I do wonder if it’s that they all have music in their ears
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THAT!!!
I passed a PYT on the local rail trail years ago and she didn’t flinch or give any outward sign she heard me announcing my approach. I don’t want to startle people, but she just kept walking. Then I got up about 8 feet from her, and I could hear her music! I can only imagine she’s stone deaf at this point and just cranks up the volume even higher and still can’t hear a damn thing. They were standard ear buds, maybe Apple. I didn’t know they could get that loud. And distracted/deaf people complain about us suddenly frightening/assaulting them. 
The over-the-ear headphone users are a safety menace, and should be charged for it!
I can barely hear the beeper on my 840 while motionless, much less while riding. That said, I’ve gotten used to not hearing it and am happy with that in my use. I’m not sure how I’d get along with something I could actually hear.
If they put a MP3 player in it I would by it.
Garmin are you listening?
I need to keep the backlight on my backlight on my 1050 on all the time to see the screen in bright sunlight/glare. I didn’t have to do that with a 1040. But it isn’t an issue and the battery lasts for days. The display on the 1050 is much crisper than the one on the 1040 and with the baclight on, is much easier to see IMO. The bell is cool — I wish SRAM AXS shifters could somehow activate it.
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SRAM Red E1 shifters can activate it but I don’t think the previous AXS generations can. I’m using one of the bonus buttons for the bell. I believe you can also get a blip shifter and program the bell to that.
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You can set SRAM AXS double tap to activate the bell if you’re on 1x and don’t use it otherwise.
Years ago, I had a device that held music. Like 15 or 20 songs, depending on length and resolution. It was a feature that wasn’t a feature at all.
EDIT: Actually I think it was even less than that. Maybe 10 tops…
I now use my watch for streaming music while riding. Makes phone calls too. No need to bring the phone anymore. But it is 1 more device to bring.
One option that was added to the 1050 that isn’t available in the 1040 is the ability to use the Garmin in “dark mode” while keeping the map in “light mode”. Having the screens in dark mode eliminates the glare problem for me (which is a real thing with the white screen). On the 1040, if the unit is in dark mode, the map must also be in dark mode, which I found made it difficult to use. There is a separate setting for the map mode on the 1050.
The Strava segment screen is a bit better too..
I went from 1030 plus to 1050 back to 1040. 1050 is kind of garbage, the screen is pretty unless you look at it off axis and then it’s not much brighter than the cheaper screens. Also the new speaker doesn’t get loud enough for you to hear any alerts beyond 15-20mph, forget your eat/drink and Varia alerts being anywhere near audible at speed or on a windy day
Are the alerts on the 1050 markedly quieter than those on the 1040?
I don’t think so, but some do.
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If you need loud alerts the Karoo 3 fits the bill…
And my first ride with the varia was people on the ride yelling at me to “TURN THAT SHIT DOWN”. Many suggested just turning it off. Now I think many have them, but ‘sound management’ is a real thing too.
It’d be nice if you could set alert volume to be speed-dependent, wouldn’t it? Bit like music volume in a car.
I’d also like a prompt to pop up if there are lot of Varia alerts in a short period that says something like “wanna snooze radar alerts?” which would then snooze for e.g. 5 mins, or even dynamically - perhaps it should automatically switch back on once a minute has passed with no cars passing you. I often pass through towny bits (too many alerted and don’t need them) but then once out on the open road again I want alerts back on.
I’d actually quite like map detail to be speed-dependent too. If I’m whizzing along at 50 kph and hear a bleep, maybe it’d be good to have a really big simplified representation of my navigation needs that I can take in from a brief glance at a wobbly screen (might be my head that’s wobbly). Then if I slow right down, thinking “which road am I supposed to take?” then it could revert to a nice detailed map that I can take in and process.
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They are, but not so much that I have trouble hearing them, even at speed while wearing my Aerohead.
Yeah. This isn’t specific to the 1050, but my biggest complaint about the Varia is that it’s not easy to mute the alerts without digging through a bunch of menus. My usual routes switch between being on the road, and being in a pathway next to the road, where the radar alerts aren’t needed. I’d love to be able to toggle them off and on with a few taps as possible.
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For me they were inaudible to the point where I missed the vast majority of Varia alerts and almost got run over numerous times on each ride. I know ultimately awareness is my responsibility but where I live I can go miles and miles without seeing a car and with my 1030 plus I was just used to having more freedom on the road since it would alert me about cars behind me. First ride with the 1050 on a back road I moved left to get around a pothole and never heard the alert for the car behind. I made it 5 rides before I sold it.
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That’s just crazy how different our experiences were. It must have to do with the pitch, because after years of playing loud music, I sure don’t have good ears.
I do have some hearing loss but that’s only partial in one ear. I think the tone on the 1050 doesn’t help but according to the Garmin forum I’m not alone with the issue. The thing is at the same speeds where I can’t hear the Varia or eat alerts I CAN hear the bell loud and clear, so it’s not an issue of the speaker being incapable but the fact that Garmin don’t let you customize the tones and the loudest setting for alerts is still not loud enough.
I tried to troubleshoot with Garmin but they wanted me to pull log files and send them videos and stuff and I was not in the mood to help them with this when they said on the forum where people were complaining that there are no plans to allow for tone customization or increase volume. Seems kind of peculiar considering you can customize everything else on the Garmin units to the point you’ll drive yourself crazy.
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