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Varia 510 vs. the older model

Ive been using the original Varia Radar for a couple of years, and I’m always amazed at how accurate it is. It never misses a car coming up behind me, and rarely gives a false alarm. I’m usually the first in the line to call “Car back!”, even if I’m up front - and I always get it right.

When I saw the Varia 510, I really like the new form factor, and ordered it - assuming the radar performance would be at least as good as the old model. I used it for the first time this weekend, on a ride with a few friends, and it’s not the same product at all. Yes, it always picks up cars approaching from behind, but for every useful alarm, I get several false alarms. I stopped a few times to play with the mount, thinking maybe with the longer body, I had it mounted too low and it was seeing my rear wheel. No change in position made a difference. Sure, I could just always hug the edge of the road, since some of the alarms are really cars, but I ride on country roads, and prefer to enjoy my side of the road - until I have to tuck in for a car to pass. And no way I’d call “Car back!” to others, based on the 510’s alerts.

So a couple of 90 degree twists, and the old unit is back on my main bike. I’m hoping to see a firmware update soon. No way the hardware could be so inferior to its predecessor. It had to be software. I have no complaint with the old model, but I was looking forward to the sleek new shape and the brighter light. The light on the new 510 is great!

Peter

0 markj9266 over 5 years ago

I find it picks up other riders, which can be annoying for some folks. And it always gives me a false alarm when I first set out from my driveway. But I haven't seen any false alarms out on the road except for other riders. And my routes are all country roads as well. On the other hand, I've been impressed with the distance it will see an approaching car.

0 bloom34 over 5 years ago

I get false alerts in the same spot every ride there is something in that location that triggers it. The dot will show up about 2/3 up the screen the move slowly backwards before disappearing. I really like the extended battery life so even with occasional false alerts the new unit is worth it in my book :)
.

0 fallingrock over 5 years ago

I'm getting false positive notifications caused by cyclists.

I have a ticket open with Garmin support about it. Hoping they can dial in the sensitivity a bit. Even better if they could give us the ability to adjust the sensitivity ourselves.

I do love the battery life.

0 Manatee over 5 years ago

I tried the 510 again, but mounted it higher on my seat post. Much more accurate now, but the light is completely hidden behind my seat bag. I’m fine with that, as the radar is what's valuable to me. I can clip another light onto the seat bag. I might also try mounting it a little lower on the post again, but clipping the unit in upside down - with the light at the bottom.

0 cicloforza1 over 5 years ago

I called and e-mailed Garmin support 3-4 weeks ago with the false positive from cyclists problem and they confirmed they had others reporting the same issue. They said they'd issue an update the firmware or replace the defective units - nothing since then. I just followed up with an e-mail. If you're having the same problem, I encourage you to call Garmin support to expedite the resolution.
Never had the problem with the 500.

0 sebo2001 over 5 years ago

Ive been using the original Varia Radar for a couple of years, and I’m always amazed at how accurate it is. It never misses a car coming up behind me, and rarely gives a false alarm. I’m usually the first in the line to call “Car back!”, even if I’m up front - and I always get it right.

When I saw the Varia 510, I really like the new form factor, and ordered it - assuming the radar performance would be at least as good as the old model. I used it for the first time this weekend, on a ride with a few friends, and it’s not the same product at all. Yes, it always picks up cars approaching from behind, but for every useful alarm, I get several false alarms. I stopped a few times to play with the mount, thinking maybe with the longer body, I had it mounted too low and it was seeing my rear wheel. No change in position made a difference. Sure, I could just always hug the edge of the road, since some of the alarms are really cars, but I ride on country roads, and prefer to enjoy my side of the road - until I have to tuck in for a car to pass. And no way I’d call “Car back!” to others, based on the 510’s alerts.

So a couple of 90 degree twists, and the old unit is back on my main bike. I’m hoping to see a firmware update soon. No way the hardware could be so inferior to its predecessor. It had to be software. I have no complaint with the old model, but I was looking forward to the sleek new shape and the brighter light. The light on the new 510 is great!

Peter

I have Varia 510 for a month now and I'm super happy, no false positives at all, it is really solid, I'm riding fast so other cyclists are passing me, I did experiment and let few pass me, only cyclists on steel bikes are visible, anyone on carbon bike is not detected by Varia 510.

The only wish I would have is to be able to record all the passing cars in to fit file, it would be really cool. It is really amazing product

0 AlanG316 over 3 years ago in reply to sebo2001

I know this is an old post, but you can use an IQ app to get the radar data from a fit file, see DC rainmaker about radar traffic maps.

0 Fabe56 over 3 years ago in reply to AlanG316

Yep with Mybiketraffic.

0 Former Member over 3 years ago in reply to AlanG316

I'm shocked (well not really) - that Garmin added this out of the box for the new Bluetooth model and not the older models, including 510 (which is NOT that old). If it can be extracted from the fit file, the update should have been made for all models. Garmin is likely pulling the data from the old models anyway, and only supplying it back to users of the latest and greatest.

I've also read in a forum (didn't verify myself) that the 510 has a bluetooth chip in it, same as the new bluetooth models (unsure how true this is).