[Closed] Garmin Varia Lights - worth it?

The radar rear light thing is surprisingly good, I now feel a bit "off" if I'm riding without it.

I've just got some Lezyne Zecto Drive 250 lumen for daytime. Each has a very bright daytime mode. The rear is more expensive as it has a bigger battery (called the Max). These are for my road bike.

I like my varia a lot but I think it'd be a pain in the arse if I rode on busy roads

Yeah, for quiet roads it's bang on but less useful on busy roads.

I have one and I’d recommend it. After having one and then riding with out it I realised how much I like it. When you are riding fast or it’s windy it’s nice for a visual heads up if you can’t hear a car coming.

+ 1. Far more useful device than I thought it would be.

I didn’t find mine added anything. The only purpose it seemed to serve was to encourage me not to bother looking backwards so often, and it wasn’t 100% accurate so it wasn’t something I could rely on anyway. I sold it and didn’t miss it at all.

I love the back light - I'm not sure why you say it wasn't 100% accurate @Bez, mine certainly is. The only thing that can be confusing at first is when a car matches your speed for more than a few seconds - it disappears from the radar. Of course, if it's matching your speed it's not much of a threat.

In town the radar itself isn't much use, but it's not a disturbance either as it stops beeping in constant traffic. Out on the open road though it's great, and provides a nice warning when wind noise covers up the sound of cars approaching from behind. I also find it particularly useful coming up to junctions when there's not much traffic around - when you're still 100m away you know if you can just pay attention to traffic coming up on your right (or left where I live), or if you need to worry about a car trying to overtake you into the junction at the same time.

There's also a front light which my mate has. Can't the see the point of that at all, the only thing it seems to offer is a battery display on the Edge unit that's sitting right next to it. Pointless IMO.

I’m not sure why you say it wasn’t 100% accurate

Because it wasn’t. Sometimes it would alert me to things that weren’t there; very occasionally it wouldn’t register something that was. If there was more than one vehicle behind and they were in close succession then quite often it wouldn’t identify them all (which I’d been led to believe it was quite good at, and was one of the main reasons it interested me).

Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty accurate. Just not totally accurate—which, combined with the fact that it was very simplistic in how it made use of the data available to it, just meant that it didn’t give me anything that I wasn’t already getting without it. YMMV.

Sometimes it would alert me to things that weren’t there

First one I got was awful for this - ended up returning to Garmin along with a video showing it picking up multiple ghost cars within a couple of minutes.
Replacement has been faultless, I believe (occasionally I don't hear the beep - which should be a bit louder IMO - but when that car passes and I look down I can see that it has registered on the screen)

The volume would be my main/only gripe, I think

I know it's not techy or aero but I just use one of these instead

I use one of those as well - it doesn't increase its flash rate to warn drivers when it thinks cars are coming straight towards me though

Well I've ordered one and will see how I get on with it. More good things said about it than bad and I'll be out on the minor roads of the Peaks than I will city riding.

@dannybgoode how did you get on with it? I see the RTL515 is down to £140 @ wiggle at the moment. (the 315 which is radar only, no light, was briefly down to £99 according to HUKD, I would've had a punt at that price but it's gone back up now)

I just thought I'd add a post having had a few rides with my new Varia. I think it's a great bit of kit. I ride on quiet country roads, B roads and the odd fast A road. I obviously cant speak for a urban riding.
It's brilliant for increasing awareness of whats coming up behind you, with audible tones that change depending on the speed of the vehicle approaching. It's especially valuable when the wind is blowing in your face carrying the noise of an approaching vehicle away from you. I have mine paired with a Wahoo Elmnt Bolt which gives a visual display of oncoming traffic as well. I don't think I'll ever ride on the road without it again.

I don’t think I’ll ever ride on the road without it again.

I was quite pleased I didn’t feel anything like this, because it would have meant always having to make sure two devices were charged before any ride, and facing anxiety on any ride where the radar ran out of juice. That’s a bunch of faff I don’t need 🙂

Like the OP I'm curious as to what really changes when riding with a rearward radar warning...

They are alot of money to splash on a single rear light, when you could buy a larger quantity of red flashy things for much less and arguably achieve similar/better visibility.

Do users find having that warning enables them to take different actions to avoid potential collisions?
Or does it become a bit of a crutch and you stop actively listening for approaching cars/cut back on situational awareness as a result?

This is what is confusing me too. I can’t understand what is to be gained from knowing that a car is approaching from behind. I’m their problem, they’re not mine. If I’m going to make a manoeuvre I’ll look behind (whether I had a radar or not).

It would be useful to know if the approaching vehicle is going to try a dangerous pass, but I can’t see how these tell you that. Just another in a long list of things I don’t understand I guess.

Do users find having that warning enables them to take different actions to avoid potential collisions?
Or does it become a bit of a crutch and you stop actively listening for approaching cars/cut back on situational awareness as a result?

Actively listening is fine if there's no wind and you're going slowly, otherwise forget it. And the radar will pick cars up from over 100m away which is often out of earshot regardless. Basically it's gives you a bit of advance warning which is handy when you're coming up to a junction, or perhaps you're riding further into the road but it's narrow enough that it would be polite to move over a bit to make it easier to overtake. Is it necessary? No, clearly not. But it's nice to have.

I was quite pleased I didn’t feel anything like this, because it would have meant always having to make sure two devices were charged before any ride

Not exactly a huge chore!

The 'secret sauce' to the Varia is not that it just tells you what's behind (pretty accurately in the vast majority of normal road riding situations, in my experience), but that it also amends it's flashing behaviour depending on the approaching vehicle ie If a car is approaching 'fast' then it changes from solid or slow flash to a very bright, very fast flash to attract the drivers attention.

Might be a placebo but I find that I get less close passing with the varia on, and the extra awareness (especially on windy days) really helps manage passes ie on tight lanes.

They seem to inspire a bit of debate but until you've ridden with them it's hard to know how useful or not you will find them.

They seem to inspire a bit of debate but until you’ve ridden with them it’s hard to know how useful or not you will find them.

amends it’s flashing behaviour depending on the approaching vehicle

Just waiting for mine to arrive today
Might get a bar end mirror too
Don’t think it’s going to revolutionise my existence but I’m up for trying anything that may push the odds of not getting hit from behind in my favour

Does the Varia need to be paired to a Garmin bike computer? And if so, any Garmin computer?

I'm stills withering over whether to switch to Wahoo or not.

Works on a Wahoo, mine's linked to a Roam.

I'd had one previously linked to an Edge 1030 but sold it when I went to Wahoo. As soon as Wahoo sorted compatibility out I bought another.

Cheers Ivan, that's what I wanted to hear.

Another +1 here - I've got an RTL510 on the hybrid of doom and it's great. As I've said elsewhere recently DC Rainmaker managed to give himself a scare with one when riding alongside a high speed rail line.

Wouldn't bother with the Varia front light though - just seems a bit pointless to have a light that you can turn on and off with your bike computer.

I've had one for a couple of years now and must admit that it's probably one of the best bike related purchases I've made, I now use mine with a Wahoo Roam, previously had a Garmin 520, works perfectly on both. I'm mainly riding small country lanes and it's perfect for those, I can see how if you were always on busier roads, then it may get annoying, but I turned off the beeps and just use the visual indication on the Roam - it turns from green to orange (or red depending on approach speed) so it's easy to see when something is coming up from behind, and usually picks it up before I can hear it (good for when you're about to be overtaken by another cyclist as well...).

The other thing I don't think has been mentioned is that you get an indication of multiple vehicles behind. I used to find that I'd often get passed by a car and maybe not realise there was a second one close behind about to overtake. With the Varia radar, you can see when there is something else there as after the first overtake.

I’m mainly riding small country lanes and it’s perfect for those, I can see how if you were always on busier roads, then it may get annoying, but I turned off the beeps and just use the visual indication on the Roam

On my Edge 530 it stops beeping once it's detected more than one car, so when there's a bit of traffic it's not an irritance.

One negative not mentioned above is that it does consume more battery on the head unit - I had an Edge 130 which was perfectly compatible, but with the Varia+power meter+HR it would die after about 4-5 hours. Perhaps not a normal situation but something to be aware of. Once I upgraded to a 530 it's no longer a problem for the length of rides I usually do.

With the Varia radar, you can see when there is something else there as after the first overtake.

Again, this was probably the main selling point for me, but there were enough occasions when it failed to do this that it didn’t seem to earn its keep. Plus my perception was that those occasions correlated heavily with the occasions when the second driver behind is up the arse of the first; in other words the people the Varia doesn’t see are precisely the people most likely to also fail to see you.

But certainly if you’re curious it’s worth a punt. I think I only lost about £20 by buying a new one, using it for a couple of months or so and then selling it. Better than listening to a load of opinion on a forum 🙂