I haven’t sat on a bicycle in at least 15 years. While I’ve never experienced the dangers cyclists face while traveling on public roads, I can certainly understand the need to be ever vigilant for inattentive motorists. There were a total of 1,166 cyclists killed in traffic-related crashes last year, according to The League of American Bicyclists.
Cyclists are increasingly turning to modern tech solutions to keep themselves safe. One such solution is a mountable radar system that doubles as a taillight. The device, usually the size of a dashcam, is able to detect oncoming cars from behind in real time, alerting the user to a potential threat. Such systems have been around since 2015, when Garmin launched its version, the Varia.
Bike accessory manufacturer Lezyne on Tuesday launched the latest version of its radar system, simply called the Radar React System. Like most systems, there’s a rear device that mounts to the back of the bike and acts as a rear-facing light, alerting oncoming traffic to your presence. This radar can connect to compatible GPS units or your phone, which is how you get the alert a car is approaching.
The biggest innovation here is the addition of a second Lezyne device that mounts to the handle. In addition to acting like a handle, this dongle can connect to the rear-mounted radar and send the biker alerts via a flashing light and beeping noises. That means you don’t need a phone or GPS for the radar to work, unlike most other radars on the market.
Pretty cool stuff, but that’s not why I’m talking about the React System. I’m talking about it because I couldn’t help but notice the car they chose to depict an impending danger to cyclists: None other than the Ford Mustang. Here’s the full video:
The Mustang, as you probably already know, has a less-than-stellar reputation for crashing into things thanks to its owners, who can’t help but lose control while showing off for onlookers on public roads, usually while exiting Cars & Coffee events.
It’s almost as if Lezyne is leaning into Mustang’s reputation as a car famous for hitting things. “If there’s any car you’ll need that radar system for, it’s a Mustang,” the ad says (not really, but it’s kinda implying that). I almost expected the Mustang in the video to suddenly veer towards the biker before she got an alert and swerved out of the way at the last second. It would’ve made the entire scenario a whole lot more realistic (who’s out driving a Shelby GT350 on gravel, anyway?)
There is one area of concern I have with Lezyne’s alert system, at least in how it relates to Mustang-specific dangers. The screenshot above shows how the radar alerts cyclists to the location of the car behind. There are clear markings for either edge of the roadway, so you know exactly which part of the road the car is coming from.
Will the alert still work if the Mustang, mid-crash, happens to briefly swerve onto the sidewalk or the grass next to the road? How widely does the radar cast its detection net? Can the radar see when a car rapidly changes lanes, perhaps when the rear end steps out uncontrollably? What about when the Mustang is traveling towards the biker while totally sideways? Will the radar still register such a wide object as a car? These are the questions that need answering.
I see only one logical pathway to solving such queries. Someone (not me) has to buy Lezyne’s new radar system, strap it to their bike, and do circles around their local Cars & Coffee event. It might take a few weekends, but I think it can be done. Whether the test subject survives is another story.
Top photo: Lezyne, Hat Tip to Derek!
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I love cars and car related things. But my family almost became a state statistic because of one. A young male driver almost killed myself, my two young kids and my wife while we were biking to go get ice cream. He was cutting the corner from a 55mph road to a 35mph side road. We were approaching the stop sign and heard his squealing tires as he was clipping the apex of his left hand track day move. We were almost at the apex. He pulled over and apologized, and was as shaken up as we were. We never road bicycles on public roads ever again. One brush with death with family and that’s enough. I sometimes wish I lived in another country. I’ve been to places in Europe and would absolutely ride there. The USA is not as great as the hype suggests.
A 12 year old Altima would work as well.
Coal blowing F250s driven by criminally negligent asshats are far more dangerous to cyclists. Unfortunately this thing would do nothing to mitigate that particular danger.
As a cyclist, here is my list of worst drivers when it comes to cyclist safety:
Oddly enough, the bro truck demographic is largely split. Many are very courteous, but when they are bad, wow are they bad. But Infiniti drivers are the worst. It is almost like they have a chip on their shoulder, for which I don’t blame them. They are driving an Infiniti after all….
Suprisingly good though? Yard guys. You assume they would be terrible with their run down trailers on the way to the next neighborhood, but they are great. Probably because, unlike pool guys, they are their own business owners and have something to lose if they do something dumb. Thank you, yard guys!
I don’t bike anymore due to bad knees and a worse back, but I too am generally impressed with the relative care taken by yard guys driving old Toyota pickups that likely have half a million miles on them. Like you said, they probably have a more realistic fear of potential consequences than does some 20-year-old driving a $70,000. domestic fullsize truck while sucking on his vape pen.
I hypothesize that the yard guys know what it’s like, because they mow and trim next to the road. Whereas the pool guys only see the back yard.
You are missing the biggest threat: goddamn Amazon drivers who not only park in any bike lane they feel like, but happily veer over and come to a complete stop ten feet in front of you, then act befuddled when you point out their unsafe bullshit.
Oddly enough have had literally zero issues in thousands of miles with regards to Amazon, or really any package delivery service come to think of it.
Oh, and for those that swing insanely wide, pulling all the way into the oncoming lane to give riders space, you aren’t helping. You’re actually making it more dangerous considering you might cause that oncoming car to swerve into the cyclist. We don’t need freaking 20ft of space. Drive straight and predictable, give us 3 feet, and be on your way. We’ll all be better for it……
Used to ride a bike on a 14 mile loop for exercise. Stopped that 2 years ago as too many close shaves between my left thigh and right front fenders passing me where the driver was most likely distracted by phone or dash screen. Now I occasionally load the bike in my car and drive over to the local high school where I can .75 mile laps as well go out on the local back roads with far less traffic and moving at lower speeds. As a driver I have watched many bicyclist ride as if share the road means we ride anywhere and how we want, side by side, etc., and all others must accommodate them. Physics 101 says not a good idea.
Ram trucks 100% of the time. Never cars. I bought an American flag bike shirt to give rednecks an existential crisis as they throw beer bottles at my head. They also like to roll coal when they pass me. I guess I’m a threat. The beer bottle throwing is not hyperbole. That being said, big groups of cyclists on Sundays morning exhibit dickish behavior. Dickishness expands geometrically with numbers of riders.
Two things.
1. This company my find itself in a legal squirmish with Ford for portraying it’s oroduct in a negative light.
2. Yes, bicycles have a legal right to use the roads same as cars. However they also have a legal obligation to follow the same rules of the road. Trouble is they do not and have not in the 36 years I’ve been driving.
I live in an area lousy with bicycle tourists. I can attest to this.
In most states (usually that’s the ruling entity) the rules are NOT the same and there are differences in what is required and allowed. I live in a state where rolling a stop sign and a red light is allowed by a cyclist and there are legit reasons for this. We can also ride two abreast…but I don’t recommend this. Personally I try to behave like a car just to avoid the hate and negative perceptions that I may be reinforcing. All the while, your assessment that cyclist many times break the law/rules is not incorrect and it’s safe to assume many cyclists don’t know the difference in their rules of the road vs cars. And for some riders, the instinct of self-preservation just doesn’t seem that strong.
I can’t help but also mention that as a cyclist I’m hyper aware of car/driver behavior and it is shocking how bad most people are…and then there is the behavior of the people who really dislike us.
Pretty sure cyclists can be counted on not to speed though.
It is one of my most desperate life goals to get a speeding ticket as a cyclist. A friend of a friend got one, and has it framed in his living room (no e-bike, muscle power only, 34 in a 25 zone).
Featuring an Altima with yellowed headlights and missing hubcap would have been a bit on the nose.
Before I got my driver’s license (in CA) I had to ride five miles home from school every day on a two-lane 55 mph country road. The shoulder between the white line and a ditch was usually less than two feet wide. It was terrifying to hear a big truck approaching from behind and anticipate its “bow wake.” This device wouldn’t have helped much. I could hear them coming.
It’s part of the reason why I prefer riding motorcycles or a scooter that can go with the flow of traffic instead of constantly being overtaken by motor vehicles. I get that in a collision, I’m going to lose. But I am far less likely to be clobbered from behind.
Oh, I’d be more afraid of a modern truck with it’s fucking 7 foot tall hood line than any Mustang. At least they might see me in the Mustang.. How 7 foot tall hood lines ever became legal will always escape me. Well, never mind, it won’t. Lobbies and $. In the 70s, 80,s 90,s and early 2000s we didn’t need a fucking step ladder to check the oil level in our trucks.
I have never driven a bike without the dorky rear view mirror strapped to the handle bar. If the a holes in cars can’t see me, I see them and know to move over. This is tech being tech for the sake of being tech. URGHHHH
I always ride with a rearview mirror that clips to left side of my eyeglasses. Sometimes I’m tempted to use it when I’m out on a walk.
That’s what I thought until I got one (Garmin in my case, communicates with my Garmin bike computer). I’m in a more rural area (relatively narrow roads, farm equipment, etc), and a convex mirror is useless until the car is right on top of me, otherwise the image is too small. The radar can tell me about it 200 yards away and the computer beeps loudly and shows the relatively location on screen. It’s highly reliable, so I don’t feel compelled to keep looking down at the mirror (which I still have as a backup), I can stay focused on what’s in front of me.
That ad is an odd scenario of that GT350 going down the gravel road chasing a woman. Seems creepy… Back to riding, I do swivel the head back on occasion when it’s getting tight on the side of the road but yeah a mirror isn’t too helpful and frankly im finding I’m riding more rail to trails or gravel routes with little traffic as I’ve known too many people who have been hit by cars cycling and some have permanent serious injuries… I know some cars have cyclist detection in their self driving systems or even alerts, particularly European brands where cycling is more common.
I will give another flipside, having done some crit rides and some racing I’ve seen some bad behavior by cyclists too, timing cars going thru intersections on red lights, weaving in and out of traffic to keep pace, pace lines splitting both sides of a car to keep a certain pace. In the end your a bike and whatever you weigh plus a few pounds for clothing and whatnot, that car is going to win that physics argument if it hits you…
It also shows a Subaru. Is that also a car driven by maniacs or do you just ignore that because it doesn’t fit your bias? In several of those scenes, the bike was in the middle of the road and could be expected to be run over. Bicycles belong on park trails not on public roadways that do not have bike lanes. I don’t drive my car on sidewalks just because there is no road available.
Wow. You are showing both a complete lack of sense of humour and no idea how few designated bicycle facilities are available outside of Europe. How do I ride a park trail to work in the CBD?
I wouldn’t spend any time replying to this guy. Also, I’ve found Subaru drivers to be just as bad as the Nissan Rogue driver. The dominant Subaru demo in my locale is NOT necessarily into being good drivers.
Cyclists have as much of a right to the road as car drivers. Here in California it’s the law.
Same here in Washington, and most if not all states. I grew up in (and then outside) of Davis, CA (the self-proclaimed “Bicycle capital of America.”) Visiting family down there these days, I’ve noticed a lot more road paint indicating bike lanes than when I was a kid. And where there aren’t dedicated bike lanes, a lot of “Share the road” signs with a bicycle icon. I have noticed a lot of similar green paint around here (Tacoma) in the past couple of years.
Here’s more about Davis and its bicycles:
Davis, California has a bicycle problem
And about halfway down this Wikipedia article:
Davis, California – Wikipedia
Signs and paint aren’t enough. It’s the culture that matters most. Where I used to live drivers were usually respectful of the numerous bicyclists. Where I live now, drivers seldom show respect for the few cyclists.
“Cyclists have as much of a right to the road as car drivers. Here in California it’s the law.”
Cyclists may also have just as much a right to the sidewalk as pedestrians:
https://www.bikelaw.com/2022/08/is-it-illegal-to-ride-bike-on-sidewalk
I hate the attitude that somehow, after paving damn near every available surface, that you need a car to be allowed in public. People should have the freedom to move about without having to spend thousands of dollars buying and maintaining a personal machine to do so.
I’d love to have more bicycle specific infrastructure to separate cars and bikes. But the more practical method most of the time is for drivers to not be dicks and pay attention to their surroundings.
Roads and streets predate the car by about 6000 years. Commercially available bicycles predate the automobile as well, but not by nearly as many years. The number of bicycles sold far outpaces the number of cars sold as well.
Just because you fantasize about murdering people with your car only showcases the fact that you are undoubtedly a sociopath. Let me guess, you like Mustangs?
Bullshit. Bicycles are allowed on the road. It is literally the law. That kind of vitriol is what inspires assholes to try to buzz bikers just for having the audacity to be on the shoulder of a public road.
Presumably, you’re already off to the side, so I’m not sure how much it helps if someone is going to run you over through malice or inattention. Also, WTH doesn’t it look like an old school radar display? I’m out.
I would argue that being killed on a bicycle might be an upgrade compared to some of the life-long injuries that can easily be sustained.
This brings up an interesting topic, how for whatever reason when it comes to statistics regarding unwanted outcomes, Americans only seem to consider death. As if there are no negative outcomes in between “perfectly healthy” and “brains embedded in an all-terrain tire”.
This goes with just about everything. We’re obsessed with how many people die after disasters, shootings, etc. But seem to totally gloss over the toll that major injuries have on people. Which is interesting, considering the state of healthcare in this country.
This is why I was ATGATT when I had a motorcycle. From what I’m told, severe road rash will make you wish you had died in the crash.
Then again, I’ve also heard that as justification for wearing no gear at all. “I’d rather die than be horribly injured” or something like that. Ignoring the many, many logical flaws in that argument.
Mirrors deserve a mention, but they only reveal what’s behind you when you look.
The value of the radar is that it can alert you to check.
And, as noted below, a Mustang isn’t what worries me on the roads. Pickups & larger SUVs are both worse, and (obvservationally) far less courteous to any other denizen of the road. The level of courtesy extended is inversely proportional to the size of the vehicle on the road & percieved prestige of the badge on the nose of said vehicle.
Um, someone invented an app, because a mirror was too complicated?
Came here to say exactly this. It does some but not all of what a mirror does.
I cycle over 3,000 miles a year (mostly on roads, always on an old MTB not a road bike). Seeing a car in a mirror about to hit me doesn’t really help. I guess I get to tense up for the impact?
What does help is wearing high-viz clothing, which has hugely reduced near misses. I’ve been wearing full high viz for 7 years, and in those 21,000 miles I’ve only been hit three times, and only one of those lead to hospitalisation.
I also follow all the laws, use cycle paths when the exist, pull over when there’s a car behind, and basically do everything I can not to be one of those cyclists everyone hates.
In summary: everyone hates cyclists and an beep and a warning light isn’t going to help a distracted driver see you.
Attaching a pool noodle horizontally on the back of your bike sometimes helps according to anecdote and rumor.
Maybe a bang stick for good measure.
“I’ve only been hit three times, and only one of those lead to hospitalization” sounds like terrible odds to me. You’re getting hit once every two years! I’ve got about 1500 miles in the last three years, I guess I should feel thankful I haven’t been hit yet?
Yep, terrible odds.
Dressing in road-worker style high viz has really helped. It cuts down on the distracted driver near misses and also the deliberate near misses from drivers who hate cyclists. Lycra and a road bike gets you more hate than dressing like a binman and riding an old MTB.
But the guy who put me in hospital “didn’t see” me. It was at night, I had five big lights on my bike and was wearing reflective high viz. He just didn’t look before pulling out in front of me.
While I do respect whatever it is that keeps you on a bike so much, maybe after getting hit three times it’s time to reconsider?
I imagine your next of kin having to tell people “Oh he was hit several times, but I guess the fifth time was the one that finally got him”. That would be bad. Being dead is a massive disappointment from what I can gather.
Maybe try a rowing machine?
I’ve modified my routes, equipment and riding strategies. Plus I’ve tried running, rowing, swimming and gym classes, and cycling is the only exercise I can stick with.
I’m fine with death, it’s the preceding pain I’m very keen to avoid.
To be fair, ideally I’d only ride MTB trails and my rate of self inflicted injury from that hugely outweighs what inattentive drivers can manage.
No one’s going to strap a mirror to their $10k road bike, nor would those riders be caught dead with one of those nifty sunglass clip on mirrors (I used to ride with one of those, it was great once you got used to it). Those things cost you a full megawatt of power at 20 mph! (/s)
The best argument I’ve heard for these radar systems is for cyclists who frequently do long road rides alone, where you might let your guard down and not have the same level of attentiveness to approaching cars as you get fatigued late in the ride. A device like this serves as useful reminder to move farther to the right or take a peek behind you when a car is approaching (especially on quieter roads where cars aren’t passing you as frequently). I personally don’t have one (and don’t do a lot of road riding these days) but in the grand scheme of modern cycling equipment, for the right type of road cyclist, it’s a relatively cheap bit of insurance to help keep you aware of your potentially lethal surroundings.
They’ve made things called mirrors for bikes for ages, any avid cyclist riding on the road uses one. The comment if they detect a car they can swerve out of the way, swerve where? as your generally riding the edge of road only option take a spill once your off the pavement. Bikers need to be aware, but drivers also.
Honestly, the racing/fast group riders. We never use mirrors. The bike mirror, isn’t great unless you strap a speed sucking motorcycle style mirror on the handlebar. Those little bar end and clip on sunglasses mirrors have a very narrow field of view. And you have to take your eyes of wheel in front of you to check it. The Garmin Varia is actually extremely common. Like half the riders on our Wednesday Worlds are using one. You can just listen for the noise and don’t have to take your eyes off the front of the group. Can’t think of a single dude who could hold 20+mph with a mirror on their bike. Products like this are really for a specific use case, that does very much exist and solves a need. But, unless you’re like a local fast rider or racing gravel, it’s just not something the average weekend warrior doing 15mph on Sunday is running into.
I feel seen. I went for a gravel ride on Sunday morning and my average was around 15-17 mph depending on surface ha
It’s a Mustang for the meme, but the real villain is gigantic pickup trucks. They’ll kill you stone dead and the driver will only have to pay $2,500.
https://www.jalopnik.com/1937183/pickup-driver-ran-cyclists-1-year-jail/
Does anyone remember the story of the teen that hit 6 cyclists while trying to roll coal on them? I wonder what happened there. Nothing? What a shock.
https://archive.ph/3tLtL
Came to here to say this. As a bicyclist, I remember…
#MeToo
A combination of massive lane swallowing size, awful forward visibility, enormous frontal area, and toxic attitudes towards people on bikes that make the pickup truck the #1 enemy of people riding bikes.
Obviously #notalltrucks but damn, the number of times my family has been ignored in a bike path crosswalk by pickup trucks cannot be counted on my hands. Or toes for that matter.
Also the permanently extended tow mirrors
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-safety/the-hidden-danger-of-big-pickup-trucks-a9662450602/
“CR analysis of industry data shows that the hood height of passenger trucks has increased by an average of at least 11 percent since 2000 and that new pickups grew 24 percent heavier on average from 2000 to 2018. On some heavy-duty trucks, such as the Ford F-250, the front edge of the hood is now 55 inches or more off the ground…” (My car is 56 inches tall.)
Following the killing of Heather Heyer in the white supremacist terrorist Charlottesville car attack, several states (Iowa, Oklahoma, and Florida) passed laws pretty much granting immunity to drivers who run over protestors.
The front of most new full sized trucks resemble brick walls now, they difficult for the driver to see past and increasingly deadly to pedestrians and cyclists.
Considering that a heavy duty Sierra with a factory/dealer lift recently tried to run over my daughter and I while walking through a grocery store parking lot, none of these numbers are surprising to me.
I am well aware, I have two cars under 52 inches (one of them is less than 47), parking between two pickups feels that trench on the Death Star
Yeah, they run runners off the road too. There’s a subset of these owners that are just plain evil.
Wahoo and Garmin have similar systems as well and are the main brands in the market. I don’t put a lot of weight into the idea in general since there wouldn’t be much a rider could do. There are always cars behind you when you are on the road; it isn’t like having a screen alert you would make a difference.
Plus, Mustangs aren’t the real threat. There aren’t enough of them on the road. It is the plethora of isolation tank pickups designed to murder anything they hit with terrible visibility and drivers distracted by the televisions glued to their dashboards.
This reply could have been thrown in anywhere…
I have a Garmin Varia and one thing to note is that the taillight in it can be set up to flash rapidly with a different cadence once a car is detected. Of course the hope is that it grabs the inattentive drivers attention more so then a static bright light.
As both a bike and car enthusiast, this reminds me of that weird 1930’s “Sir Vival” safety car concept wherein the driver is supposed to duck down into the safety chamber in an impending crash. Interesting idea but this bike radar thing is taking my attention away from riding, and where am I supposed to go when the radar says a car is about to hit me? I guess I could bunny hop up into the sidewalk? Interesting idea but in the real world… I don’t know. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/automobiles/collectibles/23SAFE.html
I don’t ride with a radar (yet, anyhow), but if you’re riding in the country where traffic is very low, you might reasonably take the lane. These radars have a range of about 140 meters, which should give you a few seconds to react.
I could see the merit in having similar utility to a car’s blind spot monitoring, saving you from turning in front of something in case you miss it in a shoulder check.
I’ve got a riding buddy with a radar warning thingy. It does come in handy because we’re fairly rural, so we can ride side-by-side for a while…until we can’t. His radar tells us when we can’t.
I’ve got some roads that consistently have a lot of debris on the shoulder and my Garmin radar allows me to comfortably (confidently?) ride “in” the road for brief periods to avoid it.
Very interesting. Riding side by side with your buddy/pal/sweetheart, Ponch-and-John style, is one of the greatest pleasures of cycling.