Garmin Varia users - need feedback

Situational awareness. Its ok if you don’t see any benefit.

This is why I bought the original in late 2017 (?).

While on rides my watch tells me this:

Thats from the wind, and a few cars. But mostly the wind, its is loud and noisy.

On the outbound it is so windy you can’t hear cars and trucks approaching from behind. Narrow country roads and it can be 5+ minutes between cars passing. I hate being surprised when a car or truck passes me at 60mph. Worse when it is a close pass because the road is narrow and I’m not in the gutter. Worse yet if it is a surprise, close pass, and there are 1 or 2 other vehicles also flying by at 60mph.

Coming home with a tailwind I’m carrying speeds of 22-28mph and the roads are crap so I prefer riding near the crown of the road. For example this lovely 0.5 mile section:

In a tailwind its usually easier to hear vehicles, except during an interval when breathing hard, and I don’t hear them until its a surprise.

So here I’m near the middle of a narrow road, one of many crap roads I ride and train on. Doing intervals and hitting 26-29mph in a tailwind, breathing heavy, rarely getting passed by a vehicle, staying out of the broken pavement and long cracks on the right, and riding near the crown of the road. You can bet I want a heads up that a car/truck is coming in hot from behind, and carefully pick a quick line over to the right.

Situational awareness. Mostly on those roads above. From my house its about 5 minutes of traffic getting in and out of the city, where having the radar is useless because of the constant parade of cars.

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