Garmin Varia™ RCT715, Bicycle Radar with Camera and Tail Light, Continuous Recording, Vehicle Detection

I am so impressed with this. I even had to upgrade from my Garmin Edge 800 to a compatible model of cycling computer (I went with the 1040 solar), so the price point of BOTH was just incredibly painful, even on sale. But I'm coming back to cycling after having taken significant time off due to health struggles and I've seen friends seriously hurt from getting hit out of the road. And I feel like in the area I live, driving manners and common sense just went to heck during the pandemic and haven't improved much. And as I am back out there, I think of those friends, and I realize I'm much older now and can't hear the cars coming up behind me as well as I used to. Or maybe I never heard them well and just benefitted from someone with great hearing in the back yelling "car!", but now I'm riding alone while I build up fitness again. And for everything I've been through with my health surprises, this is a form a self-care to invest in my safety. I don't think after getting clipped or hit from behind, I would think, gee I'm so glad I didn't spend that "x" hundred dollars! This is less than my surgical co-pay by a lot.The radar detects cars well out of my hearing range and I'd say even farther than I can turn to look behind me easily right now. I can get a sense if someone is hauling toosh as they approach me or if they're being gentle, safe and sane in their approach. If they slow down, they'll probably take care in passing too. An over the shoulder check is still appropriate but that's one point in time. This lets you see their whole approach. The tail light is very large and bright as well and has different setting for how it shines or blinks and it coordinates with your computer as well. So if you don't want to completely unclip and walk to the back of your bike to push the button to change it for different lighting conditions (coming home a bit late from a ride), you can do it on your Garmin Edge with just one foot down. (I suppose you could do it while cycling, but I can't and have strong opinions on distracted driving that make me not even want to try). In summary, this is totally worth the investment.

Purchasing this device was the best idea ever. To all concerned cyclists young or old. I highly recommend it.

Great records everything

Great product. Received in new condition

The parts of this product that work, do so well enough to carry it up to a 4 star rating despite parts being so bad that one star would be too much of a compliment.The good:The light is very visibleThe radar is a nice to have, mostly it just becomes a constant reminder that we are surrounded by cars.The battery life is excellent - I turn it on when I start my ride and never bother to turn it off at coffee shops or other stops. At first because I wanted to get a sense of how long it would run, and now because I just don't worry about it.The Bad:It's a light. It's a Garmin light. IT WON'T pair with a Garmin headset and join the light network. That's right, you have to turn it on manually. You have to turn it off manually. You don't get any of the light tricks from the head unit.It's big and heavy. Not really a fault, there's just a lot in the package and the battery to run it so well needs to be big as well. But this isn't for the weight wienies out there.The UGLY:You cannot configure this from your Garmin head unit.You cannot configure this from Garmin Connect website or App.You MUST down load yet another NEW app from Garmin only for the varia. And only for the Varia.Describing the varia app would require the use of words that would cause Amazon to ban my account, so I will refrain from describing it. There are notable functions that are laughably bad. I would never show them as a proof of concept, much less a selling product. Some of the lowlights are:The app can serve as a display for the radar, so if you wanted to ride your bike with your phone mounted as a head unit you could do that. But at that point why doesn't it support being a head unit? Who wants a full phone screen showing a 1D view of potential traffic behind you but not Heart rate, power, speed, distance, etc? It's a singularly stupid app that fits the "If someone were to spend $400 on a light but not want to buy a head unit, but do have a phone mount... then they want this app". I can't imagine that the use case exceeds the single digits - if you're spending this level on bike bits you already have a head unit, or will very quickly add one.But that's not the worse of it. I have a head unit, and if that was my only complaint about the software, it would be silly, I don't get offended because some useless extra sits on the side unused. No the problem is that this app is required to set up your device. Not only is the UI unintuitive, it makes my iPhone 14 run like a 3GS. Tap on anything you have to then wait. In some cases you have to wait MINUTES. The adjust camera option takes several minutes to SOMETIMES succeed. Which is to say, just as often you wait minutes and then it lets you know that it couldn't connect. To be cleat, I was able to apply a firmware update in the middle of my poking at this app - it had no problem connecting. But the camera adjust was repeatedly random on if it would connect after several minutes of waiting with 0 feedback on screen that anything is going on... good luck not rage spiking your phone (it's not the phone's fault!)Also, go into the video/photo view. Tap on edit. Now you can select items to delete. But only a maximum of 10. WTaF?! Ok, I'll go through this 10 at a time BS. Tap on the 8 that are in view. Nothing happens. Tap them again. And again. Eventually some get a check mark. That's when you realize that you have to tap the item(s) you want and then you wait for minutes with NO FEED BACK that something may (or may not) be happening. Eventually, again minutes, you figure that the ones that will get selected have been selected and you hit delete. You wait for the delete to happen. Congrats you have deleted a random selection of the 8 that you for sure wanted to delete. Now you hit edit again, and you try to get another 8 or so selections in, and wait your minutes before deciding that you got what you're going to get and you hit delete. Repeat.Garmin should be embarrassed to have this app in the store. Instead of being ashamed, they make it a required download to use the varia. This is not a case of "they need better programmers", it is a case of they need to undergo a structural change to how their management views software, and once they have a professional team in charge of the software vision, then they can start looking into how to clean this mess up.Good hardware. Nearly got a 3 star, but I only plan to use the software if I get hit by a car and need to recover the video - I just will hope that it is indeed working because I can't imagine ever going back just to check in.

Great camera

I gave it 3 stars bc I love the radar on it, don’t know how I raced and trained without it.That’s the good news.The bad news is can’t figure out how to watch the “recorded” videos on it. I have followed their directions and still nothing.Wish it were easier .

Great bike alert system