the car at the next stop light and tapped on the window. When the guy looked at him, he flipped him the bird and punched his side view mirror with his carbon fiber gauntlets. Smashing the mirror in the process. The driver just sat there stunned.
 
#9 ·
Wow, Wild Bill...AMAZING footage, sir.

You have convinced me that having one of those cameras installed on the bike can be an invaluable tool in the case of needing irrefutable evidence that is in my favor during a legal proceeding.

I would also suggest the idea to everyone here at the forums to create a website (if there isn't one already). One that all motorists on the web can access. The website would allow bikers to upload this type of footage consistently for the purpose of educating drivers on their driving habits and the effects those habits have on the motorcyclist sharing the road with them.

You could then share it with all your FB friends and social media outlets.

...Just might stop some accidents and even save a few lives.

Thanks, Wild Bill...

Good stuff.

Buskman
 
#11 ·
Wish I knew how to do it, Phipps33...but I just now figured out this here calculator thingy...

Wow...if you type in 7738 and flip this thing over, it spells the word "BELL"..

Fascinating..
 
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