Avid tech fiends who ride motorcycles may have noticed that Garmin quietly launched an extremely cool new safety product for motorcycles at CES this year, a rear radar and light system that helps provide riders with more situational awareness and safety. Called Zumo R1 Radar, the retrofit product operates very similar to any of the systems found on new motorcycles, with a small LED warning light illuminating when there's a vehicle in your blindspot, and a little red light kicking on when someone is quickly closing the distance behind you. The stoic Germans who built my 1996 BMW R1100 GS probably never envisioned a day when it would have radar safety equipment, but that day is here, and I'm so glad it is.
When I heard about the new product from Garmin back at CES in January I asked for more information, and Garmin asked if I wanted to test it out myself. Not one to turn down an opportunity to test new tech, I agreed. The unit showed up at my door in the middle of a nasty stretch of weather back in February and it sat on a shelf waiting for a nice day to install and test it out. Folks, those days are finally here, and I can tell you right off the bat I'm deeply in love with this radar unit. It's so simple to use, the install was clean and easy, and having an extra digital pair of eyes looking over my shoulder at all times is a welcome safety addition to my riding. I won't go so far as to say it's a life saver, but it definitely adds to my awareness while on two wheels. If you're a regular highway rider, I can't recommend this product enough. In addition to a reverse gear, every motorcycle would be better with radar sensors.
Yes, this system is $600, but I still think it's worth it. With that out of the way, let's check it out.
Bradley Brownell
Garmin really did their homework on this one, if you ask me. The packaging and variety of mounting options that come along with the radar unit mean that it's relatively easy to mount this to pretty much any motorcycle with a 12V battery. The main components are the rear radar unit itself, which I chose to mount below my BMW's license plate, and the handlebar mounted warning lights, but a variety of brackets, adhesive pads, and zip ties are also included. With a small smattering of tools, I was able to get this whole thing installed on my bike in a matter of a couple of hours, and I'm hardly an electrician.
The hardest part of installing everything is pre-planning where the wires are going to route, and wiring it into the bike's battery. With some slow and methodical planning, you can work your way out from the battery up to the handlebars and back to the license plate without too many kinks. Built for a wide variety of bikes, the Zumo R1's wiring harness had a bit of slack, so I had to find a few places in the bike to tuck some loops of wire, and the project used way more zipties than I thought it would, but otherwise it went off without a hitch.
Garmin provides little 90-degree brackets for the left and right warning light modules to mount up under the stalks of your motorcycle's mirrors, but I chose a place a little more inboard for better visual notification, popping them onto the stand-off bolt for my bike's barkbuster handguards. This turned out to be a great place to put them, as they're well within my line of sight while looking at the gauges. Indian Motorcycle recently added a similar radar-sensor safety suite to its line of $30,000 baggers, so it's pretty cool to have it on my old Bimmer.
Garmin
For my testing purposes, I wanted to use the stand-alone standard Zumo R1 system. The radar can be paired with a smartphone app or Garmin's XT2 navigation screen (another $600), but I wanted to see if it was worthwhile without. I don't particularly like the distraction of a screen while riding, so the simple warning lights seemed perfect for me, and I was right.
This weekend I took a 150-mile highway ride and the Garmin performed flawlessly. The system isn't tied into the bike's ignition, so it won't start up when you fire the motorcycle's engine, but once you get moving above 15 miles per hour, it kicks on automatically and begins scanning for cars around you. The owner's manual doesn't make mention of this, but I the system will shut off after a few minutes of idle time, so you aren't running your battery flat when you park up for the night if you forget to turn it off. This easy retrofit system brings modern bike safety tech to your older ride, which absolutely kicks ass.
The system doesn't work at anything below 15 mph, so you still need to keep your head on a swivel in the city, and obviously these little lights are no replacement for a proper over-the-shoulder glance before you change lanes or merge. That being said, I felt significantly safer at pace with cars just knowing one was behind me or pacing me in my blind spot. While it probably won't get anyone to look up from their cell phone before plowing into you at a stop light, the Garmin radar unit also has a pretty bright red light that illuminates when a car rushes up behind you in a bid to grab their attention. I'm not convinced that light is going to save anyone, but I suppose it's better to have it than to not. Maybe it'll get you an extra split second of braking force from a high speed projectile before impact.
It's not a replacement for using your brain and keeping your eyes up, but Garmin's Zumo R1 gets an instant recommendation from me as a safety and awareness aid. Every bike on the planet needs this, it's a no-brainer.
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