Cycliq Fly6 CE Gen 3 Review - Part 1

Background

So I have many cycling videos on my channel by now, but the motivation for taking videos wasn't originally posting them on YouTube, but safety.  Granted, taking videos won't actually make you safer at an individual level, but it will mean you have evidence if anything happens.  It also can make you safer on a collective level, just like DashCams and Police BodyCams.  

Bad Behavior

Pedestrians and other bikes

Drivers in Japan are actually pretty courteous in general.  I generally see more pedestrians and other bikes doing things I would consider dangerous.  I see a lot of bikes running traffic lights , even at four way intersections. I see bikes going the wrong way down a lane of a two way street at night, without lights, etc.  In most cases it's not a danger to me, but seems like they are trying to commit suicide by car.  I also see pedestrians who think crossing in the middle of the road is somehow a great idea, even in areas plastered with signs explicitly demanding they not do this.  

When I am riding on the sidewalk, I am as polite as can be, because pedestrians have the right of way.  Riding your bike on the sidewalk is supposed to be an exception to begin with, so I slow down to less than 10kph if there are any people nearby, and I don't ring my bell if they are being slow, I just remind myself "This is their place", and patiently wait.  - but the road is different.  If I am on a road where there aren't supposed to be pedestrians, then having them appear randomly is certainly dangerous, and I am getting to the point where I am tempted to honk at them.  (But that might startle them into freezing up...)

Cars and Trucks

I've had a car honk at me maybe twice in over 10 years of cycling in Tokyo.  Cars do routinely get close to me, but I don't mind that at all if they are traveling at close to the same speed.  People know how to drive in close quarters, so I am not going to freak out every time a car gets close to me.

Most of the danger I feel from cars comes from things that are not their fault.   For example, I don't like riding up hill on narrow curvey roads.  The car behind me can't see my until it's almost too late.  

I don't like riding on roads with fences or walls on the sides, this applies to bridges, tunnels, and certain roads.  This is mainly because I can't escape if trouble comes.  In most other places, I could escape into the shoulder of the road or hop up onto the sidewalk.  

I don't mind some higher speed roads (around 50-60kph) if I know the road well, and most of the people aren't speeding.  

I avoid high speed roads that are unfamiliar, especiall those in the countryside, which tend to be curvey and dark.  Again, the car might not see mu until it's too late.  People also seem to tend to speed more often in the country-side.  This is why you will see most of my trips inside Tokyo taking place on the road, whereas in the countryside you might see me on the sidewalk for longer periods of time.  If there is no sidewalk and the road feels dangerous, then I would prefer to take it in the daytime.

I also tend to avoid roads with lots of big trucks.  They are physically bigger, so you have less visibility and less room to manouver, and also they are just not pleasant to be around.    

My least favorite combination would be taking dark and curvey narrow high speed road with no shoulders that runs up-hill and is filled with lots of speeding trucks, at night.  

I see all of these videos online with "Close Passes" where the car is more than half a meter away, and those just make me think "So what?"  Nobody thinks that's close in Japan, myself included - not if they are going less than twice my speed.  

Past Accidents

I have never been in an accident that involved another vehicle, though there have been a few close calls, one near my house.  

I had one accident while waiting at a stop light.  It was winter, and the sidewalk was frozen, and I slipped and fell down.  

Another  incident was when I rode through an area I always ride through, but this time a chain had been run accross the way.  At least they should put some reflectors or something, I didn't see the chain until I was fairly close, which resulted in fairly uncontrolled breaking.

When I had just gotten my Panasonic XM-D2 and was not yet familiar with the brakes, I saw something out of the corner of my eye and squeezed the brakes.  This apparently resulted in me being launched like a missile about 4 meters in front of the bike.  Neither the bike nor I was injured, but I am very tender with the front brake now, relying mainly on the rear brakes.  

In fact, I had another very minor incident with a pedestrian barrier using chains.

The point is that in my experience, I have actually faced more threats from inanimate objects than moving ones.  

Summary of dangers

I don't want to be in any kind of accident at all, but if I do end up hitting someone, or someone hits me, I want there to be some sort of evidence so that it's not just my word against theirs.  For example, if I hit a pedestrian who was walking in the middle of the road at night while wearing all black - I want the police to be able to see from the video how hard it was to notice them.  Likewise, if a car hits me when I am where I should be, then it would be better if I have evidence.

And herein lies the problem.  Chances are that is a car hits me, it will be from behind.   I have only been recording video in the front.  

Time for a new Camera?

If you have read my other entries, you may know that I have evaluated some more recent ActionCams and decided to double down on the Sony ActionCam X3000.  Despite being a bit older, it is still state-of-the-art when it comes to image stabilization, particularly at night.  

So if I want to take rear-view Video, I should just get another one, right?

Well, perhaps - That's not a bad idea.  There is even an available remote which I could mount on the handlebars to use as a mirror!

There is a problem, though.  Availability and cost.  The camera stopped being made in 2016, and has actually gone up in price since then.  Sadly, it seems that other people have caught on that it is still the best camera available in some ways.

The other thing is that it isn't really meant to be a dash cam.  There is a loop mode, but it doesn't work perfectly (in my experience, at least), and it isn't compatible with all of the other settings.  This isn't a huge issue, because it's easily enough to delete unwanted video, and the X3000 is compatible with at least 512GB cards.  

Perhaps more importantly, the battery life is 2 hours at most.  Usually like 1.0 to 1.5 hours, depending on the battery and settings.  This is already better than most other action cameras, but not close to the numbers for dash cams.  This is less of a problem with the forward facing camera, since you can easily glance down and check the LEDs.  For the rear facing camera, I think you would need to use the remote just to tell if it was still on.  If you have an eBike with USB power, then you could use a dummy battery and wire it in, I suppose.  

Still, given these logistical issues, and the cost of these cameras, even used, I thought it was worth considering other devices.  I also have quite a lot of things I charge up for every ride:  my camera, my rear light, my helmet, by Varia Radar, my cycle computer, my Aftershokz, etc.  Do I really want to add another one?

The New Varia Radar with Camera

The new Varia Radar with built-in camera seemed like the logical choice.  There had been rumors about this for a long time, and it was finally released.  The reviews, though, have been pretty bad in the video department.  To put it another way, although Garmin have released some competitive action cameras, they apparently leveraged none of that skill or technology in the new Varia model.  The main complaint with the video quality (besides the fact that it wasn't still wasn't 4k in 2021) was that there is no stabilization at all.  

There have also been major complaints about the smart phone app, however I view that as a non-issue.  To me, there is no reason to use a smart phone app to pull footage from the phone.  The files are likely to be large and hard to sort through on a smart phone even in the best of cases, so it makes more sense to just pull the contents of the SD card into your computer, assuming you want to save the contents at all.  

I love my Varia, but I would love even more one of the ones with bluetooth, so I wouldn't mind upgrading - but the price is ... well, too high given the caveats about video quality.  (Check this link to Amazon Japan for the latest price, but as of now it was 49000 JPY).

It's also new, so there isn't much chance of finding it used or on much of a sale.  

Hopefully Garmin will improve upon their design and come out with a revision 2 with will be worth the premium price.  

The Cycliq

The Cycliq has been around a bit longer (not just the current model, but two older models as well), so there is more chance to find a good deal.  

In fast I did find a good deal on the newest model, with the ceveat that it was used and did not come with the SD card.  

Reviews on the Cycliq have been mixed, but most are not of the latest generation model, so I was surprised that the footage from mine actually compared with the Sony ActionCam in the daytime.  

Interestingly, the "Fly6 CE Gen 3" seems to be a downgrade from the "Fly6 CE" in several respects:

1. The older model could do 1080p@60fps, whereas now only 30fps is supported at 1080p
2. The older model supported ANT+ control, the newer model makes no mention of this
3. The older model has brighter 100lmn lights, the newer model is only 50lmn
4. The older model has WiFi to offload footage to a smartphone directly.

I don't care about last one, but the first two I do mind a bit.  On the other hand, it would seem that the new model has better image stabilization.  

I can say from this that the Cyliq handles some types of shaking actually better than the Sony, though the kind of vibration that comes from high speeds, it loses.  When it does fail, there can be a strange kind of rolling shutter type effect.

Overall it's better than I was expecting.  Since I still want to use the Varia Radar, do have to strap two devices to the back of my bike, but that also means I have a light even if one dies.  I had been using the Varia plus a Knog Big Cobber, so I will swap the Big Cobber out in favor of the Cyliq.  (Just as well, as the Cobbers look awesome, but tend to die from the rain despite their waterproof rating).  

Here is a video from a popular cycling reviewer.  His unit is supposedly also a Gen3, but his footage seems worse than mine, so the difference may be luck, a different hardware revision, or even a firmware update.  

Cycliq Gen 3 Video from DC Rainmaker

The reason this review is labeled "Part 1" is because I have only had the unit for a few days, and there will be a "part 2" which includes night time testing, and comparisons against the Garmin Ultra 30 and some other devices in various conditions.  

Things I like:

• Quality is not bad for 1080p (No idea the bitrate yet)
• Unit is basically always recording, and it's easy to tell that it's recording by the spinning ring.
• Alert sounds let you know it's still alive and recording
• Stabilization better than expected

Things I don't like:

• No 4k@60fps
• No optical stabilization
• Only supports up to 128GB cards
• Required FAT32 format for SD cards
• No GPS data, etc.  
• Narrower FOV than Sony F3000 at 135 degrees
• Battery can't be changed
• The sound is amazingly bad - luckily this doesn't matter much for the intended purpose

Unknowns:

• Can it be powered by USB-C while in use?
• Night time performance
• Level of water resistance

I can forgive the lack of 4k, WiFi, and GPS data given the price - but the picky SD card support seems unreasonable to me.  

As much as changing the batteries in an ActionCam can be a pain, at least they can be changed.  If you run down the Cycliq, then you simply need to recharge it before you can use it again.  This means that if you are taking a 4 hour trip somewhere and a 4 hour trip back, then you will need to charge it for 2 hours before you head back if you want video of the whole trip.  I suppose the Varia with camera also has the same limitation, though I have read that it can powered by USB-C while in use.  

I have seen quite a lot of reports on forums that the water resistance of previous generations was not up to snuff.  Whether the Gen3 has the same issues is unknown, but there are two ways for water to get in:

a. The Micro SD Card slot.  On the Garmin this is behind a super secure coin turn slot, but on the Fly6 is it just protected by a rubber flap.  If the flap comes off or water leaks past it, then it would seem it's an all you can eat electronics buffet.

b. The USB port itself is waterproof on the Garmin devices, but that may not be the case here, as it's also protected by the rubber flap as the MicroSD card.  

I have had numerous things that claim to be waterproof succumb to the rain, so I am a bit suspicious - but unlike a normal light, at least this is one device I probably wouldn't be leaving on the bike when I am not riding.  

Conclusion

A lot of reviewers seem to focus on whether license plates are legible or not.  This depends on the distance, lighting, weather, angles, and more.  There seems to be a bit of artificial sharpening going on, so when comparing footage from the Cycliq to that of the Sony ActionCam, the the license plates in ActionCam footage look "softer" - but the legibility is nearly the same.  If headlights are blowing out the video at night or rain is obscuring the video, then the license plate numbers will not be clearly visible.  

A higher resolution sensor would help in some of these cases, but certainly not all.  After all, a 4K image of a drop of water on your lense is still an image of a drop of water!

Still, the license plate fixation seems unnecessary.  License plates would mainly be helpful in cases of hit and run from cars.  It's not relevant for pedestrians and other bicycles.  Even in the case of a hit and run from a motor vehicle, a video of the incident would likely tell you the time, location, make, model, and color of the vehicle, and potentially give some view the occupants. 

Even if the number is not quite readable, it'll be possible to tell what it's not.  For example, if the police search for an eggplant colored BMW Mini in Saitama and come up with 35 cars, and the license place number on the plate is "---00", where 00 might be 80  or 90 or 98 or something like that, the police can quickly skip over numbers like XBN911", and might be able to narrow down the potential numbers to just 2 or 3 cars which have a plate in the format of "---" followed by two large roundish digits.  

Most importantly, hit and run or not, it provides context and gives visibility into the driving behavior.  More often than not knowing who the culprit is, the problem will be "creative interpretation" of the events, whether with malicious intent or not.  Having front video available as well will add even more context even if the event happened behind you.  

My point is just that license plate numbers may not be visible in all cases, but license plate number readabaility doesn't necessarily make or break the video.  It'll be useful in any case when there is an incident.  

More excitingly, I expect that technology will get better from here on out.  Maybe in 5 years there will be an 8k camera with better stabilization, better battery life, more capacity, and more intelligence.  

In fact, the Garmin already has more intelligence (and robust waterproofing) today, but in exchange for that you need to pay a hefty price and do without stabilization.  

Now you can check out Part 2 of the review, should you feel so inclined.