GoPro Hero 11 Black good for cycling?
I’ve been on the hunt for a new cycling camera and decided to try the new GoPro Hero 11.
I use it as a rear facing camera so I can capture the plates of right hookers, people who throw things at me and those who drift over into bike lanes.. My hope is that in the event of a hit and run accident or incident that I’’l capture the plate of the offender..
GoPro, and other action cameras, get a bad rap for overheating but I’ve never had the issue and I run high resolution and FPS.. I think most are running their cameras (for the overheating tests at least) indoors, all settings enabled, screen on etc.. Sure they are going to overhead under those conditions.
I run mine without a battery inserted and connected to a USB battery pack. I also have screen off and GPS off. I have a 20,000mah Anker battery pack that will run the Hero 11 at 4K and 120 FPS for about 20+ hours. I also use a 512GB card that will hold about 8 1/2 hours of 4K @ 120fps footage..
For the past few days I’ve been testing it to see if I can get it to overheat since I’ve read many complaints about that with the Hero 11..
Day 1:
2.7K resolution at 120 FPS. I rode and it recorded for 4 1/2 hours and the GoPro never overheated and turned off. Several times when stopped at red lights I’d check it with my hand to see if the camera was getting hot.. Nope.. Luke warm at best..
Day 2:
4K resolution at 120 FPS. This was a 4 hour ride and the results were similar to above. No issues and no overheating.
Day 3 (today):
4K resolution at 120 FPS. Today I rode and it recorded for 4 1/2 hours. No issues whatsoever again.
I did have image stabilization on for all of the rides and I had the connections (BT & WiFi) left on in the camera settings. I left them on because if you want to connect to the app to view footage BT at least needs to be on.
My conclusion is that is a great camera to use for cycling. Even if you want to front mount it on handlebar or wherever, as long as it’s getting airflow over it and the screen is not constantly on it’s more than fine. I also think using it battery free and using a USB battery pack helps to keep it cool.
If mounted on the font of the bike for trail action video etc, you could still activate the screen every so often to check / adjust camera angle just make sure screen timeout is set to 1 min. I highly doubt based on my experience that turning on the screen every so often, briefly, is going to cause issues..
Yes it's a bit pricey but it's small and compact and it can quickly be removed from bike and used for other activities like vacations, taking photos etc..
My last GoPro, a Session that lasted me 5+ years, never overheated either so don't let all the overheating comments in YT and other reviews scare you off..
A few images of my setup. I have the GoPro waterproof USB pass-through door to keep it waterproof when riding in the rain.
