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TECH NEWS
Fly6 rear-facing camera and LED now smaller, brighter and higher quality
Earlier this year we reported on the Australian company Fly Lites and their combined rear light and camera Fly6, which they launched through the popular Kickstarter crowd-funding website. It didn’t take long for them to smash through their $95,000 goal, in the end they reached a staggering $266,594.
With that goal reached the Fly6 light has been put into production and they were at the recent Eurobike show in Germany to show the light off to the world’s media. We had a good gander at the product for the first time since we wrote that first article, and the good news is they haven't rested on the laurels. In fact they’ve pretty much completely overhauled the combined light and camera since we first reported on it back in the spring.
As you can see from the photos (the new one is on the right) the latest version is a good deal smaller than the first product. The changes don’t end there, they’ve also increased the camera quality, now capable of recording 720p HD video and audio. The battery life has been boosted up to a claimed 6 hours as well, and it’s easily charged via a USB lead. The whole unit is waterproofed with a nano-coated exterior to help it shrug off water.
Oh, and they’ve also ramped up the brightness of the light too, taking it from 15 to 30 lumens, so you should stand out on the road quite a bit more now. There are a range of mounts available, it’ll even fit an aero seatpost. It’s pretty light at a claimed 105g.
The light costs £99 which, when you look at the cost of a decent camera and light separately, does appear reasonable. There’s been a huge surge in the number of cyclists recording their daily commutes but most are concerned with forward-facing cameras, so there’s a bit of a gap in the market for a rear-facing camera. And one that combines a rear light as well is fairly unique.
Which all looks rather good. We've got one of the current models on test at the moment so watch out for a review soon.
More info at http://fly6.com/products/fly6/
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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22 comments
Spent three days last week with these guys at Taipei Cycle show, they have really interesting new developments coming along
Just bumping this up, as I noticed last night that the new Fly6 is now available to pre-order, and for a limited time is at a reduced price.
I put down £133 for one last night including shipping from oz, which will hopefully turn up in December.
Sorry, I'm late to this conversation, but for what it's worth, here's several POV's from club members on the Fly6: http://baroudeurs.cc/2014/09/26/fly6-initialreview/
I realise this is a business, but we've experienced nothing less than positivity from the owners: Andrew Hagen and Kingsley Fiegert. Yes, there are improvements needed, but it does so well already, I use it on every ride. The new one looks like they've learned a lot. So why wait till it's too late. Good on them for getting in there!
Grrrr - bit p*ssed off they are upgrading it already, so soon after "kickstarting" it ... I did the kickstarter thing and have had mine for about 3 months. Its a great piece of kit and the image quality is superb. I stuck it on my commuter bike mainly for the 20 mile A-road section of my commute to capture any near misses. Thankfully there haven't been many
I use a separate rear light at night too. It fixes on with rubber straps to your seatpost. There are various packers to let you fit to aero posts etc. My commuter bike is rigged with a pannier rack and I'd hoped to put it on there but I couldn't get it to fit anywhere - so seatpost only (out of box) which means you cant carry a pouch under your seat or, if you have a rack, cant use a small bag on top of the rack. Fly6 say it needs to be seatpost for stability of image (?). I'm sure you could modify something to put it on a rack. I've been using it daily on a 50 mile round trip commute and its held up well and taken all the rain that we get in a Scottish "summer", and endured pavé like roads at speed and it hasn't fallen off and nothing has broken. Charges via a USB cable. You can change the intensity of the lights - runs about 1.5hrs on full intensity. It records in a loop which is great - you just push the button (then it makes some beeps to indicate power level) and it starts recording - when the disk is full, it starts recording over the oldest video and so on. This is great as a safety "silent witness" style camera - wish I had a front one like it too. Anyway, I really like it and its now a permanent fixture for me out on the big mean A roads at least.
i'd drop a 100 on one of these tomorrow if I could get one.
It's £115 from here: (old version, new version is not out yet)
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/fly6-rear-light-with-hd-video-id85193.html
Only place in the uk I've seen it sold.
Looks a nice piece of kit.
Some interesting videos on their website : http://fly6.com/video/
I have to say quite a few of them making cyclists look stupid - crashing of their own accord etc...
Do we know if they have a uk distributor, not that i'm offering but it seems like a good bet for an good product to do well here.
Am I missing something here, or do they not do a front light version?
Correct, they don't. I would expect them to at some point in the future, but I think they did this the right way around. For the front view many people prefer the camera on their helmet rather than with their lights, and it just makes more sense to combine the units for the rear view where seatpost space is more limited compared to the handlebars.
With any luck a meteorite will streak over Westminster bridge at 5:45 one summer's evening and be captured in glorious HD by all the paranoid cycle commuters heading home to the 'burbs.
I found this video from Eurobike which gives a few more details about the new camera -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOAmcBy7Yq4
Quick summary:
- Better quality camera (though still 720p)
- Contains a G sensor, to save footage after any accident.
- Smaller and better battery life.
- Currently only a prototype, expect around the end of the year.
- It's more expensive, $249 rather than $159.
It's disappointing that they are charging such a high mark-up for such small improvements, really they should just discontinue the old version are release the new at $160. Hopefully there will be some competition.
Well, the article also says they've increased the resolution to 720p. As opposed to the original model, which recorded in 720p!
I will definitely consider buying one of these when the new model arrives. Please do test the battery life thoroughly in the review.
Is it just brighter or does it have new modes? I find the flash on my original one is awful, so I always turn the light off. A steady light and/or a Kitt-style strobe would be much more driver-friendly.
Or, and here's a leftfield feature request, how about being able to configure custom patterns via a text file on the SD card?
Hmm, new one doesn't seem to be on sale yet?
Looks like a fantastic product, and pretty keenly priced too.
For a second I thought the smaller one was the new one. Something you come to expect with newer models of products.
Er the smaller one IS the new one!
Er the smaller one IS the new one!
The new one is the small one, at least that is what the article states
I have the old one and love it, takes a couple of seconds to switch it on and attach it to the bike.
I want a 4k version!! For the front as well