When you’re riding a motorcycle, other vehicles on the road can be a serious threat. If you don’t spot them, or they don’t spot you, you can be in for a whole world of hurt. Now, though, you can purchase your very own motorbike radar to keep you safe and aware of the situation around you. Watch your six!
Motorcycle manufacturers have been exploring radar technology for some time. Earlier this year, Mercedes Streeter gave us a great insight into the blind-spot, collision warning, and radar cruise hardware implemented on bikes from companies like BMW and Indian. The technology is not dissimilar from what you might find in a wide range of modern cars, and it works in much the same way.
However, aftermarket player Garmin has taken things further with its Zumo R1 Radar. Beyond simple collision warnings and small display markers, you can kit out a whole radar screen that mounts directly to your handlebars to track incoming bandits fellow road users as you ride.
Released earlier this year, Garmin markets the R1 as a “rearview and blindspot motorcycle radar.” Much like the technology being fitted by OEMs, it’s intended to help provide riders with greater awareness of other vehicles on the road. It’s sold as an aftermarket kit that can be fitted to any motorcycle in a discreet fashion. The primary component is the rear sensor, which is designed to mount to a bike’s license plate. It’s then hooked up to a pair of “heads-up” indicator lights—left and right—which are mounted on the handlebars for the rider.
The heads-up lights glow red when traffic is approaching from the rear. If a car behind moves to pass on one side or the other, the corresponding light on that side lights up to warn the rider of their approach. It’s the same sort of functionality baked into the wing mirrors of most cars on the market these days. It can also provide audio alerts via Bluetooth headset or by pairing with a smartphone.
As an additional safety measure, the system can also be programmed to turn on an auxiliary rear light when vehicles are detected approaching from behind. This is intended to provide the greatest likelihood of the bike being spotted by other drivers.
Garmin could have just built the system with the aforementioned features and called it a day. It would have been a win for motorcycle safety, but otherwise not particularly interesting. However, Garmin did the thing we all wanted them to do. They gave the R1 a proper functioning plan position indicator (PPI). You know—the screen that shows incoming enemies—just like a fighter radar in the movies!
If you pair the R1 with your smartphone or the Zumo XT2 sat-nav device, you get a display that shows you what the radar sees. The graphics aren’t quite what you’d find in an F-35, but it’s the same deal. Your bike is in the center of the display, and you get moving indicators that denote the cars around you on the road. Few of us get to engage in aerial combat with enemies in supersonic fighter jets, but you can live out a fraction of that fantasy by putting a working radar on your very own motorcycle.
[Mercedes note: The only functional difference between the Garmin radar system and the Indian Motorcycle radar system is the screen. Indian uses a simpler and arguably less distracting method of lighting up your mirrors when something is in your blind spot and lighting up a portion of the instrument cluster to notify you when the radar has detected someone is riding/driving close to you. You probably shouldn’t be staring at the “bogeys” on your Garmin screen because then you are no longer staring at the road.
Also, in case it isn’t clear because of the press imagery, this device adds a screen to your bike; it does not replace any existing instrumentation.
The Garmin system also has the same limitations as the Indian system. It cannot see in front of the bike, and in a worst-case scenario, all it’s going to do is flash your brake lights and give you a bogey on your screen for the second or two before a distracted driver rear-ends you. I’m just saying that as a reminder that, ultimately, you still need to be vigilant and defensive as a rider. No gizmo is a replacement for knowing how to ride safely. Good luck! – MS]
Ultimately, systems like this are a useful tool. They help riders stay more aware of the vehicles around them, and they help other drivers do the same. The fact that Garmin threw in the radar screen mode is just an incredibly cool bonus. I’ve honestly always been disappointed that automakers haven’t done that, so it’s nice to see the aftermarket stepping up instead.
Image credits: Garmin/depositphotos.com
Technically, it’s interesting, but mirrors and head on a swivel have worked for me for 47 years of riding. On some bikes you have to do a couple of small, quick “clearing turns” to make sure nobody’s in your blind spots, like I did in a Cessna.
Some bikes have better mirror placement than others.
Garmin is a fascinating company. When I bought one of their portable GPS StreetPilot units in 1998, I was totally unaware that they were getting big in aviation and marine navigation. I thought their goose was cooked when smart phones with GPS came out.
How wrong I was. Now they have ~22,000 employes around the world and had sales of more than $6 Billion last year. Their glass IPs dominate in both fixed wing and helicopter cockpits. And who knows what they’re doing with the military.
Ive ridden a Multistrada with the rear radar and blind spot warning and found the added lights a nice addition to riding in traffic. Having the radar map seems a bit silly but the exact kind of silly I want. Now to add flares and Chaff to my Street Triple.
Flares and Chaff! The thought of that cracked me up!!
Mercedes, I appreciate your note.
Now that ADS-B displays are common in the cockpits of all manner of planes flown by all manner of pilots, aviators are spending a lot more time with their eyes inside watching traffic (and the magenta line) on their screens instead of scanning the skies.
If this sort of display is a hazard in aviation, where the sky is still mighty big, it’s bound to be even moreso on the roads where folks are operating within inches of each other.
Of course, I would hope that motorcycle riders still have enough sense and enough skin in the game to keep their head on a swivel …
I really did not need yet another reason to want to buy a motorcycle. Sigh…
Any reason this couldn’t be adapted to cars?
a brief google tells me that aftermarket blind spot monitors are fairly common
You could quite literally just bolt this on to your car as is.
That was kind of my point. They are marking this as a motorcycle device, but it could be used in any land based vehicle.
I would think they wouldn’t narrow their market so much
Fighter plane radar requires missiles, something radar homing for cars, and maybe some anti-radar for pesky speed cameras
Cool idea, but I think mounting one of these on the handlebars is too far out of your field of view to be easily noticeable. What would be really awesome would be a helmet with these sensors, and a heads up display in the helmet visor. Bonus if you have more than one bike. I would be willing to pay a substantial amount of money for something like that.
I use small adjustable fish eye mirrors on both mirrors of my motorcycle. They help immensely and only cost a couple bucks.
So, I have to acquire the cycle defense missiles from another source?
I feel like instead of the big add on screen it may do better to be a simpler hud type unit to add to the helmet. Also with missile lock indicator, and missiles….
the lights on my mirrors are plenty to let me know there’s a car in my blind spot I should verify before switching lanes
I wouldn’t trust any system on its own, and having it on its own screen seems like poor UI and just a distraction
I would much rather have a large, multi-barrelled gun rise up and point at the car heading for me. Very intimidating and gives the driver an opportunity to mend their ways.