The best action cameras for cyclists allow you to film your ride, whether that's because you fancy producing video for social media or just want a record in case something goes awry.
But choosing the best action camera for cyclists is tricky, as there are so many choices, formats and functions available. You want something that you can ride with easily, either attached to your bike or yourself and that gives adequate runtime for an extended cycle ride. Image stabilisation is important too. Some cameras double up and function as well as the best bike lights.
Once you get home, you may enjoy spending hours in the editing room, getting the perfect cut, or you may just want to download your footage and do the minimum to keep a record.
Keep reading for our pick of the best action cameras for cyclists, and beneath that, you'll find a buyer's guide with some of the key considerations when picking an action camera for your needs.
Quick list
The tiny Insta360 Go 3 is a versatile option, although its image resolution is lower than other action cameras and its battery life shorter without being docked in its Action Pod.
The Ace Pro is Insta360's top action camera, allowing you to take 8k video in a range of formats including 16:9. It offers impressive image stabilisation and high-quality stills as well. It's pricey though and battery life is a bit short for longer rides.
If your main aim is to have a record of your ride in case something happens, the Cycliq Fly 12 loop records footage and can detect a potential incident and store the images for later. You get a front light too.
The Insta360 X4 gives you 360-degree images, which you can edit down later to focus on the parts that you want. Its 8K resolution means that the footage is 4K even after editing.
DJI's answer to the GoPro Hero13 has a significantly longer run time of 240 minutes (claimed). It's packed with image stabilisation tech too, including for night rides.
The Garmin Varia RCT715 doesn't just record footage of what's going on behind you, it also includes a tail light, plus there's a rearview radar that will detect vehicles and alert you as they approach via your cycling computer.
Best action cameras for cycling
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Best action camera for cycling
The tiny Insta360 Go 3 weights just 35.5g and is a great, low-profile option for cyclists. It uses a magnetic mount to attach to your clothing, but you can link it up to the Action Pod to turn it into a more standard action camera format, complete with a touchscreen that folds upwards for a selfie view.
The camera itself sits in a recess in the front of the Action Pod and is removable. The 2.7K30fps image quality isn't as good as the Insta360 X3 (see below), but the Insta360 Go 3 makes up for that with its tiny size and versatility. You can also purchase the Go 3S, which will shoot at 4K30fps.
Without the Action Pod, runtime is just 45 minutes, although that extends to 170 minutes when the pod is used.
Insta360 also makes editing really easy, with a web app and a phone app. The latter is intuitive to use to edit and export clips, although there's a limited choice of in-app music.
We did feel that the Insta360 Go 3 is more of a secondary camera though, for which use it's expensive.
There are more details in our review of the Insta360 Go 3.
Best for video quality
The Ace Pro is Insta360's current top camera and has all the bells and whistles a budding filmmaker or professional could ask for. Compared to Insta360's 360 cameras, modular design or with tiny form factors the Ace Pro is far more conventional. There are still plenty of novel design features, along with higher quality and class-leading image stabilisation.
The Insta360 Ace Pro may not reinvent the wheel, but it takes everything you love about action cameras and elevates the experience. Yes, it does 8K recording, but it probably will be overkill for most. While other cameras offer app editing and accessory compatibility, the Ace Pro stands out by seamlessly bundling all the essential tools a content creator needs into one user-friendly package. It’s not flawless—some minor tweaks are still needed—but what it delivers is undeniably impressive. Capture yourself with crystal-clear audio, experiment with creative angles, and shoot stunning cinematic scenes when inspiration strikes. Then, effortlessly transform your footage into a polished story right on your phone, ready to share on your favourite platform.
The Insta360 isn't short of add-ons, including external mics, cold shoe and GPS Remote controls. It also comes with a plethora of mounting options, although the camera uses a magnetic adapter rather than a finger-style action camera mount or threaded camera tripod mount. You can choose from a wide variety of mounts, it's just a two-stage process rather than directly to the camera when mounting it to your handlebar or helmet, strap it to your chest, or holding it via a grip.
It's a pricey option, which is why we recommend this more for the professionals who are paying for the extra special quality. If don't need the high-end features but still want most of Insta360's great ecosystem, creative tools and great quality you may be better served by the standard Ace.
Check out our full review of the Insta360 Ace Pro for more details.
Best for compact 4K
GoPro has packed its tech into a smaller package with the Hero. It's half the weight of the Hero13 Black but can still shoot 4K video at 30fps. It's also made it easier to operate, a plus when riding.
The lens is protected by a replaceable, water repellent cover. The built-in mounting fingers make it easy to hook up below an out-front mount as well. The Hero has a single rear touchscreen and wireless connectivity to an optional remote as well as voice control.
The Hero automatically uploads footage to the cloud while charging and GoPro is about to launch automatic editing to send a highlights video to your phone.
There are some compromises though, principally a non-swappable battery that GoPro says will shoot for up to 92 minutes. The Hero doesn't support TimeWarp video and other fancy shoot modes and you can't attach a wide angle lens. There's also no in-built image stabilisation, with this sorted out post-shoot in the editing software.
Best for 360 footage
If you've gawped at the exploits of Safa Brian, they're shot with the Insta360 X4. While the older Insta360 X3 stopped at 5.7K/30fps, the newer X4 ups that to an astonishing 8K.
We rated the Insta360 X4 for its ease of use both when shooting while riding and post-ride editing. It shoots 360 degree video, which you can then frame in editing to cut yourself out or in, depending on how good you look.
The editing suite is a big strength of Insta360's offerings, allowing you to connect wirelessly and quickly frame and cut your footage both on a computer and a phone. You still produce 4K video post-edit.
So too is the ability to stuff it in a jersey pocket, pull it out and, with the 360 degree coverage, just shoot pointing it anywhere then frame later. Image stabilisation and horizon lock are great too.
There's also slo-mo available at a maximum 3K/100fps and the claimed runtime is up to 81 minutes.
Options include a bike bundle with an out-front computer mount, a lens guard and an invisible selfie stick. It is a pricey option though, with the X3 offering almost as much for a lot less outlay.
For more details, check out our review of the Insta360 X4
Best for basic ride recording
If you want to record your mate being taken out by a kangaroo, the Fly12 will do it for you if they're in front. It offers similar functionality to the Fly6 and incorporates a light as well, although it's not got all the features of the best action cameras like horizon lock, wireless data transfer or editing - your footage is on your Mini SD card.
But the Cycliq Fly12 does offer image stabilisation and a long run time of seven hours, which is useful for cyclists. It can be mounted either above or below the bars and you can overlay the footage with Strava data. All the configuration of the light and camera is done via the app, although there's no ability to control it from your cycling computer.
The light is now 400 lumens, down from 600 lumens, which may be a little low for night riding but is probably adequate as a daytime running light. On the other hand, there's now a higher camera resolution. At 148g, the Fly12 is on the heavy side too.
You can read our full Cycliq Fly 12 Sport review for more details.
Best for rearward ride recording
Cycliq's Fly6 isn't quite an action camera in the traditional sense, but when many cyclists look to action cameras, it's not the 4K footage, live streaming capability and deep-sea diving compatibility of the camera they're looking for. Much of the time, the best action cameras for cyclists offer a simple function of being able to record the ride, in the event of an incident or accident. Now in its third generation, that's exactly what Cycliq's Fly6 offers.
Integrated into a 50-lumen rear light, the camera offers highly stabilised 1080p / 720p footage at up to 120fps, shooting at a 135-degree angle. The footage is stored on a removable SD card (compatible with up to 32GB), which when it fills up, will automatically wipe the oldest footage to provide a continuous recording of the most recent footage.
However, the Fly6 Gen 3 comes with what the brand calls 'Black Box' technology — automatic incident detection that auto-saves footage when a crash is detected. This means it will cleverly preserve the footage from the incident and not overwrite it, so you can rest assured it will still be there when you return home.
Best for crash detection
If you're already a Garmin user, then this addition to its ecosystem could be a welcome sight. Not only is the Garmin Varia Radar a good rear bike light in itself, but the rearview radar informs you via your bike computer or many smartwatch models of vehicles approaching from behind and can flash to alert them to your presence.
You can also control it remotely from your head unit (dependent upon which model you're using), and use the same apps you're already familiar with to download your footage.
Similarly to the Cycliq Fly6 listed above, Garmin's Varia Radar RCT715 also offers automatic incident detection, which isolates the important footage from the rest and preserves it while the recording continues to loop and overwrite older footage. Compared to the Fly6, the Varia Radar is more affordable and comes with a lot of device and app connectivity potential. For many, this may seem like a no-brainer.
However, it's important to note that it does have some downsides. It lacks 4K video, to keep the battery life maximised, and the key issue our reviewer discovered was that in low-light conditions, the lack of image stabilisation meant that it was impossible to decipher car number plates, which would prove to be unhelpful should you be involved in an incident after sundown.
Still, it's a worthwhile investment that our reviewer had a lot of praise for in our Garmin Varia Radar RCT715 review.
Best for battery life
DJI supplements its drones with a range of action cameras. While the Osmo Pocket range incorporates a gimbal, the Osmo Action 5 has a more typical GoPro style, making it a better option for mounting to your bike or yourself for shots when riding.
DJI claims superior performance for the large format sensor in the Action 5, as well as longer battery life than GoPro, which gives the option to record a whole ride, not just highlights. Other features include subject tracking and HorizonSteady and RockSteady 3 image stabilisation. There's also SuperNight for low light shoots.
As is usual with most action cameras, you can accessorise to your heart's content, with a longer life battery, a selfie stick, a remote and a lens protector attractive options. The road cycling combo package adds a handlebar mount and a seat rail mount to the camera.
How to choose the best action camera for cycling
Modern action cameras can be easily mounted to almost anything, with an array of mounts included or available as extras which often include cycling-specific options.
They'll record your adventures in 4K video or better with built-in stabilisation, which can be shared straight to social media. Most will also shoot at high frame rates for slo-mo shots or you can choose lower resolution for longer runtimes and smaller file sizes.
350 degree cameras are also available. They can give you panoramic shots, but unless you mount them on your helmet, a significant proportion of the image will be you. Editing software allows you to narrow down the field of view though.
The most important consideration when buying a new action camera is what you plan on using it for. While most cameras can record high-quality video and take photos, it is important to consider what other features are a priority.
A wide array of video, photo, time-lapse and connectivity options as well as stabilisation, waterproofing and build quality make this decision more complicated.
What video quality do I need?
Action cameras have been capable of shooting in full HD for a while now and almost all are now able to record 4k video or better. If you want to record slow-motion action look for cameras with high frames per second (FPS) settings; 240fps will allow footage to be slowed down by 8x and even budget cameras will allow at least 2x.
With the rise in popularity of vlogging and producing video edits, high-end cameras offer advanced features to achieve the highest quality. Higher quality optics, stabilisation and audio make a huge difference to a video’s quality as well as the ability to record in advanced log format. Log formats such as GoPro’s Protune or DJI’s D-LOG settings capture more data and allow greater flexibility when editing in post-production.
On the minus side, 4k video takes up a lot of storage space, so you'll need a large memory card, possibly with a back-up. Runtimes may be short due to the battery too, so you may need a spare. Full HD still offers adequate resolution for many purposes and may increase significantly your shooting time.
Do I need image stabilisation?
There have been several big advances in stabilisation recently as camera manufacturers try to smooth footage to make content shot in bumpy environments, including when cycling, more watchable.
Optical stabilisation offers the best results, however electronic stabilisation such as GoPro’s HyperSmooth is very capable of removing the camera shake effectively. Even budget cameras are starting to include image stabilisation although do not expect the same results as the top-of-the-range models.
Should I get a touchscreen camera?
A touchscreen is the most popular method of control and allows easier shot framing, menu navigation and video replay. However, touchscreens are useless in environments that are very wet or require gloves.
If you ride in all weather it's worth considering whether important shooting modes are still accessible through buttons. You may have the option of a remote.
Should my camera connect to an app?
Most camera manufacturers offer a mobile phone app that allows remote camera control, video playback and uploads to social media. Some apps have editing features to combine clips and add music before uploading, allowing quick edits to be shot, edited and uploaded without needing a computer.
Where should I mount my camera on my road bike?
This all depends on what you're trying to achieve, but generally, the most common places to mount an action camera are on the handlebars or beneath the saddle.
Depending on how much real estate you have up front, you may want to opt for an upside-down mounting, which doesn't usually affect the footage.
Many out-front cycling computer mounts can be fitted with a GoPro mount on their underside, which most action cameras from other brands can also use.
Filming at the front of your bike allows you to capture the open road, whereas filming at the back will allow you to capture footage of your friends and fellow riders, as well as approaching passing drivers.
Helmet mounting gives a higher vantage point and should also keep the lens cleaner if you're riding in dirty conditions or taking to gravel trails. A chest mount is popular for mountain bikers and might work for gravel, but the position adopted by road riders means that you may just get some great footage of your stem.
Many action camera brands sell a selfie stick to fit their cameras. It's a great option if you want a drone-style view without actually buying a drone and some are 'invisible' so they don't show up in the footage.
If you mount it to your bike, good image stabilisation will be critical, while if you hold it, you're going to be limited to short, easier runs which you can ride one-handed.
