Garmin just released a seat rail mount option that may work for some people with odd shaped posts.
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It may not have, but itās the next piece Iāve bought. Wonāt leave home without it.
Similar idea to the Garmin by buplabs - lots of options:
- Seat rail
- Specialized SWAT
- Fizik ICS
- Etc.
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I feel naked without my varia and left-side bar-end mirror.
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Probably going to order one this week but a couple of questions from longer-term users:
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With a Garmin head unit how easy is the light to control? Iāve got an ultra next year that will have long periods on a path so want to be able to easily shut off lights to save battery.
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Sticking with the long ride time usage has anyone tried running it while plugged into a power bank? Not a deal breaker as can swap to dumb light while charging but could be useful.
What Unit have you got? With the 1030 its very easy (I assume it will be with any touch screen model). You just swipe down, change it do the data page (left/right arrows) and select flashing/ solid/ peleton etc.
Iāve never tried a powerbank myself.
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on my 1040, swipe down, then swipe to the side until you get to the light control page, select mode you want. that easy.
Works just fine running it while plugged into a battery bank.
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Perfect, Iām on a 1040 as well so good test.
Thanks! Better get hunting for deals.
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If you can wait, there are always great deals on Black Friday
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I would also expect Garmin to have a Labor Day sale(U.S. for sure, dunno if they will run it globally, but Iād guess they would)
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gravel is where the Varia really helps (or should I say shines?), when riding along a gravel/ dirt road you may be oblivious to an approaching vehicle and the Varia gives the appropriate warning to say get out of the middle of the road. When I ride gravel I wander over the road to find the best line so when I know a vehicle is approaching I just move over. I have had a Varia a long time and just upgraded to the 515 this year.
As for the road, I have a small mirror on the end of my handle bars where the end plug goes that is a second reference when I see the alert from the Varia. Also my forerunner 255 vibrates which is a nice add on when there is wind noise etc.
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My 245 doesnāt do that (as far as I know) but I can run the Varia app on my phone and the radar connects to both my phone and the edge 530 and the phone will vibrate when the radar goes off. Would be annoying in a busy area but when Iām out on a long gravel ride where I might see a dozen cars all day itās great.
NEVER MIND ā WindWarrior got me sorted out.
I just got an 840 head unit, to work with the Varia Headlight and Taillight. The existing interface is a bit clunky, as it doesnāt show the Daytime Flash modes, which have the longest battery life. Loaded a ConnectIQ data field and that added the needed control. A bit disappointed that I had to use a 3rd party solution and that it is a data field. Iād rather have it in the settings, where it belongs. But, this does make it work.
In my garage testing, this is daytime flash mode:
And these are nighttime flash mode:
With ability to override to daytime flash directly on those screens.
Also, if you select Auto instead of High Visibility, you can override directly on the Light Network sensor menu:
While it doesnāt directly show daytime vs night flashing modes on the first screenshots, it does on the sensor menu. After receiving the 840 I did some quick tests in the garage and figured that out without having to install a Connect IQ plugin.
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Thanks for that. I obviously didnāt experiment enough on the combos. Iāll check this out.
UPDATE: Yup, total brain fart. Itās now working as intended. I donāt know what I was doing wrong, but re-adding the lights made it work as I had hoped.
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Relatively new Garmin Varia user here. I got one about six weeks ago and it is as great as everybody says. I rode with it during the day, at night, in the fog, in the rain and it just works. On a straight road it detects cars far in advance way outside my earshot. It detects 2 cars in close proximity, something that is super hard to detect with a mirror and your ears. Equally impressive was the performance in very dense fog (yes, I know radar isnāt affected by fog, Iām talking about the extra peace of mind), I felt safer knowing there was no car behind me when I couldnāt see oncoming cars until they were about 70 m. The fast car warning also does itās job, and I know when to take extra care.
Garmin did a superb job with the settings. Cars donāt immediately disappear when you go around a bend and radar contact is lost. On windy mountain roads you must be cognizant of the fact that the Varia reports what it sees. Conversely, if I ride on the parking lot next to a busy road, the Varia will dutifully pick up on all the cars. And on my mountain bike I very occasionally get false positives when the Varia bounces around too much. You gotta think how the system works.
But what a safety improvement, highly, highly recommended. Definitely one of my favorite cycling-related purchased, full stop.
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On my gravel bike around the trail centres, it alerts me to the emtbās!
I was something of a sceptic, but It definitely alerts me earlier than I would otherwise hear if thereās any wind and/or Iām cycling at a decent pace. I have a dynamo set up on my commuter, but I did get so used to it I added a mount for that too. Racing and nipping to the shops is about the only times I donāt use it.
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It needs to āseeā the objects to measure their speed. Sitting at the front of a paceline isnāt going to work out well. You might get some reports on things coming up, but it could also be someone in the paceline.
I had a v1, and it would false on other riders occasionally. I got to the point where I would be near or at the end, and it worked the best at the end. Other head units can share the connection to the varia also which helps distribute the functionality, but yeah, it should be at the end of the line.
On falsing: The v2 didnāt false as much as the v1. I donāt know if that was fixed by firmware or was an issue with the v1. Other riders would ātestā the alert by speeding up on me, I swear. Hah hah, letās make this a screaming joke (though had to admit, hearing the alerts did get old on some roads). But the biggest thing that I like about the varia is what someone upstream said: Not getting surprised anymore AND I had a guy in a huge pickup truck stalk me only to tell me the light was āreally brightā. 
Scared the hell out of me to compliment me on the brightness of my light? Thanks, but you nearly had me filling my bibs. (Hint: Itās MEANT to be noticeable 
)
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As far as I recall, it works on a speed differential basis. So riders setting it off may not be a fault.
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Yup, a bike rider closing at a quick enough rate difference is a possible trigger and proper result AFAIC. I donāt know the rate difference of the trigger, but slow approaching riders are not alerts while ones with some faster rate are.
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