I spend most of my holiday time drafting smelly reindeer, but when I get time to cycle with Silver Wheels I prefer to draft off Pete and Nancy. I really like their fancy rear Garmin lights because they are so much smarter than my normal rear blinkie lights. 

The Garmin Varia is a radar system that warns you about vehicles approaching from the rear from up to 450 feet away. It detects if there is more than one vehicle behind you and tells you the speed of approach and a threat level. The tail light even brightens and flashes faster to warn the motorist too. You can mount the head unit on your handlebars or you can integrate it wirelessly with your Edge 1000. (You need to be a very good little boy or girl for me to get you both the Varia and the Edge 1000.)

Our friends at GCN sent me an excellent “on the road” review of the Varia too that will help you understand the features better.