With the my new Triumph Tiger 1200 GT Pro I thought it would be a good idea to fit a set of Dash Cameras. The primary reasons were:
- In the event of an accident, there would have a record of the incident
- To report drivers who put other people’s lives at risk
- There are some journeys which are worth recording on to video and posting on social media.
Over 15 years ago I had a major accident and at that time Dash Cams were a rarity and there were no witness to the accident. So it could have been very much their word against mine, and as I have no memory of the accident it would have just been their word. I was fortunate the accident investigation showed it was 100% the other drivers fault. However, it did get me thinking and I have had a dash cam in the car for a long while. Motorcycle Dash Cams have come a long way in recent years and with having a new motorbike I thought it would be worth the investment.
Which Camera system to go for?
Well dash cameras for cars and in particular for motorbikes have come a long way. Both in terms of technology, but also in picture quality.
The Triumph Tiger 1200 GT Pro has the facility to connect to Go Pro Cameras, via a Bluetooth connection. Whilst GoPro’s are very good cameras and having a direct connection/control of the camera would be great. The disadvantages are that you would need to keep charging the battery or find an external power source. The other disadvantage was size and where could I place it. There was also cost, I would have to buy two if I wanted a rear facing camera as well as one for the front.
There are a number of systems which can be hard wired to the bike and offer both front and rear cameras, which would be small and discrete to locate and fix.
Innovv K5 Dual Camera System
After looking at several dual camera systems I settled for the Innov KS Dash Cam system. It’s not cheap but it offers a high quality cameras for the front and rear, it is hard wired to the bikes power supply and it comes on automatically when the ignition is switched on. It records the GPS location of the bike, so you can see your actual route on the appropriate software.
It has a couple of different modes. If it detects an “accident” it will automatically save the video into a “safe location”, so it can’t be overwritten. It also has parking mode. If the bike is disturbed whilst parked and the ignition is off, it will automatically turn itself on and start recording.
The Phone app is very good, the App will connect to the camera system. This will allow you to watch and/or download the videos
Fitting
Fitting and wiring the cameras is relatively straight forward. It comes with a load brackets and pads to reduce vibration being transmitted to the camera. The hardest part was trying to route the cables from the rear camera underneath the seat, past the fuel tank/engine to the camera at the front. I was lucky that a mechanic at my local garage was able to do it for me.
Proof is in the Pudding
As they say the proof is in the pudding.
I went for a ride down on of my favourite local roads, which has a series of nice sweeping bends and a lot of time can be traffic free. The video below is 2 minutes of that journey.
I have to say I am impressed with the quality of the original videos. For YouTube, the original file sizes had to be reduced, so there is some loss of picture quality, but not much if you are watching in 4K.
The front and rear cameras are in good locations to capture what is ahead and going on behind. The video image is very good and clear. The only thing I have to change is the location of the microphone. While it picks up the sound of the triple engine rather nicely there is just a bit too much wind noise.