I am a recovering couch potato who is back on his bicycle....let me preface by saying that for the past 3 years, I have made extensive use of a Garmin/BMW Navigator V as part of a BT-enabled motorcycle communication/entertainment system so probably not totally accurate that I am a Garmin newbie.
I decided to go all in on Garmin as a treat for losing 60 lb and returning to bicycling: Edge 1030, Varia Radar, Varia tail lights x 2, Varia Vision, cadence, speed. I get HR (+ music + phone) from Jabra Elite Sport earbuds...which do connect to the 1030 via BT Smart, one of the main reasons I purchased the 1030.
First impressions (General):
1. When everything is working, the vision that Garmin is trying to deliver on shines brightly (no pun intended). A completely connected system of lights and sensors designed to measure performance, share data and enhance safety. Unfortunately, it is unacceptably challenging to set the system up and it is unacceptably finicky.
2. The system as it is currently released is really buggy. Sensors connect and then disconnect, Vision fails to display data, Edge 1030 freezes and requires a hard reset, headlight stops working on a night ride...at random times and for unknown reasons. While I have no experience with previous Garmin cycling products, it does seem that there are a lot major bugs, more than should be present for the leading company in bicycle electronics if the company has properly invested in QA and pre-release beta testing. Given that a big chunk of Garmin's business is in avionics, I find it hard to believe that this level of sloppiness would be tolerated by the aviation community.
First Impressions (specific)
1. Varia Radar is an excellent product. I am very impressed with its ability to differentiate cars from bikes. It works beautifully with Varia Vision if you pair it directly. I may actually keep the Vision for that reason alone....One of the scariest things I noticed being back on a bicycle is how crummy the roads have become since I last spent gobs of time on skinny tires. Even with a properly adjusted rear view mirror, I have had several close calls with pavement cracks because my gaze was drawn away from the road to look in the mirror. I feel increasingly comfortable with the reliability of the Varia Radar to rely on it as a primary sensor.
2. Edge 1030 has a lot of functionality packed into it but it can be dangerously distracting due to its shortcomings. For example, there is no shortcut to get back to a ride profile when in the menus. I would love a home button (or equiv). The touchscreen sensitivity issues have been highlighted by others and I will corroborate - it sucks for a product intended to be used with gloves. No one said you have to buy gloves with capacitive fingertips in order to get the 1030 screen to be more responsive. In addition, when the radar overlay is displayed, you cannot easily access any other information, namely the turn signals.
3. Speaking of turn signals, the overlay is both insensitive and and difficult to access. Make the soft buttons larger at the very least. Hard to actuate the signals with such small targets. The turn signal feature is quite exciting and a great example of the power of connected lights....but the execution has not obsoleted the use of hand signals...
4. The light network fails randomly, creating a potential safety hazard. My headlight failed the other night and I could not make it turn on under any circumstance....fortunately, I was < 1/4 mile from home. Totally unacceptable, At least offer the ability to turn a smart product into a dumb one if necessary.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
Outstanding vision, mediocre execution. During the times that the entire systems has been connected and working, I caught a glimpse of the future of connected bicycling and it is very exciting. However, Garmin has released it with too many bugs, at least as much as I have seen thus far.
I do not plan to return my products tomorrow though I do have my purchases on the 30 day clock. If near term firmware updates fix some of the bigger issues, I will keep them. Otherwise, I will return everything except the Varia Radar and flip a coin on the Vision....it's a bit pricy to be a dedicated display for the Radar but it really works well.
