garmin varia is excellent
- Thread starter vincent
- Start date
fooferdoggie
Well-Known Member
what I the about it is it will go off like crazy on about anything when your parked and stuff goes by even humans.
WattsUpDude
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- San Francisco, Bay Area
I tell my kids that it's a magic. I like to let them out of the Burley so they can burn some energy when we are on trails. When they hear the Varia alert, they now know to move to the right side of the path to let other pedestrians and cyclists through. It's good training.
WilliamT
Active Member
I have the varia attached under my bike seat on my non e-bike. It just sits sideways, but works fine.
Djangodog
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Claremont, NH
I have been using the Varia with my Garmin 830 for a few years. My wife turned her nose up at it when I suggested that she should have one too. Because I don’t want to lose her, I bought one and put it on her bike along with the Varia display, (It would be easily removable if she hated it). Now she tells everyone that they should have one. She thinks that it is a great safety device.
As far as having to charge one goes, I just charge all of the Garmin equipment on Sunday evening. It’s not a big deal.
Our Varias are mounted to our Topeak saddle bags. Twist on-twist off. It doesn’t get much easier than that and it doubles as a blinking light.
As far as having to charge one goes, I just charge all of the Garmin equipment on Sunday evening. It’s not a big deal.
Our Varias are mounted to our Topeak saddle bags. Twist on-twist off. It doesn’t get much easier than that and it doubles as a blinking light.
WattsUpDude
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- San Francisco, Bay Area
Does the saddle bag have a built in mount?
I do love the versatility of Garmin mounts. It's almost on par with the ubiquitous GoPro mount. Here's an "out-front" mount that I use on the Burley:
fooferdoggie
Well-Known Member
I have made all kinds of mounts for the radar. for our burley trailer for our wehoo trailer both bike racks
Comfortably Numb
Well-Known Member
How decent is the tail light in the Varia? I'm thinking going the non tail light version and running with lights I already have. CN
fooferdoggie
Well-Known Member
I think of it as backup lighting. they were the same price a month ago.
conix67
Member
- Region
- Canada
It is very good (visibility to cars behind) but to me it is better than a separate light for 2 reasons
- Works with the Radar (changes blinking pattern when a car approaches behind to alert the driver)
- No need to charge another device
I think the light in my Varia RTL515 is way too bright. In my view it's passed the level required for capturing attention and into the dazzling range.
Regardless it's a very useful and well designed device.
Cheers
I know...old thread but...
Man this Garmin Varia has been FANTASTIC. The only 'false alarms' (if you even consider this to be a false alarm) is when the Varia picks up cross-traffic/perpendicular traffic after crossing through a street...and I don't find this to be an irritant whatsoever. The Varia has really given me a great sense of additional freedom to utilize the road and Varia warns me of upcoming rear traffic LONG before I would have otherwise been aware. I was very skeptical that I 'needed' such a device at all. Now that I've used the Varia for some months....If it got lost or broken....I would replace it immediately. I really like this thing.
Man this Garmin Varia has been FANTASTIC. The only 'false alarms' (if you even consider this to be a false alarm) is when the Varia picks up cross-traffic/perpendicular traffic after crossing through a street...and I don't find this to be an irritant whatsoever. The Varia has really given me a great sense of additional freedom to utilize the road and Varia warns me of upcoming rear traffic LONG before I would have otherwise been aware. I was very skeptical that I 'needed' such a device at all. Now that I've used the Varia for some months....If it got lost or broken....I would replace it immediately. I really like this thing.
fooferdoggie
Well-Known Member
I get false notifications when I am still or just starting. my hose will set it off parked cars and such.
Hopefully minimal. 99.9% of the time for me a notification indicates an upcoming vehicle.
Prairie Dog
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Canada
- City
- Red Deer
I don’t leave the house without mine. It’s a top-notch piece of kit that anyone should consider if they ride where there’s any considerable amount of vehicular traffic. My daily route involves travelling along rural roads and, at times, secondary highways so I value the Varia’s familiar audible chirps and visual cues. Sure, there are times when incidents involving cross or even parallel trafficking occur, but those are relatively insignificant when the unit is functioning accurately the rest of the time particularly when tracking multiple targets. Sometimes when I'm riding downhill the wind noise makes it impossible to hear cars behind me but I can still hear the alerts calling out to me from my Garmin HU or phone.
As far as audible alerts: On my Vado 4.0 I rely on the TCU for chirps and it is typically adequate. On my Vado SL which is a non-Mastermind equipped bike I use the Garmin Varia phone application. When riding the SL and using my phone app for the Varia I use my Shokz headphones connected to my phone via bluetooth and I get the chirps loud/clear and unmistakable via the Shokz headphones. Awesome to hear ambient sounds perfectly while still assuring that I hear the electronic chirps flawlessly.
I could use the app when riding the Vado 4.0 but the TCU is, like I said, good enough.
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