GarminVaria Radar 2 RTL510 Rear Light(Return to Product Page)

I trickled my old Varia tail light to my wife and got this one for Christmas. The light is brighter. It's also longer than the older rectangular Varia so I had to move my mount up a bit to avoid hitting the seat stays. I got hit by a car and almost killed 6 years ago and even though this won't fully prevent that, it definitely affects driver behavior.

It is great getting early notification that cars and trucks are coming up behind you. The light is nice and bright. The only drawback is that the placement of the unit is limited. I would have liked to place the unit on my helmet to make sure that the light is seen.

I used to worry about not seeing or hearing a car approaching from the rear. Not anymore, the visual & audible cutes work excellent for detecting approaching traffic. Love it & im glad i purchased it.

Gives me piece of mind when heading out solo on the bike. This piece of tech is literally like having eyes in the back of your head. Getting an audible and visual alert with every passing car is something you cant put a price tag on when you love to ride your bike.

Works great. As long as you have a head unit it's like having a set of eyes in the back of your head.

Picked this up on sale to couple with my Garmin 830. Didnt realize how valuable it was until I began using it. Excellent for country roads and I even use it in the city. Gives me a third eye so-to-speak. Couldnt recommend this product highly enough.

Great for tracking traffic from behind, especially useful on narrow roads with heavy traffic. I highly recommend this item.

Can't ride without it! Paired with edge 530, the smart functions are great. Switches modes based on sunlight and turns off with the computer. Radar has not left me down yet. False positives happen sometimes, but better than it not working sometimes. Pricey, but I feel waaaay safer

I was always skeptical on if this was worth the price of admission until I tried it. Its like having an extra set of eyes on the road, and knowing when something is approaching quickly from the rear is an indispensable tool on the ride.

It is very useful and essential bike gear for road rider.

Its catch the objects faster than you very well.

The light by it self is pretty bright and visualble from far distance.

Bettery life is pretty decent. Once it fully chargerd, I rided about 200 miles in daytime and it still working. (blinking mode)

It is well made product and once you have it, you won't like to ride with out it.

The unit works pretty good. Id buy another if needed, but it could be better. My Garmin 820 looses the signal sometimes and it thinks other bicyclist are cars, but it almost always detects cars. I find it helpful alerting of passing cars. The tail light is bright, and it changes intensity when cars are approaching

First, I want to say Bike Tires Direct is great! I bought this for myself for Christmas present and it was lost in shipping. Bike Tires Direct immediately sent me a replacement second day mail. Great company! Now to the Radar. I have been eyeing this for some time. I was going to buy it last year but didn't have a head unit that would work with it. I had a Garmin 200 and for last Christmas got myself a Garmin 520. This year to my happiness they upgraded the Varia to the RTL520 and the light is so much better than the older model. I have ridden with people that have the older radar and liked it but the light was weak but not this one. It is bright even during the day. In my opinion it is on par with the Cygolight Hot Shot that as for brightness. It is supper easy to install. I ride with a minimal bike seat pack from Leyzyne and this mounts on the seat post under the pack without any problems. Some people have reservations with the Garmin setup but I find it similar to the handle bar mount for the Garmin computers which have held my computers for years without any problems. To test the longevity of the battery, I charged it before my first ride and have not charged it since. My first ride was 2 hours, then 1.5 hour, 3 hour, 3 hour, 0.5 hour, 1 hour, 1 hour and finally 1 hour ride that it died at the end of. Adding all these ride times together, it lasted for 13 hours. Again this is strictly using the flashing mode. I am very happy with the run time and usually not out for more than 13 hours. How well does it the radar work? Again, I am extremely happy with that too. I ride mostly in the country side and did a little riding in the city. In the city you can look down and see how many cars are behind you. It has been accurate every time I have checked. You will get false positives if there is a parallel road running next to you. Usually there isn't but there was one where I was riding and the unit would register some of those cars at times. This is a minor issue in my opinion. When riding in a group, if you are in the front of people in a peloton, it will have a harder time seeing a car come up behind you. I do not fault the unit. It is just physics of not seeing through solid objects. If you are not in a peloton and people are not riding right behind you, then it will see the cars just fine. Will it see other cyclists? The answer is yes and no. If you are going the same speed, no it will not. But if a cyclist is coming up on you, it will register that person. I really like this because there are times that I will be riding and someone will sneak up on me but this unit lets me know they are coming. I count this a plus. Yes, it will also see motorcycles. If a car matches your pace, then it will disappear from the scre

It's bright and when paired with a Garmin computer Perfection. I have upgraded to the RTL510 from the Garmin Varia Rearview Radar Tail Light. It's much brighter during the day and the battery lasts longer. 15 hours in blinking mode. If you have ever missed seeing a car or motorcycle this is a perfect extra set of eyes. It always detects vehicles.

MUST HAVE FOR ROAD CYCLING.

A marked advance for safety. Highly recommended.

Got this with the goal of keeping better track of cars during rides, particularly when riding double. Read generally good reviews about its function. Was easy to install, seems adequately secure, using it with a Garmin Edge 820. Works as advertised - registers vehicles (and sometimes cyclists) approaching from the rear with a beep and a dot on a bar on the right side of the GPS. Shows progress of cars toward me to give an idea of how quickly to adjust riding location, if necessary. Light works adequately - not as bright as the previous light I used, but seems adequate. Used up battery quicker on the 820 - got down to 20% on a 4.5 hour ride. If radar is turned on before the GPS, the radar did not register as present. I'll keep using it, except for longer rides (because of the battery use) - helpful to know when to get to single-file during a group ride.

Battery life is much longer. Works great.

The new version improves upon what the first was lacking, brighter light and better battery. Having both I noticed it does one thing worse, it generates a lot more false positives when people or bikes are behind me. The original version almost never did that. Still a gepteat product, hope they can fix this with a software update.

Riding rural Iowa roads on my tri bike, the radar works flawlessly-I run through my Garmin 935

I usually ride alone so this is like have another set of eyes watching my back. Ive paired it with my edge 1030 and can easily see cars coming up on me.

Great piece of mind when riding on the road. Love the integration with the Garmin Edge. Definitely recommended if you commute by bicycle.