Why I Installed a Dash Cam on Every Bike I Own: A Rider's Honest Review

Let me tell you something I do not admit often: I used to mock riders with dash cams.

I have been on two wheels for eighteen years. Three bikes in my garage right now — a Yamaha MT-09 for commuting, a BMW R1250GS for weekend trips, and a little Honda Grom I tinker with because it makes me smile. I have ridden through blizzards in Colorado, monsoons in Oregon, and August heat waves in Arizona that melted my boot soles. I have dropped bikes, picked them up, learned from it, and kept riding.

And for seventeen of those eighteen years, I thought dash cams were overkill. Paranoia packaged in plastic. Something for riders who watched too many crash compilations on YouTube and imagined doom around every corner.

I was wrong.

Not kind of wrong. Not technically wrong. Expensively, stressfully, sleepless-night wrong.

This is the story of how I went from skeptic to evangelist. And why there is now a Rexing MTC1 — or something equivalent — on every single motorcycle I own.

The Tuesday That Cost Me Eight Months

It was not dramatic. That is the thing nobody warns you about.

You imagine the accident. The screech, the slide, the ambulance. What you do not imagine is the Tuesday morning where nothing actually breaks — and your life unravels anyway.

I was on the MT-09, heading to work on a road I had ridden maybe four hundred times. Four-lane arterial, speed limit forty-five, I was doing forty. Middle lane. Dry pavement, clear sky, the kind of boring commute where your mind wanders to what you will have for lunch.

A Ford Escape in the right lane decided the left turn lane — my lane — looked more appealing than waiting behind three cars for the next light. No signal. No head check. Just a hard left across two lanes of traffic like the road belonged to her.

I braked. I swerved. I did not go down. But she clipped my front wheel, sent me into the median, and drove off like she had just nudged a shopping cart.

Here is where it gets stupid.

A guy in a pickup behind me stopped. Nice guy. Shaken, concerned, asked if I was okay. I was. Bike had a scuffed fairing, bent brake lever, nothing catastrophic. We exchanged numbers. He said he saw the whole thing. I felt relieved.

Three days later, his statement to my insurance company: "The motorcyclist was lane splitting and appeared to be speeding."

I was not lane splitting. I was not speeding. I was doing forty in a forty-five, in the middle of a single lane, on a road with no lane-splitting legal anyway.

But there was no video. Just his word — which somehow became the official record — against mine. The Ford Escape driver was never found. My insurance found me thirty percent at fault for "failure to avoid." My premium went up $280. The body shop bill was $640 out of pocket after the partial coverage. And the worst part? The back-and-forth with adjusters, the repeated retelling of a story nobody believed, the creeping realization that being right means nothing if you cannot prove it.

That was March. I did not sleep properly until September.

Disclaimer: This is my real story. The names of the other drivers have been changed, but the events, the numbers, and the outcome are exactly what happened. I am sharing this because I wish someone had told me before I learned the hard way.

Why I Waited So Long (And Why You Might Be Waiting Too)

If you are reading this and thinking "I have been fine so far," I get it. That was me. Here is every excuse I used — and why every single one was garbage.

Excuse 1: "I am a good rider. I do not need it."

I have taken the MSF course three times. I practice emergency braking monthly. I wear full gear every single ride. None of that mattered when someone else decided my lane was their shortcut.

Being a good rider protects you from your own mistakes. It does not protect you from someone else's.

Excuse 2: "Dash cams are too expensive."

The Rexing MTC1 costs $299. My insurance hike cost $280 per year. The body shop cost $640. The time I spent on phone calls, emails, and lying awake at night? I cannot put a price on that, but it was not zero.

Even if the dash cam never prevents a single incident, it pays for itself the first time an adjuster tries to pin fault on you. And it will happen. Maybe not this year. Maybe not next. But eventually, someone will lie about what happened — and your word will not be enough.

Excuse 3: "They are too complicated to install."

I am not an electrician. I have trouble changing a light switch without watching a YouTube video first. But I installed the MTC1 on my MT-09 in two and a half hours, following nothing but the included manual and common sense. The second bike took ninety minutes. The third took forty-five.

It is zip ties, fuse taps, and patience. That is it. If you can change your own oil, you can install a dash cam.

Excuse 4: "I will just use my GoPro."

I tried this. For six months, I ran a GoPro Hero on my handlebar clamp. Here is what actually happened:

• I forgot to turn it on. A lot.

• The battery died mid-commute. A lot.

• It recorded three hours of me riding to work, then stopped recording before the incident I actually needed.

• It looked like a theft magnet mounted on my bars.

• No rear camera. No GPS. No G-sensor. No parking mode.

A GoPro is an action camera. A dash cam is a security system. They are not interchangeable. I sold the GoPro mount on Facebook Marketplace and never looked back.

What I Learned From Installing Three Dash Cams

After the Escape incident, I bought one dash cam. Then I bought two more. Here is what eighteen months of real ownership across three different bikes taught me.

Lesson 1: Dual-Channel Is Non-Negotiable

My first thought was to save money with a single front camera. Then a buddy of mine got rear-ended at a stoplight by a distracted driver who claimed he "rolled into him at two miles per hour." The rear camera showed a fifteen-mile-per-hour impact that bent his frame. Without that rear footage, he would have been stuck with a totaled bike and a driver who walked away.

Front-only cameras capture the moment before impact. Rear cameras capture the impact itself — and often the license plate of the car that just drove off. If you buy one camera, buy two. Front and rear, always.

Lesson 2: 1080p Is Enough. Really.

I agonized over 4K versus 1080p for weeks. Then I actually looked at footage.

At normal traffic distances — the distance where you can read a plate with your eyes — 1080p at 30fps captures license plates clearly. In daylight, perfectly. At night, well enough. The MTC1's 170-degree wide angle actually matters more than resolution, because it catches the car creeping into your blind spot that a narrower lens would miss.

4K is nice for cinematic ride videos. For accident evidence, 1080p is fine. Do not let spec sheets distract you from what actually matters.

Lesson 3: GPS Is Not a Luxury

I thought GPS was a gimmick until I needed it. When the pickup driver claimed I was speeding, GPS data would have shown forty miles per hour in a forty-five zone. When he claimed I was lane splitting, GPS coordinates would have shown me centered in lane three of a four-lane road.

GPS embeds speed, location, and time directly into the video file. It turns your footage from "here is a video of a crash" into "here is irrefutable proof of exactly what happened, where, and how fast." Some competitors charge extra for GPS modules. The MTC1 includes it standard. That matters.

Lesson 4: Weatherproofing Is Not Optional

I ride in rain. You probably do too. The MTC1 is IP67 rated — dust-tight and waterproof to one meter for thirty minutes. I have pressure-washed my bikes with the cameras mounted. I have ridden through thunderstorms that had me questioning my life choices. The cameras never fogged, never failed, never even hiccuped.

IP66 cameras survive rain. IP67 cameras survive whatever you throw at them. When the difference is often zero dollars, choose the higher rating.

Lesson 5: Set It and Forget It

The best dash cam is the one you never think about. The MTC1 starts recording when I turn the key. It stops when I kill the ignition. It loops old footage automatically. The G-sensor locks files on impact without me touching anything.

I check the app maybe once a month to confirm it is still recording. Otherwise, it is invisible. That is exactly how it should be.

The Rexing MTC1: What Three Bikes Taught Me

I did not start with Rexing. I started with a cheap Amazon special that died in a rainstorm three weeks in. Then I tried a mid-range unit that had great specs but an app so broken I could not download footage. Then a friend recommended the MTC1.

Here is my honest assessment after eighteen months and three installations.

What I Love

The price. At $299, it is the best value I have found. Competitors with similar feature sets — dual 1080p, GPS, WiFi, IP67, parking mode — start at $400 and climb fast. The INNOVV K5 is excellent but costs $458. The Thinkware M1 has better night vision but runs $350 and lacks a touchscreen. For what most riders actually need, the MTC1 hits the sweet spot.

The touchscreen. I did not think I would care about this. Then I tried adjusting settings on a camera with nothing but button presses and a tiny LED. The MTC1's three-inch IPS screen makes setup intuitive. I can review footage on the bike without pulling out my phone. Small thing, huge quality-of-life improvement.

The snapshot button. Mounted near my left grip, this is genius. Someone cuts me off? I tap it. The camera saves the previous thirty seconds and the next thirty seconds as a protected file. I have used it three times for near-misses that did not become incidents but still warranted documentation. Each time, the footage was on my phone before I got home.

The wide angle. One hundred seventy degrees front and rear. The INNOVV K5 only gives you 120 degrees. That extra fifty degrees catches the car in your periphery, the pedestrian stepping off the curb, the debris in the road you swerved around. It is the difference between seeing the whole story and seeing half of it.

What I Do Not Love

The mounting brackets do not rotate. You get one shot at camera angle during installation. Get it wrong — and I did, on my first bike — and you are drilling new holes or living with crooked footage. Measure twice, mount once. I cannot stress this enough.

128GB card limit. For dual 1080p, that is about eight to ten hours of loop recording. On my MT-09 commuter, that is roughly a week and a half. On my GS tourer, a long weekend trip fills it faster. I have to clear the card monthly. Not a dealbreaker, but I wish it took 256GB.

Night vision is good, not great. Under streetlights, plates are readable. In true darkness on unlit roads, it struggles compared to the Thinkware M1. If you ride mostly at night, you might want to spend more. For my mixed riding, it is adequate.

The app is basic. It downloads footage. It shows GPS routes. It adjusts settings. It does not edit movies or add music or create highlight reels. I do not care. You probably will not either. But if you want a cinematic editing suite, look elsewhere.

How It Compares to What Else Is Out There

I have ridden with buddies who own the competition. Here is the honest breakdown from someone who has seen the footage, not just the spec sheets.

My recommendation? Start with the MTC1. It gives you everything you need to understand whether dash cam ownership fits your riding. If after a year you find yourself craving 4K or better night vision, upgrade then. You will have a year of protected riding and a much clearer idea of what your specific needs actually are.

Most riders never need to upgrade. The MTC1 is good enough that good enough becomes exactly right.

Installation: What I Learned the Hard Way

I have installed the MTC1 three times now. Each one taught me something the manual did not.

Tip 1: Plan Camera Position Before Touching a Tool

Hold the cameras where you think they should go. Sit on the bike. Check the view. The front camera should show the road ahead with a bit of your fairing or handlebar visible — this proves the camera was mounted on the bike, not handheld. The rear camera should capture your tail light in frame for the same reason.

On my MT-09, the front camera lives behind the windscreen. On the GS, it is under the beak. On the Grom, it is on the fork tube. Every bike is different. There is no universal perfect spot.

Tip 2: Cable Routing Is Everything

This takes the most time and matters the most. Run cables along the frame, under bodywork, through existing wire channels. Use zip ties every six inches. Avoid exhaust pipes, moving parts, and sharp edges. Leave slack at the cameras for vibration.

On my first install, I routed a cable too close to the header. Three months in, the heat shielding degraded and I got intermittent video dropouts. Rerouted it, problem solved. Give cables room to breathe.

Tip 3: The Mounts Do Not Rotate

I said this before but it bears repeating. The MTC1 mounting brackets are fixed angle. You cannot tweak the camera after installation without remounting the entire bracket. Use a level. Use a phone app with a bubble level. Have a friend sit on the bike while you check the view. Do not rush this step.

Tip 4: Test Before You Finish

Power everything on before you button up the bodywork. Verify both cameras record. Check the app connects. Confirm GPS locks — it takes thirty to sixty seconds the first time. Test the snapshot button. Tap the bike gently to trigger the G-sensor and make sure it locks a file.

I skipped this step on my second install and discovered a loose connection two days later. Twenty minutes of troubleshooting that would have taken two minutes if I had tested first.

Tip 5: Buy a High-Endurance Memory Card

Do not use the cheap microSD from your old phone. Dash cams write constantly, and standard cards fail within months under that workload. Get a Samsung Pro Endurance or SanDisk High Endurance card. Sixty-four gigabytes minimum. One hundred twenty-eight gigabytes is the MTC1's max and worth the small extra cost.

I learned this the expensive way. My first card corrupted after four months. Lost a week of footage I did not need, but could have. Never again.

Who This Is For (And Who Should Skip It)

Buy a Dash Cam If:

• You ride on public roads with other humans in cars

• You cannot afford a disputed accident claim

• You park your bike outside overnight

• You have ever had a close call that made your hands shake

• You commute daily or ride long distances regularly

• You want to sleep at night knowing you can prove what happened

Skip It If:

• You only ride on closed tracks or private land

• Your bike never leaves a locked garage

• You have comprehensive insurance with accident forgiveness and unlimited funds for legal battles

• You genuinely do not care about fault determination after an incident

That last group? I have never met one of you. But if you exist, you do not need this article.

The Bottom Line

I am not a dash cam evangelist because I love gadgets. I am an evangelist because I got burned — not by the accident, but by the aftermath. The months of phone calls. The disputed fault. The premium hike. The helplessness of knowing I was right and having no way to prove it.

A dash cam would not have prevented the Ford Escape from cutting me off. Nothing can make drivers check their mirrors. But it would have prevented everything that came after. The video would have shown me centered in my lane, doing the speed limit, with the Escape swerving across two lanes without signaling. The insurance company would have accepted fault in days, not months. The pickup driver's contradictory statement would have been irrelevant. I would have slept fine that night.

That is what $299 buys you. Not just video. Certainty. Control over your own story. The ability to say I have proof instead of please believe me.

I have three bikes. I have three dash cams. I will never own another motorcycle without one.

If You Are Ready

You have read my story. You know what I learned. You understand what matters and what does not. If you are ready to stop hoping other people tell the truth and start protecting yourself with evidence, the next step is simple.

Check current pricing and availability for the Rexing MTC1. Prices fluctuate, stock varies, and promotions come and go. The link below goes straight to the official store.

Check Rexing MTC1 pricing and availability

One last thing. Do not overthink this. The difference between having a dash cam and not having one is measured in thousands of dollars, months of stress, and nights of lost sleep. The difference between the MTC1 and a $500 competitor is measured in specs you will rarely notice.

Get protected. Ride with confidence. And may you never need the footage — but be damn glad you have it if you do.

Ride safe.

Last updated: July 2026. This review reflects my personal experience after eighteen months of ownership across three motorcycles. Product specifications and pricing are subject to change. This article contains affiliate links — I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. My recommendations are based on real-world use, not commission rates.

This Article was made with AI assistance and human editing.