Garmin Varia RTL515 - A quick review
There is one new gadget that I really like on my road bike.
I have a couple: a Ravemen flashing front light if the weather is darkish or foggy. A GoPro sometimes. Either on my handlebars or helmet, but the Garmin Varia beats them all. In fact, in my opinion, it would be nice to see it by default on all road bikes, it's so useful.
Why?
OK, I'm biased as I am totally deaf in my right ear and have about 70% hearing loss in my left. But even for someone who hears correctly, this gadget is a Godsend.
So, when I’m out cycling, which is quite often, I don't really hear much, especially vehicles approaching from behind.
Sometime last year, after a car decided to play 'let's see how close I can overtake you' I had not heard him approach and even though I was not riding in the middle of the road or not much anyway, I decided that my dinky blinking back light wasn't really enough on my bike and I decided to buy the Garmin Varia RTL515 radar
I'd heard and read about it before, but didn’t realise how good it actually was until I started actually using it.
For info, you pair it to your Garmin bike computer, like my Edge 530 and also with my Garmin Epix Pro watch, it's then ready to ride.
Although you can pair it to your watch, it's more useful on the bike's computer as you need to see what’s coming up behind you, the watch vibrates and does show like the computer, but this means looking at your wrist, which can be dangerous, also I don't always feel the vibrations, especially when riding a rough road surface.
So anyway, back to business. So you’re pedalling along and a vehicle approaches you from behind. You'll see it straight away on the Garmin computer (see middle photo), once again in my case on my Edge 530.
Here are the main images that will show you, the Varia, details on a Garmin computer screen and the fixing. I've cheated and pinched them all from the internet rather than trying to take photos while riding my Girs Solo road bike
The Varia RTL515 comes with several seat post fittings; my Girs Solo seat post is like the one in the photo.
Once paired, as soon as you switch on the computer and the Varia, you will see three white lines at the top right of the screen showing you that it's connected and working.
As soon as it detects a vehicle, almost miles away, you’ll see a white dot (or several, if there’s more than one vehicle). As they approach, the dots move upwards. As soon as the vehicle has passed the dot, or dots will disappear, and the two orange borders will change to green for a couple of seconds and will then also disappear. You can also set the computer beep as well as the visual warning. Me, even if it's on, I can't hear the beeps...
These warnings give me the time to get closer to the kerb if need be. When the Varia detects a vehicle, it can also be set to flash differently, so the vehicle is warned by seeing a different flash than before, and so it should see you better.
So a gadget that won't / can't change the driving of certain cretins sitting behind the wheel of their car, but will let you know something is coming and give you time to get closer to the kerbside, giving them no excuse to hug you as they pass by.
Although more than useful for me, being a deaf git. It is useful for all, even those who hear correctly.
Choosing between the four light modes using the on/off switch is a pain, as I can't really tell which one has been chosen. It's far easier to set the light option, via the computer, see here
I haven’t found any major bugs or issues with the Varia. It doesn't like really cold rides (who does). In freezing conditions, it can and has shown a message saying it's too cold and not working correctly. The battery lasts quite a while. Like my Edge computer, I just recharge it when I get home, so I never worry about battery life (sources say between 6 and 16 hours, depending on the lighting mode chosen )
Final thoughts: A great and extremely useful gadget, more like a life saver, maybe.
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