Drift Ghost bike-mount camera

By John Swindells 01 Jul 2022 | Comment

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The Drift Ghost camera is a popular action camera that is designed for capturing high-quality video and photos while participating in outdoor activities.

This is a well built camera with decent footage and a wide range of settings, including incident detection mode. It comes in two variants; the XL version simply has a longer battery life. Dimensions are approximately 6.1 x 4.1 x 2.8 cm and it weighs around 74 grams. The XL version is a bit bigger and heavier, to accommodate its larger battery.

One of the standout features of the Ghost camera is its ability to capture 1080p HD video at 60 frames per second, providing pretty detailed footage. The camera also has a wide-angle lens with a 170-degree field of view, allowing you to capture more scenery and action.

The Ghost camera doesn't have an LCD screen, so you need to use a smartphone app to preview your shots. You can adjust settings on the camera itself, but the tiny text on the 15x15mm screen makes this really hard work.

The Ghost camera also has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, allowing you to easily connect to your smartphone or tablet and share your footage on social media. The camera also has an app that allows you to control the camera remotely, start and stop recording, and even live stream footage.

There are several modes of operation, including dashcam (continuous recording on a loop) and incident detection (record when it detects a collision). However, I run mine in a manual quick-on mode: I press the main button when I'm entering an area where something's more likely to happen (eg, a town, narrow lane or big junction), and it starts recording within about a second. Another press of the button turns it off again. This saves the battery and keeps me in control of when it records.

Unboxing

The Drift Ghost comes in a tidy little box. It includes a simple bar-mount bracket and a couple of self-adhesive brackets for sticking to a helmet. A hefty micro-USB charge cable is also supplied. I also bought a bar mount with a long arm, anticipating that this would be useful for setting the camera angle right.

The bar mount

One of the best things about the Drift Ghost camera is its versatility. It can be mounted to a variety of surfaces, including helmets, handlebars, and even surfboards, allowing you to capture footage from a variety of angles. The camera also comes with a variety of mounts and accessories, making it easy to customize your setup and get the perfect shot.

I tried clamping the camera to my handlebars, just below the gear lever. Not too bad, and doesn't get in the way, but it does shift around during the course of a ride.

The steerer mount

This is a really solid place to mount the camera. Only real downside is that it's behind the handlebar, so anything mounted there appears on screen!

Issues

Storage The memory card can fill up and stop it recording; formatting the card is the easiest solution to this.

Leaking The Ghost camera is designed for durability, with a waterproof housing that can withstand depths of up to 98 feet. However, my model let in water whilst cycling in fairly heavy rain lasting a few hours, and since then the wi-fi connectivity stopped working. The company declined to replace it under warranty, as it was a month outside the 1-year cut-off. Since then the camera has continued to work fine, albeit without any smart-phone integration.

At night - night-time recording doesn't pick up much!

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About the author

My name is John Swindells and I'm a keen recreational cyclist with a preference for long one-day rides. I've also previously dabbled in time trialling and cyclo-cross. See more of what I get up to on Strava!

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