Gamin Varia Review

[MikeD]

I don't have a Varia, but use a Take-A-Look mirror. I use a wedge pack and don't have much exposed seatpost, so don't know where I could even mount a Varia, and would need to be able to easily switch between bikes too, since I ride several.

However, many of the roads I ride have bike lanes or wide shoulders. One road is heavily traveled by motorists and has a rumble strip separating the marked, wide shoulder and the traffic lane. Wouldn't the Varia be constantly beeping and why should I be that concerned about following traffic when I have a bike lane? Seems the mirror is just as good here and I only need to glance at it when exiting the bike lane. Seems the Varia is of best use on roads with no bike lanes/marked shoulders.

I agree with those that say having both a Varia and a mirror is best, but I would not give up the mirror for a Varia.

[shadco]

Originally Posted by david

Varia RTL515. Doesn't have the camera. I'd like that feature, which comes with the RCT715, but the reviews aren't great. Very difficult to access video files.

Thanks for that, I’ve been curious so I picked one up.

I like it it’s intuitive, I spent time on a long path yesterday the ran parallel to a 45 mph country road. The way it presents info makes sense.
.

[caneye]

My RCT715 is close to 2 years old now.
It replaced my Cycliq Fly6CE. I believe it was the 5th Cycliq unit I had used over the years (v2 > v3 > CE > CE v2) . Was a big fan of Cycliq but its longevity became questionable.

Generally, the RCT715's camera vision is not as good as Cycliq's. Maybe the it's the quality of optics, lack of image stabiliser, whatever. DEfinitely not the best.
But it still does the job. (think of the original Fly6 v1 or v2 version before the sleek CE case).

Some benefits .. camera has a few recording modes
- switched off
- record continuously
- record only when triggered by radar (this is my default setting to save battery) and stop recording after the event

When the battery goes low, I believe the camera stops recording first .. then the light switches off .. before the radar itself is switched off.

What surprised me was the camera does not automatically turn on the next time you use the Varia. It is still in the energy saver mode (ie off). Maybe it was an earlier firmware version. But when I decided to check the recording, I found out that the last recorded footage was a few months prior!!

I like the fact that I can toggle the Varia light modes between off > peloton > day flash > night flash from my Garmin 530 without touching the Varia at all. Useful when riding solo to a group ride.

I can also use the Varia app on my iphone if I decide not to ride with a bike comp, or when using my cheap Coospo bike comp.

[benb]

Took the plunge and ordered the Varia radar tail light (not camera) and the UT800 headlight.

Only $75 out of pocket as I had gotten some REI gift cards and got the tail light there and then used credit card points to get the headlight totally free on Amazon.

Just in time for early sunsets.

[deluz]

I just got the RVR315 (without the light) for $110.
I already have a bunch of tail lights and did not want to spend $180.
Its been a learning curve. I do not like the beep sound from my Edge 130 Plus so I turned it off and installed the Varia app on my Iphone so I can adjust the volume and it is in my jersey pocket. My wife hears it too when we are riding together.

[KonaSS]

Originally Posted by deluz

I just got the RVR315 (without the light) for $110.
I already have a bunch of tail lights and did not want to spend $180.
Its been a learning curve. I do not like the beep sound from my Edge 130 Plus so I turned it off and installed the Varia app on my Iphone so I can adjust the volume and it is in my jersey pocket. My wife hears it too when we are riding together.

If your wife has a Garmin or similar computer, she can connect to your Varia as well and get the visual notification too.

[robertbb]

For those who question the usefulness of the Varia in circumstances where you have a bike line and it is separated from the road, the Trek/Bontrager radar coverage zone seems to be tuned better. Some reviewers say this is a "bug", but many commenters have said it results in a far less chirpy ride. As a bonus, it works with Trek's saddle mount system and can coexist with a saddle bag very nicely.

[benb]

I just got mine out for it's first ride (RTL515).

In general I'm incredibly impressed. I would question the point of getting the radar without the light integrated, because as far as I can tell about 99% of the value seems to be the mind blowing way driver behavior changes with the way it flashes at them.

I have never, ever had a ride where people gave me so much room and seemed to be so polite passing me. The law is 4ft here, nobody seemed to pass me closer than 6-8ft with the light and almost all of them even slowed down instead of blowing past. My usual experience is most people pass about 3ft and there will be a few a-holes every ride that pass closer than that.

Now maybe I should be concerned because I just went and red the manual cause I knew it was supposed to differentiate "high speed threats" versus drivers moving more slowly and I didn't understand how it was working. Well the gist of it is I just went and rode 20 miles and every single driver was going fast enough to be a "high speed threat". Yay for Masshole driving. I have driven all these roads in my car and AFAICT it likely means basically every driver who passed me was coming up 10-15mph over the speed limit.

I put it on my Trek Domane for now, it goes on there perfect with no additional hardware and doesn't interfere with the saddle bag. My other two bikes it's going to be way more challenging. My All City doesn't have much seatpost showing, I'm either going to need to get rid of the saddle bag or see if you can mount the Varia on the seat stay, but I suspect that reduces it's effectiveness. On my mountain bike I already don't run a saddle bag due to the dropper post, but I will have to make sure the mount for the light can't hit anything when the post is dropped. I suspect even if I found a mount that attached it to the seat rails it might be able to hit the rear tire. It would have value even on the MTB though as I ride to the trails by taking the road at least 50% of the time.

The amount of warning it gives is great for being able to relax on the quiet winding roads and know you can take the lane cause no one is around, it really makes the ride seem lower stress.

I got the UT800 too, I turned it on in the yard last night.. very nice beam. But I have to figure out how to mount it. On my road bike right now I have an Easton stem with an integrated mount for the computer and so I will have to ditch that if I want to use the cool double sided mount that lets you put the light right below the computer. Too bad cause I really like the Easton mount.

[Likes2ridefar]

Many mount options. I’ve never used the provided stock oem mounts.

I prefer mounting to the rails of the saddle but they have them for anywhere.

[cgolvin]

Originally Posted by benb

Now maybe I should be concerned because I just went and red the manual cause I knew it was supposed to differentiate "high speed threats" versus drivers moving more slowly and I didn't understand how it was working. Well the gist of it is I just went and rode 20 miles and every single driver was going fast enough to be a "high speed threat". Yay for Masshole driving. I have driven all these roads in my car and AFAICT it likely means basically every driver who passed me was coming up 10-15mph over the speed limit.

As I understand it, and from my experience, the "high speed threat" occurs when the first vehicle approaching you is doing so above a certain speed. If you have a line of traffic moving at a steady (incl. high) speed I'm not sure that the successive vehicles will trigger the high speed alert. At least, that's my impression from several years of use.

[benb]

There’s also the possibility my sunglasses make it hard to differentiate amber from red on the display I guess.

I didn’t really hear much difference in the chirping alerts though.

[djg21]

Originally Posted by benb

I just got mine out for it's first ride (RTL515).

In general I'm incredibly impressed. I would question the point of getting the radar without the light integrated, because as far as I can tell about 99% of the value seems to be the mind blowing way driver behavior changes with the way it flashes at them.

I have never, ever had a ride where people gave me so much room and seemed to be so polite passing me. The law is 4ft here, nobody seemed to pass me closer than 6-8ft with the light and almost all of them even slowed down instead of blowing past. My usual experience is most people pass about 3ft and there will be a few a-holes every ride that pass closer than that.

Now maybe I should be concerned because I just went and red the manual cause I knew it was supposed to differentiate "high speed threats" versus drivers moving more slowly and I didn't understand how it was working. Well the gist of it is I just went and rode 20 miles and every single driver was going fast enough to be a "high speed threat". Yay for Masshole driving. I have driven all these roads in my car and AFAICT it likely means basically every driver who passed me was coming up 10-15mph over the speed limit.

I put it on my Trek Domane for now, it goes on there perfect with no additional hardware and doesn't interfere with the saddle bag. My other two bikes it's going to be way more challenging. My All City doesn't have much seatpost showing, I'm either going to need to get rid of the saddle bag or see if you can mount the Varia on the seat stay, but I suspect that reduces it's effectiveness. On my mountain bike I already don't run a saddle bag due to the dropper post, but I will have to make sure the mount for the light can't hit anything when the post is dropped. I suspect even if I found a mount that attached it to the seat rails it might be able to hit the rear tire. It would have value even on the MTB though as I ride to the trails by taking the road at least 50% of the time.

The amount of warning it gives is great for being able to relax on the quiet winding roads and know you can take the lane cause no one is around, it really makes the ride seem lower stress.

I got the UT800 too, I turned it on in the yard last night.. very nice beam. But I have to figure out how to mount it. On my road bike right now I have an Easton stem with an integrated mount for the computer and so I will have to ditch that if I want to use the cool double sided mount that lets you put the light right below the computer. Too bad cause I really like the Easton mount.

The slickest mount I’ve found is the Garmin out-front mount that comes OEM with the Garmin Edge 1040/1050. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/521668.

The UT800 mounts neatly underneath with a twist of the retainer ring on the top of the UT 800. I’ve tried a barfly and a K-edge, both of which need to use GoPro mount adapters with a Garmin adapter. The Garmin is simpler and has the mount for the Varia built in flush on the underside.

[cgolvin]

Originally Posted by benb

I didn’t really hear much difference in the chirping alerts though.

I don't know the tones on a Garmin but on my Wahoo the two "car approaching" ones are pretty distinct, plus I think the LED flash pattern is as well. It's interesting how much I've internalized them, I find it hard to remember the differences as I'm writing this but I for certain know the difference when I'm riding.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by cgolvin

I don't know the tones on a Garmin but on my Wahoo the two "car approaching" ones are pretty distinct, plus I think the LED flash pattern is as well. It's interesting how much I've internalized them, I find it hard to remember the differences as I'm writing this but I for certain know the difference when I'm riding.

agreed, a pronounced difference on the Wahoo for sure..

[Wakatel_Luum]

From some recent rides I've noticed...

I've been riding in a busy coastal city/suburban area and do not miss the Varia when riding there as it's a pain with lot's of traffic.

Also with the Varia I noticed if a car trails me at a certain angle/position waiting to pass, the Varia cannot pick up the car until it starts to move past me. Basically it disappears and the Varia goes green.

Otherwise I use it in less busy roads.