Riding with a camera has become the norm here at AeroGeeks HQ. In fact, often times bikes leave our HQ with both front and rear cameras. Most of the time it’s because we love to have video of us chasing down our teammates coworkers friends evil competition that must be destroyed (took us a while to find the right phrase there). But, unfortunately, the cameras are also along for the ride to serve another purpose – acting as a black box for when things go very wrong. If you spend any time riding on busy streets, you have been there. Maybe a car got too close, or there was some road debris that you saw a little too late. Needless to say, it happens. And we want the video to tell us why. This is where the Rideye comes in.
The Rideye
The Rideye is a simple, easy-to-use black box ready to record those moments we all wish didn’t happen. Rideye records 1080p video with 170-degrees of vision. The action itself is captured on an infinite loop, so you should never encounter the dreaded “full memory card” message.
There are two Rideye options: 8gb with 1.25 hours of recording time, and 32 gb with 5 hours. Rideye claims 10 hours of battery life. We rode up to 5 hours on it and never ran out of juice.
Operating the Rideye is a simple as pressing a button to turn it on (it starts recording as soon as it’s powered up). To turn it off, simply hold the same button. If something happens that you want to make sure is not overwritten, simple touch the button once and it will save that moment for posterity. Speaking of saving the moment, if the Rideye believes you have been in an accident, it will also automatically save the video (something we had happen a few times when we stopped to fix a flat tire and quickly laid the bike down or flipped it over).
Our Thoughts
The Rideye is as utilitarian as they come. It doesn’t look aero or really all that pretty. But that’s the point. It’s built for a singular purpose – record what’s happening around you and make sure if the worst happens the video is there to prove it. And that’s why we loved it. It always had the video we wanted when we wanted it.
You can see from the video above the detail is more than enough to capture plates of cars going by. Luckily we never had to take advantage of this functionality during our testing period, but it was there if we needed it.
We mounted our Rideye utilizing the GoPro mount (sold separately $9.99) attached to a Profile Design Universal Computer Mount and GoPro Bike Mount adapter (quite a bit of work to get it mounted to TT bars, but for our test bike, it worked). For others the included strap may be more than enough to mount to standard road drop bars.
Wrapping Up
Starting at $149.99, the Rideye is priced similarly to many action cameras, but what makes it different is its battery life. With 5 hours of battery life, it was more than enough for any ride we could throw at it. We have had to resort to additional battery packs with other cameras (when additional packs were available). And that’s why we are not only fans of the Rideye, but we ride with it on almost every training ride. Because riding without a black box isn’t an option for us anymore. And if your black box runs out of batteries, then it’s just an un-aero piece of metal serving no purpose, and that’s something the AeroGeeks just cannot have.
I am glad your Rideye works. When it breaks, throw it away as the company does not answer emails or deal with warranty claims. Look on Kickstarter/Amazon/Twitter for details. Mine is a $150 paperweight.
My Rideye stopped working in July. I was able to get an answer from them once and was told to send it back for a replacement. I sent it to them was able to track the package and noted it was received on July 16th. In August I received my package, it was unopened and stamped “Return to Sender” Since my one response from them, I haven’t had any other reply back from over 2 months of emails that I sent. It is now just a paperweight, so I really don’t suggest anyone to buy this until they start to support their product and respond to peoples emails.
Unfortunately, it looks like this company has no intention of looking after it ‘former customers’… I have been waiting on a response on my non-working camera for over a month too. Shame, it was quite good when it worked. So, DONT BUY IT, until they start meeting their warranty obligations!!
got my rideye about 3 weeks ago and am moving it daily on my 35km return commute to work. So far it is working fine. The battery life is much less then 10h. I am getting about 4h out of the rideye which is a bit disappointing. The strap mount it comes with is ok but if the road gets bumpy the camera tents to tilt forward due to the off centre location of the mounting point. When trying to set the date it reverts back to July and the customer support didn’t not get back to me.
If I were you Tobias, I would return it as soon as possible. I gave up after of months of trying to get a response from them after my Rideye locked up. They told me to send it back to them which I did, then after a month, it wasn’t even open by them and was sent back to me as Return to Sender. I spent months again trying to get any response from them via email, but they never responded. So, my Rideye is now just a useless paperweight.
The camera works well when it works. The company that makes them sucks donkey balls. You will NOT get help.
I CANT RECORD AT ALL