My wife bought me the above-pictured Tachyon OPS HD video cam for my birthday and I've been playing with it for a week, having fun. It's tiny, 48 grams, only $139 and about the size of a pack of gum, so I thought it was quite relevant to ww's. Mounts directly to the headtube of my road bike with 3M Dual Lock tape (amazing stuff, btw). Here's a 3 min. clip from the front group of last weekend's Saturday group ride down in Carmel, CA (view on large monitor in 720p, if possible):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfB1g8js30w

And here's one of a local descent with the unit's audio (no music overlay):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG8WJtd4doU

Tachyon "friended" me on YouTube and liked the paceline clip so they put it up as the sample for the HD unit on their site. Subsequently, they thanked me by comping me a second unit that I'll use to record some better front/rear video. Pretty cool. I plan to shoot some footage from my motorpace scooter and some races next year, especially crits. Think the latter footage will be cool and, more important, helpful in seeing what I did right/wrong in the last few laps.

Here's the Tachyon site with pics and details of the tiny HD unit (and my vid!): http://www.tachyoninc.com/opshd.php

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with Tachyon in any way and this is not an advertisement. I know that's a touchy issue here. I'm just a happy customer and longtime ww member/poster sharing info. on an ultralightweight cycling product I dig. I only include the Tachyon company website link so interested people can see what the unit looks like in detail, its' dimensions, full specs, etc.

Nice!!

Can you show a pic of how you mounted it using the tape? I'm trying to picture it in my head, but a picture from you would be even better.
With the size of it, I think you could also do a dual camera set up: one on the headtube, the other beneath the saddle facing backwards.

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Impressed by the price, weight and video quality...

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Prendrefeu, just a small (maybe 1/2") section of 3M Dual Lock stuck to the headtube and a similar length section attached to the side of the camera. Press them together and you're good to go. 3M Dual Lock is amazing stuff. I'd never seen it before getting this camera a week or so ago. It's like velcro but without a fuzzy side, it's way stronger and doesn't wiggle (hard to describe, you've got to see the stuff). Apparently, it's also used for underwater applications.

I'm planning on doing a quick (1 min.) video clip on how to mount the Tachyon camera to a bike headtube. Hopefully, within the next week when I get the second camera from Tachyon, since I'll need two cameras for the clip. I'll link it here when I do.

Re: rear-facing, that's exactly what I was thinking. Either under my Fizik Arione or, if it doesn't fit well there, against the top tube/seat tube junction (my SLR01 has a bridge where I could affix the camera w/o it hitting my legs).

Hey, totally off topic, but this is a smart crowd so I'll give it a shot. I'm a newbie to video stuff and am having a hard time finding a decent (hopefully, free) software to edit my video before putting it on YouTube. The Tachyon camera films in .mov format and it seems all the editing programs prefer .avi format, so I found a program (Pazera) that converts to .avi. However, any ideas on safe software I can download to cut segments and do simple editing/splicing? Thx.

Nice. I was on this ride. Next time point camera backwards and I will get in
the picture, maybe

dude, did you blow through that stop sign at 0:56, not to mention some others? If so, how fast were you going?

SL58, small world! If you live in the Monterey Bay area, I envy you. I grew up in Carmel, went to Carmel H.S., trained in Carmel Valley when I raced seriously in the early 90's. My heart is still down there. Re: rear-facing camera, will do. I'll probably get down once or twice in the off-season. However, no matter how hard I try and swear it won't happen again, I get fat/slow over the winter (it's already happening) so if you see me on the ride in Nov.-Feb. you'll be just fine if I only have my front-facing camera Make sure and say hi.

HammerTime2, uh, yeah, I was rippin' that descent and I musta missed those stops signs I have no defense other than it was done in the name of science. That, and I ride that descent every day of my life and know it like the back of my hand so it's a lot more controlled/safe than it looks. Also, the camera is mounted on the headtube and makes descents look faster than they are. Not quite sure why this is, since videos like the first (flat paceline clip) one don't exaggerate speed. Must have to do with the low perspective, a narrower field of vision than the human eye, the loud wind sound, I dunno.

Yep. I've been on this ride since 92, every Sat. I ride blue/white
"weighweenied" Ridley Helium (12.5Lb) with Edge tubulars.

On Sundays I am in your parts, in Mountain View and I usually
speedskate on Cañada rd. for a change.

That footage was super clear. Thats got to be the best camera in this type of application I have seen. I now need to get one....Awsome!!!

Shoemakerpom2010

Awesome quality for the money!

I would never ride that decent, it has way too many crossing and car accidents waiting to happen. Not bc of how I or nice cyclists ride, but because I always assume any cardriver I meet is texting spouse on the telephone, while being drunk and rude

Consequently, I just ride the same 10.5mile loop with a single crossing in it, as many times as needed

Very nice ride showcase!

Edit: Dang, they want $46 in shipping not including import taxes and no immidiate importer found in the neighbouring countries...ah well, will have to wait then.

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Looks good indeed but my local Oz distributor doesn't seem to have any, they're AU$179 and it's a shame it seems to come with all these fancy mounts that aren't much use for our purposes (and presumably add to the overall cost).

I emailed them , should be back in stock in a few days.. Free shipping too!!

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Good video, and very good audio on that descent vid!
I think it's mounted too low this way, in some cases I'd not be able to read the race numbers from the backs in front of me.


"Around 4 hours on a single charge of the lithium ion battery"
Is this true? If yes, I found what I'm looking for!!

.....and very nice, smooth paceline riding!

ave, 4 hours is correct. You will need to buy a micro sd card for storage as it's not included with the unit, something I think they need to spell out more clearly on their site. A 16 GB, Class 10 (very good) card gives you 4 1/2 hours of video and costs around $45 where I live (California). I bought it at Best Buy. You can get them online but you do have to be careful as there is a big counterfeit market of substandard chips.

Re: camera angle, a center bar mount would probably give you a perspective you'd like better, I agree, but I don't like the thing sitting on top of the bars or hanging beneath the bars. Far less stealth factor and I like uncluttered bars with nothing but my PC7.

I'm working on a quick mounting tutorial video for YouTube. I'll link it in this thread, hopefully over the next few days. You'll be able to see the mounts Tachyon provides and where/how I mount the units, both front and rear, with 3M Dual Lock tape. Should give you some ideas.

Cheers!