Midwest weather had a freak warm day last week (72 degrees in March!) so we ventured a short leg-stretching ride. This Varia 820 is an upgrade for me from the 515, and it IS as-advertised. I use it with an Edge 1040 and the new vehicle icons and wider display are far more useful, particularly in the kind of riding I do... out in the country, where a car/pickup can sneak up on you really really fast. The ONLY complaint I have so far has to do with the same, ongoing problem: the volume of the notification chime. Windy rides, at pace, you just can't hear the notification. You just have to get into the habit of the quick glance as part of your awareness "rotation." These will be gifts for my grandson and his father as well.
See the online YouTube reviews from Llama and DM for really good tech evaluations.
This is the second one I've owned. The first one was lost after I got hit by a car last December. But it wasn't from lack of information this unit provides. It was from a car turning in front of me at a 4 way stop that 'didn't see me', even though I had bright colored clothes on and was half way through the intersection.
As I'm about to be released to ride again I wanted to make sure I still had this piece of equipment to use.
I love the extra information showing up on my Edge head unit of vehicles approaching from the rear and the rate of speed in which they are traveling. I can even tell when another cyclist is approaching to overtake me by the rate in which it's moving along the distance dots.
I have no problem hearing the tone alert of new vehicles approaching nor the display on my edge unit, which can be positioned on either side.
I cannot personally attest to the distance that the light carries, nor the flash rate it presents as I haven't followed it or others that I am aware of.
Overall great additional bit of info to have available for rear approaching objects, vehicles, other bicyclists, or maybe even dogs!
This is the second one I've owned. The first one was lost after I got hit by a car last December. But it wasn't from lack of information this unit provides. It was from a car turning in front of me at a 4 way stop that 'didn't see me', even though I had bright colored clothes on and was half way through the intersection.
As I'm about to be released to ride again I wanted to make sure I still had this piece of equipment to use.
I love the extra information showing up on my Edge head unit of vehicles approaching from the rear and the rate of speed in which they are traveling. I can even tell when another cyclist is approaching to overtake me by the rate in which it's moving along the distance dots.
I have no problem hearing the tone alert of new vehicles approaching nor the display on my edge unit, which can be positioned on either side.
I cannot personally attest to the distance that the light carries, nor the flash rate it presents as I haven't followed it or others that I am aware of.
Overall great additional bit of info to have available for rear approaching objects, vehicles, other bicyclists, or maybe even dogs!
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.
