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 This is a fair compensation for the outdated, but not obsolete, charging technology.
The good - small, effective, and long lasting lights that can be easily attached. Variety of band sizes will let you use these in a variety of ways. Multiple flash patterns, with good duration.
The bad - charging these is weird and difficult. They're not USB mini/micro/USB-C - - they need to plug directly into your computer USB port or a USB charging dock. They take up a lot of space, so if you're charging these the other USB ports may be covered, and they're finicky (wouldn't work with my USB charging adapters). These are hindrances to otherwise good lights. Oh, beware the packaging 'cause it's difficult to get open.
love the options, but not the battery life. Many times this thing dies on me after just 1 hour and 15 minutes. It override the low light switch all the time witch drains the battery even faster. for this much money I demand better. I use a garmin head unit and radar tail light so this seemed like a no brainer, but I am going back to my cyclic head light. It's half the price and does everything this garmin does for twice as long. sorry garmin, you missed the mark on this one.
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!
