Hey folks,
Posting on behalf of my brother, who stubbornly refuses to get a Reddit account. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
He's also given me some photos of his bike to assist visualisation of what he needs help with.
Hi Reddit,
I've been commuting on my E bike 300km a week the past year and I'm getting sick of traffic treating me like dogs vomit. I have finally decided to bite the bullet and invest in a camera but I'm quickly reminded why I have given up on this process in the past. My bike has very little mounting possibilities and is also a step through frame. I have had to be creative with mounting a drink bottle my lock, my bag, and all of my necessities.
Here is my issue:
Helmet mounts always feel too heavy and are a hassle whenever entering shops or places where people might not be happy to be filmed.
Handlebar mounts are not an option currently as I love my front Ortlieb Ultimate 6 handlebar bag way too much and use it several times a day on and off the bike. I have looked into getting alternate extended mounts, Looking at using a clamp either on my handlebar spacers or the fork crowns. Finding an appropriate camera that can then go with this mount is full of land mines. There are many cameras that advertise run times of 10 hours but many reviews say it ends up being closer to 2-2.5hr. Go pros in particular have rubbish battery life. There are alternatives to gopros that come in bulkier formats that I've been looking at but again, the ones that allow for looped video have the issue of battery life. I have tried google, amazon and aliexpress.
Chest mounts look promising and are quite comfortable with the harnesses that are available. Again though, the option is with which camera to get. See dilemma above.
Rear mounted seat post light camera hybrids like the FLY6 Are mighty tempting but I have nowhere to mount them where their view isn't obscured. Additionally my seat post is busied up by my abus lock mount.
I am potentially looking at getting one but mounting them somewhere on the rear rack either on one of the diagonal down tubes that connect the top of it with the frame, or at the back of the rack. I would have to be creative with how I attached them because This style of camera is designed to be mounted on something 25 millimetres or more, not the 11mm diameter rack tubing. Even if I find a way to extend this out I'm not sure that the final angle of the camera will work out. It might be pointed too high.
I'm also tempted to find a way to mount this style of camera on the very back of the rack but finding a way of mounting it vertically. I'm not sure how this could be done though because the camera must be mounted vertically in order to display its wide angle lens, again showing everything that is needed.
Does anyone have any recommendations that allow for me to keep my current lock, bottle mount and handlebar configuration? Looped video and battery life are non-negotiable. My budget would probably be $2-300USD total (including mounts). I don’t need the best video quality, and having something simple to operate would also be excellent. Put it on. Press record. That’s it.
Thanks everyone!
by EgoIdVeto