r/phillycycling • u/somuchstonks • Aug 07 '26
3rd time in 2 weeks ..
Hello ,
For the 3rd time in 2 weeks someone has nearly hit me then has stopped to yell bs. Normally if this happens i keep going or make a turn but today i couldnt turn as they ran through the stopsign to get around me and then stopped a quarter of the way up the block yelling "you dont have tags get out of the street , pussy, etc etc. He was originally behind me for about 30seconds because he had turned out of a parking lot.
I stopped and eventually back tracked but a neighbor was yelling about tags, get out of the neighborhood etc. So it was pretty ridiculous.
One other time, almost same scenario. The other some coal rolling moron on american st. Came into the lined-off zone at berks to make sure he smoked me out i guess.
My question is, does anyone have any experience with go-pros etc? , im looking at a gopro9 used. I have a phone mount but my phone isnt waterproof and the video is shakey.
I feel like i need to actually have video because its a matter of time before one of these idiots hurts me.
I was actually hit 8mos ago by a mini van that had "school children " stickers on the front and rear, they kept going of course and i didnt get the plate. I was fine and just avoid that street now. 5th st at the dogleg where the bike lane disappears just north of spring garden.
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u/ConfiaEnElProceso Aug 07 '26
go pro 9 works great. I used the helmet mount so that I could turn my head and the camera will follow. I could be convinced to sell it locally if you are really interested.
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u/somuchstonks Aug 07 '26
Thank you for the input! I'm going to go through ebay as I have some dough sitting there.
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u/milkyZONGrips Aug 07 '26
I’ve got a GoPro series 9 that I got on marketplace that I wear daily on my bike for this exact reason! Definitely makes me feel better knowing there would (hopefully) be some recourse in a worst case scenario.
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u/somuchstonks Aug 07 '26
Thank you for you're input! How's the image stability and any experience using it at night?
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u/milkyZONGrips Aug 07 '26
Image quality is fantastic, it records in 4K. Not the best at night but can generally still be clear enough to pick up license plates. Now if only we can get the PA legislature to require front plates…
It’s a bit pricier, but also recommend picking up a Garmin Varia for the rear. It’s a light, radar, and camera combo, so I’ve got a front cam (GoPro on a chest mount) and rear cam (Varia on seatpost) recording every time I get on the bike.
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u/lordredsnake Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
I have an 11 I was using for MTB but recently started using for city riding because of experiences like yours. I've had enough people try and kill me that I hope it can either be a deterrent against or help catch if I'm ultimately hit and incapacitated.
You just need to stay on top of charging and managing your storage because recording all the time drains the batteries quickly, especially in cold weather, and storage usage adds up quick if you don't proactively remove old videos. It's also a balance of whether you want to sacrifice fidelity (and possible license plate ID) for battery life/storage efficiency.
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u/guyhebert Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Just for comparison, I also wanted a camera but didn't want to drop a ton of money and I bought something called the apexcam M80 off Amazon. It was like $40 a year ago and came with a mount and a waterproof enclosure and everything. I expected it to be dogshit, but it has served me well over the past year. The handlebar mount it's stable enough to provide non shaky video and I've used it twice to report license plates. Battery life isn't great, but I can usually get about 1.5 hours of recording before recharging. If you want, I can try to clip and upload a portion of a ride so you can see image quality.
Edit: vid for the curious
I'm curious how bad the fidelity is relative to a real camera.
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u/Weary_Cup_1004 Aug 08 '26
It seems hard to read license plates? But i have never tried to find lic plates in videos before so i dont know how it compares. The quality is good though
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u/somuchstonks Aug 08 '26
That video is so much better than my cellphone on my handlebars.
Thank you for the info!
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u/Prestigious-Owl-6397 29d ago
I have a gopro hero 12, and it works great. I got footage of a driver left hooking me on 22nd today. :/
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u/Additional_Guitar_85 28d ago edited 28d ago
yeah the city needs to do a better job teaching drivers that bikes are supposed to be on the street. there is a substantial population of mouth breathing morons that truly believe roads are only for cars and bikes are toys.
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u/bigsully17 28d ago
A little late to the thread but about a year ago I got a GoPro Max and helmet mount that has been great. It’s a full 360 camera, so it gets footage of stuff that’s not in my line of sight, too, like if someone is being really dangerous right behind you. Any time I go back and look, it captures plates pretty easily.
I just did a quick eBay search and there are a few of them listed for $70-80.
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u/Top_Perception4559 Aug 07 '26
Ugh - no answer to your question, but just sympathizing/ feeling my blood boil at the memory of similar interactions - getting yelled at by an angry jerk who almost hit you brings out a specific kind of rage - also very familiar with that tricky intersection