Count me in as a huge fan of the Varia, I have the first model using it with my Edge 810.

You can pre-order on REI and apply 20% off if you a COOP member.

No issues hearing on both 1000 and 1030 Verion 1 and the new radar. check your firmware and settings

How do I know if I am buying the old version of the rear radar unit, or the new version?

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

They look different

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

visit garmin's homepage.. they are night and day different in looks

I have old version and the fly 6 on the back. Lots of lights, radar, and video. About all you can do .......

Well if you really do not want a head unit, you could always buy the bundle that comes with a Display unit. Not sure it is worth the extra $100, but it might be if you do not have a need or want for a separate cycling head unit.

I've been using the original version of the Varia for a little less than a year with a garmin 520 head unit. I'm a huge fan of it and will probably never ride without it (except for races). At times it can be hard to hear the audible beep depending on what other noise is around (cars coming towards you from the front), but I'm mostly able to hear the alert at various speeds. Garmin just had a sale on the Varia Vision unit so I got one. Today was my first ride with it and I'm glad I added it. It allows me to focus more on the road.

The only time that I don't get notified or the car doesn't show up is when a car turns from a side street right after you pass it and follows behind you. I'd be interested to hear if the new Varia addresses this issue. It's not perfect, but it is way better than mirrors or trusting your hearing or occasionally looking behind (IMO).

After jordon rapp got hit and said he would never ride a bike without a rear light again. Neither have I.

I have a fly 6. Another long light on rear stay and now this.

It’s awesome.

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This thread was one of the reasons I purchased the Varia RTL510... and after the first ride I ordered my wife one too. An expensive afternoon for sure. However, it's hands down some of the best bike tech I've used in a LONG time.

Here's my long-ish take on it (skip to about 1/2 way for the on-road examples): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az6_XX9bIMs

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Shane Miller - GPLama
YouTube | Web | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Strava

Does the new version tail light flash change as the car gets closer to the rider?

Yes it gets brighter

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Jim

**Note above poster works for a retailer selling bikes and related gear*

OK, I watched the video. You're lucky in that the roads you ride on have a shoulder suitable for riding. In my area, there are no shoulders. So even if there are cars behind me, there's not much I can do about it -- I have no where to go to get out of their way. And the Varia can't tell me that the car is not moving over and is going to hit me (if I knew that, I could try to take my chances going off road), so the only help would be when I need to move across the lane to make a left turn (America) or maybe I would have some awareness in the case of a road hazard where I might just run over it rather than dodge out if I knew a car was overtaking me.

So with your experience using this, do you think it would be much help in my environment?

I think it might be even more useful in your case, where the cars will pass you with even less room than usual. One of the reasons I bought this is to be aware of cars approaching so I could hug the ride side (US) as much as possible. There are many times before I had this when cars passing me really close it startled me to the point that I could've swerved into the cars.

Yes, I bet you'd still get good info from it.
I may have missed other complaints, but the big one is not hearing the beep. To test this, turn on 'key tones' and next ride, get up to speed and change pages. If you can hear that beep, no problem. The radar alert beep is may be a higher tone, so if anything, it will be more piercing through the wind.

So, that complaint aside, is there anyone that bought this and is not satisfied?

As another long time forum person I know your thoughts are good & reliable. I'm about to make the jump to something from just relying on my ears & turning my head. The RTL 510 seems like the best for me & best out there. Worth the money. Mirrors never worked. My 2 concerns though:

I have a Edge 810 & 920xt, both of which I'm happy with & meet my needs. Do you know if it will work with them? I know the original varia was compatible with the 810 .

I'm wondering if there are alternate locations to mount it (secure to bumps) to like the rear stay or.. I have multiple bikes I'd want to move it between, all with single mounted bottle mounted on saddle or seatpost which I use as a way to store extra clothing etc in cut off water bottle as needed. Don't know if it needs to be mounted at a certain height & or center of the bike rider.

Thanks,

Barb

The RTL510 works with the 810 no problem. My battery life has been kind of poor however, like 40% gone after a 3 hour ride. I've used my 810 hard for 3 years though so the battery is definitely degraded to some extent. I ordered one of the replacement battery kits for $20 or so to see if it improves the situation.

I'm not sure the mount would work well on something as skinny as a seat stay but if you could figure out a mounting solution I think the radar itself would function fine.

I use the original Varia with my 520 and battery life is awful. Did an hour ride the other day and was down to about 25% charge.

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I ride:
Cervelo - P-Series/R3
GT - Sensor Carbon Expert

Supporters - Flo Cycling, Mount Bikes

So don't. The safest thing is to "own the lane", i.e., ride far enough away from the edge of the road that cars behind you can't pass when there are oncoming vehicles.

It is far better to hold up traffic and piss off drivers than it is to be killed by someone who clips you with, e.g., their mirror when they try to squeeze by.

That's a bummer, I guess all of the alerts from the radar really drain the battery. I was thinking if my 810 doesn't improve with the replacement battery it would be a good excuse to upgrade to a 520/520 plus, but if the battery life will still suck it's probably not worth it.

Late to the thread but I got hit Sept 30, 2017 & stayed on the trails for most of the winter. Have done 2 "Xterra" type tris this year.

Back on the road now and have the Varia 2.0: Game Changer!!! Will not ride without it ever again!

Every cyclist on the road should have one of these.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Thanks for the nice comments. I really am totally sold on my Varia and feel it has not only helped me feel more secure and in control, I have found cars give me more room when passing. Perhaps they see the beam width grow and it affects them but it is too coincidental to not be the Varia.
I've used mine with my 920xt, but usually have the Garmin 520. Mine is fine for 5 hours, so not sure what other's issues are. As far as attaching to bikes, I have mostly aero seat posts, but swap the bracket back and forth in less than 2 minutes by using the O-Ring type attachments. I actually even doubled up the o-rings in case one broke. I would think that extra mount brackets could be purchased, but given how little time and effort it takes me I have resisted that.

Rode with mine tonight for the first time. Even with a bit of a wind and noise from mountain bike knobbies on pavement, I didn't really have much trouble hearing the beep from my 520. A few times it didn't really catch my attention, though, as my brain apparently just wrote it off as a bird chirping (quite rural where I was riding). I suspect that it would be hard to hear under noisier conditions, e.g., heavier traffic.

As for the radar itself, it worked pretty much as advertised. There were a couple of times when it lost track of a vehicle, once when it turned on to the road going my direction right after I went past, and once when my wife was approaching me very slowly from behind.

All in all I consider it $200 well spent. If the vision in my left eye were better and my neck as flexible as it was when I was younger, though, a simple tail light might be just as good (depending on where one rides, of course).

Mine would last 5 hours too, more like 7 or 8. But for a device that claims 15 hours of battery life I don't find half of that acceptable. Especially when sometimes I do rides in that ballpark.

That being said I concur with the consensus that the actual function of the radar is fantastic. It's probably enough to make me stick with garmin when I upgrade instead of considering wahoo unless they start supporting the radar ant+ profile.

I bought one of the version 2 units a couple of weeks ago for my commute, I wouldn't be without it now, I don't trust it if I need to cut across the lane for a right turn (UK) but several times it has said that a car is following me, and I couldn't hear anything, I have turned round to check and seen the car!

It also has a mount for my aero seatpost so I will be using it during races as well.

Can't recommend it highly enough. I have it paired with my 520 edge, and 935 watch.