GarminVaria RTL515 Radar With Tail Light(Return to Product Page)

The market has been flooded with cheap versions of the Garmin Varia. No false readings. Don't cut corners on safety products. This literally is a life saver. Safety first! BTD also price matched on the Varia.

I use my Varia light every time I bike. Though it isn't the cheapest, it's a lot less than hospital fees. having a strong rear light that blinks rapidly when cars approach, and synchs with your Garmin computer (if you have one) to tell you when a car is coming, can be the difference between being noticed or not by a driver. Get one. Get your friend one.

I move it from my road bike to my TT bike to my tandem, along with my old Edge 510, with which It works perfectly. I love it.

I was reluctant to jump into one of these, convincing myself that I was sufficiently safe with the flashing rear light I had. But I kept reading accounts of how much safer folks felt with one of these, so decided to "upgrade" in the name of safety.

This also meant getting a suitable bike computer...and I added these to a new-to-me bike.

I'm flabbergasted by how much of a change this combination represents.

I LOVE the audio warning and the visual indication of when I have a vehicle coming up on me. I ride on rural roads in the southwest corner of VT and nearby roads in NY and MA. I've appreciated each warning and been super-happy with my purchase.

Maybe the newer generation is an upgrade, but at the price BTD was selling these and coming from where I was, I'm THRILLED with my purchase.

This is the go-to radar-rear light combination. Many fellow cyclists use and recommend this combo, and I finally made the decision to upgrade my Garmin RVR315 radar and separate rear light to the Garmin RTL515 radar-rear light combination.

The RTL515 coupled easily to my bike computer (Garmin 830 Edge) and with my RideWithGPS app. The radar-light combination has functioned as advertised since purchase. I charge the RTL515 after each ride. I was under the impression that the RTL515 would turn itself off after being disconnected from the Edge computer, and that I did not need to physically turn it off. Sounded great! However, after not turning the RTL515 off after an early ride, the RTL515 ran out of battery power and disconnected. I didn't try that again. The fully-charged RTL515 has not run out of battery power on any subsequent ride up to 3.5 hours.

I chose to wait until this device was significantly discounted to purchase, as I feel it's at the higher end of price for these devices.

First BTD is the 'Place' to shop for all your bike related items, especially specialty items like this rear radar tail light! It does its job so well you quit glancing at your mirror every 5 seconds to now only looking at your head unit when you receive a notification. The RTL515 is priced right, integrated perfectly and gives a peace of mind & safety when riding. If you don't have one and you have vehicles sneaking up on you you need one!

I bought the Garmin Varia from Bikes Direct for 25-30% off just prior to a cycling trip to Europe and it was worth every penny. What a wonderful product and it syncs to every other product I have. I used mirrors for years (and still do at this point), but I can say without hesitation that the Varia radar notified me with 100% accuracy of approaching vehicles. It was most handy when I needed to quickly pass a cyclist or pedestrian ahead of me. It was spot on providing me assurance about what was behind me when making a pass. This has become a road-riding must have for me.

This purchase was to take advantage of the Biketiresdirect sale and replace the Garmin Varia that i purchased 5 years ago. If you've never ridden with the Varia with a Garmin cycle computer it's a gamechanger when riding on the road. There is much less stress being able to hear a beep and seeing vehicle icons on your cyclecomputer when vehicles approach from the rear.

When riding in a group the distance Varia RTL515 picks up the car gives the group time to react whether your side by side or making a turn. I use it with my Gamin 830 which unfortunately has a vey low sound volume. I set the iPhone, in my Jersey pocket, volume up which is loud enough to hear.

When riding in a group the distance Varia RTL515 picks up the car gives the group time to react whether your side by side or making a turn. I use it with my Gamin 830 which unfortunately has a vey low sound volume. I set the iPhone, in my Jersey pocket, volume up which is loud enough to hear.

This radar works great and the multiple light modes are nice. It is a bit dated with it's micro-usb port. Newer models have fixed that.

I ride on a mix of a state highway, with an 8' shoulder, and quiet county chip seal roads. The Garmi Varia works very well, with no false positive or negative alerts thus far. I also ride with a rear mirror attached to my glasses at all times. This combination works well.

Although the rubber o-rings that attach the mounting bracket to the seat post work ok, I was not confident they would not eventually fail. So, I bought an aftermarket mounting bracket on Etsy [reasonable price) that uses a machine screw and nut to attach to the seat post.

As others have commented, the old style USB charger is not up to modern type c charging standards. However, it works fine and the sale price was very reasonable. This is a fair compensation for the outdated, but not obsolete, charging technology.

Finally picked up a radar taillight with the outgoing Varia RTL515 on discount and I have to say, I've appreciated the radar/light more than I thought I would. I haven't used it in the dark yet, so I cannot speak to the effectiveness of the tail light, but the radar function has made me wonder how I survived so long without one. I assume no bike radar is 100% perfect when it comes to picking up cars, but in several weeks of usage, this model has been probably 99% accurate. Get yourself one before they're all gone!

This is the second one I've owned. The first one was lost after I got hit by a car last December. But it wasn't from lack of information this unit provides. It was from a car turning in front of me at a 4 way stop that 'didn't see me', even though I had bright colored clothes on and was half way through the intersection.

As I'm about to be released to ride again I wanted to make sure I still had this piece of equipment to use.

I love the extra information showing up on my Edge head unit of vehicles approaching from the rear and the rate of speed in which they are traveling. I can even tell when another cyclist is approaching to overtake me by the rate in which it's moving along the distance dots.

I have no problem hearing the tone alert of new vehicles approaching nor the display on my edge unit, which can be positioned on either side.

I cannot personally attest to the distance that the light carries, nor the flash rate it presents as I haven't followed it or others that I am aware of.

Overall great additional bit of info to have available for rear approaching objects, vehicles, other bicyclists, or maybe even dogs!

It just works. It's like having eyes in the back of your head. Keep in mind it only alerts when objects are getting closer to you, so if a car or bike is behind you but going the same speed or slower, it will disappear from your display.

The radar is really useful for alerting me to cars approaching from behind. It pairs easily and quickly to my Garmin computer. The sale price is great putting it close to the price of knock offs. Since it allows me to move away from the road edge with confidence by letting me know when no cars are near I have been getting less flats than usual too.

This is the second one I've owned. The first one was lost after I got hit by a car last December. But it wasn't from lack of information this unit provides. It was from a car turning in front of me at a 4 way stop that 'didn't see me', even though I had bright colored clothes on and was half way through the intersection.

As I'm about to be released to ride again I wanted to make sure I still had this piece of equipment to use.

I love the extra information showing up on my Edge head unit of vehicles approaching from the rear and the rate of speed in which they are traveling. I can even tell when another cyclist is approaching to overtake me by the rate in which it's moving along the distance dots.

I have no problem hearing the tone alert of new vehicles approaching nor the display on my edge unit, which can be positioned on either side.

I cannot personally attest to the distance that the light carries, nor the flash rate it presents as I haven't followed it or others that I am aware of.

Overall great additional bit of info to have available for rear approaching objects, vehicles, other bicyclists, or maybe even dogs!

I got this when I saw a sale pop up. I needed a new blinky for my bikes and was toying with a cheapo radar model, but this was reasonable with the sale.

So as a light, it's great. Very bright, has different modes like they all do, etc. All of the boxes are ticked there.

The radar component is a gamechanger. You don't realize how much goes on behind you, and this thing lets you know how many cars are coming, which is a great feature. Knowing one is pretty good, but however it figures out that there are 3 or 4 coming, awesome data to have.

One thing you probably never thought of is using it in a time trial race. If you want to hug the yellow line and corner faster, you can drift over and take better lines because you know the road is clear (take a quick peak just to be sure).

The one hiccup I've found is if a car is going the same speed as you. The car seemingly turns off, but it didn't, it's just not registering with the radar. You'll either get no dot back, or it'll keep coming and going and drive you nuts. So, like previous paragraph, you still have to check, you can't just rely on the beeps and dots.

Battery life seems fine, never had an issue, I do wish it had a USB-C rather than the silly Micro-USB plug. I've also had it hit with spray from my back tire in many rain storms and it is still going strong.

Easy to pair with your head unit too. No issues.

If you have more than one bike, find some mounts so you can share it around, I tried going without it, and it just feels wrong.

I have ridden with a tail light for years, but this is a bit nicer. It's not what I would call a critical piece of equipment, but it's nice to know when a car is coming up - particularly when riding double file with a friend, or when doing intervals and there isn't much or any shoulder. I turned off the sound alert cause it's annoying. The visual on the side of my wahoo is sufficient. I like that I can see multiple cars approaching. The sale price as Garmin has brought in a new version made it more compelling. The old micro USB isn't great, but it's not a dealbreaker either. I'm not seeing any false positives or false negatives so far. If a car slows down to match your speed before passing, that's the only time where you might not see them registered.

These have been around for awhile so no new developments, but dang do they work great. As a cyclist for more than one decade, my ear radar detectors work damn good. This device works better. Often times in cycling, value gets a bit lost, but this honestly feels like a good value for money. Being able to see how many cars are behind me and how fast they are coming is confidence inspiring and helpful. I love that it actively flashes when it detects them as well. I hear them adjust behind me as soon as they see it. It's not expensive and it works flawlessly, hard to find a fault. Except one.......Garmin your micro usb port is woefully out of date and irritating. Just stop it. Give me USBC. 100% of micro usb devices in my house are Garmin. No excuses.