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It looks back while you ride ahead. The Varia™ RCT715 rearview radar with camera and tail light continuously records your ride and automatically saves footage before, during and after events if it detects an incident. The bright tail light makes you more visible to motorists. And Varia RCT715 integrates seamlessly with your Garmin bike computer or the Varia™ mobile app on your paired smartphone to alert you to traffic as you ride. The app lets you easily access your footage, transfer videos or customize camera settings such as data overlays. A selection of operation modes lets you flex camera and tail light features to maximize battery life for longer rides. Notice: Some jurisdictions regulate or prohibit use of the camera function of this device. It is your responsibility to know and comply with applicable laws and rights to privacy in jurisdictions where you plan to use the camera function of this device.
Features & Specifications
- See and record what’s behind you with a built-in camera that saves footage automatically if it detects an incident
- Capture sharp, clear video in 1080p at 30 fps, or set resolution at 720p to extend battery life for longer rides
- Easily view footage and control the camera via the Varia mobile app
- Automatically detects incidents and saves footage before, during and after events if it detects an incident
- Rearview radar detects vehicles approaching from behind up to 153 yards (140 meters) away and integrates with your Edge bike computer, select Garmin wearables or the Varia app on your paired compatible smartphone to provide alerts
- Choose from three modes to maximize battery life: always-on, lights and radar only or radar-activated mode, which turns on the camera when an approaching car is detected
- Ready to use right out of the box with included 16 GB SD card
- Battery life up to 4 hours with radar and tail light on solid high or night flash, up to 5 hours on solid low and 6 hours on day flash — all with camera recording at 1080p
- Notice: Some jurisdictions regulate or prohibit use of the camera function of this device. It is your responsibility to know and comply with applicable laws and rights to privacy in jurisdictions where you plan to use the camera function of this device.
- Dimensions: 1.7 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
- Weight: 5.2 ounces
Pros & Cons
Pros
3 in 1. -I've tested this side by side with a Varia 510. In my tests, in traffic, they both detected the vehicles at the exact same time and showed at the same spots on the mini side map. Inside a home, the 510 detected me walking, but the 715 would not detect me running up to it (most of the time). -So far, the 715 seems to work great for cars, but I don't mind it not picking me up walking. Perhaps the old 510 was overly sensitive. The light function seems the same. From m y testing, the mobile app won't stay connected to radar while the light is in standby. But the radar does work on my Garmin Edge while the light is in standby. I'll report this to Garmin but it doesn't matter to me since I don't use the mobile app while riding my bike. -Yes, the mount is new and not compatible with quarter turn varia mounts. This seems to be necessary due to the added weight (the 510/515 were feathers). -Regarding the camera - from the comparisons I've seen, some shots do look better than cycliq. It will pick up make, model, color. Do not count on this picking up license plate numbers, they were too blurry in my testing. TO BE FAIR, Garmin's own product page does have a video showing actual footage, and it is obvious this will not pick up license plates. I've tried without luck in some cases. Like many states, there are no front facing plates where I ride. The quality of my videos matches right on what is shown in their demo. Because of this, I don't think the 1 star reviews are warranted. The only way you will get clear plates is with an action cam, and you will be replacing batteries every hour. Yes, for the money I'd like to see more clarity, but it gets the job done, and there is nothing aside from this and cycliq that will record long enough to do a century. -You can charge this while using the device. -If you use the mobile app and a garmin edge, be sure to set the camera settings on both devices to match, so they don't override each other.
Best Bike Accessory - Ultimate Awareness + Reliable Bicycle Dashcam. The RCT715 is the ultimate bike accessory! It's got the same solid radar awareness and bright taillight features that made the previous generation of Garmin Varia products essential. The new bicycle dashcam feature provides an additional layer of assurance that any potential incidents could be followed up with solid video evidence. This is not an action camera, so don't expect GoPro quality - the video quality is comparable to most vehicle dashcams, where licence plates of same-lane and close-passing vehicles are legible.
Cons
Video quality so poor you can't read license plates. The media could not be loaded. The whole point of this device is to capture video in the event of an accident/encounter with a motor vehicle.. and you can't even read the license plate, attached is avideo. like... really? Also, video is very choppy.
Not as good as RCT515's Radar. I really like the Garmin Varia and all my friends who ride swear by them. I was using the RCT515 previously and just upgraded to this RCT715 (so my spouse could maybe have answers to what happened to me when I was biking?). My thoughts from using it on a couple 40 mile rides into the city (my route goes through some hills, forest, hits a busy freeway for half a mile, goes into a major metropolis, and then hits a nice section of greenway pedestrian/bike paths): - More false positives with RCT715. It will "detect" a car that doesn't exist. A lot of those times it is from turns or hills, but I've had it also happen on a straight section, and I'm not sure what it was seeing. - More false negatives with RCT715. I watched in my rearview mirror a car come up on me, and not until it was 30 feet behind me did the RCT715 notice the car. Most of the time it would see them far off, but it was a bit disconcerting seeing how little warning it gave. Compare this with my RCT515 which noticed a car about 150 feet back when I was going through a section of road that had a lot of turns and heavily forested. - My most recent ride I was nearly hit sideways by someone running a stop sign...and I don't think the camera would have helped here...makes me want to get a helmet cam, lol - The Varia detected a few 'crashes' on my ride. I think it has 3d accelerometers and it ignores vertical bounces (like the bumpy gravel section), but when I hit some harder bumps it set off an alarm noise to let me know it will 'lock' those videos for later. So either those bumps gave me too big of a sideways jolt...or my assumption of them "ignoring most vertical bounces" is wrong, and it just got bumpy enough for a crash to be determined. It's probably better to be more cautious here, so I'm not complaining...but I'll have to make sure to regularly go in there and unlock those videos so the memory can be used again. Their new update on Android is nice (fixes some bugs I had hit on the previous version). To access the videos it is a little annoying, as you have to connect to the Varia's wifi hotspot (makes sense though, since it's a lot of data transferring). It is a bit of a pain though since there seem to be a lot of corner cases the developers didn't think about during this hotspot handshake experience (like maybe adding a timeout so the app doesn't just hang waiting). I had to force-close the app a few times to get the connections working. I'm really glad most of the settings do not require connecting via wifi.
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Conclusion
Overall, this is a very good product that earns many praises and is relatively highly rated by real life customers.
We highly recommend the Garmin Varia™ RCT715 to you.
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