Opinions on Garmin Varia

[ColinJ]

The absolute worst drivers to encounter on narrow hilly roads are the polite ones who wait for you at the top of a hill. You then feel duty bound to put in a bit of an effort to reduce their wait. They sit there smiling pleasantly as you push yourself to the brink of death. It would be much kinder if they just ploughed on and forced you into the hedge.

That is very true. I had one way over-patient driver do that in Devon above a 300+ metre long climb at around 15%. There was a passing place where I was at the bottom of the ramp so I pulled in and indicated to the driver that he should come down. Nope... He stayed up there flashing his headlights at me to come on up. Oh, super!!

 

[ColinJ]

I have ordered the 4 seatpost mounts. They are coming on a slow boat from China so I may not get them until January, but I won't be riding any other bike until at least March so that isn't a problem. About £25 all-in.

I think that they must have actually come by plane, because RM just delivered them.

They look just like the ones that @Dadam bought, only twice the price... Serves me right for not catching up with the thread before ordering!

The mount seems really secure so I can't imagine the RTL515 ever coming loose. The only reason to think about a backup lanyard would be concerns about the hinge on the mount. It looks good, but if anything were to fail it would be that.

 

[ColinJ]

I did a 3 hour radar test ride a couple of days ago.

The first 25 minutes were trouble-free but during the rest of the ride I got 4 recoverable radar errors. I think that the way these are handled by the Wahoo Bolt is daft! Ok, for an error requiring a device reset, display the error message until that reset has been done. In my case though, the system worked perfectly well after a button was pressed on the Bolt, so why not just issue a warning beep, display the error message for (say) 5 seconds, and not bother with the button press at all, or make it optional?

I did find the device useful. It consistently gave me warnings long before I would have spotted vehicles in my new Zefal Spy mirror (which I also liked, BTW). Once I knew that vehicles were on the way, I paid more attention to the mirror.

I had read about vehicles travelling at the same speed as the bike disappearing from the radar, so I was watching out for that. Riding along the Halifax Rd, I pulled out to pass parked cars, with a string of cars coming up behind me. There was oncoming traffic so I knew that (sane, attentive!) drivers would pause before overtaking me. Sure enough, the radar announced that they had gone even though I could see them in the mirror, waiting patiently. It would be better if the radar could confirm that they had not turned off, but I will always check the mirror for confirmation.

I liked having the radar and mirror when doing right turns off busy roads. It meant that I didn't do my shoulder check until I thought that the road behind me was clear enough not to worry about the slight wobble that I sometimes get due to my stiff neck. (Yes, I know - do some exercises to sort the neck problem out!)

One thing no sensible rider should need to be warned about... Do not try to see if the radar light actually is flashing as vehicles overtake! (Especially ridiculous when the rider has already checked that feature at the kerbside before setting off.)

 

[Dogtrousers]

One thing no sensible rider should need to be warned about... Do not try to see if the radar light actually is flashing as vehicles overtake! (Especially ridiculous when the rider has already checked that feature at the kerbside before setting off.)

If you stop for a sit down snack on a bench or bus shelter, if it's convenient park the bike with the rear facing the traffic and where you can see it. Then you can check it to your heart's content

 

[Sea of vapours]

It would be better if the radar could confirm that they had not turned off, but I will always check the mirror for confirmation

It would. It does the inverse though, which is second best, but still good. i.e. it does *not* confirm that they /have/ turned off. When the road is actually clear, since they have turned off or stopped, the horizontal LEDs flash green (and there may be a beep / double tone; I think there is).

 

[Mike_P]

I did a 3 hour radar test ride a couple of days ago.

The first 25 minutes were trouble-free but during the rest of the ride I got 4 recoverable radar errors. I think that the way these are handled by the Wahoo Bolt is daft! Ok, for an error requiring a device reset, display the error message until that reset has been done. In my case though, the system worked perfectly well after a button was pressed on the Bolt, so why not just issue a warning beep, display the error message for (say) 5 seconds, and not bother with the button press at all, or make it optional?

Same need to press a button on a Garmin, well the 530 at least. I find the error message easier to cancel on a Bolt. On the 530 theres an invariable delay whilst trying to work out which unidentified button to press.

 

[Dadam]

Might be worth unpairing, doing a hard reset of the Varia, then re-pairing*. The radar error is generally when it's temporarily lost connection with the head unit. Which is annoying if it's happening a lot.

* Pairing again, not fixing!

 

[ColinJ]

I haven't updated the firmware yet. I have seen a mix of opinions about doing so. Some people said that their units became less reliable afterwards.

Might be worth unpairing, doing a hard reset of the Varia, then re-pairing*. The radar error is generally when it's temporarily lost connection with the head unit. Which is annoying if it's happening a lot.

* Pairing again, not fixing!

If that would fix it for a week or two it would be worth doing that, but not if it only fixed it for a few hours - pressing the button to cancel the error message would be quicker!

 

[PaulSB]

@ColinJ if by "recoverable radar error" you mean the red warning "radar error" it's simply a warning the connection has been temporarily lost. It's tech. It happens. Like my phone failed to connect to the car yesterday and for some reason my watch didn't connect immediately this morning.

I see this happen now and again, a push reconnects, no big deal. IME four times is unusual which is why the suggestion to re-pair is worthwhile. It shouldn't be necessary every week or two. I haven't found it necessary to re-pair in two years.

I don't understand what you mean by cars disappearing but the Bolt may be different. On a Roam the indicator side bar shows:

Green - clear
Green + car icon(s) - vehicle at same speed, up to three or four vehicles shown on mine. If it's a constant stream of traffic as one passes and disappears off the top another appears at the bottom.

Orange + icon(s) - as above but approaching at a higher relative speed

Red + icon(s) - approaching at high speed

The vehicle icons disappear as the vehicle passes. I find the side bar a far better and more accurate indicator of what's happening. Relying on lights or beeps doesn't allow for what the user may have missed. The sidebar is like glancing in a rear view mirror - the other indicators rely on catching your attention. Possibly the Bolt doesn't show the side bar? A shame if it doesn't as this is a great feature.

No problems here with any update - firmware or software.

 

[Dadam]

I've seen cars "disappear" but not often, and it's usually if there's a line of 3 or 4 vehicles. The radar beam needs line of sight. One can be hidden behind another, especially if the lead is a van or something. I assume also the software keeps the dot there as a placeholder for several after it can't discern a separate signal, in case the signal comes back again. Sometimes of course the vehicle has just turned off.

 

[Dan Lotus]

By disappearing, I think it means that when you have something that is picked up by the radar, it notifies you and shows you.
Then if they are travelling at the same speed as you for a certain amount of time, it no longer displays a marker for them on the display.
I believe it does this to account for fellow cyclists who may catch you up and then ride with you at a similar pace, which you don't want to know about.

I do recall the chime when a car turns off though mentioned further up the thread, and that had not actually occurred to me - I think the fact is unless you hear that chime, you need to assume the vehicle/s is/are still behind you.

 

[Dadam]

Yes I have had cars travelling the same speed "disappear" but this seems to be quite rare. More usually it's because they get lost in the clutter.
I think losing cars going the same speed is just a feature of it being a simple doppler radar. It can only detect moving objects relative to the unit.

 

[Dadam]

Has anybody with a Varia and Garmin head unit used My Bike Radar data field available on ConnectIQ? (Sorry Wahoo users, I don't think there is a Wahoo equivalent for the ConnectIQ app store)

It adds another field so you can show approaching vehicles' speed and distance and a count of vehicles that passed you. Crucially though, it embeds this data in the FIT file, so if you get hit or close passed you've got evidence of the speed and the timestamp, therefore also the GPS location. Not the distance they passed of course (though that would be nice in a future device!)


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkPFUGfw9VQ

 

[geocycle]

The first 25 minutes were trouble-free but during the rest of the ride I got 4 recoverable radar errors

I mainly get radar errors at the same points on a ride, for example it always happens when arriving and leaving a specific village at exactly the same point. I think there is something causing interference, perhaps traffic monitoring kit that interferes with the Varia. It always recovers very quickly by itself and I usually just ignore the error message.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I mainly get radar errors at the same points on a ride, for example it always happens when arriving and leaving a specific village at exactly the same point. I think there is something causing interference, perhaps traffic monitoring kit that interferes with the Varia. It always recovers very quickly by itself and I usually just ignore the error message.

same here. There's one place where I always get an error. It doesn't actually cause any problem. I just have an error appear.