An inventor has launched Rideye – a bar-mounted action camera designed to give cyclists' recourse against bad or dangerous driving. Demand for the fledgling product has been high.
Footage from a prototype rideye
Video: Rideye action cam footage
The black box style high definition camera with a 120-degree wide angle lens is designed to record a rider's commute and, if they witness dangerous driving, give them footage they can take to the police.
Rideye is the idea of Los Angeles-based Cedric Bosch, who created the handlebar-mounted semi-automatic camera after his friend was left unconscious by the roadside after a hit and run incident.
Bosch turned to Kickstarter in September to raise funds for full scale production. His $32,000 goal was met in five days. A third of the total came from British backers, Bosch told BikeRadar.
The camera set up is housed in aluminium shell featuring an accelorometer and a USB rechargeable lithium ion battery. It's turned on and off via a single button and can record 2.5 hours of footage, after which it starts to record over the oldest files. That means cyclists don't have to worry about downloading and deleting uneventful video.
If the rider witnesses dodgy driving, re-pressing the button saves the last hour of footage for review. And if the worst happens and the rider can’t manually control the camera, the accelerometer, triggered by the crash, kicks in and automatically saves the footage.
The robust looking 185g unit is mounted on a pivot that can turn 360 degrees.
Despite reaching the Kickstarter goal, the campaign still has two weeks to run. It means backers can still take advantage of the discounted price of $129 (about £80 excluding shipping) for the standard camera. Full price is US$149 (approx £92).
Cameras are expected to be shipping in March 2014.
For more information, visit Rideye's Kickstarter page.
Action cameras are becoming popular with UK cyclists. Cycling charity CTC wants the police to use more footage to punish bad driving. Prominent lawyer, Martin Porter QC, also blogged on Sunday that he was angry a "senior CPS official asserts (absurdly) that my video evidence does not support my complaint of dangerous driving against an HGV driver who nearly crushed me."
