Need advice on a good bike cam

[c60rider]

In the UK. There's been a gradual push the past couple of years to start to warn or prosecute drivers who overtake too close to cyclists and prosecute poor driving from camera evidence.

It's basically only Surrey Police Force (understandably as a bunch of then actually cycle and have their own cycling club), with a pitiful number of other areas only have a one off or limited trial of some close pass initiatives.

Many local UK police forces have anti-cyclist mentalities. They'll stop and harass riders. Youtube is littered with examples. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ss+cyclist

Cyclists are considered a nuisance in the UK, and that extends through to the police and politicians. Lords were talking about how cycle lane rollout in London was harming the emergency services a few weeks past. That's where we're at. At the supposed highest rung of political thought, we have Daily Mail level discourse. That's why bugger all changes here.

But all hell breaks loose if one pedestrian dies at the hands of a 'dangerous cyclist'.

Actually west Midlands police put officers under cover on bikes and stopped motorists who passed too close and gave them a warning. 1.5m distance rings a bell somewhere. They were trying to encourage it to be rolled out across the country as it was so successful but i think there was resistance from many areas. Some saying that the roads in towns were so narrow there wasn't space for a car to overtake with a 1.5m gap! I think that brought up the counter argument they should pedestrianise more areas. I doubt it will come to anything in the short term but any discussion is good.

[Shrike]

Yeah I was going to start with West Mids earlier but dunno why I didn't. Just sort of went off on a tangent. They were the most prolific for certain in cycling media in 2017 and had some nice statistics thrown around showing it was successful last September. That said, not sure what's happening with them in 2018. Even a year or two of peak activity is as worthless as a week long trial. We've had way too many flash in the pan cycling campaigns. Discussions. Protests. Most of what we have had is an ineffectual old hat circle jerk.

Anyway, my point earlier, that I forgot to make, was that the police forces, even the best intentioned ones like Surrey and West Mids are hobbled by budget cuts. I know some guys at our local police force and they've had to cut back on call outs for minor thefts, and they have backlogs for follow ups for around 3 weeks for a lot of reported crimes. They've lost officers and staff and have no budget to grow.

Pretty grim if you're a cyclist hoping your Cycliq will lead to a prosecution. Be lucky to get anything but a crime number.

[IrrelevantD]

I’ll throw in my vote for the Fly6 and Fly12 in the CE variety (I also had both of the previous versions). The 1/4 turn mount is really nice if you have multiple bikes and the image stabilization on the CE is awesome. I did a 47mi ride with about 12mi of gravel and you could barely tell the difference. The only problem I have is my Garmin keeps turning on the light on long rides, which kills the battery at arround 3 hours on the 12.

[jfranci3]

I just tried out the Fly12 CE. It's not great.
It's hard to tell it's actually recording.
You can't see where it's aimed on the app.
The footage isn't great - for example, youtube did a number on the vid, but you can't make out the oncoming rider, at all and the colors are all washed out, and there's no detail in the dirt. https://youtu.be/p-WBUNggtIg

[c60rider]

I just tried out the Fly12 CE. It's not great.
It's hard to tell it's actually recording.
You can't see where it's aimed on the app.
The footage isn't great - for example, youtube did a number on the vid, but you can't make out the oncoming rider, at all and the colors are all washed out, and there's no detail in the dirt. https://youtu.be/p-WBUNggtIg

Agreed it is hard to tell it's recording however you get an audible start up sound and from that moment it's on and recording. It's designed as a safety camera first and foremost and in that respect it works 100%. Make sure you have the settings with image stabilisation on etc but mine has no problems identifying number plates. As for where it's aiming just point it forward.

[TobinHatesYou]

Yeah basically you have 3 choices:

1) Fly12/6 CE combo. With the flashing patterns on low you will get 6+ hours of footage, but the video quality is a bit embarrassing.
2) GoPro Hero 6. You will get a recording time of up to 1.5 hours if you're lucky, but video quality and stabilization is awesome.
3) GoPro Hero 6 plus piggyback battery. There are some that try to integrate with the camera and fit in a plastic housing, but they obscure the touchscreen and can speed up overheating, especially when shooting in 4K. Alternatively you can strap a USB power-bank to your top tube and run a USB cable to the camera...

I have decided that the Fly12/6 CE is good enough for me. It simplifies my routine by including daytime safety lights. It runs long enough for even something like Phil's Double Fudge if you leave the lights off.

[jfranci3]

The GoPro Session 5 does all that and is smaller.

[dim]

I recently bought a front cam and a back cam .... I spent a very long time deciding and reading info on forums

I ended up with the Fly 6 at the back, and a Garmin Virb Ultra 30 for the front (it was a toss up between the Virb Ultra 30 and the new Go Pro Hero 6)

I opted for the Garmin, because it links to my Garmin Edge 1000 and can display all the info, on the video clip. (such as cadence, heartbeat, Power, etc etc)

It comes standard with a waterproof case. I bought a 128 GB card (cost me over £100 but I will get approx 17 hrs recording time before it starts looping).... I also bought the remote button which sits on your handlebars and which at the press of a button, you can take a photo or start or stop recording. The battery life is shite (just over an hr on HD), so you need to switch it on and off on long rides (in the rain)

I also bought the open cage with protective lens (not waterf proof), but when it's not raining, I can connect the camera to a powerbank (Powerbank sits in a Apidura top tube pack), works brilliantly especially with a powerfull powerbank (my biggest is a Rav Power that has a capacity of 26 800 mAh .... this is claimed to be able to fully charge a completely dead battery of an Iphone 6 ten times) .... I also have lipstick sized powerbanks for shorter rides

so, you have 2 cases .... one for when it rains, and one for the dry ...

as for the Cycliq Fly 6 rear camera, don't even think twice .... buy it! .... it's brilliant and the built in battery lasts me 6 hours + .... only drawback, is that when it's wet, and if you don't have mudguards, the lens can get muddy (so whenever you stop, just give it a wipe) .... on my audax gravel bike with mudguards, I don't have a mud problem .... there is a new version just released, so get that one

I saved a long time for this setup, (with the K-Edge mount and all the accessories, I think I must have spent close to £800 (which includes my Garmin Varia Radar unit .... the radar is the best accessory that I have ever bought)

[jma6610]

I'll put in my vote for the Fly6/12. I've had 3 versions of the 6 and 1 of the 12. I would watch buying older/used versions of the 6. The mounts weren't great and have a tendency to break. The new 1/4 turn mount on the new CE version is great. They are coming out soon with a seat rail amount that's supposed to work better with a saddle bag. Someone mentioned compatibility with the Garmin light network/control. I gave up on mine. This is new technology and the light doesn't seem to integrate with my Garmin 1030 properly. It's really no big deal, just switch light modes the normal way. The fly 12 is great and I would guess the newer CE version even better. The CE version gave up on wireless transfer of video to your phone - it was never very reliable on my first generation Fly 12. ...but attaching to a computer for video transfer when desired works well. As someone else mentioned, they are very picky with the storage cards - get exactly what cyclic recommends and nothing else. The video quality is great for a safety type camera. I would guess if you wanted it for some type of really high quality, there might be a better choice. The lights on both the rear Fly 6 and front Fly 12 are great for road cycling.

[IrrelevantD]

Someone mentioned compatibility with the Garmin light network/control. I gave up on mine. This is new technology and the light doesn't seem to integrate with my Garmin 1030 properly. It's really no big deal, just switch light modes the normal way.

I think that was me. The problem I have is that my Garmin 810 wants to turn the light back on for some reason. Normally not an issue, but the light on the 12 eats up a lot of battery, so I leave it off and use a separate light for rides over 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Problem being, if the Garmin turns it back on and it's sunny, I don't know that it's on and the battery goes dead prematurely. I did the same thing you did... I just turned light controll off on my Garmin.

Regarding those that say "you can't tell if it's working". I'd argue that this may be the case with the original 12 when mounted upside down, it's not the case with the new CE's. The 12CE has a LEDs on both sides that you can easily see day or night while riding, much better than the single LED on top that most people have to turn their bike upside down to see, or the LED in the back that you can't see unless you are looking directly at it.

Additionally, you can enable audible beeps to alert you that it's recording (I have mine set to every 10 minutes). In additon to that, it will give you audible notifications of the battery state while in use. When it drops to 75% it will give you 3 beeps, 50% is 2 beeps, etc. Aside from the loss of WiFi and wireless video transfer (which was kinda crappy to begin with) and a slightly lower battery life, I've been very happy with the new CE vs. the original Fly12. Video qualidy is much improved, especially with the addition of image stabalization. As for the rear, there's no real comparison between the older 6 and the CE aside from they serve the same basic functionality.

[simoncx]

I've been using the fly12 and fly6 for a little over a year and have been very happy with both. Battery life is about what they say, I ususally set mine on low blinking light and after a 3 hour ride it still beeps that I have 50% battery left. Mine is mounted to the seatpost and under the kedge garmin mount, the only con I see in them is weight and the memory card that comes with them is small so its a good thing to get a bigger card. I'll take the extra weight for the piece of mind that if something happens atleast it will be a on camera. In the last year 2 people I know where hit from behind and left in the ditch without the car ever stopping, now I never ride without atleast the rear camera.

[jfranci3]

I've been coming around on the Fly12 CE.
A GP 5 Session is 95g with a 1060mah battery (~25g) with about 1.75h of recording time.
A Fly12 CE is 195g with a 4200mah/11.8wh battery (~80g judging by cell phone batteries) with about 8h of recording time.

So, you're looking at a 55g battery + (~20g??) exterior housing penalty for the larger battery you'd want for a bike action cam. So if the weight roughly equates to the size on a theoretical perfect optimized action cam (needed battery, minimum size), you're not going to find a smaller unit that can do a full ride or two . There's also not much penalty for having the integrated light. Vice Versa, looking at lights, there's not much penalty for having the camera in terms of size or weight. In other words, in any case if you're going to grab the light or the camera, there's no real penalty for having the all in one unit vs optimized separate units.

The only penalties seems to be:
1) packaging of having the two parts side by side rather than tube shaped. (GP 5ses 1444sqmm vs 1815sqmm= 371sqmm penalty )
2) Image quality - GP has superior dynamic range and stabilization.
3) non-bike usability.

[TobinHatesYou]

I've been coming around on the Fly12 CE.
A GP 5 Session is 95g with a 1060mah battery (~25g) with about 1.75h of recording time.
A Fly12 CE is 195g with a 4200mah/11.8wh battery (~80g judging by cell phone batteries) with about 8h of recording time.

So, you're looking at a 55g battery + (~20g??) exterior housing penalty for the larger battery you'd want for a bike action cam. So if the weight roughly equates to the size on a theoretical perfect optimized action cam (needed battery, minimum size), you're not going to find a smaller unit that can do a full ride or two . There's also not much penalty for having the integrated light. Vice Versa, looking at lights, there's not much penalty for having the camera in terms of size or weight. In other words, in any case if you're going to grab the light or the camera, there's no real penalty for having the all in one unit vs optimized separate units.

The only penalties seems to be:
1) packaging of having the two parts side by side rather than tube shaped. (GP 5ses 1444sqmm vs 1815sqmm= 371sqmm penalty )
2) Image quality - GP has superior dynamic range and stabilization.
3) non-bike usability.

The only way you get 1:45 record out of a Session is in perfect temps and on the lowest resolution setting with no stabilization...

Also the image quality difference isn't just dynamic range and stabilization. The Fly12 CE's sharpness is worse (no doubt it uses a smaller sensor) and the image processing is also worse. Right out of the camera, video frames have artifacts and more noise. Still though, the package is hard to beat as a "dashcam." If I'm looking to do a ride where I want to create a video edit, I use my GoPros. Most of the time I just want footage in case of a collision or road rage confrontation.

[spdntrxi]

I use the older Fly12 as a "dash cam"... Virb Ultra 30 when I want to make a video and actually use footage. FLy6 is always in the rear, but I've had some bad luck with a few early one and the battery (sudden not charging anymore) I might get the Fly6CE as I like the form factor and battery life of it. Not sure fly12ce though. and this thread gives me more doubts.

[IrrelevantD]

I'll agree with others that the 12CE video quality isn't GoPro quality, but we're also talking about different markets. GoPro was designed and is marketed as an action cam designed to capture high quality, production quality, video. The Fly12 is a dashcam designed to capture hours of video for that "oh S*** that just happened" moment. You really can't get that much better than either in their respective markets, but I don't know that it's fair to compare them side by side. Kinda have to decide which way you want to go, or get both and put one on the bars and one on your helmet/chest/next to it on the bars.

As for the CE vs. the original 12, I personally find the video quality to be better, especially with the image stabalization. I also REALLY LIKE the 1/4 turn mount and smaller size as I frequenly switch between two bikes. If those things aren't a big deal, I'd say save the money, get the original or hold on to what you got. For me, the battery in my 12 was starting to get weak and those changes were of benefit to me.