GarminVaria RTL515 Radar With Tail Light(Return to Product Page)

This is a great product to help you more aware of your surroundings as you cycle. Ultimately, it provides you and those with you a safer riding environment.

Great gaget

Dont drop on a hard surface. It may nor power back on.

Very glad that I bought the Garmin Radar tail light. It's great knowing when a car comes up behind me.

Excellent

This is one of my favorite pieces of cycling gear and its one that all cyclists should own. Easy to set up and operate, I don't ride on the road without it.

The added safety on the road is worth the money. I'm in the front of the pack calling out "car back!"

I now have the rear visibility to improve the safety of our club.

This is a game changer - it is extremely helpful to know cars are approaching- absolutely do not want to ride without it now ! Get one ASAP

Incredibly simple to use, super bright light, and works flawlessly. Don't ride without one!

...it's very helpful especially making you aware of vehicles behind you when paired with the right garmin computer...alerts you and drivers behind you because of the red flash it emits

Audible and visual feedback well in advance of cars approaching from behind, reduces stress and need to crank your neck to look behind.

Total game changer. I know now when I need to look over my shoulder when a Tesla sneaks up on me. Love it!

Light is supper bright and is working great as advertised

Very happy with my new Varia Radar. Feel a lot safer on the road in addition to work extremely well out of the box. Would recommend again to any enthusiast.

obviously tells you when cars are approaching so you can move over, but especially helpful on the down hill so you can take curves wide when the coast is clear.

Was on the fence about shelling out for this - I considered myself a very aware cyclist. The RTL515 proved me wrong, big time. My senses cannot beat a radar system this accurate. Under most circumstances, we cannot hear a car coming up behind us if near one or more cars already. Both engine, bike, and road noise make it nearly impossible. With more electric cars on the road now - it's even more difficult to detect. This radar will pick up an approaching car/motorcycle/cyclist/etc just under 500 feet away. 2-3 seconds before you hear it, no matter how good your hearing is - the radar will alert you beforehand. Alerts can be setup on the head unit via tone and / or on-screen. Additionally, you can be alerted via the Varia phone app through vibration or tone in the jersey pocket. Which makes this a standalone product that doesn't require any bike computer. I use it with the 840 - it forms an ANT+ network with the UT800 front light - allowing for full control from the computer. Although this is not new tech by any means - Garmin's put a lot of work into it. There frankly is no price on the peace of mind these products provide.

After observing my friend using his Varia radar light, I had him hook my Garmin Edge to his light and got to experience first hand as long as I stayed close to him. My wife asked what I wanted for Christmas and the deal was done. Installed easily, but then had to learn a few things as the pictograph directions are sketchy. Luckily my buddy knows all about it. I especially enjoy that if one is not paying close attention it will chime and let you know another bike is coming up faster than you are.

After observing my friend using his Varia radar light, I had him hook my Garmin Edge to his light and got to experience first hand as long as I stayed close to him. My wife asked what I wanted for Christmas and the deal was done. Installed easily but then had to learn a few things as the pictograph directions are sketchy. Lucky my buddy knows all about it. I especially enjoy that if one is not paying close attention it will chime and let you know another bike is coming up faster than you are.

Two things, an easy way to be made aware of cars approaching behind you and a really bright tail light to help you be seen by those cars. I will not ride without this, best accessory I've ever purchased

For the past few years, I had considered purchasing the Garmin Varia' RTL515, but each time decided against it. My rationale was that I currently cycled with lights (day/night), and that the radar light combo on the Varia' RTL515 would simply be overkill. I was wrong. The first thing I noticed was that cars appeared to give me a wider birth when passing on open roads. At first, I thought it might be the placebo effect of my new tech purchase, but after several weeks of continued safe passes, I wonder if it might be something else -- the flashing pattern of the light, the possibility that driver's see the Varia' and assume it's a camera, etc? For the type of cycling that I do, the Varia' RTL515 is the ideal tool to help me keep safe. 75% of my riding is on open roads, many of which are rural. I cannot think of the time when the radar didn't detect a vehicle before I heard the vehicle. The Varia' RTL515 It tells me what's behind (displayed on my Edge 840) and adds the provided safety of a rear light. I highly recommend.

Have been using an RTL510 for 6-8 months, now won't ride without it. Useful in ways I hadn't imagined: (a) on fast descents when it's too dangerous to look back, it tells you if traffic is coming up behind you, (b) tells you if it's safe to move left to avoid bad pavement, (c) if you need to turn left, it helps you tell if a clot of traffic is approaching from behind, (d) while it doesn't display the lateral position of a vehicle passing you, you should expect a close pass if it shows that a pass is happening close to a blind corner or crest, or oncoming traffic. Also, I was unaware that its flash rate increases when traffic is approaching from behind until one day in my car I came up behind a RTL-equipped cyclist - quite a light show!

Limitations: (a) in high-traffic areas it will alert continuously (I avoid areas like that anyway), (b) if you are cycling along a secondary road paralleling an expressway, it may pick up traffic on the highway, (c) on curvy or rolling roads, terrain may block the radar beam long enough for a contact to be temporarily lost, reappearing as it gets closer. You should double-check with a head turn when it's important, because the RTL gives a low rate of false positives (not critical) and a lower rate of false negatives (critical!) in certain specific situations. The false positives seem to be triggered by motion-detecting lights or cameras (I routinely get false alerts when passing certain facilities). Occasionally it may temporarily show multiple dots when there is only a single vehicle, or "miss" a vehicle following closely behind another. False negatives happen when an upcoming vehicle slows to wait for a safe opportunity to pass me, so that it is going at my speed, no longer approaching me. If that situation persists long enough, that vehicle may vanish from my screen, making an abrupt left turn risky. Have gotten these false negs a number of times.

All in all, the RTL is a huge plus, greatly reducing the amount of shoulder-checking I have to do, so I wobble less and scan the road ahead more closely.