Cycliq Opinions
 

I've been thinking about a cycling camera for awhile. Cycliq currently has a promotion for $100 off a front/rear bundle when you send in a pic of your old lights. That bring the bundle down to $360. Can I get some opinions, and comparisons, on Cycliq or other camera options? Thanks.

IIRC our club did a group buy a couple of years ago. Lots of issues, I don't know if any are still using them.

I got a couple from our club a couple years ago. They still work as they did when new, if they're charged and turned on. Our club president caught a very near pass this spring by a guy doing close to 100 mph, but since there was no contact, the police were barely polite and ignored the incident.

I can understand why some people want to have a record just in case something happens. Most of the time, I think I'd be better off with a dashboard camera than a bike camera, because I see more stupid sh** while driving than while cycling. But every now and then I think, "I wonder if the camera is on?" or "I wish I were riding the bike with the camera and it was catching this."

I have the first generation. They worked well enough... for a while. Both cameras were pretty big and clunky, although the second generation looks more compact. Battery life on the front, with the headlight on, is worthless.

The Android app wasn't great.

The front camera just inexplicably stopped working one day. It was out of warranty by that point and if you search around you'll find lots and lots of complaints about Cycliq customer service so I didn't bother.

It's a lot of money for something that doesn't last very long.

Too expensive.

I'm usually the guy who gets the defective model, of just about everything I buy, but I've had zero problems with my Fly12CE. Use it 3-4 days a week, have captured tons of footage of scenic roads, wildlife, close passes. Picture quality is nothing to write home about, but i saw some footage from a cheaper camera someone had posted on Amazon, and that footage looked like a psychedelic trip, and not in a good way either.

I really don't know of any other company with an 8 hour battery life, maybe the tech has changed but I thought Go Pros only ran like 2 hours max. So unless you wanna run multiple battery packs, I thought Cycliq was the only game in town.

Guess I lucked out and got a good one. I'm very happy with mine.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...524b3f1172.png

Cycliq customer service is non existent. They are based out of Australia and if you have a problem, they do not have service centers in the U.S.

I purchased the original Fly6 and it died less than a year into ownership. Additionally they attached with rubber straps that didn't last 3 months. When I contacted them, they did a dog and pony show but wouldn't replace them because they don't warranty the attachment straps. I had some rubber gaskets that come with the puck type Garmin mount and they worked so I let it go.

I then bought the newer 2nd generation and that one lasted about one and a half years.

I wouldn't bother with them.

I've had the Fly6 since April of 2016, and the Fly12 since September of 2016. The Fly6 mounting system was a joke, but easily remedied with some 3D printing to change it to a gopro mount. The Fly12 died in September 2017, days out of warranty and was replaced at no cost. I've recorded thousands of hours of footage with them. I've used the footage from my own road rides to create virtual rides on Rouvy to ride indoors. There's not another camera that I know of that you can record a full day of riding with, so you can leave them on "in case something happens"-which did happen on one of our rides a few weeks ago. The police said that without the footage they wouldn't be able to do anything, but with the footage, they are pushing for a felony charge. That 1 incident makes them worth the cost IMO.

I use both the Fly6 (rear) and Fly12 (front). I can tell the front is there, it is a bit bulky; I can't tell the rear is there at all. Both have worked great for me. I haven't needed to use them for any incident - yet. But I have reviewed footage, you can make out reg plate details, and if required it would be invaluable to inform authorities about "what really happened" when there are disputes over the facts in an incident (and there always are).

I have the Fly6ce/12ce set. It's kind of a mediocre set up but it works well for what I want it to do. I use it to deal with drivers, primarily commercial, that don't give cyclists proper right of way. The video, coupled with a "I wanted to talk to some one in management about this before I contact the sheriff..." has been *highly* effective. License plates are readable.

If I were doing this for reasons of documenting rides or otherwise, I might be more inclined to go the GoPro route. The video quality is better but the battery life is shorter.

The Cycliq stuff is a great idea but it's a really small company in Australia so it can be difficult to get tech support.

J.

I have made it a point to avoid doing two things with mine (other than dropping it). Never attempting to update the firmware (process is ridiculously complicated). And never taking the mini SD card out. I realize the thing could die tomorrow, but I feel like it's been a decent product for me. And with no moving parts, I'm hopeful if I don't drop it it, it may last a while.

I use mine for on-location selfies:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...47a83da982.png