Finally an update to the 515:
Will be interested to see what @dcrainmaker and GPLama make of it.
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I was ready to throw my money straight at them…. but it’s not compatible with my Garmin edge 830 and I’m not ready to upgrade that yet….a strange choice if you ask me…one that will probably force me towards the wahoo radar instead.
Edit: thankfully I was misinformed by Garmin support - it is compatible.
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I’m sure it’ll be compatible with the 830. Surely that just means that the 830 won’t display the extra info about vehicle size, lateral position? I mean, in your shoes I’d want to have that confirmed before buying, but…
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That’s what I assumed but I messaged Garmin via the chat on their website and they said it wasn’t compatible 
I said “will the rearview 820 be compatible with my Garmin edge 830 for basic radar functionality?” And they said unfortunately not and linked me to the “compatible products” and anything older than a 840 wasn’t listed.
Edit: actually bizzarly the edge 820 plus is listed 
If they’re right then that would be mad on Garmin’s part. Would presumably mean that the unit can’t use the standard radar protocol, so would also not be compatible with Wahoo etc. head units.
I’m sure all will become clear once reviews are out. I wouldn’t personally trust that a chat support agent would necessarily be trained to know anything other than “consult the compatibility chart”. But on the other hand it would also seem a bit mad for them to not detail compatibility properly if it is the case that “it’ll work on a basic level with anything, but for fancy features you need one of these head units:…”
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Yes - I’ve not lost all hope 
The product listing lead me to believe that the newer models were only required for the extended features - which is perfectly reasonable - I was very surprised by the chat agents reply…
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I think this is a missed opportunity, and I say that as someone who really wanted to buy this.
The original Varia radar is a solid product and still holds up despite being old. My expectations for a next-gen version were something like:
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USB-C
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Better battery life (the old one is weak compared to modern peripherals)
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Brighter tail light (it’s always been dim for the price)
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Better hardware fit and finish
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Smarter software
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Better filtering of adjacent roads
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Better alert logic than just closing speed
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Tracking of vehicles moving the same speed
My biggest wish from a new radar is better alert logic. If a car is slowing and moving over, that’s useful context. If a large vehicle is closing fast, not moving over, or behaving unpredictably, that’s when I want aggressive alerts. That and being able to flag which vehicles are actually a problem would be a meaningful safety improvement.
From the marketing, this new model sounds like it’s aimed at that, But at $300, this is very expensive for a cycling peripheral. You can still buy the older Varia for around $120 and get 90% of the real-world benefit. That makes the value hard to justify for most.
Which brings up my biggest blocker: there’s no clear mention of Wahoo support like previous Varia models had. Maybe it pairs via basic ANT+, but if the new features don’t work, no one with a Wahoo head unit would pay double the price for essentially the same experience. It sounds like the advanced functionality may not work with a lot of older Garmin head units either.
This feels like a niche flagship aimed at people with the newest Garmin gear who are willing to pay a premium. That’s fine, but it leaves a gap where a natural successor to the original Varia should be.
Hopefully this is followed by a cheaper, more broadly supported version. Until then, I suspect many people, myself included, will keep riding with decade-old Varia hardware and keep a micro-USB cable laying around.
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Agreed on all fronts! Maybe there’ll be a 520 released later… but I’m not convinced that there’s enough differentiation. Not that Garmin has ever been too averse to having lots of similar products!
You might be waiting a while. Apparently Garmin have a new policy where they don’t give out the units to media people and don’t even give them a heads up it’s being released. Bit crazy really, as is the price, with all the radar competition on the market now.
Correct.
Works just fine with older units, just not the new postion/vehicle size pieces (which frankly…well, I’ll save that for my review). Otherwise, it pairs on the existing ANT+ protocol just fine (and for example, used it with the Wahoo ROAM without any issues, minus not having the vehicle size/position pieces).
These are the vevhicle size/position pieces, where vehicles are categorized into three sizes (car-van/bus-truck-big/moto-bike), and then onto relative lane positions. These were both taken on two-lane roads (surprisingly hard to find around my area).
Below, city bus just about to pass me.
To behonest, it’s near impossible to see the difference between car and big bus on the screen at a glance. Though, the bike/moto one is easier, but I find it mis-categorizes a bunch. Seen below,
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That’s good to know, and I’m looking forward to your review.
I know you don’t want to spoil it yet, but I’ll be curious to know whether using the radar on the ANT+ without the size/position pieces is a meaningfully better experience than older gens. I wonder if the size/position info helps with false positive filtering, detection distance, vehicle tracking stability, or makes the threat detection (orange vs red) smarter, even if that info isn’t displayed. Presumably, it will now detect vehicles moving the same speed as well?
Whether or not that’s $100-180 of extra value is a different question. I guess that depends on how much you value the hardware upgrades, but the price and compatibility is still probably the biggest hurdle here. And particularly if the size/position turns out to be a gimmick (one of those things you just have to feel out).
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DC Rainmaker 1 Garmin Support Assistant 0
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Thanks for the info and looking forward to your review. Please push Garmin to have a “only radar / no lights” option in the list. I needed an additional Garmin app in order to use my radar in that mode which saves me battery life.
At least good to see that you might be to configure that by yourself (?) :
VARIETY OF LIGHT PATTERN OPTIONS
Ride with four different light patterns: day flash, night flash, solid mode and peloton mode, which helps preserve the eyes of riders behind you. Create your own custom light patterns in the Varia app on your smartphone.
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I need to know if the vehicle size/lateral position thing is programmable (i.e. can I turn it off and just have “Varia classic” notification if I’m using a 1050?) Better still, can the more complicated display be pinned to only one screen, so I can easily get it if I need it but not have it the rest of the time?
Given Garmin’s track record, I’m guessing not, but that’d be my wish…
I do a lot of my riding out in ranch land. Very light, but fast moving, traffic with occasional semi’s. Seems like the size feature would work great for this use case as I generally only get passed by one vehicle at a time (its surprisingly hard to tell by sound alone if a semi is coming up behind you).
This would be awesome. I always run my radar but some screens it blocks a good bit of data and I’d love to be able to scroll away from it.
I also hate that the icon in the corner covers the time of day on the drag down menu. Means I have to dedicate a field somewhere to time of day if I won’t have my watch handy… Serious first world problems.
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GPLama initial thoughts:
I agree with him about the new vehicle size/position feature. You should not spend your time staring the bike computer trying to figure out the size of the approaching vehicle.
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So if I read that right, for everyone with a Edge 1040 and below this is a 300$ USB-C update (more or less)? Crazy.
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Edge *40 series have the extended features i think?
Edge *30 and below just standard
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I’m still on the older RTL510 from 2018 - so i also get peloton light mode 
And a battery that lasts more than a couple of hours hopefully.
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