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Garmin Varia RCT715 Rearview Radar with Camera and Tail Light $450.14 + $35.42 Delivery ($0 with Prime/ $39 Spend) @ Amazon UK

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Not a bad deal for this - retails $699 locally. Lowest ever on the CCC

If you have Prime, it's free expidited delivery, too.

What is it?

It's a rear bike light, RADAR and rear camera for your bicycle.

The light flashes red, the RADAR senses oncoming cars from a fair distance away, and the rear camera records at 1080p.

It's not the best camera, but good enough. You can learn more from this excellent review by DesFit
https://youtu.be/Gv4_F8QaHS0

I've had a few too many close calls with cars passing me closely and figure it's only a matter of time before I am knocked down- so I'm hoping this can calm my nerves somewhat, or at least record some evidence.

rant And before you mouth of about me riding on the road and suggesting I ride on the footpath, just know that it is illegal for me to do so in Victoria. If you're the type to get annoyed at cyclists riding on the road, maybe ask the local rep/ council why there aren't more bike lanes to keep us out of the way.

Price History at C CamelCamelCamel.

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    • +7

      From Vicroads - footpaths are ok only if you’re under 13 (or with a under 13), or have a medical necessity etc.

      https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-road-rules/road-r…

      You can ride on a footpath if you:

      are a child under the age of 13
      are a person 13 and over who is accompanying a child under the age of 13
      are an adult 18 or over who is cycling with a young child in a child seat attached to their bicycle, or with a child pedalling on a bike attachment at the back of an adult bicycle
      have been given and are following the conditions on a medical certificate that says you have a disability that makes it difficult for you to ride on the road

      • +1

        Similar rules for NSW as well

        https://roadsafety.transport.nsw.gov.au/stayingsafe/bicycle-…

        Since 23 July 2018, children under 16 years of age are allowed to ride on a footpath (increased from children under 12 years of age). Allowing children under the age of 16 on the footpath will help keep them safe until they have the skills, decision making and knowledge of the rules to ride safely on the road.

        An adult rider who is supervising a bicycle rider under 16 may also ride with the young rider on the footpath. Children aged 16 or 17 can ride on the footpath, when accompanied by a child under 16 and a supervising adult.

        • Good change. NSW are better at bikes than Victoria

          • +1

            @giventofly: Ironic that Queensland allows cyclists on footpaths. Having moved south to Sydney from Brisbane a few years ago, while the cycling infrastructure is lightyears ahead down south, there are plenty of roads around Sydney that are simply unsafe to cycle on and unfortunately require giant detours (and knowledge of said detours) to get to safer, smaller roads.
            Tempted to buy this, but replaced my dead Cycliq 6 with a new one recently. Stupid non-replaceable battery, though switching to Garmin doesn't fix this issue… dang.

      • i stand corrected… i guess i missed the part about "accompanying a child"

    • +2

      I’m afraid that just isn’t true

  • +2

    Nice write up. I have the 515 and is excellent and worth it.

    • +3

      Lol! Please enlighten me how I could take responsibility whilst riding legally on the road when a 2 tonne metal box hits me? I obey the road laws, I have kids and do everything I can to make it home to them.

      You don’t even know me and you’re suggesting I’m doing something? What exactly?

      Your point of view is asinine and shallow. We have traffic laws because we must outsource responsibility to governing bodies because not all individuals take care, and when they don’t, other people are hurt or killed.

  • Have their been any updates to the video quality via firmware updates? Most of the feedback suggests reading number plates from the footage is not always guaranteed.

    The next option is a Fly6 but those seem to have a lot of QC issues.

    • Doesn’t appear to have any - there’s no image stabilisation

      • +1

        I like the idea of the radar and it seems to work with Wahoo units thankfully. The camera controls don't but that's not such a big deal.

        Plus USB-C. Finally!

    • The fly6 is now on its 3rd generation (4th if you count the fly6 original). One of the big issues is the ongoing battery drain cos of Bluetooth and deep discharging kills the battery, which is non-replacable. I stopped using my Fly6 CE for 6 months because newborn kid and when I finally got some time to get back on the bike the battery was dead. It is easily accessible but non-standard and cycliq won't sell you one, but they did offer a 20% off voucher, which tipped me towards going back to them rather than getting a RTC715/RT515+GoPro. The Fly12 has a bigger battery so survived not being charged for 6 months.
      At least the Fly6 3rd gen turns itself off completely now, but the battery life is pretty short owing to the smaller form factor. With the addition of a radar, I'd get a RCT715 over the Fly6 any day at this price point. Though at RRP of the RCT715, I think a RT515 + GoPro (or cheap Chinese alternative) might be a better option if you don't mind hanging more devices off the back of your bike.

  • +4

    Just bought an RTL515 the other day and it’s a game changer

    • Do you use it with a computer or varia app?

      • +1

        I use it with my Garmin edge 530

  • -4

    Move to QLD where we ride wherever the f… We want. Riding along the road and red light, no worries just mount the footpath, hammer through the lights and back on the road. The walkers will have a whinge when you wizz past them but who cares by the time they start hurling abuse you're a couple of hundred metres down the road. QLD ftw..

  • -1

    What is a better camera?

    • One that captures better videos?

    • -1

      I think Cycliq is still the best on the market for bikes

      • +1

        I bought their Fly 6 CE and used it for two years with no issue. Then one day I had to ride in the rain. I made sure the port cover was closed. A few days later I noticed condensation on the inside of the lens and the camera stopped working. I contacted them quoting the ACCC consumer guarantee and they said there's nothing they can do apart from offer me a discount on a new camera as a "gesture of goodwill" as it was outside its warranty period.

        A search on reddit brings up other users complaining about water damage so it looks like it's a design fault. It's IP56 rated so should absolutely handle light rain perfectly.

        Meanwhile they had already released a Fly6 CE Gen 2 which is identical apart from improved seals on the port. That shows that they realised their old design was defective, but they refused to stand behind their product.

        I got served a Cycliq ad on FB. I posted my experience above as a comment. They deleted it.

        If I had more time I would have lodged a complaint with OFT.

        • +1

          Thanks for your comment - I was tempted to buy a camera for the front, but I'll stick with my GoPro Hero 4 for now.

          • +1

            @giventofly: But, credit where credit is due. I also have a Fly12 CE which I bought in April 2020. I never actually checked the recorded footage as there had been no incidents. This year I decided to have a look at the footage quality and realised everything is out of focus. The focus is set too close to the camera.

            It must be a common issue - if you try to submit a ticket on their support site, there's a drop-down box under the Fly12 CE recording issues section where you can select your issue - Audio Recording Issue, Video Recording Issue, Video Out Of Focus.

            I submitted a ticket and they replaced the Fly12 CE with their newer Fly12 Sport without any hassles. They did specifically say no further warranty applies, and the Fly12 Sport I received has a distorted speaker problem where things like the startup tone sounds horribly distorted… so there's that.

            At the end of the day I still don't have a good impression of Cycliq's customer service. If there was a strong competitor I would probably heavily lean towards them, but right now it doesn't look like there's a good competitor for a front camera.

            • @eug: Thanks for that. Not enough to make me consider them unfortunately. Hopefully GoPro or Garmin up their game.

      • Cycliq cameras and the camera on the RCT715 is designed to capture license plates and not much else. GoPro or any other action cam is a world apart in terms of image quality. Like people have previously mentioned, both Cycliqs and this RCT715 can have some issues in the dark capturing license plates. If you want to upload videos of your cycling holidays or be absolutely sure you get that a-hole driver getting too close in the dark on a rainy night, this is not that camera.

  • Gotta love Queensland! The place to be.

  • $515 now, expired?

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