Garmin Varia RCT715 bike camera after 1 year

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Folks - Garmin have released firmware 5.10 for the Varia RCT715. This brings vehicle speed to the data overlay on the recording. It uses the radar to calculate the speed (I guess it takes account of your own speed to do this) and shows it, so you can get your location, the time & date, your own speed as a cyclist and now the speed of the vehicle behind you. This could be very useful data in an incident. You can update it with the Varia cellphone app. Thanks to Will EDC for letting me know!

[@Kzuke]

I appreciate new product intro videos, but long-term reviews like this one are valuable to give a more realistic sense of how practical some of the features are over time with regular use. I might consider upgrading to this from my Varia RTL515. Thanks!

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Thanks for the feedback. I rely a lot on launch reviews but like you I prefer to get a feel for something that someone has used for some time. That is exactly the intent with this video and the others I am making. The RTL515 is a great radar, I do not think you will see any improvement in radar performance if you do decide to upgrade, but the camera integration makes the RCT715 compelling.

[@RonnyStofferis]

Nice and good presentation for all kind of riders. Good for the safety for us !

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Thanks! Ride safe out there

[@paulbrunner1818]

FINALLY, a great and realistic review. Thank you!

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Glad it was helpful!

[@mvp_kryptonite]

Thanks for the video and fair assessment. I agree the faff with putting 2 cameras in, a radar a front light, water bottles and a head unit is annoying. I like my Virb 30 devices as they sync with my head unit and I carry more batteries if I go for a longer ride. My rear facing one tho isn’t great, but it’s good enough for any footage I might need

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Sounds a good solution!

[@paulus_germanus]

Amazing review! Thank you!

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Glad it was helpful!

[@morapelimokokomali7907]

Thank you for this update. I'm only on/near the car roads when I commute and i got the 515 (I dislike micro usb charging too) because frankly paying 200€ extra for the camera as a beginner cyclist was a bit much! I had not considered that the video could be useful as evidence in an incident, but still it doesn't quite justify the price tag for me

[@ThisIsJulianC]

It is quite a price hike over the RTL515 for sure.

[@tillmansr2002]

@11:50 you mentioned the items you place on the bike, front camera, rear camera and head unit. Do you also mount your phone, or do you even carry it on a ride?

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Hi Scott - I always carry my phone in the back of my jersey, I don’t have it mounted on my bike and only bring it out of the pocket for photos during the ride.

[@vperales76]

garmin needs to add a front facing camera to the smart head light.

[@ThisIsJulianC]

That would be a good natural next step for Garmin. Or that they buy Cycliq and integrate that camera system in to the Garmin range.

[@ckspark2]

A great explanation. I had an experience like your opening clip but the car pulled out on the wrong side of the road and drove in to me head on, I just remembered riding along then slowly coming to laying in the road. Luckily it was all captured on fixed CCTV and the driver was finally prosecuted. It made me realize that a front camera is probably more important than a rear as I think the worst collisions are going to be from the front. My biggest fear after was that I could have been killed, the driver could have driven off and my wife and children would have never known how I died. I wont ride without a front and rear camera now. This RCT715 is great but like you say its large, heavy and doesn't have great image quality. What would make it better is a way to measure passing distance as here in the UK close passing is real problem even though we have clear guidance of 1.5 - 2.0 meters.

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Thanks for sharing your story, sounds like you were very lucky even though it was already a bad situation. Which camera are you using on the front?

[@ckspark2]

@@ThisIsJulianC I now use the Drift Ghost XL Pro on the front and can highly recommend it.

[@miglemos71]

Thanks for the review. Finally I found some review from someone who the purposes of this is security. I can find many reviews comparision with action cameras and thast not this is intended for. The only downside I see is the wheigt and the batery life. Thanks for sharing .

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Glad it was helpful

[@davidhoppes118]

Hi, great video. Thank you for putting it together. Question, what is considered an incident?

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Thanks! To steal a phrase from Elon Musk... an 'incident' would be anything that potentially leads to the rapid unscheduled disassembly of cyclist or bike.

[@simonf2220]

Great review, thank you.

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Glad it was helpful!

[@edwardebel1847]

Excellent point about always having a camera rolling. You should also consider upgrading your warning device. I've been using the Airzound Bike Horn for almost a year now. Cars pay way more attention when the decibels go up! I only wish I had an air horn like a diesel locomotive!

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Air horn …. That would be something!

[@edwardebel1847]

@@ThisIsJulianC Do check out the airzound...I use it preemptively when I approach a stop sign at the same time as a car approaching perpendicularly. MOST cars do not stop at four-way intersections if they do not see another car. And they rarely look for cyclists. The airzound is so loud that they are startled and immediately stop and re-assess. (I also have a bell, which I use for other cyclists.) One other "danger" I have noticed is people walking on bike paths with earbuds turned up so loud that they can barely hear the airzound. (Why do I cycle on the path rather than on the road? Drivers who text while driving. ). Anyway, to (hopefully) avoid serious collisions, go as loud as possible! Cheers!

[@zenfishbike]

i use a mirror, but let me know when these cameras will show the rear facing image on the head unit

[@ThisIsJulianC]

That's not the direction the industry is headed, personally I'd find that too distracting.

[@StonkeyKong]

That is actually one of the reasons I wanted to buy this, unfortunately it doesn’t do that. 😞

[@endo52]

Nice practical information for real world use. Not a "specs" comparison or whine

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Thanks for the feedback - that is the intent of the video to share my opinion based on real world use.

[@stephanieferlazzo6793]

I like idea of continuously recording but in a accident scenario what stops the recording so it does overwrite the accident

[@ThisIsJulianC]

When an incident is detected, the RCT715 will lock the footage 30 seconds before the incident (in Continuous mode) and 60 seconds after the incident is detected. This will produce a 90 second video that is locked and cannot be overwritten.

[@apriljohnson6191]

What is the make/model of the front camera you use again?

[@ThisIsJulianC]

I have a Cycliq Fly 12 CE on the front. It’s no longer a current model, the one they sell now is the Fly 12 Sport. Hope this helps

[@apriljohnson6191]

@@ThisIsJulianC Thank you, it does. :-)

[@badabing8884]

The downside it only records what’s behind you. For £400 that was quite expensive for me as a first time rider. So I went for the techalogic which covers front and back for £190. I don’t think you can ride on the roads here in the UK without wearing a camera. Having a mirror to see behind you when cycling is also a must. Even pointing to the camera when a driver is behind you can help prevent close overtakes.

[@ThisIsJulianC]

That Techalogic dual camera looks a good option. I already had a Cycliq Fly12CE for the front, so I just needed the rear one. I agree we need to be cycling with cameras front and rear. I bet that helmet mounted camera you have is a good deterrent as it is probably a lot more visible to a driver than my bike mounted cameras. Thanks for sharing.

[@badabing8884]

@@ThisIsJulianC it deters about 90% I would say but still those 10% that won’t be told or don’t know or care. I am in their way.

[@ThisIsJulianC]

@@badabing8884 Stay safe out there

[@rangernax]

Have the unit and depend on it for every ride. One complaint is the device shuts off randomly. Has anyone seen this behavior?

[@ThisIsJulianC]

I haven’t seen that happen. One thought - do you have it linked to a Garmin head unit to turn on and off with it. My rear light would turn off if I pressed stop on my Edge 1040, so I disabled that feature. It did feel like a random turn off.

[@Davidb67]

I’d be interested to hear your views of the Fly 12 front camera (or Fly 12 Sport if you’ve upgraded), again as a long-term user opinion piece, and again, as a safety camera (& light), not an action camera which are what a large number of the complaints are about with both the Cycliq and Garmin Varia RCT units - they’re NOT intended to be action cameras….

[@ThisIsJulianC]

I have the Fly 12CE, had it for almost 5 years,. It is solid and reliable, not let me down yet. It is well built. The battery is OK, I get around 5 hours with recording and a flashing light. It beeps every ten minutes to tell me the battery status which I can turn off if I want. The recording quality is OK, certainly not action camera quality for sure but as a safety camera I think it is fine. The clip I included at the beginning of this video was recorded with it so you can see the quality there, same for the comparison clip later in the video. I only have two criticisms of the Fly 12CE - (1) the app is not intuitive but I do not find I need to use it often, and (2) the handlebar mount that came with it is not robust, I broke one had to replace it, aftermarket options are limited so I had to get another from Cycliq. I always use the included tether on the Fly 12CE, I have no confidence in the mount. I see no need to upgrade to the Fly 12 Sport that was launched last year, but if I damage or lose the 12CE I would probably upgrade to the 12 Sport when replacing it. Hope this helps!

[@drone360world5]

What is the real world record time. I have a 110 mile ride

[@ThisIsJulianC]

It depends more on the time you take to do a 110 mile ride. I am going to guess at 5-6 hours so you probably want to have 6-7 hours of run time for some margin of error. Using the radar and the camera and the light you will not get that much run time from this device. If you have the light set on 'day flash' Garmin state you will get 6 hours, I generally have seen less than that, closer to 4.5 hours real world. When I am doing long bike rides for Ironman training which are very close to the distance you speak of, I run my cameras front & rear with the light function turned off, and rely on small (cheap) flashing LED lights on the rear stays and front forks to provide the lighting. My logic is that the main features of the RCT 715 (and the front Cycliq camera) I am needing are the camera and radar functions, whereas any old light can provide the lighting. This is a clunky set up but for the number of >100 mile rides that I do for Ironman training each year, around 7-8, then it works for me. When I use the Varia with the light turned off I can do those longer training rides with the radar and camera running throughout. Hope this helps

[@StonkeyKong]

@@ThisIsJulianCthat’s a very short battery life. Every Sunday I ride 5 to 6 hours. 😢

[@ThisIsJulianC]

@@StonkeyKongYour only option with the Varia then is to do what I do - see above - for those longer rides turn off the lights and just use the radar and camera. I can get more than 6 hours that way.

[@chrisgress4086]

I got one and started using it, I like it but it will drain my head unit in 3.5 hours.

[@ThisIsJulianC]

What head unit do you have? It really shouldn’t do that

[@WillEDC]

There’s a new firmware update that adds a useful feature 🎉🎉 kzbin.info_dxHbPtbzQA?feature=share

[@ThisIsJulianC]

Thanks for sharing, I need to update for that

[@Funcentric]

LOL, you need a real horn. Electronic or air horn. That cartoon horn isn't really going to be heard by cagers.

[@ThisIsJulianC]

🤣 that’s all I had at the time on Final Cut

[@Funcentric]

@ yup,’gotta use what you got. I understand. Aliexpress has a really good legit electric horn for about $30. But it’s heavy. AirZound is probably better for your use. A lot lighter.

[@Check-it-out]

If the radar prevents a collision from behind… Why the need for a camera ? In case of an accident, THEY need to miss your light and YOU have to ignore their approach. If there is a collision after that, you might as well call it an attempt on your life ! 4 to 6 hours is not enough for me anyway. And keep in mind that battery life never improves and only deteriorates over time. And it is not replaceable.

[@ThisIsJulianC]

A bike radar is not going to prevent a collision it is just going to warn you of anything behind you.