@pkdaylu Great suggestions. Thank you, sir!
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And definitely try an Indoor Ride Simulation (I.R.S. as I like to say) in the Wahoo app. It’s been a super fun feature to build and use.
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Still waiting to try my new Climb. But my MOVE adapter arrives tomorrow. So, just a couple more days of waiting left…
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Got my MOVE adapter today and it’s all connected to my bike and my trainer! Tho I already rode my bike this morning.
i did work up a good sweat in my room getting it setup, tho. 
Sitting under a fan to dry the sweat that’s still dripping down the back of my neck.
Can’t wait to try it out! 
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I’m excited to hear what you think!
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Rode my first Climb workout this morning on TP-V. Was definitely a new experience. I enjoyed feeling the actual grades, not just increases and decreases in resistance.
I realized somewhere in the middle that I hadn’t fully calibrated it to 0%. But still, was great. The change from 4% to -2% actually felt like I was going downhill.
Tomorrow I will try a SUF workout for a different experience. More tomorrow!
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Took @pkdaylu’s suggestion and rode Getting Away With It this morning. It’s been a long time since I last rode it. Before the Inspiration videos appearance, GAWI was a staple of almost every recovery week in every SUF training plan, but I it was deceptively hard and I got tired of it, so it’s been some time since then.
I made sure to level out my Climb last night. Was pretty fun while riding GAWI and made the climbs a whole lot more realistic
Also saw this gem that I must’ve somehow previously overlooked.
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That’s always been one of my favorite Sufferfest scenes! Makes me want to find a bakery, too!
Should head to this establishment near my residence and order Pain au Chocolate
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I think my recommendation was for The Way Out, though!
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Ah, you’re right! I got them mixed up. That’s another good one. And actually, I was thinking about it while riding GAWI. So, I’ll definitely need to do that one, too.
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You guys made me nuts on the Climb. I had a look and found it with nice discount. It should be there next week. Hopefully not on Monday 
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There are a few bike kit/tech purchases I’ve never regretted and literally were game changers for me. The Climb was one of them and I would not be without some type of gradient simulator ever again. The other was my Garmin Varia rear radar. Another thing I’d never be without. That said, when my Varia dies, I’d get the Wahoo Trackr Radar for the enhanced features.
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What enhanced features for the Wahoo Trackr Radar?
I totally agree on both of your mentions, (my #1 was the KICKR BIKE, but same reason, gradient changing is MAXIMUM VALUE, and I STILL BELIEVE WAHOO is MISSING THE BOAT on PROMOTING THIS FEATURE and DEVELOPING SYSTM TO MAXIMIZE IT ALWAYS, though they do seem to be making S L O W progress in that regard? MAYBE?)
My VARIA 515 is definitely ranked at the top of CRITICAL ACCESSORIES for cycling, and in fact, higher than the KICKR simply because it is much cheaper and more critical in potential life-saving impact, plus I ride outside FAR more than inside, so it’s got to work and do it’s job on near daily basis.
That said, I DO have DISAPPOINTMENTS with the VARIA 515. It is a rare occurrence but one that has not been fixed by any updates, nor by Garmin replacing the device finally, after I’d had too frequent “MISSES.” The device typically alerts and shows EVERY VEHICLE and tracks it through to it passing me by or possibly turning off behind me before reaching me, and I see all those things on the Garmin EDGE 840 screen.
BUT it DOES MISS VEHICLES COMPLETELY from time to time. That’s VERY UNSETTLING AND DANGEROUS because I do trust the device to catch ALL VEHICLES, and it just does NOT! I’m talking about missing a vehicle moving much faster than I am, not just one that barely inches up to me over a long distance. It really even catches all of those, honestly, UNLESS it happens to be when it MISSES.
That doesn’t seem to matter if it was a slower or faster vehicle, either. It sometimes misses a 2nd or 3rd or __ whatever, vehicle in a “grouping” of several, and there’s no rhyme or reason to the size or speed or how close or far apart from the others, it JUST FLAT MISSES THEM. Like TOTALLY. NO ICONS for it, no sound chimes accounting for it.
This has happen literally dozens of times, and some of the times the vehicle was totally by itself, closing and passing fast OR slow, and the radar never picked it up at all! The EDGE never showed it, AND the VARIA APP on my phone never notified me by chiming about it.
Because of that, I do NOT HAVE TOTAL TRUST IN THE DEVICE, but it is still greatly useful and helps me stay alert and able to track traffic from the rear without always turning my head, BUT I still do a lot of checking visually AS I SHOULD, because I know it isn’t perfect.
WHY it misses, I just don’t know, but I SUSPECT THAT either the VARIA device Bluetooth or ANT+ connection is faulting at the time these misses occur.
And frankly, I wasn’t even sure till just now writing this, which channel is used, and I read and saw that EITHER can be used. Which concerns me that in all the times I spoke with GARMIN about the issue (MANY TIMES, till they finally agreed to replace it, things went better for awhile, but have repeated again with the replacement, so I’ve just given up calling back) the Garmin techs NEVER EXPLORED THAT WITH ME as to which channel I was connecting through.
So now I’m probably going to have to delve into that and see if I can determine the answer, AND switch to the OTHER option for the connection, if I can force that, and then see if I have more missed vehicles using the other connection option. I don’t even have a suspicion which would be more dependable, other than possibly the way my Bluetooth on the KICKR BIKE connection HAS BEEN MORE DEPENDABLE as far as my being able to avoid “death spirals.”
HMM. 
(apologies for drifting so far off topic!)
EDITED to add this: I searched a bit more and it appears that the EDGE Connection uses ANT+ by default, while the PHONE connection uses BLUETOOTH by default. I’m not sure whether that can even be over-ridden (and my phone, as maybe most or all current phones, does NOT SUPPORT ANT+ anyway.) So IF INDEED I am correct that both the APP on the phone, as well as the EDGE 840 really MISSED VEHICLES, then both channels would have to fail at the same time. I cannot absolutely be sure of this because I often forget to start the VARIA APP for the extra source of chiming (in my earbud, actually, is where that happens from the phone app) so unless I was absolutely certain that I had the app running when the vehicle was missed, I still would see the EDGE screen failing to show or notify. And I just cannot be 100% certain I’ve caught that at the same time, though I THINK that I have… 
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Sorry to hear about your experience with the 515. That would irk me to no end.
My Varia is the RTL 510 and it’s never missed. The only time it’s ever not given me the warning is if I’m in a group ride and then, only if it’s a super tight pace line. Even in these situations, 99.99% of the time, I still get the warning.
The thing about riding in the groups I ride with is well over half of us have radar units anyway so there’s some built in safety via redundancy 
.
As to the “what extra features”, here are my reasons for saying I’d get the wahoo unit over another Varia:
- The Wahoo Radar has a built in accelerometer that activates a brake light when you slow down at a stop sign/light. Just like a car.
- Dual high intensity LEDs vs the Varia’s single light.
- Improved battery life (my Varia might give me a couple of 3+ hour rides (my usual is 3-4 hours) but has died on second rides so I just make sure to charge it after any ride in the range of 3ish hours). Wahoo says 10 hrs for theirs and up to 20 in low-flash mode (likely what I’d use)
- I’m now pretty much all-in with the Wahoo ecosystem having abandoned my old Edge 530 in favour of a ROAM v2, and now the Bolt v3.
- I’m in no rush to replace my Varia and I’ll keep using it until or unless it won’t stay charged for the length of my usual rides, or, if I ever do another outdoor endurance event where I really need the peace of mind of a working radar.
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Cool feature! I like that! (Wonder how it works if you’re using the bright flash mode, which I always use on mine because it seems to give the longest battery life) i.e. does it then go solid for a bit and release (hopefully.)
I do a fair number of century rides, so probably 7hrs with stops is possible, and I’m always fine IF I started full battery, which I pretty much always have planned the century and charged the night before to be sure. I think on the bright flash (without any constant burn between flashes) I can count on 8 or more hours. So hopefully the Wahoo is just as bright but longer lasting; sounds like it probably is. And my phone, Galaxy S24 Ultra, COULD BE USED to charge up the radar again if I bothered to carry a USB-C to Micro USB cable (which I don’t.)
That brings up another question, though, does the new Wahoo at least use USB-C for charging? That’s always miffed me that the VARIA uses micro-USB, a stupid choice when USB-C was already so prevalent when the VARIA 515 came out. (In my opinion, there’s no reason for ANY devices now to use anything but USB-C.)
Thanks for the good feedback, Sir Glen!
PS. I just went through the REMOVE and RESET process with my VARIA and EDGE to totally reset the connections between them. Will see if I go a long stretch without any more MISSED Vehicles… Though I did that before with prior device also and it didn’t eliminate the issue; eventually returned again. I’m beginning to suspect an ANT+ connection to the misses, but who knows. Garmin obviously doesn’t.
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Yep, USB-C to USB-C cable included.
Not sure how the brake light feature works when using different flash patterns. GPLama has a video review of the unit where he demos the brake light, though I don’t recall the flash mode he was in at the time.
On some long endurance events I’ve done, I had a long micro-usb charging cable and a power bank packed in a top tube bag. Iirc, I could use my Edge 530, while charging but it’s been forever since I’ve done these kinds of things and I honestly can’t recall if I could have charged the Varia on-the-fly or if I would have had to go a period of time without the radar while it charged. This is a non-issue for me at this point in my life but I still hate the micro-usb port on the Varia which is clearly showing the wear of my frustration with it trying to make the connection the wrong way around MANY many times
Back to The Climb: I hope anyone that picked one up at my behest enjoys it as much as I do.
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Yep, I’ve done the same with the power bank, when I got to the ride starting point and realized power on the VARIA or EDGE (or both?) wasn’t where it needed to be. I keep the power bank in my bike carry-all bag so it will be there if need be. And I’m not sure either, whether the units will charge on the fly…
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Nearly certain the Edge 530 could, just did an indoor test of the Varia and I got it to give visual and audio alerts on the Bolt v3 but the light wasn’t flashing on the Varia itself. 
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It does not support Pass through charging. The version with a camera does though, apparently.
Also, 100% agree about it being the top game changer. Drivers act differently when you have one. Won’t ride without a mirror either, after going down and skidding a ways when I tried to check behind me on icy roads.
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