Trek now competing with Garmin Varia

[RoosterCogset]

For at least where I ride, I'm thinking the increased distance detection is actually a negative. It just makes it likely that my unit is always going to be always tracking and alerting -- in other words bothering me. The extra 100m is unnecessary bothering.

[kiwisimon]

EC Geek Warning James said it is not as accurate as the Garmin in the limited testing he has done. I still don't see the need for the radar personally.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...=1000652923945

[buddybikes]

Perhaps this will cause some competition. I do recall Varia had a recent sale of 50.00 off (not now)

Lot of Garmin head units out there that will be staying put.

Add some sw that will tell power level, it already notifies you that power is "low" so certainly reading that data

[RoosterCogset]

Anyone know how Trek decides whether to brand an item "Trek" or "Bontrager"? I visited their Lights accessory page, and what a jumbled mess of brand names

https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/e...lights/c/E312/

[mickey.d]

Originally Posted by RoosterCogset

Anyone know how Trek decides whether to brand an item "Trek" or "Bontrager"? I visited their Lights accessory page, and what a jumbled mess of brand names

https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/e...lights/c/E312/

Keith’s contract expires this year- Bontrager name will be phased out.

[Onno]

Originally Posted by eddief

look like a dork, avoid the over-engineering. My experience with Varia was the fastest resell of any gadget I've ever owned. Why look down at your head unit to see little dots coming at you on the screen when you can see reality in a mirror? And the groups I ride with yell "car back" religiously so you know they're coming whether you want to or not.

https://takealookactive.com/

Why not use both? The radar's beep notifies me to look in my mirror, or, if conditions are stressful, simply to move over and get ready for a car or truck to blast by. Because bike mirrors are small and convex, and because lots of cars don't have or use day-time running lights, my radar's ability to detect cars is much better than my ability to see them in my mirror.

[MikeD]

How well does Trek support warranty service or out of warranty service? Garmin has been pretty good to me. I bought refurbed units for a decent price when my Garmin product was out of warranty. Something to consider.

[mickey.d]

Originally Posted by MikeD

How well does Trek support warranty service or out of warranty service? Garmin has been pretty good to me. I bought refurbed units for a decent price when my Garmin product was out of warranty. Something to consider.

Trek warranty stuff is at the discretion of their dealers before being escalated internally. If a local Trek dealer likes you, you will probably be fine. Luckily Trek has dealers in many markets, so you can shop around until you find a service manager that wants to help you, even if you bought t d2c.

[BRad704]

Oh see I LOVE the new mount because I also get along really well with Bontrager saddles and have the rear light mounts for several of them already. I won't be using the rubber strap anyway.

Trying to strap and balance the Varia mount on a Madone seatpost is frustrating at-minimum.

[BRad704]

Originally Posted by MikeD

How well does Trek support warranty service or out of warranty service? Garmin has been pretty good to me. I bought refurbed units for a decent price when my Garmin product was out of warranty. Something to consider.

Originally Posted by mickey.d

Trek warranty stuff is at the discretion of their dealers before being escalated internally. If a local Trek dealer likes you, you will probably be fine. Luckily Trek has dealers in many markets, so you can shop around until you find a service manager that wants to help you, even if you bought t d2c.

Trek LBS has always been a very easy minimal-questions-asked process for me. Maybe they liked me, or maybe they know they can just send it back with "customer states light stopped working" and Trek will credit the shop every time.

[MikeD]

Originally Posted by Onno

Why not use both? The radar's beep notifies me to look in my mirror, or, if conditions are stressful, simply to move over and get ready for a car or truck to blast by. Because bike mirrors are small and convex, and because lots of cars don't have or use day-time running lights, my radar's ability to detect cars is much better than my ability to see them in my mirror.

Take a look mirrors are not convex.

[Likes2ridefar]

Originally Posted by BRad704

Oh see I LOVE the new mount because I also get along really well with Bontrager saddles and have the rear light mounts for several of them already. I won't be using the rubber strap anyway.

Trying to strap and balance the Varia mount on a Madone seatpost is frustrating at-minimum.

It’s really easy to attach these to GoPro style mounts as well.

[BRad704]

Originally Posted by Likes2ridefar

It’s really easy to attach these to GoPro style mounts as well.

The seatrail clamp on type? Yep, those too just by moving a Blendr light mount to the rear.

[Mark McM]

Not having used a rear facing radar on my bike, a few questions:

What size vehicles do these detect? I'm guessing they detect cars and trucks, but what about motorcycles and other cyclists?

If you are riding toward the front of a paceline, do the bicycles behind you interfere with detecting motor vehicles approaching from behind? What about when riding in a multiple line group (such as a group riding in a line two abreast)?

What angle of view do they have? Will they detect approaching vehicles in tight curves?

If there are multiple cars approaching from behind, say 100m or less apart, does the radar beep or flash continuously? In which case, is the radar useful when riding in city traffic?

[scoobydrew]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

Not having used a rear facing radar on my bike, a few questions:

What size vehicles do these detect? I'm guessing they detect cars and trucks, but what about motorcycles and other cyclists?

...

If there are multiple cars approaching from behind, say 100m or less apart, does the radar beep or flash continuously? In which case, is the radar useful when riding in city traffic?

Answering only a couple of questions here...

I find that the detection is a function of both speed and an actual "object". In my experience with using a Varia RTL510 for a few years, it will detect a cyclist coming from behind you if they are riding at a certain rate of speed faster. I don't know what Garmin determined this to be, but it detects cyclists coming up fast behind me on their e-bikes a majority of the time as well as a fast cyclist.

I use my Varia with a Garmin headunit and find that the radar will beep only for the first car that is detected but will show any vehicles that are behind that. It will continually show the vehicles in that "train" until there's no longer any vehicles or there's a large break in that train that exceeds the radar's detection range.