My son recently had a minor fender bender accident, in which he hit the side of a car which pulled into his path. On scene, it was all one person's word against another till a witness spoke to the police. Commuting into DC and riding regularly into Baltimore, I've been rear-ended twice and DC is not known for good drivers or traffic. My son's accident reminded me again of why I keep talking about wanting to put a cheap video recorder on my vehicles.
I wanted something super basic to catch license plate numbers and traffic signals, NOT for beautifully recording rides. Something with a looping memory that automatically turns on and off when the bike is running. Something which takes no maintenance beyond occasionally wiping off a camera lens. I did go for the slightly better cameras because they will capture twice the pixels, meaning that it will be better able to make out license plate numbers and faces at a distance.
I didn't want a GPS or the G sensor to stop the recording if the bike hits something. I also passed on the optional RECORD event button, which is not meant for continuous video use. When you push it, the recorder will capture the previous 10 seconds of buffered images and then turn back off 1, 2, or 5 minutes later. If you pass something and are not doing a continuous video, pressing the button means that you won't need to search through hours of video later.
Seeing such a camera at the AIMExpo last month, I finally bought it, did the install on the Super Tenere, and what follows is the how-to. I picked up the SRBC66 720p/30hz system shown here for a show special price of $80 and they are normally around $140-150:
https://sykik.com/collections/motorcycle-cameras
The thing is as generically Chinese as can be, so everything is written in mixed English. Notice that there are no names or other details on the box.
The box contained everything needed, including ty-raps. The piece of paper is all there is to the installation instruction sheet. Fortunately, everything hooks together one way, so it's easy. One thing I appreciated is that they provide a USB connector, to allow trying the system with power from any USB source BEFORE doing any installation. I simply plugged it into the laptop.
As happens with some generic things like this, some items don't always go to plan. I am not knocking the guy who runs the company because overall what I got was a great value and felt that he was straight-forward when we were talking and he shipped it the following day since he was out of stock at the tradeshow booth. That said, the following photo shows that instructions are on the web-site, but I couldn't find them anywhere. The above photo shows a purple thumb drive and I have no idea what is supposed to be on it, because my Mac and Windows computers didn't recognize it. I got along fine with installation and operation, using what was in the box though. Again, these are just the quirks of dealing with a really small company selling something fairly generic from China.
The cameras are waterproof and I installed the tail camera first, mounting it to the bottom of the luggage rack and top box. Unless really looking, it's very inconspicuous. To get the image right-side up, you loosen the lens cap and rotate the camera body while watching the video monitor, then tighten the lens cap. Without the monitor screen on their most basic model (C6), you'd need to keep swapping the micro-sd chip between the recorder and a laptop. As an added protection against vibration loosening the lens cap in use, I dabbed a touch of black RTV across the joint.
To run the cable beneath the rear luggage platform required notching the plastic under the rear seat.
I was going to put the front camera beneath the light bar on the chin of the bike, but the front catches so many bug splats and so much mud that I finally put it behind the windshield where I can reach with a cloth to clean the lens. The Yamaha plastic piece is only $11 so replacing it will not be a big deal if I change my mind later. Sorry that no photos were taken to show cutting the hole, but again, it was really straightforward. The hardest part was bending the supplied metal mounting bracket. The video cable is routed aft along the inside of the right fairing, past the wire for the cigarette lighter.
Sooner or later, I'll paint the screw heads black.
It all comes together beneath the seat. The recorder has a micro-SD card slot, so I stuck in a 32Gb card which happened to be on hand. That ought to give about a 4+ hour loop which is longer than my bladder lasts.
The power converter appears to be waterproof, while the recorder is clearly not. I don't plan to submerge the bike to the seat, so just wanted something splash and rain safe. I used a cheap clear clamshell blisterpack which was the packaging for some screws with a hole cut in the end for the wires. It is being held closed with a Velcro band. Under the recorder is a piece of foam for vibration protection.
Some installation items related to the last photo:
1. I already have a FZ-1 Fuzeblock for power distribution and that is the source for switched 12V power. The recorder comes with a small block to transform the 12V to the required 5V. You do not want to hook the transformer to the battery or other 24/7 power, because you'd have to turn it on and off every time you get on/off the bike.
2. The biggest issue with the installation is that the camera video cables are so long that I ended up with a big ty-rapped lump. The lump is 2 to 3 times the size of the recorder and visible under the blister pack containing the recorder. The next time I'm in there, I'm going to move the cable bundle to the space beneath the rear seat.
3. To view the video, the recorder has a really small 1.5" screen or you take out the micro-SD chip and put it in a USB adapter to stick in a laptop. The screen on the recorder is really only good enough to check whether the cameras are operating and that a recording is being made. Don't put the recorder in such an inaccessible place that you can't get to the micro-sd chip.
4. You want to put the front camera in the left display position, because the recording captures which position each is from. To keep from mixing up the connectors, I marked one set with a paint marker.
For operation, remember in the opening about how generic this is? And the lack of instructions in the package? In writing this review I found instructions on a Chinese manufacturer's web-site for an identical unit. Open the pdf for the C6L model.
http://www.szv-sys.com/DOWNLOADS/
When you set-up the camera you insert the micro-sd chip, and then run through a very basic menu of options like on a point & shoot camera. I formatted the chip, set the date and time, etc, with no issues.
When you want to see the recording and put the chip into a computer, you'll find two directories of AVI videos, one for the front camera, and one for the rear. People have downloaded the software to display them together but I've not bothered. On the video are your date and time. I have the Movavi app on a Mac and it is able to run and edit the files effortlessly.
Just for convenience, here is a link to a Youtube video somebody else posted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMep5FBxE-w
I wanted something super basic to catch license plate numbers and traffic signals, NOT for beautifully recording rides. Something with a looping memory that automatically turns on and off when the bike is running. Something which takes no maintenance beyond occasionally wiping off a camera lens. I did go for the slightly better cameras because they will capture twice the pixels, meaning that it will be better able to make out license plate numbers and faces at a distance.
I didn't want a GPS or the G sensor to stop the recording if the bike hits something. I also passed on the optional RECORD event button, which is not meant for continuous video use. When you push it, the recorder will capture the previous 10 seconds of buffered images and then turn back off 1, 2, or 5 minutes later. If you pass something and are not doing a continuous video, pressing the button means that you won't need to search through hours of video later.
Seeing such a camera at the AIMExpo last month, I finally bought it, did the install on the Super Tenere, and what follows is the how-to. I picked up the SRBC66 720p/30hz system shown here for a show special price of $80 and they are normally around $140-150:
https://sykik.com/collections/motorcycle-cameras
The thing is as generically Chinese as can be, so everything is written in mixed English. Notice that there are no names or other details on the box.
The box contained everything needed, including ty-raps. The piece of paper is all there is to the installation instruction sheet. Fortunately, everything hooks together one way, so it's easy. One thing I appreciated is that they provide a USB connector, to allow trying the system with power from any USB source BEFORE doing any installation. I simply plugged it into the laptop.
As happens with some generic things like this, some items don't always go to plan. I am not knocking the guy who runs the company because overall what I got was a great value and felt that he was straight-forward when we were talking and he shipped it the following day since he was out of stock at the tradeshow booth. That said, the following photo shows that instructions are on the web-site, but I couldn't find them anywhere. The above photo shows a purple thumb drive and I have no idea what is supposed to be on it, because my Mac and Windows computers didn't recognize it. I got along fine with installation and operation, using what was in the box though. Again, these are just the quirks of dealing with a really small company selling something fairly generic from China.
The cameras are waterproof and I installed the tail camera first, mounting it to the bottom of the luggage rack and top box. Unless really looking, it's very inconspicuous. To get the image right-side up, you loosen the lens cap and rotate the camera body while watching the video monitor, then tighten the lens cap. Without the monitor screen on their most basic model (C6), you'd need to keep swapping the micro-sd chip between the recorder and a laptop. As an added protection against vibration loosening the lens cap in use, I dabbed a touch of black RTV across the joint.
To run the cable beneath the rear luggage platform required notching the plastic under the rear seat.
I was going to put the front camera beneath the light bar on the chin of the bike, but the front catches so many bug splats and so much mud that I finally put it behind the windshield where I can reach with a cloth to clean the lens. The Yamaha plastic piece is only $11 so replacing it will not be a big deal if I change my mind later. Sorry that no photos were taken to show cutting the hole, but again, it was really straightforward. The hardest part was bending the supplied metal mounting bracket. The video cable is routed aft along the inside of the right fairing, past the wire for the cigarette lighter.
Sooner or later, I'll paint the screw heads black.
It all comes together beneath the seat. The recorder has a micro-SD card slot, so I stuck in a 32Gb card which happened to be on hand. That ought to give about a 4+ hour loop which is longer than my bladder lasts.
The power converter appears to be waterproof, while the recorder is clearly not. I don't plan to submerge the bike to the seat, so just wanted something splash and rain safe. I used a cheap clear clamshell blisterpack which was the packaging for some screws with a hole cut in the end for the wires. It is being held closed with a Velcro band. Under the recorder is a piece of foam for vibration protection.
Some installation items related to the last photo:
1. I already have a FZ-1 Fuzeblock for power distribution and that is the source for switched 12V power. The recorder comes with a small block to transform the 12V to the required 5V. You do not want to hook the transformer to the battery or other 24/7 power, because you'd have to turn it on and off every time you get on/off the bike.
2. The biggest issue with the installation is that the camera video cables are so long that I ended up with a big ty-rapped lump. The lump is 2 to 3 times the size of the recorder and visible under the blister pack containing the recorder. The next time I'm in there, I'm going to move the cable bundle to the space beneath the rear seat.
3. To view the video, the recorder has a really small 1.5" screen or you take out the micro-SD chip and put it in a USB adapter to stick in a laptop. The screen on the recorder is really only good enough to check whether the cameras are operating and that a recording is being made. Don't put the recorder in such an inaccessible place that you can't get to the micro-sd chip.
4. You want to put the front camera in the left display position, because the recording captures which position each is from. To keep from mixing up the connectors, I marked one set with a paint marker.
For operation, remember in the opening about how generic this is? And the lack of instructions in the package? In writing this review I found instructions on a Chinese manufacturer's web-site for an identical unit. Open the pdf for the C6L model.
http://www.szv-sys.com/DOWNLOADS/
When you set-up the camera you insert the micro-sd chip, and then run through a very basic menu of options like on a point & shoot camera. I formatted the chip, set the date and time, etc, with no issues.
When you want to see the recording and put the chip into a computer, you'll find two directories of AVI videos, one for the front camera, and one for the rear. People have downloaded the software to display them together but I've not bothered. On the video are your date and time. I have the Movavi app on a Mac and it is able to run and edit the files effortlessly.
Just for convenience, here is a link to a Youtube video somebody else posted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMep5FBxE-w
