Yes, a good camera would be an absolute game changer and probably sell a new unit to many, many, current Varia owners.
I know lots of people complain that Garmin stuff isn’t USB-C, but can someone tell me why? I know it’s slightly easier to insert (because you don’t have to join up the angles), but is there another reason? No way I would spend an extra $100 to replace something I already own that is nearly perfect just for that little change.
Most of my stuff is usb c now so it would be one less cable. Sure I won’t upgrade if that is literally the only difference but I would be rather upset if they came out with a new unit and it didn’t have type c.
It isn’t?
The newest Varia (2022) is the one with a camera, the 715, it is usb-c. The older Varia 515 was released in 2020 and not.
My 840 (2023) is usb-c, as is the 540 (2023) and 1040 (2022).
Do you see a pattern?
Yes. The pattern is that the new stuff is usb-c. The complaint is that the old stuff isn’t. People raise it constantly, including above.
it seems USB-C is on Varia or Garmin Edge stuff released 2022 or later. Thats why peeps want Garmin to release a Varia 515 upgrade.
I don’t care about usb-c, and I went out today with my 4 year old varia at half charge, and did a 5:30 minute ride and it was running until the end.
Now a more usable camera (and associated software) would have me considering an upgrade.
What are you using to open the FIT file and which column has that data? I tried checking one of my files for that info and didn’t see it there. Perhaps it was the viewer I used or perhaps Wahoo doesn’t record that data field.
Read this post Trek CarBack Radar Rear Bike Light - #35 by WindWarrior and let me know if you have questions
It turns out that’s the same website I had already tried. But my FIT file lists “Battery Status” and all it says is “Good” instead of giving any voltages. There’s also a “battery SOC” field but that has no data for the radar, only the Wahoo and Di2.
Maybe it’s a RTL510 vs RTL515 difference or maybe it’s Garmin vs Wahoo.
Maybe its a Wahoo thing. Not that its likely to help, but you could try toggling to Developer Mode (upper right).
Here is an old one from 8 years ago, an RTL500 Varia (gen1) and recorded on Garmin 520 bike computer
about 1.5 months after buying mine in March 2016. Device index 6 is the radar, started at 4.11 volts (“new”) and ended at 3.89 volts (“new”).
Yes, it appears the radar started “good” (battery status = 2). Those IQ fields appear to be data that Wahoo added to the fit file, and perhaps related to your Assioma power pedals.
Anything in this message?
device index 4 is my Rally 200 power pedals, and device index 6 is SRAM shifting.
You might try putting fitfileviewer back in User Mode and opening messages and inspecting the header column names. Long shot.
I prefer USB-C because it’s more fool proof with cable orientation not mattering, and it feels less like you’ll damage the connector. I know DCRainmaker mentioned about having damaged a mini-USB to the point it didn’t work before.
Also, given the current Varian is 3 years (or is it 4?) since release, and they previously released a new model every 2 years, it seems an update shouldn’t be far away (provided they have things that they could update).
Maybe older, I got mine in a Black Friday sale pre the 1st lockdown and think it had been out for a while.
Yeah, I totally get that it’s more convenient. That’s just not something that would keep me from enhancing my safety on the bike. I do get it though. I just wondered if there was some feature people were hoping for beyond a better connector that would be such a game changer that you’d wait.
I’m not sure I would ever consider no USB-C a dealbreaker as much as I get that micro is terrible.
Random thoughts after two weeks of usage/testing (I bought a unit):
A) The heavily marketed 240m range simply isn’t real. The only time I ever got a 240m detect, was when a first car passed in front of a turning FedEx turn (the FedEx truck was turning onto the road I was on, at 240m behind me). Beyond that, about 95-98% of detects happen at ~140m, and rarely I’ll see a random one between 150-190m in scenarios I can’t nail down exactly. This is both listed distance on their own app & Garmin device, as well as measured by drone with road distance markings in chalk.
B) Side by side testing with the Varia RTL-515 and RCT-715 both static and hundreds of kilometers riding real roads with lots of American traffic, puts the Trek at a much slower detection, about 85% of the time. Generally speaking the Garmin Varia units has been picking up cars for me about 3-4s earlier, very consistently. I tried changing positions, changing head units (Garmin vs Wahoo vs App vs Hammerhead), etc… The remaining 10-12% of the time the Trek will detect the same as Garmin, and the last 2-5%, it’ll randomly detect earlier than the Garmin.
C) The Trek almost never detects the correct number of cars in a line-up of cars. It ends to miss cars that Garmin will see. It will eventually see all those cars when closer (or is closest vehicle), but if Garmin shows 3-4 cars, Trek will generally only show 2-3 cars at once.
D) Battery life does seem good, but it’s a bit messy to get a hold on with real-road riding/etc…
E) USB-C is great (versus Garmin RTL-515, the RCT-715 has USB-C)
F) Mount is blah on the bikes I tried. Sure, it works, but is kinda floppy fish. Also, it’s not quite as easy to remove the unit one-handed to put on a charger. Not a big deal though.
G) It never once detected my wife riding/overtaking me. We tried all sorts of things, the Garmin detected every single time. I have not swapped it to her bike though, to see it’ll detect me. On the to-do list.
Other thoughts, hopefully soon-ish.
This all sounds similar to their Wavecell helmet swing & miss… grand claims that fall a bit short of the reality for something even less than an “also ran” product.
Me either, until I damaged my Varia’s micro USB to the point where I only have one lead that works with it.
No wonder the bike industry is having a bad time.
What is Trek’s product doing better than the reference product? It’s neither smaller nor prettier. Cheaper?
Who in their right mind thought this would a) be a good design, b) have a business case, c) stir interest.
Wait, I’ve got it… Likely there is a Trek app for that. That sucks your privacy. So it’s similar to the Cannondale speed sensor.
