[steve@mycrocamuk.co.uk]

Hi All

My name is Steve from Techalogic safety cameras.. we focus on road safety cameras for motorcyclists, horse riders and of course CYCLISTS. Camera tech is our passion.

I am keen cyclist myself and have set myself a goal in 2022 to develop the perfect front and rear cameras for cycling. Its probably even more important to have a camera on your bike than in your car in my opinion. There are very few dedicated cycling cameras.

This really is a blank sheet of paper and the goal is to design, build and launch the prefect camera for cyclists needs.. So I thought that Roadcc forum members would be the best place to get some great ideas on what features and benefits cyclists really need..

I don’t want to lead in with questions but would really appreciate it if you can feedback your ideas on the design, look and feel, mountings and all the features (like battery life, stability, Video Quality) that is important to you..

We would really appreciate you help and when the camera is launched will make a great half price offer for all Roadcc forum members that helped with the development.

Kind Regards

Steve

Topic

[SimoninSpalding]

As a lot of people have said
As a lot of people have said already, number plate clarity is key.
Other features that could work for me would be a radar sensor recording actual closeness of vehicles, and multiple fixing options at the rear including a rack mount.
Contrary to what some others have said, integrated lights would appeal, particularly for the front where space to fix things is at a premium. There is a front light that acts as an out front mount (can’t remember who makes it) so that sort of idea might be appealing.

[Gimpl]

As we’re talking about ideals

As we’re talking about ideals here – why not one that has some sort of sensor/radar that will automatically sense when a vehicle is passing too closely and save that section of video instead of having to stop and press a button (which I can’t properly see without my reading glasses anyway!). 

[mge29]

hawkinspeter wrote:

How about having a front camera with a smallish video screen on it that’s visible whilst riding. Then, have a rear camera that links to it (WIFI? Bluetooth?) and have the rear view displayed on the front camera.

Yes, I have not seen that but I woyld like it.

[hawkinspeter]

lonpfrb wrote:

lonpfrb wrote:

I previously shared these ideas with Cycliq since it seems odd not to have their products collaborate, especially when it is unsafe to reach for the rear camera lock button while riding. Sadly they didn’t seem interested.

The Garmin Virb 360 already has two cameras working together but since it needs to be helmet mounted for a clear view is not safe in that position. Obviously helmets are not designed and tested for use with random levers attached. That would be like Anti-MIPS!

Ride safe..

An alternative would be one of those fancy 360° cameras that Jeremy Vine uses, but I recall someone on here stating that those aren’t that great for commuting due to battery life.

It’s a shame that Cycliq seem happy to just push out incremental changes with their products and not be a bit more innovative. Their cameras do seem to be the best for cyclists but they’ve got faults too.

[carlosdsanchez]

Being able to read the number

Being able to read the number plate of any vehicle involved in an incident is probably the most important feature. The police can only act on video evidence if the number plate is clearly visible.

Previously I have mounted a garmin elite camera facing rearwards on underside of the right hand drop of the handlebar of my road bike. In that position you get a good view of overtaking traffic, but more importantly, it gives a very clear view of how close they are as they pass because your leg and the rear of the bike are visible in frame for reference. A bullet type front and rear combined cam might work well like this. An expanding pug that fits into your bar end might be a nice solution to mounting this way and it wouldn’t take up any room on the handlebar itself.

Maybe some sort of lidar or distance measurement built into the side of the camera so segments of video where you’re being close passed are automatically highlighted? The distance could also be overlaid on the video. Also the time and date stamp need to be automatically updated, the cycliq ones are a faff to set.

[andystow]

I haven’t seen anyone mention

I haven’t seen anyone mention temperature, yet. As an owner now of two generations of Fly6, they are useless in the cold. My first one would silently shut down below about 45 °F / 7 °C. I actually made a cosy for it out of foam beverage bottle/can holders, which helped a little. My current one doesn’t do that, but the battery life is useless below freezing, maybe an hour.

I ride in all weather and would like my equipment to work in it. I think a reasonable range would be -30 to 40 °C (-22 to 104 °F.) Yes, I have biked in that entire range.

[lonpfrb]

hawkinspeter wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

How about front and rear cameras that sync their time (maybe just when using the controlling app). Also, an “incident” button on the front that can be pressed to record the time when an incident has just happened and prevents overwriting of the relevant video segment(s).

I previously shared these ideas with Cycliq since it seems odd not to have their products collaborate, especially when it is unsafe to reach for the rear camera lock button while riding. Sadly they didn’t seem interested.

The Garmin Virb 360 already has two cameras working together but since it needs to be helmet mounted for a clear view is not safe in that position. Obviously helmets are not designed and tested for use with random levers attached. That would be like Anti-MIPS!

Ride safe..

[lonpfrb]

Mungecrundle wrote:

Mungecrundle wrote:

Some ideas from a cycliq user:

For a safety camera, I’m not too fussed about image stabilisation, high frame rates or other gimmicks unless they improve the primary function.

As a fellow Cycliq owner (6CE), I believe that image stabilisation is essential to the primary function.

[lonpfrb]

Secret_squirrel wrote:

Secret_squirrel wrote:

Pretty much what others have said.

Garmin Varia radar / ConnectIQ integration – show passing speeds and distance on video.

This is a key feature missing on the Garmin or Cycliq devices, and answers the need to minimise time spent on locking or subsequent viewing of videos.

The Garmin Varia Radar knows when a fast or close pass is coming and broadcasts on Ant+. The video camera should use that to store the threat level on each clip, with appropriate locking.

So you have a distinctive safety feature, highly automated for capture and subsequent use.

Having data and video is good but low cost of use would be epic.

[IanMSpencer]

My ideal camera is one that

My ideal camera is one that can cope with an all day ride, so I am looking at 80+ miles at say 15mph moving average, what’s that? Quite a lot of battery. I already charge my lights after a ride, so I have a mains connection and USB multi-charger ready to hand. Standard handlebar mounting and consideration on the rear for mounting either on seatpost or seat stay.

I do not want built in lights, I want them compact.

Absolutely waterproof – enough to cope with a car deluging me through a puddle as if I had several buckets of water thrown over me.

Quality, good enough to pick up number plates in all weathers and under street lights.

Ideally rather than storing a ride’s worth to scan through, I’d like a alert button which would then trigger a function on front and rear to keep the previous 5 minutes and the following minute, to allow for incidents. A crash trigger would automatically do the same. All the rest of the video can go in the bin as far as I am concerned. The important thing is an easy way to set the time (yep, I’ve had a Fly6). 

I want an easy way to clear and reset the memory and a quick way to access the video without having to unmount the camera and ideally without having to unload video cards. I would quite like it to detect my home wifi, which extends to where I store my bike and upload the video automatically after a few minutes when it is convinced it is back home.

Basically, I want to spend the minumum time reviewing, just be able to check and upload. I then want some easy viewing software that allows a very quick review of any incident, together with very lightweight editing tools, basically trimming the video and very little else. Perhaps something to merge front and rear views automatically. The other thing is a blur enhancer, I’ve had success with a shareware blur enhancement tool to go all Ethan Hunt and retrieve a difficult number plate. Anything more, there are plenty of proper video editing tools to play with.

[HoarseMann]

Yep, it’s also easier to

Yep, it’s also easier to remember the colour of a car than the numberplate and only one of those is enough evidence to uniquely identify it!

In low light conditions, especially under the old sodium streetlamps, colour reproduction can be way off anyway. So of little value. A B&W sensor in the daytime would enable a faster shutter speed for less motion blur, which is more important to me than colour information.

An IR LED and a B&W CMOS camera would get the job done for a low cost.

[Bungle_52]

Brilliant idea. My initial

Brilliant idea. My initial thought was that you wouldn’t have the colour of the car but that be got from DVLA site so no problem.

[hawkinspeter]

How about having a front

How about having a front camera with a smallish video screen on it that’s visible whilst riding. Then, have a rear camera that links to it (WIFI? Bluetooth?) and have the rear view displayed on the front camera.

[kil0ran]

I guess you could even tie
I guess you could even tie the cameras to the battery and mount cryptographically so they’re useless on their own, reducing risk of theft

[kil0ran]

I stopped using a cam because
I stopped using a cam because I hated charging it.
I think there’s scope for a front and rear cabled camera which places a large capacity battery on a bottle cage mount. Like a pump mount so you can still use the cage for a bottle. That way you can shrink the cam, place the weight lower down in the frame. You can also potentially use security mountings for the cameras because they won’t need to be removed regularly. Cables for camera plug into battery mount, battery is removable for charging or carrying a spare, and contains the SD card. Basically like how first gen Di2 worked

[Author]

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