Motorcycle Camera Video

[Datech]

As some of you know, I have a motorcycle that I ride, a lot. So I figure why not film my rides? A week ago I purchased the Vholdr Contour HD (http://vholdr.com/) camera, and I got it today and installed it on the left front fairing of my bike. Check out the video it made! I can't embed the Vimeo video here, so check it out through the link.

http://vimeo.com/5329928

I'm kinda super excited right now, so I don't know what other info to put. Feel free to ask any questions.

[OvRiDe]

Dude.. that is awesome.. I am impressed with the quality of the video even after its been converted for web display. Alot of cameras would have fallen on their face with the light conditions in the parking garage. Very freaking cool! Thanks for sharing!

[knowledgegranted]

The quality of the video is amazing!

Like Ovride said, the lighting in the garage is hard to film in and would bring most of the camera's to their knees but the camera brought the lighting to its knees!

[Oneslowz28]

awesome camera man. now go scratch up some knee sliders already..

[Zephik]

These kinds of videos are exactly why I love vimeo so much.

[x88x]

This gave me an idea....Google Street-View motorcycles! :banana:


....ok, I said an idea, not necessarily a good idea.. :lick:

Anyways, that's pretty cool.

[Beta-brain]

Excellent quality, I've thought about a bike cam myself but it kind of seems like tempting fate as I've been riding for 32 years with no accidents apart from a couple of low speed offs on diesel and ice.

There was a case recently about two bikers who live near me they filmed themselves riding like complete twats at up to 170mph and one of them crashed and was decapitated when a van drove over him, you could say the car driver was at fault because he pulled out in front of the bike but if the biker had been going a sensible speed and not tailgating the car he would have had time to react.

The video was released by the dead mans family as a warning to others, the nasty bit has been cut if your squeamish. (http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/videonews/)

"Ride free but safely, there's enough people trying to kill us without doing it yourself" :dead:

[Airbozo]

I have been looking for a good quality camera like this. Thanks for the links and video! This will make for some great mountain road videos on my bike (modified '95 sportster). I agree about the quality of the camera in the parking garage. Very nice!

Beta-brain: I too have been riding for over 35 years. The first bike I ever owned was a Bull Taco. That thing would literally climb a tree IF you could hold on. I have owned my sporty since '95 (bought it slightly used with less than 300 miles on it). I just got it out of the shop with a major engine overhaul and am still breaking in the engine.

[Beta-brain]

Beta-brain: I too have been riding for over 35 years. The first bike I ever owned was a Bull Taco. That thing would literally climb a tree IF you could hold on. I have owned my sporty since '95 (bought it slightly used with less than 300 miles on it). I just got it out of the shop with a major engine overhaul and am still breaking in the engine.

I would love a Harley but in the UK they are real expensive and they hold their second hand price as well, a second hand model a few years old is often only a £1000-2000 less than a new model.
In the UK the legislation towards bikers is getting harder and it now takes a few years and a lot of money to get a full license so there's less people taking to bikes.
Ride easy man, were a dying breed.

PS: Sorry for hijacking your thread :redface:

[Datech]

No worries Beta. I got my 2006 Ninja 250 for $2000, and I've spent a total of maybe $3500 on everything motorcycle related so far (including this camera). Its just amazing how simple it is here, and its definitely saving on gas!

Girlfriend's Dad is looking to get a gently used Harley and he's trying to get an 05 Softail down to $8000 before he buys it. Going on a ride this weekend as well. Here's hoping I'll have good footage for you guys, and no instances where the camera gets gradually closer to the ground until the screen goes black.

[Airbozo]

I really wish they would make it a little harder to get a MC license. In Cali, it is almost as easy as: you pay your money, you get your license. Those under 18 are required to attend the CHP Motorcycle Safety course and pass it before getting their license. There was talk a few years back about restricting the CC's according to age. Under 21 would be limited to under 500cc's. That bill died before getting to the house though. Due to the weather you see a lot of kids riding powerful crotch rockets with no more than shorts and tanktops with their female passengers in short shorts, flip flops and a tank top. :facepalm: In my group if you show up to one of our rides with less than leathers, you get sent home. We usually have one ride a month through the Santa Cruz Mountains. Lots of twisties and technical riding.

I took the MC Safety course with my wife when I bought this bike. I was the most experienced rider in the course and scored dead last on the tests. Too many bad habits that I had to break (plus I kept bunny hopping the bike they gave me over the median and curbs. Big no-no). My wife had only been a passenger once on a motorcycle and she almost aced the course. A couple of benefits of taking the course are the fact that you only have to take the written test at DMV and your insurance is cheaper after passing the class.

I spent $9000 on my sporty after taxes and fees and have since put at least that into the engine, brakes and safety gear. :eek:

Back on topic:
Did you buy that camera directly from the manufacturer or a retailer? How much did it cost and what is the recording limits?

[Datech]

I ordered it from Motorcycle Superstore (http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/4/346/21231/ITEM/Twenty20-VholdR-Contour-HD-Camera.aspx), but apparently they only had one because they are now out of stock, lol.

The HD setting records in 1280x720, and a 10 minute ride is around 300MB. The device records on a MicroSD card, and will support a MicroSD-HC up to 16GB. I've got an 8GB, and I verified that the file size scales with recording length because my 20 minute ride to work this morning was 600MB. So with a little math you figure a 1 hour video is just under 2GB, and you can get a little over 4 hours of recording time in HD with my 8GB card, 8 hours with the 16GB.

The camera comes with a 2GB card, so i'll use that as a backup for now. The camera has three different lights and a beep-speaker on it for notifications. One light is green when on, amber when recording, another is green when the lasers are on, etc. The thing beeps twice when it is turned on, once when the laser turns on, twice when it starts recording, once when it stops recording, and 3 times when its turned completely off.

I haven't bothered recording in SD yet since the HD is a really great quality, so I don't have file sizes for it yet. The whole package comes with the camera, the card, a rechargeable battery, a sticky mount (what I'm using) and a goggle mount.

The entire package costs $300, $280 if you can find one of the recent discounted places. A 8GB card will cost up to $15, and the 16GB up to $50. They have other mounting systems, like a handle bar and suction cup, that I will eventually get. I imagine that when I go on one of the smaller group rides through twisties in the future I'll take three different mounts and ride the road in the same formation three different times up and back. I could edit together a sick video with that kind of footage.

[Computer-Geek]

Very nice vid the quality rocks. One important thing don't forget your gear man even if it's just a short ride.

[Datech]

Went riding around North Georgia today and hit up 60 and Wolf Pen Gap. The footage all the way to the tavern is great, but for some reason the light sensing got messed up on the way back. If anything I'll just send it back to Motorcycle-Superstore and get a new one. Testing it out now.

Edit: Yep, something happened while I was at the tavern I guess. Maybe moisture, but it wasn't heat because it was in my pocket inside the restaurant. The picture quality is still good, but every time the camera catches a light source or reflection the light is distorted badly, usually in RGB blocks. I'm going to call the company that makes it on Monday and see what I should do. For the build quality of this unit I can't imagine this is a common problem, lets just hope I'm not SOL on returning it.