Garmin Varia RTL510 Marketing gimmick or really works?

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bikeboy1tr
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by bikeboy1tr

One thing you have to keep in mind when riding through rollers as cars are coming up behind you and your on one side of the roller and the car on the other the Varia's range is cut down depending on the size of the rollers. This is something that I had previously thought about and it did happen the other day as I was about to make a left hand turn just at the foot of a roller when a car approached from behind at good speed. I was about to set up for my turn and did a shoulder check and at that moment the Radar beeped but I did have to wait for the car to pass before making my turn. My wife was behind me and also runs the Radar and she didnt get much for a warning either. Just something to keep in mind if riding rollers and you need to turn at the base or bottom of the rollers.
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milanv
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by milanv

The best thing for riding on roads with traffic...

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Butcher
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by Butcher

Who turns on blind hills?

The radar is as good as your eye's. Since we do not have them in the back of our head, the radar helps. Someday, they may come up with the Superman X-Ray vision option.

Cars going the same speed do not show up either. It has it's limitations and is not a camera.

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by drexel75

Just got one and used it for the 1st time today. Excellent. Especially on quiet, chappy roads you can concentrate on the best line rather than worrying about what's behind you.

JeffK
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by JeffK

As mentioned before in this thread, the best thing Garmin did was allow it to be paried with multiple devices. If you are riding with someone that has one, pair it to your head unit and after one ride I'd bet most people will realize how great of a tool it is. Its the easy way to "try before you buy", but be prepared to buy one if you try it 😂

I won't ride without mine now, love it!
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shoemakerpom2010
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by shoemakerpom2010

I bought one for me and my son who ride in a paceline while he learns to pull at timed intervals. Its not a complete replacment for my barend mirror but a nice bit of security to see the car appear on the 1030 garmin screen and just knowing something is there before its visible in the mirror. On the screen the way the cars approach it reminds me of the handheld football games we played in grade school...

bikeboy1tr
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by bikeboy1tr

JeffK wrote:
Sat May 01, 2021 2:35 pm
As mentioned before in this thread, the best thing Garmin did was allow it to be paried with multiple devices. If you are riding with someone that has one, pair it to your head unit and after one ride I'd bet most people will realize how great of a tool it is. Its the easy way to "try before you buy", but be prepared to buy one if you try it 😂

I won't ride without mine now, love it!
Haha this is how I ended up buying mine as a buddy in our group ride had one and he let me pair to it. Next thing you know I own a Radar. Then I bought my wife one for Xmas.
As Butcher mentioned above vehicles disappear when they match your speed and thats one thing that grabs my attention even though most times they are slowing to make a turn but you can never assume thats the case. I always do a shoulder check to see WTF they are up too cause you just never know with all the Covidiots out there.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=154188
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ms6073
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by ms6073

bikeboy1tr wrote:
Tue May 04, 2021 10:04 pm
I always do a shoulder check to see WTF they are up too cause you just never know with all the Covidiots out there.
Ditto. I nearly always look back to make sure the approaching vehicle is not being driven by a distracted driver who is about to plow into us.
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"People should stop expecting normal from me... seriously, we all know it's never going to happen"

JeffK
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by JeffK

ms6073 wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 5:50 pm
bikeboy1tr wrote:
Tue May 04, 2021 10:04 pm
I always do a shoulder check to see WTF they are up too cause you just never know with all the Covidiots out there.
Ditto. I nearly always look back to make sure the approaching vehicle is not being driven by a distracted driver who is about to plow into us.
Exactly. I always do a check when the indicator is about 2/3 up the screen and what I have noticed is that simple look back seems to make drivers hesitate and thus pull out a little wider, or slow up and wait till it safer to pass. Its completely repeatable, almost like they feel guilty for buzzing you if you are aware of them.
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tomtom
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by tomtom

It great and I use it a lot....but; when on a bicycle path it goes off on the cars besides (sometimes this is a highway so it beeps all of time :? ) this path so I would be able to make the beam more narrow or turn it off through my Garmin 830 or my Di2 switches. Both are not possible as far as I know.....
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ms6073
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by ms6073

When we ride our gravel bikes, we set ours on standby when we are not on the road.
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tomtom
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by tomtom

ms6073 wrote:
Thu May 06, 2021 7:28 pm
When we ride our gravel bikes, we set ours on standby when we are not on the road.
I know I can do that but I have to use the button on the Varia itself and wouldn't it be nice (and saver!) to do this on the Garmin or through Di2 :-)?!
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EdWiser
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by EdWiser

tomtom wrote:
ms6073 wrote:
Thu May 06, 2021 7:28 pm
When we ride our gravel bikes, we set ours on standby when we are not on the road.
I know I can do that but I have to use the button on the Varia itself and wouldn't it be nice (and saver!) to do this on the Garmin or through Di2 :-)?!
You can do this on a Karoo 2 they added it in the last update.

Butcher
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by Butcher

You can go to sensors and turn it off there. The light would still flash, but the Garmin would ignore the radar. It can get real annoying when you are in the city. You really do not need to know if there is a car behind you because there always is.

Garmin used to make the HUD and since I like gadgets, I purchased one when they stopped making them. Price was too good to turn down. That displays the cars too and works as described.

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ms6073
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by ms6073

I think I mentioned this a few pages back, but I have a suspicion that Garmin is working on integrating the Varia with a digital camera, which when a vehicle is detected, will display the camera video on the Garmin. But unlike with speed and power data, there currently is no ANT+ protocol for wireless video, and even with Bluetooth, power consumption for wirelessly broadcasting video to the computer becomes a factor. Imagine how nice it would be to be able to wear sunglasses with a HUD that could display the video from that kind of Varia?
- Michael
"People should stop expecting normal from me... seriously, we all know it's never going to happen"

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