If we’d ask who needs a dash cam, some people would quickly say they don’t need one. Reason being, some of these people think that dash cams are not for safe motorists. As you ride your motorbike on the road, a lot of things will happen. Having a dash camera doesn’t mean that you are a careless motorist. Instead, it means that you are safe enough to have an extra ‘eye’ on the road.
So what is a dash cam, and why do you need one? We will be exploring that in this article, so fasten your seat belt.
What is a Dash Cam?
We are confident you can try to answer that. But for the sake of clarity, a dash cam is a camera that is placed on the dashboard of a vehicle. Initially, they were only made for vehicles. However, there are also motorbike dash cams that are set on the handle.
The dash camera will mostly record the live feeds on the road. Some dash cams will run throughout, and they will record the feeds even when the motorbike is parked. An enhanced dash camera will record the video and audio, and let the user connect it to a smartphone app. In this case, the manufacturer of the dash cam should have created it to be paired along with a mobile application for easy control.
Once connected to the mobile app, you can access the recorded videos and even view live feeds of the camera. But that would mean that the dash cam should be WiFi enabled.
Dash cameras frequently come in varieties, but they all act as a silent witness on the road. Luckily, they can be small enough for them to record discreetly. This way, the culprit will not pretend to be nice because they saw the camera.
Why Should You Mount a Dash Cam on Your Motorbike?
- It offers reliable evidence
In case you are involved in an accident, your silent witness will capture every single action that happens. The dash cam has proven to be reliable whenever you want to know the party that is at fault in the event of an accident. Law enforcement officers and insurance companies are encouraging motorists to have dash cams on their motorbikes to help them solve the cases quickly.
If you want to protect yourself from the careless motorists on the road that will try to deny being at fault, install a dash cam on your motorbike.
- Avoid insurance fraud
In the US, insurance fraud has been on the rise in recent times. Too many times, people fail to be compensated because the insurance company doesn’t have any proof of you being a victim. Sometimes, someone might try to bribe the insurance company to avoid repaying you. If you happen to be working with an unprofessional insurance company, you will end up losing a lot.
But if you have the dash cam installed on your motorbike, you can easily show the insurance company the person that was at fault and be compensated. Even if the insurance company tries to avoid repaying you, the feeds from the dash cam will be enough to ensure that you are paid.
- Curbing Theft and Vandalism
The dash camera on your motorbike can also help to protect you against theft or vandalism. Usually, the camera will come in a parking mode. The parking mode allows the camera to keep recording the feeds even when it is parked. This way, you can see who gets to your motorbike and what they do to it. If someone has the intention of damaging the motorbike for no reason, you can follow the feeds from your mobile phone and help the police to catch them.
Even though dash cameras can be stolen, you can still retrieve the feeds when you log into your account using the mobile app. Always ensure that the camera is auto-saving the feeds to the mobile app so that you can track down the latest faces captured in the feeds.
Thanks to the dash cams, you can be confident of solving the hit and runs on the road as well.
What To Look For In a Good Motorbike Dash Cam
Now that you know why you should get a dash camera for your motorbike, it would be great to know how to pick the best motorcycle dash cam. Here are some factors you should consider when choosing one:
- Good video quality. You want a camera that will record high-quality videos, preferably 720p or 1080p. If you can get one that records 4K videos, that’s even better.
- Consider the power supply. If you are riding for long hours, you will need equally reliable power. Ensure that the batteries are long lasting to continue recording even when it is parked, and it should be connectable to the motorbike for power as you cruise the road.
- Sturdy construction. A good dash camera should have a robust casing that is durable enough and one that can withstand the shocks too.
- All-weather. The motorbike dash cam is not like the one used in a vehicle. The vehicle dash cams are inside the car and are safe when it rains. That is not the same case with motorbike dash cams. For that, ensure that the dash cam on your motorbike is waterproof to withstand any weather condition.
- Small and discreet. You don’t want to ride the bike with a large camera on the handle. That would only draw people’s attention, and they will try to avoid the peripheral vision of the camera. Ensure that the camera is small and discreet enough.
- Loop recording. This is a feature that you would love if you don’t have a large SD card mounted. This recording lets you overwrite the first recording whenever it is full. In other words, it will keep on recording and only delete the oldest recording on the list.
Above all, ensure that the camera has a date a time stamp on every recording, if you want, you can always go for the auto on/off camera. Here are some tips to help you get the best dash cam footage. Always ensure that you are safe on the road even if you have the dash cam.
