2 of 2 customers found this review helpful.
Have been using this for a few weeks on rural, solo rides, and the overall experience has been very positive and am happy I bought it. Chose this model as I already have a rear light I'm happy with. It does a great job picking up cars from far away when the radar has decent line of sight. But to reap all the benefits of visual alerts plus better audio alerts, it helps immensely to have a garmin/wahoo (or similar) or phone+ridewithGPS mounted on the handlebar. Initially I just used the Varia app on high volume and threw my phone in my jersey pocket, but the alerts were often barely audible over wind noise. Garmin also makes a dedicated radar display, but you're probably better off getting one of the above.
What I like:
- Accurate & reliable detection including car distance, often long before I can hear them (especially helpful with lots of wind noise)
- Supported by a variety of bike computers and apps (ridewithGPS, varia app, wahoo, etc)
- When paired with an app or garmin/wahoo/etc, it shows car distance visually on sidebar on-screen, gives radar battery life warnings, and gives lost connection warnings.
- Gives unique warning for fast-approaching cars
- Small size & very sturdy garmin quick connect mount. I use the mount & provided o-ring on my seat tube.
Other:
- Battery life is not quite as good on this model, but probably long enough for most people to get at least a few rides out of it.
- Wish it had USB-C
- It (or maybe just mine) has an issue with the Varia app where the radar unit itself will just turn off at random while riding and with no warning, but only with the Varia app on my android phone. I have NOT had the issue at all while connected to my Wahoo or when using ridewithGPS app on the same phone. Garmin offered to replace but decided not to since i don't use the app anymore.
Thank you for your feedback.