Brand spanking new for 2026, the Varia RearVue 820 has quite the reputation to live up to – its predecessor, the RTL515, was widely lauded as the gold standard among the best bike radar units when it was launched in 2020. So much so, for years, it was the only radar I ever saw, blinking from the seat posts of safety-conscious cyclists.
More recently, other brands began to appear on my radar, encroaching on Garmin’s territory. Garmin’s response? Nada, there wasn’t a hint of a replacement for years. Had it dropped the ball? I began to wonder if it even remembered it was still in the game.
