Pair a radar. Hear the road behind you.
BikeTalk pairs with any Bluetooth cycling radar — Garmin Varia (RTL515, RVR315, RCT715, eRTL615, RearVue 820), Bryton Gardia, and others — and speaks approaching vehicles out loud through your headphones.
No beeps to decode. No screen to glance at. Just the words cyclists have been yelling for decades:
"Car back, 80 feet."
"2 cars, 60 feet."
"Wicked fast!"
"Clear."
One radar. Every phone in range.
This is what no other app does.
Solo
Your radar, your phone, your callouts. Mount the phone on your bars, headphones in, ride.
Leader and followers
Only one rider needs to own a radar. The rider at the front has the radar; riders behind in Bluetooth range hear every callout the leader does. No pairing between phones, no setup. Everyone protected.
Group ride
The whole peloton hears every callout from every radar. Add the intercom and you can talk to each other too — peer-to-peer, no cell signal, no servers.
BikeTalk listens to the radar's open Bluetooth broadcast — read-only, no configuration, no control of the radar itself. Any phone within range hears it.
Designed for your pocket
BikeTalk is built to work from your pocket. Drop your phone in your jersey, put on your headphones, and ride. Everything important comes through the audio — radar callouts, group chat, heart rate, time, weather. You don't need to look at your phone.
If you do mount your phone on your bars, even better — the rich visual cockpit is the bonus view. But it's not required.
Why BikeTalk
Spoken callouts, not beeps
"Car back, 80 feet." The phrase every cyclist already knows, in the moment it matters. Choose a Boston Cop voice (default, with "Wicked fast!" closing-speed callouts), Boston Woman, or neutral default.
Works with any Bluetooth headphones
AirPods, Shokz, bone conduction headsets, helmet speakers — whatever you ride with. Eyes on the road, hands on the bars.
Group intercom built in
Talk to your group when you want to. Tap the mic, or toggle with your headphone's play/pause button. Multiple riders can speak at once — it's a conversation, not a walkie-talkie. Peer-to-peer over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (the same technology as AirDrop). No cell signal. No account. No server. ~60m range.
Full bike computer underneath
Heart rate (any Bluetooth HR strap), power with L/R balance (any Bluetooth power meter), speed, location, weather, route home, ride duration, pass count. Big numbers, dark UI, designed for road speed. Mount your phone — or keep it in your pocket. Either way, you're set.
No account, no tracking, no subscription
No sign-up, no data collection, no servers. Audio between riders is peer-to-peer and never recorded. Free forever.
Why not just use the Garmin Varia app?
| BikeTalk | Garmin Varia app | Cadence | Wahoo / Garmin head unit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spoken callouts | ✅ | ❌ (tones) | ❌ (beeps) | ❌ (screen) |
| One radar, multiple phones | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Group voice intercom | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| HR + power | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ subscription | ✅ |
| Free | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ subscription | ❌ $200–600 |
| No account | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
How it works
Open the app
No account, no sign-up. The app generates a handle for you (like "RedFalcon"). Mount your phone on your bars.
Pair a radar
In Settings, pair any Bluetooth cycling radar tail light — Garmin Varia, Bryton Gardia, and others. Once paired, BikeTalk listens whenever the radar is on.
Hear the road
When a car approaches, you hear "Car back, 80 feet" through your headphones. When it passes, you hear "Clear." That's it.
Built by a cyclist in Boston
BikeTalk started as a fix for one problem: yelling "Car back!" into the wind doesn't work. Then it turned out that one radar could protect every phone in range. Then a whole group. Then it needed a bike computer underneath so you could actually use it as your daily ride setup.
No company, no subscription, no growth metrics. Just an app that does what it should.
Made by Digital Gemba. Also from us: BikeBatt — never start a ride with a dead battery.