I've also been using this for quite some time, and it's incredibly useful. We even used it in a case with an expert witness who was testifying in a motorist-vs-cyclist crash/lawsuit. We were able to prove that the cyclist had stopped at the STOP sign, and then, realizing he'd made a wrong turn, had legally moved into the left lane to effect a U-turn when struck. The absolute speed for the motorist? 55mph in a 35mph zone. Case was settled very quickly after that. These radars will NOT improve your safety. They'll improve your AWARENESS and they will BUY YOU TIME. TIME to make choices. 12 Seconds is about what you get, which is usually 6 more than you get via ears alone. Oh how I wish Garmin still sold their HUD.

Can almost certainly guarantee that AMG driver was a cyclist

Great content. I’ve had it on my Garmin for a while. Super useful information. Also, occasionally gets in trouble because my wife now asks me, “How many cars passed you today?” and I can no longer just say, “Oh, a few here and there.” I had 710 pass me on a 120k route the other day. It makes gravel all that more appealing.

being hit by a car my self this is the best product i have ever seen , im now buying a bike computer and now will spend the whole $300 or so just to have eyes in the beck of my head thank you so much

I wish for a feature that logs passing distance as well. In many countries you will break the law if you dont pass at a safe distance. Or make it dangerous for the softer traffic that also uses the road.

Fantastically helpful video Shane. Thanks for all you do for the cycling community.

The quality and content of your videos is outstanding! Thanks!

Garmin Varia radar has been a game changer for me for riding on the road. Though I remain very defensive in dealing with vehicles that I share the road with, the added information that the radar provides has given me the opportunity to enjoy the scenery a lot more. I am more confident in my safety when using the radar. Thanks, Lama, for continuing the education on how to use these tools effectively!

Best add on I ever bought. Great advice from the Lama

Thanks Shane for this video, downloaded the software last night and tried it out today. Staggering 722 vehicles counted in 1 hour 45 minute ride. Very useful information, I am part of advocacy group in the Blue Mountains and I can certainly use this to point to TfNSW and Blue Mountains City Council the importance of good cycling infrastructure. Love your work.

Great info Shane. I’ve used this for a while and the extra info is excellent…. It’s amazing how fast some people drive past you. Keep up the great work.

I love this app, I’ve been using it for over a year, and it works flawlessly

Thank you for doing an in-depth look into this app. I recall you mentioning this not too long ago and I've been meaning to try it out, so thanks for the reminder and the information about the app.

Another cracking video Shane , thanks for the info

Thanks a lot Shane. It’s a very useful add-on for cycling radar users.

love your work Shane

Great video, I think you need Magpie attack detection build in also :-)

More great work Shane. Thanks for sharing. I’ll do the same with my family and friends that have a radar unit.

Brilliant! Will download this at once!

Great video Shane, I'm going to install this right now. And just based on your video alone, I agree this is something that should be installed on all of these devices by the manufactures.

Wow this is amazing. I have the varia and absolutely love it but had no idea about this. It’s one thing to know a car is behinds you but it’s next level to know how many, how fast they are going, distance etc. thank you!

Brilliant Shane, I've had this App on for ages, I didn't know it had been updated to show speeds, this is a game changer

Awesome summary, I think i'll get myself a radar this week.

Thanks for this video. I added it on my 515. Edit/update: Did my usual route today and 168 cars passed me today. Insane. This is very useful app to have.

I agree. After watching your video on the light, I bought one. Thanks mate.

Thanks Shane, I installed this app I believe following your last video on it and Rays article. Good to know I can toggle more data items now. I agree that it should be native to the units and Garmin especially should incorporate the data more into their routing. Nice vid as per usual

I was waiting for that bloody magpie to turn up in your shot!

I saw it in another video when you were testing Magene radar. I went and installed it for myself and this is awesome. The developer explains in his site how some things works under the hoods. He inclusive came up with a protocol to make tests more accurate. He asks from those who can, send the data of the test protocol.

Great tip gplama! Thanks.

Thanks Shane, Llama lab does top stuff once again. I had seen you could see the count function a while back, but not the update to read speed. Now installed and ready to test here in the UK.

Thx a lot for that very good information - will immediately install this IQ field 😀

I've had this data field on my 1030 for at least 6 months and I'm going to put it on the 1040 solar. It's great info. Having the speed as a data field down the bottom of the screen is a great improvement. I had been waiting with the 1040 as it had been a bit unstable with Connect IQ add ons.

Excellent, very informative and helpful. Thank you!

Shokz are absolutely the best thing for riding. You can even hold a phone conversation without violating most operating laws. I would love for this to become an added feature on all supported Garmin devices.

Brilliant video! Installed My Bike Radar the other week per your suggestion. And I've been using Shokz for years and won't ride without them. Wanted to suggest you try them each time I'd see you with earbuds but it's not my place to tell other riders what to do. Hate the Cycling Police who feel it's their duty to comment on everything.....

I'm a late adopter and often late to the party...SO GLAD I stumbled on this video today since I just bought the Varia and had virtually no idea how to use it until now...the device and the add on are indeed safety/piece of mind game changers! Thanks!

I agree with you, this should be available on every platform that supports a radar product. I recently got the Varia and I can't believe I waited this long to use a great safety product. Hopefully Wahoo will support this technology soon. I have been using the Aftershokz Aeroplex for about a year now and I liked them so well, I bought a second set to use as my standard headset for work as well.

It would be awesome if Varia units also notified drivers of our existence. If their GPS/Waze would show an indicator of our presence

Very Valuable addition to garmin headunits linked with varia (or other ?) radar devices !!

Thanks Shane. Great content as always. I cannot ride w/o radar. It’s a must.

Another public service video from the Lama. Top advice, app downloaded and Garmin unit updated to show this info.

I love my shockz headphones they are the most sensible option whilst riding or running !

Thanks. Great information

I’ve been using MBT since Ray first wrote about it a while ago. It’s a great concept, well executed, and the developer has been very responsive when I’ve had questions. I agree that it should be built-in functionality and I hope Garmin incorporates it and compensates the developer accordingly.

Fantastic video!!

Fantastic. Thank you,

nice! thanks a lot!

Thanks for the update Shane. Could be very usefull data in case of an accident by which a car is hitting you coming from behind. Not that I wish for anyone to experience this though.

I’ve recently purchased the RTC715 to pair with my Wahoo and love it. But now after seeing this speed data feature I guess I will have to in the very near future get myself a Garmin head unit. Which is ashame as I love my wahoo and it simplicity. Thanks for sharing. 🚴🏻‍♂️

Going to install this later on. Thx

My 2 must haves for my rides, aftershokz and Varia radar.

Very good content, thank you. I downloaded the app from the Connect IQ store to install on my Edge 530, and here are my first impressions: I included 3 data fields: vehicle count, absolute speed, and last vehicle speed. With the 7-screen display, the data is too small to read during a ride. I will have to create a dedicated data screen for it to be useful. The data on Garmin Connect is great. You get vehicle count, and a vehicle speed graph over time. I have not been able to find the file to upload on the my bike traffic website. I presume I need to use my computer and plug in my Edge device for that. Overall a great add on. Just need to tweak and play around with it a little more.

Nice one Lama, loving the radar and with more EV’s and hybrids, some cars at low speed can be silent. Also shokz link is good for info, but Aussie’s need to visit their au site to buy.

I think the "why bother, it's might not be valid in a court of law" argument is moot.... much like arguing against using camera footage. In the US, there are some jurisdictions that will not accept video footage, but more and more that do. I think it will be similar here. But either way I believe it would be very helpful if you had this data when working with police... the more data you have to support your case, the better. I also suspect as this becomes more common, drivers will adjust their behavior. If they know that their speed is being recorded, and often that they are being filmed, they might actually start to be more considerate. And thanks for another excellent video.

Thank you for the video

Great content. Thx. And now I’m using a rear cam as well in view of road traffic in #hongkong :)

Wow that is quite something. I can certainly see a future were this will become commonplace and used just as much to convict drivers. Just imagine a few years down the line, the Radar talking to a GoPro, Insta360 or any other action camera telling it to press Record to capture that speeding motorist or even perhaps a close pass.

Been using aeropex for a few years, they’re not amazing sound quality but perfectly fine for keeping you entertained on the bike.

Thanks for the video. I downloaded the data field and just went for a ride with the garmin 520 plus and the RTL510. The app is not perfect at counting cars. Often when I had a car behind following at my speed it could count the car several times before it even passed. Also occasionally it failed to count a passing car. Id guess that as the vehicle settles at your speed behind, it disappears off the radar until it speeds up and gets detected again, the app counts this as an overtake. If the vehicle repeatedly speeds up and slows down before actually overtaking, 1 car could count several times. Not a fault of the garmin radar I should say. As usual it never failed to detect a car coming up behind - so great! exactly what I want of my radar. Just not so good at working with the app to count the amount of cars that actually passed me.

It's abundantly obvious that what's needed is number plate recording, time, place data PLUS how close each vehicle came to you during passing.

Interesting. I personally could not care less about that. I rather use smart bike lights to safe battery by having the lights generally off and turning them on automatically when a vehicle approaches.

Very useful. Installing app.

Great share and very useful info. Buying the radar has been the best decision I have made, and that was also thanks to your recommendation. This information will be very helpful as well. Keep up the good work mate!

This feature right here is what might tip me into finally getting a radar and a head unit. Having a heads up if I need to tactically get off the road would be very handy information. Also got an email from my insurance company saying that dash cams won’t reduce my premium but “they will definitely expedite determining who was at fault”. Might get safer roads with a bit of social policing to get everyone to slow down like the AMG

Hopefully, if more and more riders use radar on their bike, that data can be used to make infrastructure decisions to accommodate cyclists. And like you said, it also is useful data to have in the unfortunate chance a rider is struck by a motorist. Thanks again for the great content!

fully agreed with u!

thanks!!!!

Great Work! love your videos ! thanks for your information! best regards from B.A. Argentina! i will appreciate a video with your garmin data screen information... there is a lot of possibilities.. which are better o worst.. in different cases

Shane - your suggestion @ 9:20 is exactly how I use this data - by checking traffic flow and speed on alternative route options I can see the number of cars and average passing speed - - this in turn, for example, can give me the information to decide if that road that runs parallel to my prescribed or regular route 2 streets over ( in my urban setting here in Japan ) is safer or busier... Interestingly, I sometimes find that roads with more passing traffic have a lesser relative speed - although that doesn't always equate to "safer".... You're in a more rural setting but I wonder what are your experiences in this regard......................

BTW, downloaded & installed the My Bike Radar Traffic widget and used for the first time yesterday - 178 passes logged over a 105km mostly countryside ride, interesting to see the passing speeds on the Garmin head unit. I’d say 40% were above the posted speed limits, by a greater or lesser margin.

thanks

A traffic heat map would be very useful especially when not on your own local roads.

I love my Wahoo head unit & wouldn't swap it for anything else but this is where they lag massively behind Garmin.

Hey Shane. I've been watching your videos for a good while and they are always excellent. I have a radar unit and this review of the My Bike Radar Traffic data field has got me downloading it straightaway. I have the basic version but this is superb. I'll have to find out what camera you have on the front. Cheers Shane. Keep up the good work.

The AfterShokz are brilliant, don't use them for music, just for stats and map directions.

Love the AMG's. I have been able to identify better routing with this information. But my false alarms are counting against my count. Would like to get that fixed. Great video! Thanks.

I have a few years of passing data :-). It all gets saved as an xdata field in Golden Cheetah too.

It is interesting that the info exists in the device, and when i bought it, i recall that as one of the main selling points, however, the Garmin Varia Android App does not display that info although the audio beeps are different if the car is slow or fast. I hope they release an update soon that perhaps can roughly speak the driver speed in the audio too, or at least record it in the camera footage, just like they do with the cyclist speed.

I usually listen to podcasts when I ride rather than music. After buying a set of Shokz, I was very disappointed that I couldn’t really hear the spoken word very well at anything above 20kmh. I would love it if they were louder, but sadly I have gone back to my AirPods Pro with noise cancellation turned off.

Bah! Instalei no 1030 Plus, otimo aplicativo! Falei para a minha esposa que passaram 126 carros por mim, acho que não devia rwe dito para ela ( rsrsrsrsrsrrs )😖

I use a rear view mirror thank you. Some say they don't want to know what's coming before they get hit lol.

Thanks to this channel I started using this setup for my last two rides. In a 25mph zone a maniac passed me at 70mph! Sobering to look at live and after I uploaded my ride and showed my wife the next day I was still thinking about it. Maybe tmi? Won’t ride my road bike without it from now on.

I’m adding this data field. I had no idea it existed

As usual, great video Shane! What data field are you using on your Edge at time stamp 8:50? looks like a power graph of some type - What does the Edge call it? (I love it and want to put it on my 1040). Thank you!

Omg I've dreamed of this, no reason to have radar and not know vehicle speed.

Hey, Wahoo we're looking at you!

I find the aftershokz are better on the outside of the helmet straps given they are not adjustable.

I bought the shocz headphones, works great with the varia, really helpful if you are hard of hearing like me, not always fool proof but very helpful reminder. Two gripes, I get a bell sound on detection and a ping as the car passes, don’t know if there is any way to change the type of tone? Also the Varia App can only pair with one device at a time, I have two in different countries and its a minor pain when I have to re-pair them. So far a great improvement to safety. Excellent video as ever GP Lama!

Wish to have also the distance at which cars pass by. Hope Radar Devices will add this in near future.

Dude. Good intro to the Shockz. Mine are super comfy, offer long battery-life and are genuinely waterproof. But can you ask Shockz about the plastic coating on the inside of the bone conduction units? Mine have fallen off twice! Admittedly, the first time it happened was just inside the 1-Year warranty window, and the local agent in Hong Kong replaced them with a new set with no hassles at all. But, the covering fell off the new ones inside of 2 months. It hasn't affected the audio as I can tell, and the headphone still stay in place. It's just annoying. I wonder if this is a common problem for Shockz users. I'd love to hear from other channel subscribers about their experience. That said, Shocks are hands-down the best sports headphones I've ever had. You can't beat them for comfort. And they don't die when you sweat them up on a hot and humid day. I've killed 3 sets of sports buds from other brands - I think the salt in sweat just destroys them. Cheers

I'll have to see if the field is any better on absolute speeds now. I had found that it jumped in 7mph increments (maybe 10kph?). You could get the general speed, but the real absolute speed was going to be off a bit, high or low, not sure.

Shane maybe Shockz could send you the new Roadwave for review: they have the bone conduction integrated into a pair of sunglasses. They are less fiddly than having separate sunglasses and headphones. They don't have much choice of lenses (right now). I have both and they sound great

Yes, should be standard

In the next iteration of the Varia, a side scan radar to show the distance as the car passes!

The ARadar app does the same on the Apple Watch and collecting stats on iOS.

Great vid Shane, keep it up. Any idea if it's possible to simultaneously pair the radar (I have a Magene L508) to the head unit (Wahoo Bolt V2) and a compatible watch (Venu 2) simultaneously? Keen to try out My Bike Radar Traffic.

Have a a wahoo head unit so unfortunately wont be able to get stats from my Garmin radar. Have been using Shotz on my bike and the trainer for over a year and they are great. Can still hear traffic and don't get sweaty like foam headsets when on the trainer :)

100% agree about the recording the information. Even better if it logged the plates of the idiots to say something that was inspectable by the insurance industry.

Could you mount the Varia upfront (with the light off obviously), to record speed from vehicles approaching you? Along with the camera you have a pretty good dashcam at that point.

I love mine, I use it with the wahoo bolt V2. The alerts are loud though. Do I mute it? It would be good bleeping but not as loud.