I have ridden with a tail light for years, but this is a bit nicer. It's not what I would call a critical piece of equipment, but it's nice to know when a car is coming up - particularly when riding double file with a friend, or when doing intervals and there isn't much or any shoulder. I turned off the sound alert cause it's annoying. The visual on the side of my wahoo is sufficient. I like that I can see multiple cars approaching. The sale price as Garmin has brought in a new version made it more compelling. The old micro USB isn't great, but it's not a dealbreaker either. I'm not seeing any false positives or false negatives so far. If a car slows down to match your speed before passing, that's the only time where you might not see them registered.
Pairs right up and works without a hitch so far, hasn't dropped connection and does everything I'd want it to. One time before a ride I had to de-pair and pair again after it wouldn't connect, but that was just a weird one-off thing seemingly.
The reason I took off a star is because the unit I received was very obviously a used and returned open box with a bunch of grease everywhere, but I figured as long as it worked it was no harm no foul even though it was supposed to be new.
I don't know how many heart rate monitor straps I've owned over the decades, but the interval of replacement is getting longer as the durability improves. This design looks like it should last longer than the previous one. The clasp design seems the same, but they moved the 'skin protection tab' to the opposite end of the strap. So far it hasn't shown any tendency to come unhooked on it's own, which I found to be an issue with my previous one. They have also simplified the length adjustment, there is now only one adjustment loop instead of two which makes it much easier to get right.
This replaces my Garmin Edge 830 and is a huge advance in many ways. It's notably faster--nice to see the road incline in near realtime vs. a 10 second delay and everything loads much quicker. It's a major step up in navigating the various menus. The display is awesome--much easier to read, more options, more responsive.
While its increase in size is noticeable, it's worth it for the better, clearer display. Good for us aging baby boomers!
My only gripe is that that attachment piece on the bottom is more centered on the unit so it doesn't fit well with many of the existing Garmin and face-plate mounts. I have a Bar Fly mount and even with their special mount adapter, the back of the 1050 is barely clearing the face-plate bolts. Not sure why they couldn't have positioned it so it fit existing mounts.
