Garmin Varia RCT715 Rear Light, Camera and Radar review

The Garmin Varia RCT715 records footage of vehicles approaching behind. It’ll can give you a warning sound that a vehicle is coming.

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By stwhannah

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Garmin Varia RCT715 Rear Light, Camera and Radar review

I’m not sure many people outside of the Garmin ecosystem would be buying one of these, it’d be good to understand how well it works with an edge computer

@5lab Sorry, I don’t have such a computer, but I don’t know that many people shifting their kids around or commuting would bother with a computer, so I thought it still a relevant review.

It works with the Hammerhead Karooooooooo

It shows cars on the left side of the screen with colour coding red means you probably want to be taking some action as its approaching fast, yellow somethings coming and goes green and disappears when all the traffics gone.

TBH its for a specific ‘use case’.

I have roads with very little traffic but what traffic you meet may be going fast so, its on you pretty quick and this does indeed give early indication before I can hear them.

I ride alone and in the event of a hit and run I’d like a nice picture of the VRM, (assuming they don’t err scoop me up and bury me somewhere).

If it all goes Pete tong there’s a slim chance that people will see what happened, if i’m not in a state to tell the tale.

It’s actually one of those things that you’d poo poo until you’ve used it in the right environment, its good.

(Interestingly Riding with headphones in Spain is a €200 fine)

Seamless with Garmin Edge, but I think the sweet spot is the 515 rear light. The radar warning of rear traffic has been a revelation. I have a Fly 6, too, but leave that behind on road rides now (competition for seat post estate is tough). I also purchased the extra seat post mounts which are less bulky for the 515 than the 715 camera. I did however get a nice video from a club mate of my group riding from this device and it was good. You can take photos on the move from the Garmin too.

Paired with an Edge computer, the 515 has been a game changer for being able to relax a bit more on road rides. Nice and early warning of upcoming traffic from behind, and it even flashes them if they’re coming too fast at you.

Not massively interested in the extra bulk of the 715 but like you say, sometimes it would be nice to have captured some evidence of the knobs endangering our lives on the road.

515 is indeed great. Best used on country roads where cars are sporadic it helps in several circumstances:

When turning off a major road to a minor and having to move out into the lane it helps you time moving across your lane  whilst you are looking ahead to oncoming cars in the lane you are turning across.

When a car passes you on the road it normally obscures the noise of any subsequent cars behind it – the varia gives you warning there are say 3 cars behind you in a line so you don’t pull out after the first one passes thinking thats it. This is very useful on my commute as there are many narrow roads where I pull in slightly to let cars go by instead of holding them up for 3 km

Helps when riding fast/downhill and the wind is obscuring car noise and you need to keep your eyes ahead for potholes etc and might need to ride round them into the lane.

BTW almost everyone I know who uses one of these has a head unit, even on commutes or cycling to school with the kids. I’d completely forgotten it could be used with a phone!

Reviews elsewhere suggest that the 715 is a bit crap as a) user-unfriendly app, and b) lack of image stabilisation meaning you can’t read the numberplates (which to me seems to defeat the object).

2 hours of video is a bit limited, I had the Fly 6 and could record 6 hour rides on it (using a larger micro-SD card).

Call me a sceptic.

I managed to buy a cheap 515 last year so thought it was worth trying out. I use it with an Edge 530.

It works really well. Occasionally fooled in continuous traffic but it really shines out on the open road and will alert to approaching vehicles before I hear or see them. I use it to inform my road positioning.

<p style=”text-align: right;”>My mate bought one of these and has never looked back.</p>

How long does the battery last? (did I miss that in the review?)

I tried using a GoPro a few times but while you can easily and cheaply buy huge cards for recording, the battery life of a little over an hour meant it wouldn’t even cover my daily fake commute, let alone a longer ride. Which made it all a bit pointless.

Two hours’ recording capacity? So pretty useless then. My very old Fly6 takes SD cards that give absurdly large recording capacity, and has a battery life of something like 9 hours (as well as being able to run while charging), so it’s good for pretty much anything.

I tried one of the non-camera radar units a few years ago and like you found it all rather useless. It didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know and was more of a distraction than anything. Besides, how are you supposed to respond? Jump into the hedge at every alert, or what? At the end of the day you have to ride as normal, but with more beeps. Which just gets annoying. I agree with you that they haven’t really thought about how the radar feature can add value. I’d like to see it record an estimated speed reading in the video, for instance: a speed differential between car and bike if there is no connected computer, else absolute speeds of both if there is. Your “close pass-o-meter” would also add value. Really the camera is a valuable tool for when things go horribly wrong and someone needs evidence to show a court and/or insurers; it has no other use really.

Once again Garmin have some nice technology on their hands but don’t seem to be thinking enough about how the different facets of it can become greater than the sum of their parts. We’re nearly a decade on from the first Fly6, which was so obviously promising that I bought it on Kickstarter as soon as I saw it, and now that the big players are involved we’ve got something that it seems falls well short of that. Garmin eh?

The radar unit Varia 515 is brilliant, I don’t have the camera version. On narrow roads I can ride on the smoothest part of the road not worrying about what’s behind, knowing my Garmin will beep if anything is coming. I can then be ready for a car coming through.  It’s also great at showing the number of cars behind. Good to know it’s clear once they are all past. Before I had the radar I used to hate being surprised by a car coming past at speed seemingly out of nowhere. Not a nice experience.

Another vote for the Varia 515 here, it really is great and not just for close pass warning. Its a bit like having an additional 6th sense and I really notice it if I have to ride without it for some reason.

If I’m riding with a mate two-up on twisty lanes I can just get on with chatting with them and not constantly looking over my shoulder to see if we’re holding a vehicle up.

Its also great for fast, long descents when you might want to move into the middle of the road at times but glancing over your shoulder can be more of a risk.

Plus, everything people have already said up there^. Personally I hate my Garmin beeping at me so I just turn off the sound alerts for the Varia and use the visual alerts on my head unit.

 

It’s a shame @stwhannah wasn’t using it paired to a Garmin head unit. I’d be keen to see if her impressions changed any.

Besides, how are you supposed to respond? Jump into the hedge at every alert, or what?

I use my older one with Elemnt units and they’re good for ensuring your road position is correct to deter the close pass out of town. In town I can see how many cars are coming up behind and then do a ‘lifesaver’ check after the last one goes past before moving to turn right. Like @Duggan mine is kept silent (commuting with noise on is a terrible experience).

Depending on closing speed of the car the bar on the head unit turns orange or red.

Where they’re good: quiet country roads. Fast descents where wind noise means you can’t hear anyone behind you.

 

Where they’re crap: busy roads (country or town). Although it’s still a decent light, just overpriced (with features you don’t need) for the job.

 

I love my 515. But then most of my riding is on relatively quiet country roads, and there it’s ideal.

I have the light and radar unit (no camera) and its killer feature is that it flashes when it detects a car approaching. There is a huge difference in how people pass me (here in the US) when I use the Varia compares to when I don’t. I think the flash really gets driver’s attention.

The notification by the radar on my head unit is very nice as well, but the pros and cons if that are summarized in the review. But for some reason no one ever mentions the flashing of the radar. Note that I use it in steady mode most of the time, I’m not sure what the radar does when it detects a car and is already in blink mode.

As far as head unit vs. phone goes, I’ve never used the Varia with my phone but with an Edge 530 head unit it works exactly as described in the review.

I’m not sure what the radar does when it detects a car and is already in blink mode

The flashing speeds up the closer the vehicle gets to you. I use my 515 in this mode all of the time. I think it’s a great bit of kit. Always think a good indicator is if you’d replace something if you lost it or it died, and in the case of the Varia I’d buy another in a heartbeat.

My dad has one of the rear light and radar units for riding round country roads as his hearing loss means he couldn’t hear cars over the wind noise, but could hear the beep (tbh riding alongside him, I found it damn annoying!). Worked really well for him and still uses it now as he doesn’t like riding in his hearing aids…due to the wind noise!

Couple of racers at our event yesterday were discusding them – one was hearing impaired and had found it really helpful, the other said it was the only thing that had kept her training out on the roads after too msny dodgy passes had rattle her confidence.

Both race for amateur teams at national level, so not inexperience by any means.