I volunteer to be the radar guy. Ill just sit on the back the whole ride(hopefully race) and then Ill sprint for the win…
Seriously though. I couldn’t even stay with a pack right now. lol
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Anyone ever have any issues with a fat bike? I mounted my Varia as high up the seat post as possible.
Keep getting phantom readings. Suspecting that the size of the tire plus the tread blocks on the tire my be generating false positive effects.
I haven’t had any issues with my fat bike, check out shapeways.com for alternate mounts. I have one that clips into my Fizik saddle that keeps it high in the air.
Or maybe something like this would work too
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I use and really like this mount:
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So Varia 515 has generally been rock solid for me. But when I mounted it on my fat bike and first started out on my ride, I got all sorts of “ghost” alerts – making it seem that a bunch of cars were right on my tail. This has been a pretty consistent pattern over time. Being aware of Garmin’s mounting advice, I’ve even gone so far as to mount it upside down, so the radar component is actually above the light.
Once I get onto roads with traffic, everything seems to be ok and I don’t get many false positive. Just wanted to flag it as an issue in the off chance someone had similar experience.
My best guess is that a 4" wide tire with all the tread blocks registers as movement within the radar field, or the extra large tire is moving ample amounts of air. Dunno.
Wondering if fat bikes weren’t part of the product testing process.
Overall, a great unit. Almost magical how well it works.
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When you’re on your fatbike are you around sparse trees?
On my gravel route the few signs I see (stop, bend, speed, etc) will set off the radar.
“Radar disconnect” error?
I have a new-to-me 530 I’ve only used outside a handful of times and get a disconnect message often. I’m also wearing earbuds.
Never happened with my 520. I haven’t tried the 530 without earbuds to see but I’ll try again if the weather ever cooperates.
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I also have been getting this message but the radar appears to be working as normal, so like you I acknowledge and ride on. Seems to be since my 830 updated two weeks ago.
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No airpods connected in my case.
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The radar disconnect happens to me often but reconnects. I think it’s one of those aggressive safety features because if you’re relying on that data and it’s wrong for even a moment could be bad.
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If its what I think you saying it still works I get it all the time. I don’t know if a bump in the road causes it for a milli second to miscalculate but its fine a second later and doesn’t seem anything to worry about. Its a bit annoying though when youve got the screen locked on the 1030 and it doesn’t go away when you touch it 
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Infrequently happens on RTL515 when certain cars, not very many, pass by. And in a couple of spots around town. As an electrical engineer, my first guess is radio interference, but thats just a hunch. The Varia reconnects to my 530 almost instantly.
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Ive been having disconnects on my 1040 and 515 lately. Just noticed that my 510 radar is still in the device list and my 515 is connecting via ant. I am going to switch to ble and see.
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This is my perception as well.
I think it actually might be all the sensors that momentarily drop out for me but it’s only the radar that alerts me to the fact.
Usually the radar is back active in 1 or 2 seconds - plenty of times I’ve had a message to say that the radar is disconnected but not noticed any actual gap in detecting cars.
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I think you’re right. I pass a small private airport pretty frequently, and my Varia alerts every time, in both directions. Tricks me every time too.
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Has anyone replaced the battery or had their battery replaced? Went on a 10 hour ride today and the radar was on blink the whole time and maybe made it to hour 8.
Might buy a second radar but would prefer to just put a new battery in.
I’ve noticed that battery life was in that same range. I think for longer rides, I’m going to go to a less aggressive blink pattern to see how that does.
Was this daytime flash mode? It should last a lot longer, but if you were in night flash it’s much less.
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I chose off while riding the first ~2.5 hrs and then flash on my head unit for the next 5-6 until it died.
My RTL510’s battery life is down to about 7 hours on day flash compared to states 15. I think it is around 4 years old. It would be nice if there was a way to replace the battery and not comprise the case and waterproofing
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