Trek CarBack Radar Rear Bike Light Review: Hits and Misses

The Trek CarBack rear bike light and radar has impressive specs on paper, but how does the Trek CarBack fare on the road?
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[@imdmn04]

This is totally a design choice vs defect. The garmin is tuned for wider lane detection, which means you will get a lot more false positives for multi-lane roads or wider roads where the car has a very wide-berth from you. The Carback is tuned for narrow lane detection, which means less false positives, but the downside is that you get later detection on bendy roads. I personally prefer the narrow detection because if you travel on roads with a lot of cars, the constant false-positives where just make you become desensitizied to the alerts.

[@LazySquirrel-vp2kb]

I tested this radar immediately after announcement, tested for 2 weeks and return to store. Reasons-all mentioned in reviews of Gplama and this video. Now I’m testing Bryton Gardia and this device with latest firmware have efficiency like Garmin 515

[@donbarnard82]

Garmin's unit (I have one) will stop indicating a car is behind you if it paces you for long enough. These devices can only detect something closing on you. They don't detect things that are 'stationary' behind you. Another thing I've seen on my garmin is an indication of only 1 car when there were actually 2 cars close together and as the first car passed I started to look over my shoulder when another car came past. This is a habit I'm working on breaking. :) -Checking too soon after a car pass and potentially swerving into traffic. No unit can see around corners or over the crest of a hill so there will always be times when a car can appear when already close. The major difference is that width of detection you noted. I see that as a difference rather than a flaw one way or the other. If you had started out using the Trek unit, then at some point garmin came out with their unit and you tested that, you'd probably be talking about how often the garmin indicates cars coming when they're in a lane you're not traveling in, or after you've forked off down some side street and the car is actually back out on the main road, etc.

[@PureNRG2]

My Varia literally has never missed a car and when there are multiple cars, it gets the car count right too. I think I’ll stick with my Varia👍

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

That would be a smart thing 😊

[@eunicemoon3673]

Thank you for a thorough review, especially great information on the angle and effective detection area. Big fan of the Varia practically since it came out.

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

Glad you found it useful 🙏🏼

[@mlegrand]

I was just reading about this device. Super glad you got to review it. Thanks for making this video!!! 👏

[@MrLuigi-oi7gm]

Great review! 👏👏👏 Love those socks you're wearing on the outdoor segments! 😍 I too have been using the Garmin Varia for several years. I consider it the best and most valuable accessory on my road bike. 👍 P.S. At 4:55 in your video, I believe you have switched the labels for the Varia and Trek. It's actually the Varia that is mistakingly saying there is no car behind you. I have noticed this before on my Varia and is my one criticism of the product.

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

The labeling is correct on the video. That was the CarBack missing the car behind me. Glad you like socks 🙂

[@MrLuigi-oi7gm]

@@SmartBikeTrainers That is so weird as the green bars (all safe-nothing behind you) on the sides of the screen is exactly what my Garmin 1030+ looks like when I'm using my Varia and a car behind starts to keep pace with me. The Varia can't detect a car that is not moving relative to you and gives you a false green bar "all clear" screen. If you listen to your video right after that you actually say "Varia," I assume when referring to the situation. I'm probably wrong. But I did want to mention it since my Varia does have this limitation and for safety's sake I wanted to give your viewers a heads-up.

[@psouthworth]

Thanks for the review. I usually think of the Magene L508 as the Varia competitor due to price, and it claims similar specs as the Varia. USB-C as well. It would be interesting to see a similar bake-off between those two.

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

I haven’t had an opportunity to checkout the Magene yet. Will look into that one and others. Thanks 🙏🏼

[@LazySquirrel-vp2kb]

About different angle and wide of detection. For me is better wider angle and I’ll known that car is behind me…in my lane or not. Because at distance 150m the car may be in far lane, with trek I wouldn’t know about it but near me the car may change lane closer to me. At the end of thoughts with Garmin/bryton/Magene I know about it from the beginning (150m) and will be more attentively while with Trek it may be a surprise. It’s my opinion only

[@nalissa77]

As much as I like Trek, I'll stick with my Varia. It works and it works flawlessly. Thanks for the review.

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

It’s one of those products that just works

[@Mike-gv1rz]

Great video. The Varia sounds like a no brainer.

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

It is. It just works. Thanks for watching 🙏🏼

[@JFomo]

Waiting for Garmin to update the Varia with a more modern aesthetically pleasing design.

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

The device is overdue for an upgrade for sure. A USB-C would be nice to have.

[@JibbaJabber]

If I remember correctly, GPLama had similar issues. Since you've also shown it to provide 'false negatives', Trek should stop selling this immediately. I love Trek products and have plenty, inc a Domane, but this is v.bad. They really need to issue a recall.

[@Marty72]

Good review. It’s a shame Trek have released a disappointing product.

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

They definitely missed out on an opportunity here. Thanks for watching 🙏🏼

[@johnwilliamson9453]

Thank you for this excellent review! What head unit are you using? I like the external light bars, rather than the Garmin screen bars.

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

Glad you found the review helpful. That’s the Elemnt Roam bike computer: www.wahoofitness.com/devices/bike-computers/gps-elemnt-roam?rfsn=1864690.66cbeff71

[@johnwilliamson9453]

@@SmartBikeTrainers Thank you, the V2 ?

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

Yes, that’s the V2 I have in the video

[@seanPar]

I returned one of these and would return my second if I could. This light is plainly not ready for the main stage. I'll stick to my varia. My carback doesn't even detect half of the cars behind me while the varia never misses. Trek this is a very sad light/radar.

[@SolarizeYourLife]

My carback is constantly disconnecting to my igpsport 630... And I don't know why...and there are no sound warnings...I don't use the phone app at all...

[@rrosomasa]

it's always interesting when a company decides to release a product that is less capable than what is already in the market.

[@desiajanee]

A cheaper old school method would be to just get some bike rear view mirrors

[@nurkov]

so I will not get it and will not get varia because micro USB

[@SmartBikeTrainers]

The Micro USB is getting annoying but the Varia is so worth it that I’m willing to live with it for now… until there is a better product or the Varia get an update.

[@nurkov]

@@SmartBikeTrainers yeah I Will wait longer hoping for varia to get update