I got one recently and used it on two rides, I was getting very pissed off at receiving so many close passes. Before I was using two rear lights, one flashing and the other constant, but felt I was not safe and it would only be time before ending up in A&E or worse. So thought give it a try, and on quite roads it gives you the opportunity to at least shoulder check or be more ware of a car approaching. I feel much safer, as other have mentioned above on busy roads it’s less useful but I did feel on the whole that drives seemed to give me more room. Time will tell if I continue to feel more positive about riding outside but In Canada were I live people seem to be in more of a hurry to not be help up a few seconds by someone on a bike.
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Probably depends on the type of roads you ride. Since I ride very low traffic county roads I almost always ride in the travel lane to avoid the trash, debris, broken glass and other sharp objects that are more prevalent on the edge or the road or shoulder. When I see a vehicle approaching I’ll get over as far as I can or move to the shoulder but as soon they pass I jump back out into the lane.
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I was in the same boat when others were raving about it. I saw a review from someone saying that they wanted to hate it but in the end they couldn’t. That and further people raving about it convinced me to try it. I’m glad I did, they were right knowledge is power. It let’s me know when something is there or not without having to turn around and if I interpret it adjust my road position. It also gives me confidence to swerve out to miss a pothole when I have been casually monitoring the Varia. A mirror might do that to a degree but the Varia has no blind spots and looks better 
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A fair question.
I find it gives me confidence to ride a little further out in the lane, which gives me the option of going left or right to avoid potholes/debris/etc. rather than being close to the shoulder and only having one option.
On descents where there is a lot of wind noise, I can keep my eyes on the road surface, rather than having to do head/mirror checks at speed.
Also, I can see on the Varia display multiple cars approaching, and not be startled when a 2nd car overtakes me.
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Go to Shapeways https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace?type=product&q=varia+swat and there are a lot mounts available for the SWAT connection
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I will take the Varia for another ride today and test further. I need to figure out how to deal with the constant beeping: car, navi, car, turn, car, turn…
That started to annoy me already on the first ride.
I don’t use the Varia when riding in urban areas for this very reason - too much beeping actually takes away from situational awareness. In rural areas, I find it invaluable.
Count me as one of those people like @Power13 who waited a long time before buying one and now can’t understand why I waited.
I’d agree with all of the points in that post points- it’s all about awareness.
Another small but potentially significant example, one of the roads I ride on regularly has a narrow/no shoulder and before I had the Varia was surprised occasionally by a passing car or lorry when I had one hand on the bars as I was taking a drink. That doesn’t happen any more.
It’s obviously no replacement for looking but it enhances visual checks and increases awareness in many situations like the one above and I almost certainly make better and safer choices now.
From hesitating for a long while before buying one thinking it wouldn’t add much value to my riding, if my wife started riding again I’d buy a second one for her without a moments thought.
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Thanks for all the replies, I’m guessing not from UK riders with talk of travel lanes/shoulders. I don’t have anything like that where I ride in Yorkshire. Just roads, so I tend to ride out from the kerb a fair feet, to avoid rain drains and also be more visible!
Ex UK, now Down Under.
It’s handy when you come across roadkill kangaroo as well as they usually end up
in the way 
I’ve been using Varia RTL516 with both my Wahoo Bolt and Garmin Edge 830, and I have been surprised by how much I appreciate the value it brings. My experience is that the benefits are:
- During commutes, especially when the traffic is heavy, it is great to see on my computer whether there are cars behind me, how many, and how far away they are.
- Electric vehicles are harder to hear than fossil fuel vehicles, so having a visual cue on the computer helps.
- On rural and rough roads, I like to ride in the middle of the road, and with Varia I feel safer doing that (and can move to the side long before cars behind close in on me).
- The battery capacity is fairly good, and charging is super fast.
There are some issues, though:
- The radar is not 100% reliable; sometimes it catches cars that are not there (phantom cars?!), cars on parallel roads, or simply misses cars that are behind me. I’d say that this happens only around 10% of the time, though.
- On both computers, I switch off the sound alerts as they’re more of an annoyance than of use, especially during commutes and on relatively busy roads.
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hmm, but how do you then realize there are cars behind you? constantly checking the screen for posibble popups or leds signals seems to be not the idea of it and it leads to taking of the eyes from the road.
Good point. I find that the vertical bar on the left side is so visible when cars pop up that I notice it anyway - or it could be that I just enjoy staring at the power meter data frequently? If riding through a big city, it’d make sense to switch on the sound alerts.
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I’ve only had it miss a car once when it approached at walking speed. Although I have seen a car approaching on my screen and its then disappeared a quick shoulder check reveals they are holding back at a safe distance and going the same speed as me 
I have had the few times when it says a car is there but it then disappears though when a shoulder check reveals it stopped to turn down a side road or driveway 
Yip I could imagine the constant beeping on busy roads could get annoying. Whenever I am stopped at the side of the road for a bit, its starts to head that way.
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I have a 510 from the UK but ride in Germany. My (own!) policy is to have it in flashing mode in daylight but switch to solid light when it’s dark. My (own!) reasoning being that my visibility in daylight is better with flash, but I don’t distract cars in the dark. (Which is the reason for the german law banning flashing lights on roads, aside from police/ambulances and such).
So far, I have not been stopped about this, even though I get overtaken by police cars every now and then…
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I use these for Varia on the saddle and keep Cycliq on the seat post:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VPFDFLQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Yeah, it seems to work off speed differentials, which is why it doesn’t go off constantly when you are riding in a group, etc. so if a car behind you essentially matches your speed, it “disappears” from the Varia.
Which, to me, indicates it’s value even more…you have been alerted to the presence of that car when you otherwise would not likely have known it is there.
One other point I forgot to mention - when I was undecided about it, one of my main reasons is that I live in a fairly populated area of the Chicago ‘burbs. There is ALWAYS a car behind me and I have always ridden as if there is one there. So my logic was “so then why do I need the Varia?” Suffice to say I was wrong and it has significantly increased my situational awareness.
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They seem really expensive, but maybe I am just spoiled. I will probably pick one up at some point.
For those that aren’t sure on a Varia, you can connect to someone else’s varia if riding in a group, that way you can get a feel for it before purchasing
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I know what you mean, I was lucky enough that a mate pointed me in the direction of a Black Friday deal. I couldn’t believe it was the latest model 
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