A rear facing HD camera with integrated red flashing lights promises to save cyclists lives

AN INNOVATIVE Australian company has developed a $200 device that promises to protect cyclists from dangerous motorists on the roads.

MEET Greg Moyle.

Greg is a 52-year-old cyclist who rides from Brisbane’s outer southern suburbs to the CBD and back again as part of his daily commutes.

While his 20km door-to-door commute is cycled mostly on bike paths, there are moments where Greg must compete with motorists in suburban backstreets and in the hustle and bustle of Brisbane’s CBD.

For the most part, Greg feels safe riding to work and enjoys the freedom it offers - despite a couple of close calls with turning vehicles.

However, with 46 cyclists deaths on Australian roads since 2015, commuters need to be taking every precaution necessary to ensure they are arriving home safely from their ride.

This is where innovative Australian company Cycliq comes to the rescue.

Understanding the risks cyclists take every day on the road, the Perth-based company has created the Fly 6 — a rear facing HD camera with integrated red flashing lights.

In other words, the device is similar to the dashcams used in vehicles by recording footage of every aspect of the cyclist’s journey.

While the device is largely reactive more than proactive in its functions, the very knowledge that cyclists are recording could be enough to make dangerous drivers think twice about their actions.

In addition to capturing evidence of precarious motorist behaviours, the footage could be very helpful in piecing together moments in the unfortunate event of fatal or near fatal collision.

Bicycle fatalities by year.

News.com.au recently gave Greg the Fly 6 and asked him what he thought about the product and how it helped him on his daily commutes.

“From the moment you open the front magnetic flap on the box you know you have a quality product in your hands as even the box and packing are well thought out and engineered,” he told news.com.au.

“In the box is every conceivable thing you would need to connect to any bike imaginable. Included are six rubber straps, a variety of different angled mounting blocks to ensure correct orientation and two mounting brackets, which allows for two bikes to be ready to accept the camera light unit.”

Details to set up the device are outlined in a 12-page quick start guide with easy to follow diagrams, which Greg said only takes a few minutes to work through.

Installation on the bike was even faster, being fully fixed to the seat post in about 30 seconds without the need for any tools.

The device is switched on by holding a button on the side of the light. Once powered, a number of beeps will indicate how much of your battery is left — a full charge will allow for six hours of use, although the camera will not record for the last hour of battery life.

A button on the other side changes the intensity of the light from quite bright to supersonic blinding.

In terms of footage, the camera starts recording as soon as the device is powered — a feature Greg jokes Lycra-clad cyclists need to be wary of.

“If your happen to stand behind your bike you probably get a shot you may wish you hadn’t, that is a close up just below the waist level,” he said.

Fits snug on the back of the bike.

With the camera recording 720 HD video, Greg said the footage is extremely clear, focused and shake free

“Part of my ride includes a kilometre of pavers which feel more like cobblestones but the footage from that section is also pretty shake free,” he said.

“Numberplates are pretty easily read at about 3m distance.”

The unit comes standard with an 8GB SSD card, which would require you to dump the avi’s onto your computer every day in order to keep them.

The card can be interchanged with anything up to 32GB, which is what Greg did while using the device.

“The 32GB card gave me a full week’s riding — approximately 500 minutes with some room to spare, he said.

“The video is broken up into 10 minute segments and if you do happen to fill the card up it will overwrite the oldest content automatically.”

Understanding seasoned cyclists opt for two wheels in rain or shine, the device has been waterproofed to ensure it can withstand the elements; however Greg said it’s not without its faults.

“Without mudguards my tyres threw a stream of water straight onto the camera lens, picture was still clear between the drops and the occasional lump of mud that ended up on the lens soon gets washed off,” he said.

“Mud without enough rain to wash it off can be a problem, so maybe for off road use you need to consider mud proofing it in some fashion.”

In addition to making for a great safety measure, the device can also be used to capture some breathtaking footage when taken off-road.

Having seen the success of the Fly6, Cycliq has worked hard to develop a secondary forward facing camera and light, which chief executive Andrew Hagen describes as a “seriously pimped up” version of its predecessor.

“We developed the Fly6 after my business partner was shot in the ass with a slingshot from a car behind him, so that’s why we went with the rear camera first,” he said.

“With the success of that product we decided to offer a forward facing product and the Fly12 was born.”

With video captured in stunning HD and a massive 400 Lumen of light, the Fly12 is the world’s first front camera and light combination.

But the innovation doesn’t stop there.

Mr Hagen said the product has been designed to have more app connectivity and social sharing.

“The CycliqPlus App connected the device and allows users to view, edit and share videos directly from their mobile phone,” he said.

“We have also included Strava integration, meaning cyclists can overlay their metrics onto the video right from their iPhone for instant sharing.”

The most impressive feature of the new device is a “tramlines” feature, which overlays digital lines to cyclists’ footage

“In NSW they have they the one metre passing rule, so by using the overlay tramlines they can review the footage and see when a car comes too close to riders,” he said.

“They can then review the footage and forward it onto the police if they so wish.

“The whole point of our mission is to make the motorists aware cyclists are obtaining footage, so hopefully they will apply a bit more caution.”

Continue the conversation with your favourite cyclist on Twitter @mattydunn11