Customer Ratings & Reviews

The rearview radar works as promised - I noticed cars giving me a wider berth on the road and I felt more aware/alert as well. So, five stars for function, but I have 2 complaints about design and use: -there's a tremendous lack of guidance/instruction. It seems everybody wants to be Apple and ship their product with just a single page instruction paper that makes you feel as if the design is perfect and easily intuitive. Much more is needed here beyond the thin "here's your on/off switch" basic instructions. Set-up and integration with Garmin apps IS NOT intuitive (but you can figure it out - its not impossible) and initial useage was hit or miss until I figured everything out. My problems were magnified because I was trying to connect the Varia to my Garmin watch (Vivoactive HR). There's almost zero support for pairing a Garmin radar with a Garmin watch, even though this is promoted in the marketing material -after plunking down serious coin for the radar, I was shocked to find that the recommended way to mount this on my bike was using a rubber band! There's a mounting bracket included, but it's for really thin seat posts - mine was too big, so I used the rubber band mount. I'm very worried that my significant financial investment is going to snap-off mid-ride. (Though there's been no indication of this after 250 miles of pedaling.) Garmin, please invest a bit more in a seat mount for fatter seat posts! So, 5 stars for function, 2 stars for support. This product can save a life, though, so the set-up challenge is ultimately worth it.

This product works exactly as advertised. If you check out the Garmin website they have an excellent video that demonstrates exactly how it works. I use it with my Garmin 1000 and they work together extremely well. While no substitute for clearing yourself visually it does provide a reliable method for knowing when a car or multiple cars are approaching from behind. It also provides a bright flashing rear light to alert drivers and snap them out of the zombie mode that could get you killed. My only complaint is the audible beep alert on the Garmin GPS is not loud enough, this requires the cyclist to regularly scan their GPS. Bottom line this device provides me a great alert to maintain my line when cars are approaching and an alert to remind drivers I'm there. I am a safer cyclist when riding with Varia.

Great product for keeping you safe during a ride. No more looking back over your shoulder. The Varia syncs easily with your Garmin Edge device and does a great job of identifying traffic coming behind you, even if you are in the middle of a pack of cyclists. The beeps on the Garmin when a vehicle is approaching means you do not need to continue looking at the device either. The edges of the Garmin turn green when all vehicles have passed. On this last ride though, I did notice that although the Varia was still working (lights became brighter as vehicles were approaching), it lost the connection to the Garmin. I could have shut off the Garmin and restarted, but since I was in the middle of a ride, I think that would have interrupted the ride tracking on the Garmin. That's the only issue I have had with the device so far. That, and be careful when you are pulling the little rubber device by the USB input on the Vimeo. It is easy to pull too hard and rip the cover off the device.

Purchased on the recommendation of a friend. It identifies cars coming from behind. I drive on several rides on 2 lane roads with virtually no shoulders. This identifies the car to me and more importantly flashes high intensity red lights toward the autos. I have a lot more comfort in riding on these roads now. I highly recommend

First, this device will not stop you from being hit by vehicles. It merely gives you a better sense of situational awareness when you're on the roads. Having said that, I love this radar. It works amazingly good. It relies on the car(s) behind you moving faster than you on the bike so if you're biking faster than the car, then the radar will not pick up the vehicle. It picks up motorcycles and cars from 3 lanes over. The Varia radar connects to my Garmin Edge 520 with no problems. Notification of cars behind you are via an audible beep and a visual dot that moves up on the 520 computer. On a 35 mile an hour limit road, you have about 8 seconds from the time you get the beep to when a car moves past you. Those 8 seconds are much longer than relying on listening for the car coming up you. And that's if you can even hear a car. Have you heard a Tesla pass you? Those 8 seconds gives you plenty of time to move over to the side of the road. My best tip for users, do not install the Varia radar below a saddle bag as the bag obstructs the system. I use a saddle bag but have it mounted on the back of the saddle bag using the Garmin quarter mount and rubber band hooked up thru the light loop on my saddle.