Reviews

Cycliq Fly6 rear light with integrated camera – review

An excellent bit of tech, combining a bright light with an effective rear-facing camera

The Cycliq Fly6 is a 30-lumen rear light with an integrated 720p HD rear-facing camera – it straps on to your seatpost like any other rear light, but also records your rides. Helmet and action cams have become increasingly popular with cyclists seeking to document their rides in the event on an incident and the Fly6 offers a more subtle but equally effective means to record what’s going on behind you.

Fitting the Fly6 is simple enough, with two rubber laddered straps combined with a plastic bracket (spare straps and an additional bracket are supplied in the box), and that ensures there’s a secure grip on the seatpost. The mount is very effective at keeping the light in place and I’ve also used it on my mountain bike on very bumpy terrain without it falling off. The Fly6 also comes with an aero seat post adapter, which also works well and allows it to be fitted on almost any bike.

The Cycliq Fly6 combines a rear light and video camera

First let’s look at the Fly6 at a rear light. It puts out a maximum of 30 lumens with a range of solid and flashing settings, and four brightness options. While there are more powerful rear lights out there, 30 lumens is certainly bright enough for most riding. I was initially concerned the integration of a light with a camera could result in some glare on the outside of the picture, but this doesn’t happen, even on the brightest setting.

Speaking of which, how about the Fly6 as a camera, then? The Fly6 records at a resolution of 1280 x 720 at thirty frames per second and picture quality is clear. It’s not GoPro quality but the Fly6 isn’t intended as an action camera and it’s certainly good enough for most situations, though it’s reduced at night – see the video above for an example of daytime footage captured on the Fly6.

Sound quality is also good and the unit has an internal microphone; the only issue I found was, given the Fly6 is mounted to the seatpost, it picks up the sound of bumping along the road and buzz of the tyres, but still captures conversation and other sounds clearly enough.

– Six of the brightest rear lights –

The Fly6 records whenever the light is on and everything is saved on a MicroSD card, with the unit coming with an 8GB card. Up to 32GB is supported but this isn’t really necessary, thanks to my favourite feature on the camera – the auto-deletion of old rides. That means the Fly6 doesn’t run out of space as it simply replaces the oldest footage on the card.

The Fly6 is a bit bigger than most rear light but still doesn’t take up a huge amount of space on the seatpost

Specification
Price: £99
Maximum output: 30 lumens
Resolution: 1280 x 720 @ 30 fps
Website: Cycliq

Another clever feature is the camera’s ‘incident protection technology’, whereby if the Fly6 is tilted at 45 degrees for more than five seconds (i.e. if you’ve been knocked off your bike), it will continue to record for up to an hour, before automatically shutting off. This means that it will potentially capture any post-incident footage while also preventing any previous footage from being overwritten if you’re unable to turn the light off manually.

The battery lasts for around six hours between charges and the amount of power left is indicated through up to four beeps when the unit is turned on – four beeps represents 100 per cent battery, one beep means there’s less than 25 per cent. When the battery runs out the unit emits one long beep and stops recording, although still provides light for another 90 minutes so you can get home safely. Charging is via a micro-USB port and can be done from a computer or power socket.

The camera records at a resolution of 1280 x 720 @ 30fps

The micro-USB port and memory card slot sit on the right hand side of the device, hidden underneath a silicone cover. This works well to keep out the rain and dirt, with nothing getting in even when using it in a muddy forest in the pouring rain.

In terms of weight the Fly6 is 113g, heavier than other lights, but you are throwing a camera into the mix. The unit comes in at £99 which, for me, represents very good value, considering that you could spend that on a light alone. There’s also nothing else like it on the market. Oh and if you want a front-facing light/camera, the 400-lumen Cycliq Fly12 will be available soon.

Conclusion

The Cycliq Fly6 is a very impressive bit of kit – once I started using it, I found it hard to go back to my old lights. It fits to any seatpost, is a bright light in its own right, and provides the peace of mind of good quality video and audio in the event that you need it. If you’re turned off by the idea of using a standalone camera but see the value in recording your rides then the Cycliq Fly6 solves.