Gamin Varia Review

[david]

One 60-mile ride and my conclusion is: This is a must-have for safety. Not kidding.

I know this topic has been covered before, but my experience today made me feel I should bring it up again in the hopes it nudges more riders to buy one.

I didn’t think it was going to be that transformational. After all, I can usually hear when cars are coming up behind me and I often look over my shoulder in critical situations just to be sure. But this let's you know far ahead of time compared to just relying on your ears or a glance over the shoulder. Really gives you a heads up well in advance so you can plan accordingly.

Also, it tells you how many cars are coming up behind you and it allows you to see the progress of each vehicle. For example, you can see a car from about 100 meters away and you can see how it progresses. Sometimes, ithe vehicle turns and the alert goes away. Sometimes you can see that it’s slowed down and is waiting to pass you. And other times, you can see that it's just proceeding at the same pace and will soon overtake you. Remarkably informative.

There were so many times on just this one ride where I felt much more aware of what was going on and was able to adjust my speed and position on the road to put me in the safest possible situation. I found myself double-checking with an over the shoulder glance and I anticipate that I will never, nor should I, rely solely on the Varia. But the advance notice compared to using my ears and looking over the shoulder is huge.

I also noticed that I didn’t need to look over my shoulder as drastically, or for as long, or as many times as I would have if I didn’t have the additional info from the Varia. I think this would be huge on the long fast descents where the wind interferes with your ability to hear anything coming from behind.

In those situations, cars are often flying and their closing speed on a cyclist can make their presence known to the cyclist in very sudden and unsettling ways. Again, you might still look over your shoulder to confirm the presence of a car, but you’ll know ahead of time so you can plan the most opportune time to do that. This advance notice makes it unlikely you'll find yourself suddenly aware of a car barreling down on you, reducing those instances where you feel compelled to look over your shoulder regardless of the road situation in front of you.

My only small gripe is that the light isn’t quite as bright as some other lights, but the additional information makes it well worth that small compromise.

There are other brands that make rear radar devices, so feel free to investigate the options if you'd like.

I just can't overstate how much safer I felt on the road today.

[weisan]

[x] Like

[Nomadmax]

I was an early detractor of the Varia, then I tried it. Ill never ride the road again without it. Game changer.

[ridethecliche]

Yeah... I love my Varia. I'm debating the upgrade to one with a camera at some point.

One thing I didn't realize is that the Wahoo Roam V2 has an LED bar on the left to show the car distance vs the Bolt V2 continuing to take up room on the screen.

[Turkle]

I first started using it in NYC, where it was largely useless. But now here in RVA, it's absolutely indespensible. Great piece of technology that keeps us safer.

[novacyclist]

I have owned the Bryton Gardia 300L (newer version) and love it. This technology is a must have.

[Jdm]

I won't ride without mine anymore. This includes a bunch of city biking.

Add a mirror for even more safety and awareness. I use my mirror in two ways:
- is the car behind me in the same lane or 1 lane over?
- Is there a car close to me that the Varia didn't detect? This typically happens when a car turns into my lane and travels at the same speed, and when we both accelerate at a similar rate from a stop.

[Cat3roadracer]

Originally Posted by david

One 60-mile ride and my conclusion is: This is a must-have for safety. Not kidding.

I know this topic has been covered before, but my experience today made me feel I should bring it up again in the hopes it nudges more riders to buy one.

I didn’t think it was going to be that transformational. After all, I can usually hear when cars are coming up behind me and I often look over my shoulder in critical situations just to be sure. But this let's you know far ahead of time compared to just relying on your ears or a glance over the shoulder. Really gives you a heads up well in advance so you can plan accordingly.

Also, it tells you how many cars are coming up behind you and it allows you to see the progress of each vehicle. For example, you can see a car from about 100 meters away and you can see how it progresses. Sometimes, ithe vehicle turns and the alert goes away. Sometimes you can see that it’s slowed down and is waiting to pass you. And other times, you can see that it's just proceeding at the same pace and will soon overtake you. Remarkably informative.

There were so many times on just this one ride where I felt much more aware of what was going on and was able to adjust my speed and position on the road to put me in the safest possible situation. I found myself double-checking with an over the shoulder glance and I anticipate that I will never, nor should I, rely solely on the Varia. But the advance notice compared to using my ears and looking over the shoulder is huge.

I also noticed that I didn’t need to look over my shoulder as drastically, or for as long, or as many times as I would have if I didn’t have the additional info from the Varia. I think this would be huge on the long fast descents where the wind interferes with your ability to hear anything coming from behind.

In those situations, cars are often flying and their closing speed on a cyclist can make their presence known to the cyclist in very sudden and unsettling ways. Again, you might still look over your shoulder to confirm the presence of a car, but you’ll know ahead of time so you can plan the most opportune time to do that. This advance notice makes it unlikely you'll find yourself suddenly aware of a car barreling down on you, reducing those instances where you feel compelled to look over your shoulder regardless of the road situation in front of you.

My only small gripe is that the light isn’t quite as bright as some other lights, but the additional information makes it well worth that small compromise.

There are other brands that make rear radar devices, so feel free to investigate the options if you'd like.

I just can't overstate how much safer I felt on the road today.

Nice review. I’ll definitely check it out.

[wtex]

Same here, I don't ride roads with out it.

This is a good time of year as relatives ask for holiday shopping tips to ask them to put it on their list.

[mcteague]

I tried the Bryton version but could not live with it. Maybe on rural roads, but the near constant beeping drove me nuts and actually made riding more stressful.

Tim

[nmrt]

Would I still need to purchase one if on my ride of 3 hours a total of about 10-15 cars pass me?

[eddief]

you can use a mirror:

https://takealookactive.com/

Originally Posted by nmrt

Would I still need to purchase one if on my ride of 3 hours a total of about 10-15 cars pass me?

[Spdntrxi]

welcome to 2015

[deluz]

Originally Posted by eddief

you can use a mirror:

https://takealookactive.com/

I have been using one of these for years and it really works well and makes riding safer. Of course I am not looking at it 100% of the time so maybe the Varia would be a good addition

[david]

Originally Posted by eddief

you can use a mirror:

https://takealookactive.com/

You can. And maybe should for even more awareness.
But I think rear radar brings to your attention approaching vehicles before a mirror might. And, importantly, it let's you know that a vehicle is approaching without requiring you to take your eyes off of the road ahead.

When I drive a car, I VERY frequently glance in my mirrors to watch my rear and sides. But there's always a potential cost to that, which is a momentary loss of awareness of what's happening directly in front of me. It only takes a split second for something to go wrong up the road, and that split second could be the difference between being able to react in time - or not.

Also, even though I'm a frequent user of my rear view mirror in my car, I've still had some very scary moments when some idiot comes up behind me so fast that they actually were able to sneak up on me between rearward glance intervals.