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Mfg PartNum: 010-03180-00 | |
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.
Upgrading to the 820 it performs as advertised. Coverage is excellent and it does a fantastic job of letting you know when a car is traveling at the same speed as you (biggest upgrade I can tell). It does still have a tendency to see other bikes behind you as traffic which can be annoying in group rides. Battery life is much improved and moving to USB C makes traveling so much easier. No bunches of different cables needed.
New 820 does identify an increase in size of larger vehicles like trucks, but still doesn't distinguish other upcoming cyclists or show a difference between cars and motorcycles. Also the rear holder is cheap plastic that has already needed to be re glued after 1 week of use. Come on Garmin put a stronger metal mount so we don't loose our new expensive radar.
I decided that I wanted to try a rear light radar system that would appear on my head unit. I wasn't sure if it would be useful or just annoying. After a few rides I put it in the useful category. I don't use the warning tone. But I have fellow rider that does. It is nice to be able to adjust the light brightness and even turn it off. I wish that it was a little clearer on the battery percentage.
