Bought the Garmin Varia "Perfect for commuting"

[Gubbins]

Tested mine tonight on a 10 mile ride. I felt safer and happier i knew what was around me. It's not perfect, but very good for price. Yes i'll be using my other senses when traffic is around as it doesn't like sharp hill crests and lost traffic for a few seconds.

I think we are all saying we are happy with varia, i know i am.

Be interested to know how long the battery will go for on a longer ride

 

[Steve A]

I usually do about 20 miles plus, but weather arghhhh!. It says about 3/4 hours on box so that's plenty.

 

[Chris.L]

Are people still happy with the Garmin Varia,

I was out early Friday morning on a single track road ,very windy could not hear anything when a school bus came up behind me ,I sensed something behind looked behind caught sight of the back end of the bus ,moved over as far as I could and the front wheel caught the grass ruts and I ended up over the handle bars, hand ,elbow and knee all with road rash ,knee has now swollen up and very painful.

I understand that if the Varia is connected to an edge devise it gives of a warning beep and a disply on the screen how loud is the warning.

I had no mirror but have ordered a couple to try and get one to fit with my ergon gp3 grips

Cheers
Chris

 

[Gubbins]

Hi Chris.
I find it excellent. I think the beeb sound depends on which garmin you couple it to and on my 1000 explore it isn't too loud but visually it's impressive ,especially at night .

It's no substitute for mirrors because it notices the difference in speed so anything behind that is going at or near the same speed as you it won't see it. There needs to be a speed difference of at least 6mph, but ideally 10mph.

 

[Chris.L]

Thanks ,I am looking to buy with the edge 520, can you ware a single ear phone with the edge devices

 

[Gubbins]

Don't think so. There isn't anywhere to plug one in if that's what your thinking.
I really like the varia and wouldn't be without it. Did you know the red light gets brighter as cars aproach? It only in heavy traffic where it doesn't work, but out on the road it picks up cars at about 100 meters away.. long before I can see one in the mirror.

 

[Chris.L]

Thanks , I had read about the led getting brighter as a car approaches , I am mostly on country lanes just outside of our village at the moment , the traffic is not to bad but we do get the boy races in the holiday season , I just thought it would give me an advantage on the country lanes showing when something was coming up behind me and a chance to slow down and pull over

 

[Gubbins]

It will certaily do that..
There are better vids out there but this is mine working...

 

[Chris.L]

Thank you ,if you where to buy again would you buy it with the matching display or would you buy an edge devise to use it with

 

[Gubbins]

Thank you ,if you where to buy again would you buy it with the matching display or would you buy an edge devise to use it with

I already had the 1000 explore and have never tried the other one. I would think it might be better that the smaller garmin tho.
Depends what else you want from the garmin.

 

[Chris.L]

Many thanks, just off to search reviews

 

[Chris.L]

I have bought the Varia bundle from Halfords , it was in the sale reduced from
£269.99 to £224.99 then a futher £20.00 off for the spend and save cycling offer bringing it down to £204.99 , I then bough Halfords gift vouchers using my Defence discount card for a futher 7% off bringing the final price to £189.99 , which I am happy with

 

[Gubbins]

Perhaps a bit late to say this but have you considered how its mounted? It comes with a quarter turn mount that is designed to fit a sloping seat post and worked fine for me until I added a rack and panniers which obscured the rear view a bit due to me having a rear light also fitted to the seat post. The fix for me was easy as I have a few quarter turn mounts and disassembling one of them I was able to fit the quarter turn bit direct to the rear rack.
The Halfords discount thing is good.

 

[Chris.L]

Yes I have looked at the mounting , I have bought I few bits from ebay and going to mount it under my seat , will post a few photos once it all arrives

 

[Chris.L]

My bits arrived from eBay to mount the Varia radar uder the rear seat, I bought a go pro saddle mount a wrist mount for a garmin edge , I used the mount out of the wrist mount set up and connected it to the go pro mount , fastened all under my seat and attached the radar,

I used it this morning on a ride down single track country roads , I could not hear the traffic but the radar display unit alerted me, just ordered a edge 1000 to give a audible warning also

 

[Gubbins]

My bits arrived from eBay to mount the Varia radar uder the rear seat, I bought a go pro saddle mount a wrist mount for a garmin edge , I used the mount out of the wrist mount set up and connected it to the go pro mount , fastened all under my seat and attached the radar,

I used it this morning on a ride down single track country roads , I could not hear the traffic but the radar display unit alerted me, just ordered a edge 1000 to give a audible warning also

i bought the 1000 explore. a good bit cheaper.. and is only missing the super stats that the licra lot cant live without

 

[Chris.L]

Got a used for 3 times bought July 2017 of eBay with silicon covers extra long mount and a heart rate sensor and sd card for £275 which I thought was ok

 

[Chris.L]

Have been out for a ride this morning and it worked flawlessly, the only thing wrong was when I returned the securing allen screws holding the saddle mount had come loose , a dab of loctite screw glue and all sorted.