Scooter

The Garmin Varia RVR315 is designed as a bike radar, but I like using it on my scooter to help keep track of vehicles approaching from behind. The radar clips onto the back of my CamelBak with an EFEALL strap mount, and my phone stays in my pocket. I’m not a fan of mounting the phone on the scooter, so I wanted spoken information about vehicles approaching from behind without having to look at a screen.

The radar sends its detections over Bluetooth. I also have the recurring problem of Garmin’s Android app stopping in the background and me forgetting to open it again. I wanted clearer connection behavior as well as the spoken alerts.

The clip is sold as a saddle-bag strap mount with a Garmin quarter-turn fitting, including support for the RVR315. It can rotate and tilt and comes with a safety tether. I’m using it on my CamelBak instead of a bike’s saddle bag.

That turned into RideWatch, a standalone Android app I built with Codex doing the research and implementation under my direction. The source is now public. It’s still a prototype, but I’ve been using it on scooter rides.

It’s neat how much I can follow by listening. I can tell when a car behind me is slowing down to pull over or park, or when one is approaching very quickly. Those changing alerts give me a sense of what’s happening behind me while my phone stays in my pocket.