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TECH NEWS
Fly12 cycling front light and video camera launches on Kickstarter
Following on from the success of the Fly6, Australian company Cycliq has launched the Fly12, a 400 Lumen front light with an integrated HD video camera. It’s currently on Kickstarter and has sailed past its funding target with 22 days to go.
The new Fly12 packs a 400 Lumen LED light and HD video camera, housed in a slim and smart looking waterproof unit. It can record 1080p video at 40 or 45fps, or 720p at 30 or 60fps. It has a 130 degree wide angle lens and records onto an included 16GB MicroSD memory card - it’ll accommodate up to a 64GB memory card.
The Fly12 is powered by a 5,200mAh lithium-ion battery, charged by a USB lead, and is claimed to be good for 10 hours when just using the camera, 6 hours in camera with the light in flash mode, and 2 hours in camera with a steady light mode.
It doesn’t weigh much, just 209g - lighter than taking a separate LED light and camera on your ride.
One clever feature it the option to display a tramline grid, representing the lanes of the road or cycle path, over the video, so you can see just how close that car or lorry was when passing you. A timestamp is also recorded onto the video, in the bottom right of the picture. Strava data can also be added to the video presumably to display speed, distance and segments.
The Fly12 can be mounted to the handlebars using the supplied mount, but it's also compatible with a GoPro and Garmin mounts, handy if you have a few of those mounts knocking about.
A smartphone app allows the recorded footage to be easily viewed after a ride, using Bluetooth or WiFi, and that’ll make it easy to share on your favourite social media network.
There has been a huge surge in the number of cyclists filming their commutes, you only need to do a quick search on Youtube to see just how popular it is. The Fly6 and, now the new Fly12, are quite unique in that they provide illumination as well as recording, and the most obvious benefit is less devices hanging off your bike.
The Fly cameras also record on an endless loop, replacing previous footage so you never run out of space on the memory card, and don't need to wipe it before each ride. If the camera is horizontal for 4 seconds, which would be the case in the event of a crash, the camera will continue to record, but won’t write over older footage.
If you’re interested in getting your hands on the new Fly12, a pledge of $329 will get you one, with an estimated November 2015 delivery.
Legendary commentator Phil Liggett has been using the new Fly12, and seems impressed.
"I thought the Fly6 was the best thing to happen to promote safer cycling and now it is set to pair up with Fly12. The Fly6 is a must have on our busy roads and the images it produces are amazing. Can't recommend it highly enough to everyone.”
Check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fly6/fly12-cycling-accessory-1080p-camera-and-front-lig
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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For those interested we announced a new feature for Fly12 today: A Bike Alarm!
Fly12 will have a feature where you can set an alarm on your Fly12 so that if someone disturbs it within Bluetooth range (up to 100 feet), you will get an audio and visual alert on your phone and the device itself will sound an alarm, flash the light and turn on the camera.
To learn more about this cool feature check out the Kickstarter campaign at http://kck.st/17lsH1I
Regards
Andrew Hagen, Cycliq, CEO
Garmin Virb (standard not the Elite) with a long life battery are £99.99 @ PBK & The Hut/IWantOneOfThose
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/electronics/digital-cameras/garmin-virb-1...
Mine's on order...
If you keep an eye on Amazon, they've been occasionally placing the Elite into the daily deals at £120. And unless you're using an Edge for navigation, that's another two devices in one.
This site will price watch on amazon for you
http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fly6/fly12-cycling-accessory-1080p-...
Half way down the page states 45fps at 1080p and 10hrs record.
The Fly12 (I already have a Fly6) seems to go a long to addressing my main reservation with action cams, that of battery life. A decent ride will be 6hours+ so it seems pointless to carry a cam which will run out of juice a third of the way in. The one thing worse than weight is deadweight. In the absence of alternatives (GoPro with larger battery pack), I'll probably get the Fly12. Also, video looping is useful
Apologies for a fairly long post. This is all in reply to Andrew @ Cycliq.
I’m two types of cyclist. I ride for fun, sometimes transformed into a hill climbing Mamil of a weekend who might disappear for hours, but most of my riding is simply transport. I’m also a city dweller. My interest in such a product is motivated mainly from using it as a commuter. I face danger daily from traffic, the convenience of a single device with a single mount is helpful, and as a commuter I have no choice but to sometimes ride in the dark. I should think few road cyclists put in hours of riding at night for fun.
I have a few comments on what you’ve listed as the benefits.
Weight: 209g isn’t that light. A go pro weighs about 80g, or 150g in the housing, my various lights weigh between 20->90g. The real weight weenies will be more worried about carrying the weight of an unused light during the day, than a few grammes at night.
Handlebar space: Less of a problem on the bars than on the seat post. Today I mount a camera upside down under the bars, lights sit on top or front taking up the same bar space.
The mount: Using a Garmin quarter mount for quick release sounds like a good idea, except that it will probably need a good one. The problem with good quality mounts such as K-Edge, is that the mount itself is valuable and vulnerable to theft if the bike is locked in a public place. A quick mounting system is much more important to me as a commuter than as leisure rider. If I’m going to be riding for hours, the extra seconds to mount a light and camera separately matter very little.
Battery life: More battery is always good, but targeting such a long life to me indicates which type of cyclists you’ve been talking to. For urban/commuter use, 2->3 hours is plenty, and I’d rather have removable batteries.
The Light: I’ve built up quite a collection of lights, and they fall into three categories. The small emergency light, the light to see by, and the light to be seen by. The lights I use by default, are those to be seen by, using powerful beams on urban roads will often set you apart as a bit of an antisocial berk. You can be sure that any cyclist paying the amount you want for your product, will be very fussy about the quality and shape of the beam.
It should be fairly clear that I’m a little disappointed with the design of the Fly12. It’s a personal view, but I was hoping for something else. The product I wanted had a different type of light, with side visibility. As with the Fly6 it would have had silicon bands or some other solution that was completely removable. And yes it would have been cheaper.
I’m not sure where you were going with comments about cameras sold from garages. I can buy an SJCAM M10 direct from Amazon today (with guarantee and shipped from their warehouse) for £65. It will come with English instructions and does everything any cyclist should need. You can even pick up a brand name action camera, such as a Sony for around £100.
As a consumer, I don’t see enough benefit between that and a separate light and what you’ve built as the Fly12 to justify the price difference. I did with the Fly6 (v2 bought at the preorder price).
I’m sure you’ll have a successful product, but it may be seen on a lot of bikes that only come out on a Sunday rather than the ones used Monday to Friday.
@ bikebot
re the SJCAM M10, only 90min record time! It doesn't double as a light, it has a horrible separate waterproof case, the handlebar attachments are ugly, non-dedicated and probably suffer from shake, less battery power, no light, only 30fps and we won't know how the picture compares yet.
I've pledged because I expect the same ease of use from the eye12 as the eye6 has, ie clip it in, turn it on, done and 10 hours of recording is awesome for bike trips... And because I got in early - I wouldn't pay the full price. The fly6 is well engineered, cheap goods have a habit of breaking.
The removable battery is an interesting point, Li-ion batteries typically have a limited shelf life, non removable battery might mean the product is only good for a couple of years.
But how much of a real issue is it? A macbook Pro has a non removalable battery that with a couple of screw drivers becomes removable, a Garmin 500 again it is non removable but if you want to, is resonably easy to replace.
So yes it is an issue, but it might not be that much of an issue, as long as the battery they use can be replaced reasonably easily.
There are two issues. The concern you've raised is really, is it serviceable when the battery expires. I know that the cell inside the Fly6 is, and hope that will also be the case with the Fly12. I've replaced the cells myself on quite a few things, I'm handy with a soldering iron and it matters to me when I'm researching a purchase.
But the other simpler benefit of a removeable battery, is being able to take a few spares on a long ride.
The M10 should safely last over two hours, about 140 minutes, plenty enough for the commuting use as I described. I used to get 150 minutes out of an SJ1000 when I used one on the back. The M10 battery is the same one used in the S4000 wifi, which used to be a bit more power hungry and may account for the shorter time quoted in some places. The later revisions to its internals are more power efficient.
Whether the case is horrible or not is a very subjective matter. I would prefer an integrated case, but it's little different to that used by the GoPro's and that hasn't suffered a huge consumer backlash based on its looks. Without the case it weighs just 65g, and you can use it in other places, such as the car.
Erm, it uses GoPro mounts. I think you're making a lot of assumptions ("probably suffer from shake") there without having looked at them. There are lots of cyclists using these cheap cameras with no problems. Again, I own a Fly6. I didn't buy it for image quality which is frankly horrible compared to the other cameras I've tested. I'm not referring to it being 720p, the wide angle distortion alone is really very poor.
The Fly12 is also "only" 30fps. It has the same spec, and probably the same chipset as a dozen other action cameras. The few 60fps cameras on the market are all battery eaters, and therefore not really suitable for this use.
Well, that's unfortunately what it boils down to. Will I pay that much of a premium to put a camera and a light in one package on the front. Well, even if both the camera and the light are top notch quality (and that is to be determined) I think it's simply too expensive for relatively little convenience.
And whilst I almost always use a tail light, I don't use a front light when I ride during daylight. At the moment, I actually use a Mobius camera on the front and was very interested to see what the Fly12 would be. It takes me a few seconds to attach my camera using a clamp mount, and another few seconds to wrap either my Moon Comet or Meteor on to the bars. The M10 is the option I'd probably recommend today for other people looking for a budget camera, but if you're happy to pay the price for a Fly12 I'm sure it will be a good product.
Hi Bikebot
I think you have summed up some of the main features. Identifying individual issues and pointing out how they do or don't meet your requirements is a good way of breaking down the nitty gritty components however at the end of the day Fly12 addresses all of them in a way that has not been done before.
I guess how we see Fly12 is that it does all of those things in one easy to use unit. You only have to buy one unit (one set of shipping costs), you only have to visit one store to get it, you don't need to order separate mounts or cases, you only have to charge one device (around once a week given your riding times), you can adjust the lights to suit your riding needs (off, flashing, solid, low, medium or bright) and it only takes up one bit of real estate on your bike (above or below your handlebars out of the box or out front with additional mounts).
Of course it does much more but the items above just compare it to a action camera or a bike light. Fly12 is a device that is designed for cycling unlike any other action camera. It has nano technology to prevent corrosion, looping recording for ease of use, it has incident protection in the event you are unable to turn off the device in an crash - so it won't loop over itself, it has tram line overlays for reporting dangerous motorists, it has audio alerts for battery life, ability to overlay the Cycling (& running) centric popular social sports app Strava metric on you footage, you can trim & send snippets of video to your social networks right from the coffee shop!
Of course, you may not want all those things but I challenge you to put them all together, weigh them, price them (including mounts & shipping), fit them all to your bike, ride with them all for a week and see how many times you have to charge them. Then consider what Fly12 does and how seamless and easy it is to use. I'm confident that you will find the price not just appropriate, but awesome value.
As I said in my earlier post, we can't design something that suits everybody as we all have different needs and value propositions. To have a potential customer say they are disappointed in the design is unfortunate of course as we like to think we are doing the best we can. We have spent days and days trying to make it as light as possible without compromising it's integrity. We have tried to make the light as bright as possible without pushing the weight and heat dissipation. We have tried to have the best components such as chip set (Fly12 now has one of the worlds leading microprocessor brands) and camera sensor without blowing out the RRP. There are so many things to consider when designing & manufacturing a product that has not been done before and we truly believe we have done it very well (and so do our Kickstarter backers!).
We saw the need for these devices based on what we thought was needed and so we built them! It has taken us around three years and an enormous amount of money to get to where we are. Sure, it's not for everyone and some people like to find their own solutions but for cyclists who spend time on the roads, we believe in time it will become a necessary part of the kit.
People often compare our products to Garmin Virb. We have heard that Garmin have decided to stop making Virb. Perhaps evidence by plummeting price making them very good value at the moment. Garmin Virb is an action camera that can fit to a bike like many other action cameras so it is not really competing with our product. In any case, the more products out there the more choices for consumers to get something that suits their individual needs.
We do appreciate these opportunities to get and provide feedback as it all helps us shape the next model. Thanks for reading an apologies for the length of the post.
Cheers
Andrew Hagen, Cycliq CEO
I'm interested, but would be a lot more interested if there was an option to buy a bundle of front and back camera, rather than multiples of 5 x front.
There is a hidden bonus for people that back Fly12 that goes some way to giving you what you are after!
Another poorly aimed light that, without a beam cutoff, will dazzle oncoming Road users. I guess that so long as the operator can see where he's going, then "sod everyone else" applies?
What you could do with on a camera like that is a simple rangefinder scale down the side of the image keyed to the known height of a common piece of street furniture such as a lamp post.
That way you can prove distances involved if camera footage is used in court.
Thanks for all the comments. Of course, we can't create something that suits everyone however, we wanted to create something that specifically suits cyclists. As cyclists ourselves, we looked at features and functions that we would like to have. We also listened to our customers and work-shopped with key figures in the industry to come up with what we have on Kickstarter.
It would of course be fantastic to make all these features and functions appear in a device that is less than £100 because it would become accessible to almost everyone (which is something we want) however the realities of development, patent protection, manufacturing, staff costs, quality control, international logistics and stock control as well as allowing for distributors and retailers to earn a living does not enable a device such as this to sell for that much.
I believe I could cobble one together in my garage for "under a ton" but would anyone buy it from me, from my garage with no guarantee? I would not think so. Consumers, want a guarantee that the item the are buying is going to work, they want support if they don't understand how it works or if something goes wrong, consumers want the product to have been tested and trialled beforehand, they want to know there will be a company behind the product, they want all the features but it just can't be done if we want to have all the a fore mentioned things as well as having a company that can grow and develop more and better products into the future.
We also love Techoman and there are some fantastic and affordable action cameras out there and almost all are not made for cyclist. I'm sure there is a market for an affordable action camera and that is why there are so many of them. While none of them go anywhere near the features and functions Fly12 has, it should be for the consumer to choose value over features/functions in the same way you probably chose your bicycle. I'm sure there are £50 bikes out there that can easily get you from A to B however I'm sure you choose your bikes (as I did) based on what features and functions I wanted then tried to find the best value proposition that met my needs. I'm sure it is no different with Fly12. Some people will opt for a cheap action camera only solution and some will get Fly12.
The new Fly6 does have a three axis accelerometer for incident protection. From memory, they did cost less than $1USD last time we ordered them however we did order 20,000!
A mention was made about 'top end' price point and I'd like to address that if I may...Based on standard retail pricing models (we have recently discovered) Fly12 should be retailing at $599 (same price as the top end GoPro) however, we have paired it back as much as we can without putting our business at risk and so, I would say that it is not 'top end' but much more affordable than getting a top end camera and a 400 lumen light. As stated in the post, it consolidates space on your bike for less weight. Is that not what all of us cyclists want?
We don't want to make cheap cameras that don't last a single winter or not provide good customer service - it is not our 'thing'. We are here to make awesome products that provide the users a great experience and that warm and fuzzy feeling that the product does what it says on the box!
We are very proud of Fly12 and the feedback (& support on Kickstarter) to date has been nothing short of amazing. For those that are concerned about the retail price, I suggest you jump on board our Fly12 Kickstarter campaign as it will be the most affordable time to buy it!
Welcome your feedback and comments.
Cheers
Andrew Hagen, Cycliq CEO
killer bit of kit but the price is going to be the sticking point, same goes for the new fly6. its just that little bit too expensive.
I do hope this design attracts a little competition. I own and like the Fly6, not cheap but a good bit of kit and something I could just about justify buying.
However, I'm personally disappointed that they decided to focus on the top end of the market with a high price point for the front light. I think there's a massive market for a cheap basic device such as this, amongst everyday commuters. As fans of techmoan will know, there are some really good quality action cameras available at bargain prices. It shouldn't be beyond the skill of some Chinese manufacturers to design one with an LED light and a gopro mount, all for under a ton.
@ bikebot
2nd that, and all bike lights should be brake lights, the average price of accelerometer is now under a dollar and if they can fit them in to skinny smart phones then they must be tiny enough.
I think the second version of the fly6 has an accelerometer for "incident detection", rather than a tilt switch as used on the first one. In theory a brake light mode could have been a matter of software, which would have been a nice addition.
The unit is firmware upgradeable, so I might ask them via their forum. They're quite responsive to questions.
If you're the Manufacturer / Vendor then there's no point starting at the low-end, as inevitably the clones will come along & the price then falls.
From a Customer perspective there are plenty of Early Adopters who'll pay over the odds to get one sooner - that high initial margin is what attracts firms to launch new products, with all the associated risk that entails.
I've got the rear red light version, can't wait for the matching front too.
Brilliant bit of kit. I won't be buying it however because one of the owner/developers referred to the definition as 'Haitch Dee' rather than 'Aitch Dee'. The horror.
Nice to see a camera that's actually designed for cycling, other sports cameras are a ton of faff to use as bicycle cameras.