North Creek.

This.

Carried the bike out, realized the Varia battery was dead while I was calibrating my power meter. I said to hell with it and rode anyway. Spent two hours feeling a little apprehensive, and looking behind me more often because of lane positioning.

It's just better to be riding with the radar. It makes its value known immediately. Not using it is like not taking your vitamins, it isn't the end of the world, but it's not ideal and feels a little off.

It does not with the edge series, but can’t tell if it’s the same with the Fenix.

If you have a Garmin watch, you can get Varia alerts on your wrist.

As far as what I do when I get an alert is sometimes slide over if there's room to do so comfortably, but most of the time, I just hold my line and ride predictably. To me, the best use case is when I want to get over to make a left turn. If the radar is clear, I look over my shoulder and move into the roadway. If the radar shows cars, I know I don't even have to bother looking.

I haven't been honked at once since getting the radar.

It's kind of like talking vs talking over the internet, there's no intonation, etc. A car horn can mean "get on the sidewalk Lance" or it can mean "know that I'm behind you." I've been riding in the middle of the lane (residential streets, and traffic is still pretty light in most places) and moving over when the alert goes off, the driver sees me do that and they see my steady light start flashing at them. They know I'm aware of their presence. No need to honk. It's one thing to get honked at in your isolated car with the radio playing, it's a lot more jarring on a bike. Never felt like it would startle me into crashing or anything, it's just unpleasant.

Interestingly, I haven't either.

I have, but I definitely think it has reduced the potential confrontations. Generally, non-psychos will behave properly if they think you aren't deliberately trying to be a road-hog.

In Wisconsin, there used to be a section of the traffic code that if you were moving slower than 50% of posted speed and a car honked, you had to pull over to let them pass. This applied to all slow-moving vehicles, but there was no exclusion for bicycles.

I had no idea the Varia goes into hyper-flash. Does it do that by default?

I just want the d-shape post thingy.... dont care about gen3. I have gen2 and gen1

Mount the radar unit on the seat post as usual; mount the flare under the saddle. I run tubeless, so I don't need a saddlebag. I've got a plug kit, CO2, and a multi-tool in my jersey.

As far as I know, mine has always done it. You can test it easy by just turning on to day flash and walking up from behind the bike so the radar sees you as an approaching object. I discovered by accent one day and was surprised how bright it appeared to be. I'm not sure if the intensity increases but the flash rate does causing it to at least appear much brighter.

That's exactly what I do. I like the radar and long battery life of the Varia with the light turned off but like the brighter light and compact, hidden look of the Flare RT. I switched back and forth few times and finally decided why not just run them both and turn off the light on the Varia.

I ordered the whole kit, part #010-10644-12 since it shows there are all 3 shims included. It arrived Friday but only had the 2 shims the 510 came with so I ended up RMA'ing it. The rep. I talked to said the photo was wrong and the new Universal Mount Kit that has the 3 shims isn't out yet. Also said I wasn't the only one who was mislead by the wrong picture. He said when they do release the new mount kit it will have a different part #. Wish I could order just the D shaped shim since I don't need any of the other stuff in the kit.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d845aa6f61.jpg

yes I saw that and read the description (2 shims) and thus I didn't order :). Dumb Garmin

how easy or difficult is it to swap the varia mount(s) between different bikes? this coming from a guy that has bought two additional garmin “out front” computer handlebar mounts because i found it to be a pita when wanting to swap mounts between bikes. .

it's super easy... take all of a couple seconds. But I'm lazy and will buy mounts. I have 4 bikes that I ride and 3 mounts. Only 2 bikes have the same shaped seat post.

I have a Cygolite Hot Shot Pro 150 that is everything I could want in a tail light. Standalone radar makes sense to me.

Garmin just need to buy cycliq.. or make a radar and video recording unit all in one unit and then have a mode where is only records on radar pickup. I'd buy it yesterday

thanks. sounds like we are of the same mindset.

I saw the description too but figured it might be wrong (since it only includes 2 rubberbands, not 4 like the description says) and why would they update the picture and still sell the old kit? Oh well, it didn't cost anything since they gave me a full refund including shipping. The round post works good enough on my D seat post but will get the updated D shim when available. Or maybe I can find someone who purchased a 515 but doesn't need the D shim.