Some Australian cyclists have caught the attention of the media down under with their use of bicycle-mounted video cameras.
Simon Hookham (that's his video at left) and Nathan Besh say they can use the videos to record near-misses or collisions with cars or pedestrians.
Police in New South Wales told the Sydney Morning Herald that the video footage is useful in crash investigations and might even be used as evidence.
Cyclists have been doing this for years. The growth of digital video makes it easy, and relatively inexpensive, to record your bicycle rides.
While some point the cameras forward to capture their bike rides as they see them, others point them to the rear to record what's happening behind. This can be downright scary, however, when you watch approaching cars weaving across the bike lane or wait until the last second to swerve out of your path.
Instead of scaring off potential cyclists with these videos, the chief executive of Bicycle NSW said they should be used for tracking routes or demonstrating good bicycling skills.
Mounting concern
In any case, there are various ways to mount a camera on a bicycle. The main issue has been mounting the cameras where they're easy to turn on and off.
While mounts are available for sale, there are lots of possibilities for do-it-yourself camera mounts.
The video above right shares a few ideas for several interesting angles for camera mounting. The video at left shows a standard handlebar mount for a Flip-style digital camera.
The Instructables website has lots of choices for camera mounts. Here's one for under $1 that uses a bolt, washers, a mount for a bicycle reflector and a couple of wing nuts. You can find more there by search “bicycle camera mounts.”
If you have links to other decent bicycle mounts, please leave them in the comment section.
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