Cameras and biking are become something that goes well together. People love taking photos of their bikes, of themselves or friends with their bikes or just the scenery seen from their bikes. This can be seen on Instagram with the over 19 million photos tagged as #cycling https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/cycling/

As well as the tradition photos takes with camera there is an increasing number of action sports cameras to record the many cool activities you can do on your bike (or for the more normal of us, record the little adventure we have that seemed cool to us but boring to most others watching) and then there are drones as well.

All of these are having a larger role in our planning for days out on our bikes, does our phone have enough batter for all the photos and sharing as well as recording the data from our ride and playing music, is my backpack big enough for the drone and provide enough protection, so I have enough space on my memory card in the video camera? But I can find that all of these can also detract from the enjoyment of the day. My mates can attest to having sat around waiting for me to get the drone set up to run, or the fiddling with the camera before starting a run and it can be rather annoying for them, instead of just enjoying each and every run there is some faff time needed for each run.

There is also the safety implications of these things that need to be considered as well. Taking photos while cycling is another distraction that can lead to nasty accidents from either losing control or just from not paying enough attention to the road. Camera's mounted on helmets can cause injury during an accident and the more you carry in your backpack the more change there is of something in there hurting you when you come off your bike.

Of course, all this said, I will continue to use my cameras and drone, will continue to annoy my mates with the faff time needed but I also look forward to the technologies getting better to improve both the safety elements, the size and reducing the time needed to get it all set up and running.

Gear I use:
GoPro Hero 5 Black
Gopro Hero 4 Black
AirDog II follow drone
GoPro karma grip gimble