I'm thinking about mounting a front/rear camera system on my 2015 GS and looking for suggestions from others who've been down this path. I'm not looking. I've read about the INNOV K5, Ride Vision 1, and the Thinkware M1 and all seem like good choices but I'd appreciate some real world feedback on use/quality/ease of installation or suggestions for other options. Thanks
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Dash Cam Advice
- Thread starter NeilC
- Start date
Had INOVV given to me . . . decided not to install
I had an INOVV unit given to me, new, unused, but after looking at it, and all the parts, I decided that I didn't want that much hardware and wires on my R1200GS. I also saw routinely cleaning the lenses are a chore that I didn't want. Sold it on Ebay.
I had an INOVV unit given to me, new, unused, but after looking at it, and all the parts, I decided that I didn't want that much hardware and wires on my R1200GS. I also saw routinely cleaning the lenses are a chore that I didn't want. Sold it on Ebay.
adamchandler
YouTube Mechanic
Ive used both VSYSTO and Thinkware M1 dash cams. My opinion is to not waste time and valuable onboard space. Setup is easy enough, you can find a place for everything but the camera quality is abysmally bad. Until here companies improve their image stabilization, these won't do much to identify the hit and run car.
1. None do 4K & 60 frames per second
2. None have usable image stabilization
3. None account for vibration of the bikes (even the boxer)
4. A LOT of wires and hard on bikes that have very limited storage space
5. It's hard on the GS to find a place to install where getting to the SD card box is easy
6. Pretty poor mobile apps
A GoPro on your helmet will be better in every way if you don't mind camera weight.
M1 Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJg_HOoL-Yk
VSYSTO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4oHdYtMmsk
the most important thing is frame rate. 30FPS is too slow to catch moving action.
1. None do 4K & 60 frames per second
2. None have usable image stabilization
3. None account for vibration of the bikes (even the boxer)
4. A LOT of wires and hard on bikes that have very limited storage space
5. It's hard on the GS to find a place to install where getting to the SD card box is easy
6. Pretty poor mobile apps
A GoPro on your helmet will be better in every way if you don't mind camera weight.
M1 Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJg_HOoL-Yk
VSYSTO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4oHdYtMmsk
the most important thing is frame rate. 30FPS is too slow to catch moving action.
r0ckrat
Active member
A bunch of years ago I picked up a Sykik system, which sat in my garage for years. I finally set it up on my R1200R-LC last year. It was less than $100 when I bought it at a show, and similar systems can be had for less than $40 now. The video is OK - it's a dash cam, not an action camera. Front mounting locations are the hard part, especially on a naked bike, so it's sitting securely on the little cage in front of the radiator peeking out between the forks over the fender and under the steering damper. Rear camera is mounted peeking out over the top edge of the license plate under the brake light.
Like I said, it's not great quality, and like mentioned earlier does not have image stabilization. But... what is your intended use of the footage? These cameras catch *everything* - you don't have to turn them on, you don't have to worry about batteries. The files they generate are short clips, and get saved every couple of minutes. When the card gets full, they dump the oldest file (many cams have "protected" video files for when there is an "incident" or you set a "save this clip" flag, and these files will not be deleted.) A 32GB microSD with my camera will start to erase files after about 12 hors of footage.
If you are looking to collect, edit, and assemble footage for cool videos, these aren't what you want. But that's not what they are designed for.
If you are looking to have reasonable quality dash-cam footage for personal entertainment ("Oh. look a this idiot!" or "Wow, that was a close one." with friends) or for a record in case something happens, a dash-cam setup is what you want.
The Innov setups are nice, there are others that are less expensive and do the same thing. One that I am looking at right now to upgrade my current system is this (version P6FL-Pro): https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2251832726069554.html with the accessory (extra) GPS unit. I know, it's only 25 fps. It's for piece of mind, not for making action movies.
All that said, here's a video I put together from a ride with friends. It's clipped down to 45 minutes of pretty boring footage, but gives you an idea of central Los Angeles County canyon roads (Big Tujunga Canyon Rd, Angeles Forest Rd, Angeles Crest Hwy.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU2sqB3E0P8
Like I said, it's not great quality, and like mentioned earlier does not have image stabilization. But... what is your intended use of the footage? These cameras catch *everything* - you don't have to turn them on, you don't have to worry about batteries. The files they generate are short clips, and get saved every couple of minutes. When the card gets full, they dump the oldest file (many cams have "protected" video files for when there is an "incident" or you set a "save this clip" flag, and these files will not be deleted.) A 32GB microSD with my camera will start to erase files after about 12 hors of footage.
If you are looking to collect, edit, and assemble footage for cool videos, these aren't what you want. But that's not what they are designed for.
If you are looking to have reasonable quality dash-cam footage for personal entertainment ("Oh. look a this idiot!" or "Wow, that was a close one." with friends) or for a record in case something happens, a dash-cam setup is what you want.
The Innov setups are nice, there are others that are less expensive and do the same thing. One that I am looking at right now to upgrade my current system is this (version P6FL-Pro): https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2251832726069554.html with the accessory (extra) GPS unit. I know, it's only 25 fps. It's for piece of mind, not for making action movies.
All that said, here's a video I put together from a ride with friends. It's clipped down to 45 minutes of pretty boring footage, but gives you an idea of central Los Angeles County canyon roads (Big Tujunga Canyon Rd, Angeles Forest Rd, Angeles Crest Hwy.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU2sqB3E0P8
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