Lezyne Radar Drive Rear review: excellent performance and you can throw in a front light for the same price as Garmin's RearVue 820

Lezyne’s Radar React can be used with a GPS, or without a bike computer through the free app. Uniquely, it can also be paired with the Lezyne React Drive front light, which has both a warning light on its rear and an audible warning alert. 

Performance from the rear light and the radar system are impressive, although my test unit developed a rattle.

The Radar React's price tag of £170 / $179.99 / €169.95 makes it an affordable alternative to premium options such as Garmin’s RearVue 820.

What's really impressive, though, is you can buy it as a set with the front light for an RRP of £260 (cheaper prices are available if you shop around). That's the same as the RearVue 820, which doesn't include a front light.

Lezyne Radar Drive Rear setup 

Setting up the lights through Lezyne's app is easy. It provides the ability to switch through light modes and, if paired with the React front light, run through its modes too, as well as the Radar Drive’s radar warning modes.

You can also use the large top-mounted button on the light to switch through light modes. 

Lezyne Radar Drive Rear fitting 

Of all the radars on test, the Radar Drive looks most like a standard rear light.

It comes with two lengths of mounting strap and adaptors for D-shaped and aero posts. The built-in mount is suitable for round posts.

The light, while chunky, is noticeably more compact than its rivals, so the fit is secure and there were no issues fitting it to even the smallest frames. 

Lezyne Radar Drive Rear performance 

The stability of Lezyne's light is excellent, and the sturdy strap and compact size secure things firmly, although my test light had an irritating rattle. The light's performance was impressive, too, with the wraparound lens offering huge amounts of visibility from all angles.  

I’m not a fan of flashing rear lights, but Lezyne's claimed flash mode run time is impressive at 20 hours. On the medium-power solid mode, I got around seven and a half hours before the light switched automatically to low-power mode – Lezyne claims this occurs after nine hours.  

The unit features a built-in sleep mode, where it semi-shuts down after two hours if left unused. This meant that more than a few times I thought the light was off, but it would still connect to my Garmin head unit when I’d left it inside the house while testing another radar.

This often meant the battery level was a lot lower than I’d expected when wanting to use it. To turn off the light fully, it needs a long press of the on/off button to pass through the sleep mode and shut down – this is not obvious from the instructions. 

When paired with the front light rather than head unit or app, the back of the React light flashes red when a vehicle is approaching from more than 50m away, and when it gets closer than 50m, it turns solid. The flashing comes in later than the head unit detection, but only marginally – importantly, it does warn you, which is what I want.

Unlike some of its rivals, the Lezyne radar doesn’t have a brake-light function. 

The radar performance is strong. The detection distance is among the longest of the units I tested, at more than 140 metres. Impressively, it has a wide angle of detection.

There’s a section of bike path on my commute that’s more than 5m from the main road and the radar continually picked up approaching traffic there. This also meant on twisty, single-lane rural roads, it picked up cars that were out of view, which is impressive.

Like all radars, bar the Garmin RearVue 820, the unit suffered from the occasional disappearing vehicle when moving at the same speed. However, the Radar Drive is noticeably better than the BBB, Bryton and Wahoo radars in this respect.

Lezyne Radar Drive Rear bottom line 

Lezyne's clever idea of pairing a rear radar with a front light works well. Combine that with the fact that the full system costs the same as Garmin’s RearVue 820 and it's a compelling reason to buy.

The performance as a light is excellent – it's comfortably one of the brightest on test, matching the larger BBB, but the difference is the solid radar performance.

My only concern is the rattle the rear light developed – I spoke to Lezyne about this and it appears to be an anomaly with the early test units’ damping insert.

Lezyne says it hasn’t had any reports of the issue from consumers and my unit is covered under the warranty terms, so it sent out a replacement.