There are two pieces of safety equipment that I have with me at all times when I ride. One is obvious: a helmet. The second isn’t nearly as obvious, but I’ve come to think of it as just as important as my helmet: my Garmin Varia radar.
What is the Varia? Glad you asked: it’s a radar unit/tail light that detects approaching traffic behind you and provides both audible and visual warnings on your head unit (i.e., your bike computer). I got my Varia about two years ago, when my wife bought it for me for my birthday (and, as always, I have to insert here that I do not deserve her.)
Here’s what the $200 Varia looks like on the back of my bike. Specifically, it’s the Varia RTL515:
At first, I wondered how useful it would be. But by the end of my first ride with the Varia, it had already become an indispensable part my cycling gear—that’s how eye-opening the experience was.
It changed everything for me. Cycling has its risks, and none bigger than cars. There’s a constant fear of being hit by a 5,000-pound hunk of metal and glass that can disrupt or end your life just like that. Sometimes the fear is low-level, if you’re out on a country backroad in bright sunlight, or high-level, if you’re in Brooklyn and dodging delivery vans. But that fear is always there to some degree or another.
To deal with it, some cyclists still rely on head checks only. This is the worst option. I used to use a mirror attached to my handlebar to look behind me, and plenty of cyclists still do. But that also has its drawbacks, as I’d be regularly flicking my eyes downward to check on the road behind me. Some riders have little mirrors attached to their helmets, which is more convenient, but still falls far short of what the Varia offers.
Now there’s no more wondering if a car is “on my six.” Getting an alert and visual indicator of how far away a car(s) is, without having to turn my head around and take my eyes off the road, makes me feel much safer. Here’s a common scenario every road rider’s experienced: you’re on a paved road and there’s a pothole on the side, or broken glass or metal on the shoulder. You want to swerve around it, but that could put you in the path of a car zooming up from behind. So you do a quick head check, then jerk your head back around to avoid the hazard. You may have to do this several times, calculating how fast the car’s coming and how soon you need to swerve—or even if you can.
Now that I’m Varia-equipped, that scenario is no longer anxiety-inducing. I know, without taking my eyes off the road, if there’s a car to be worried about, which helps me plan my next actions more quickly and confidently. I’m not whipping my head back and forth, wondering where the car is, how many there are, and how quickly they’re overtaking me. I just glance at my computer and get all the information I need.
As I mentioned before, I’ve had my Varia more than two years now. And in that whole time, I haven’t had one “false negative.” False negatives are when the device fails to warn you that a car’s behind you. It simply hasn’t happened to me. That’s huge.
There are “false positives,” when you get an alert about a car, and it turns out that there’s no car. Usually, this happens when I’m on a group ride and another cyclist comes up fast. The Varia uses speed differentials to determine if there’s a car, as it assumes something going fast enough to blast past you must be motorized.
I also get some strange false positives around corners sometimes. I don’t know why this happens, and it’s not a regular occurrence, but it does happen. Still, false positives are minor annoyances, whereas false negatives would be instant deal- (and body-) breakers.
I’ve come to utterly rely on my Varia. It hugely improves my situational awareness, making me safer on the road. Much safer.
The Varia, being a tail light as well, also alerts those approaching drivers to your presence. Garmin says it can be seen up to a mile away. A tail light should be required for every cyclist. The Varia’s light is very bright, and in flash mode (which is what I always use), is quite visible to drivers. And visibility at all times is crucial to your safety.
In short, I won’t ride without my Varia anymore. What more do you need to know than that? (Disclosure: I’m not paid by Garmin or anyone else for my reviews.)
Do you use a Garmin Varia or other radar? Or do you rely on mirrors and head checks? Let me know how you look out for cars in the comments below.
Garmin Varia Radar: A Review
Oh wow! Now i know more about the cyclists who ride along our highway!
Yes, we have Varia radars on both of our RadCity ebikes in July 2019 (then the 2016 model) and they've work great and use their bluetooth to our Garmin Edge 1030 navigation units with 3.5 inch monitors. Recent Edge software updates have improved easy interconnectivity - no more fiddling with the bootup order. Our model picks up vehicles back to 150 yards with a 40 degree microwave beam width and even picks up my wife's bike if she approaches quickly from 50 feet. The internal battery is still going strong, lasting about twice its quoted 4+ hours between charges. I also like the feature that the Varia LED blinks faster as vehicles approach - letting them know your bike "sees" them coming. I also love to communicate with oncoming traffic from behind and wave and signal them ahead with my left hand, letting them know I see them and it's okay to pass me.
All that said, when riding with your regular (spouse, family, friend), an even more important safety feature is to wear a Sena helmet with a two-way intercom. This allows us to talk in real-time, including discussing upcoming obstacles (road conditions, animals, traffic) and typical requests (speed up/down, turn, pull over/stop, etc.) Of course we enjoy being able to carry on conversations without having to ride adjacent to one another - potentially rude and dangerous when I see other walkers or bikers think their need to communicate side-by-side is paramount. Once again, being courteous goes a long way to encouraging everyone to get along safely and help improve the image of friendly bike riders.
Cheers, Michael and Grace
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