Garmin Varia RTL515 rear light review

The Garmin Varia rear light has a built in radar to detect approaching vehicles

Varia
Cycling Weekly Verdict

The Varia radar-operated rear light is a surprisingly effective, if pricey way to keep abreast of what’s happening behind you.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Ups your road presence

  • +

    Usually quicker to spot approaching vehicles than you are

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Only one alert for vehicles in convoy

  • -

    Does not spot all approaching vehicles

  • -

    Expensive

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Who needs a rear light with a built in radar? I was ready to be underwhelmed by the Varia RTL515, but came away impressed by its capabilities. After all, I’m able to hear approaching vehicles and it’s easy enough to look around and check what’s coming.

But the Varia rear light does it so much better. Garmin says that its built-in radar will detect an approaching vehicle up to 140 metres behind you. I’d reckon it’s much further than that on a straight road - perhaps as much as 400m. 

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Paul Norman

Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.

He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.