MoAlpha

Isn't Mexico past that point? I have heard that obesity is epidemic in Central America.

seedsbelize 

I would say Mexico is past that. The poorer parts of Belize certainly are not! That said, the population of Tixkokob is heavily slanted toward the very thin. Would that change with a living wage?

MoAlpha

I don't know, but I think bad, food-like, products follow the money pretty closely around those parts. Wasn't it Colombia, where activists tried to take on the soft drink industry and ran into real trouble?

Of course, that's no argument against a living wage.

indyfabz

It's almost that time of the year again. Made in America music festival time. Traffic nightmares not far from my house already starting due to street closures for setup. When I get back from Brooklyn early Saturday evening the streets outside the fenced in venue will be teeming with intoxicated knot heads from the 'burbs and S. Jersey. Many of the girls are barely dressed. No way their parents let them out of their houses looking like that.

I'll be driving SAG for our club's Brooklyn ride Sunday morning and staying up there over night, so at least I will miss the second day of annoyance.

seedsbelize 

Coca Cola is the national drink of Central America. I can't speak to South America. There are efforts being made, in the schools, to demonize it. The children of my right hand man are not allowed either soft drinks nor store-bought fruit juice. His generation, however, drinks it for breakfast and lunch, at least. Industrial food is cheap and addictive here too, just like everywhere else. That can't be said for Belize, where everything is expensive. There they have to rely on the longer lasting, more intense flavors, such as Cheese Whiz. I had a bag of baked Lays in my hands (briefly), that cost something like 5 US dollars. Regular gas costs nearly US$6/imperial gallon. Here it is somewhat under $4.

WhyFi

Took the kids on a ~12 mile round trip to a playground and lunch. It was in my friend's neck of the woods, so she loaded her kids in the e-cargo bike (I'm envious) and met up with us. The boy was dragging by the time we got home, but he did a pretty good job on his longest day of riding (I think) so far. The girl zonked out in the trailer on the way back.

kissTheApex

Being a first generation American family we regularly travel overseas to visit family, which results in accumulation of airline miles. Through those I was able to get an edge and the Varia. Varia radar doubles as a bike light and almost all of my rides being solo I find it a very comforting tool.

if you have unused airline miles, I’d recommend checking their rewards web site to see if they carry/include Garmin products as well.

gnome

Do it. go on.

ksryder

Just heard back from my friend who works art Garmin and with the employee discount I can get it for $110. I will be ordering it post haste.

WhyFi

Report back with your thoughts on it.

WhyFi

I guess that my main hesitation on the Varia is... is it a nice-to-have alert or does it give you something actionable? I tend to ride on the shoulder, out of traffic as much as practical, but I'll move in to the lane to avoid hazards, debris, etc (as long as I'm not jumping in front of vehicles moving twice as fast as me). For owners of these units, do you feel that it's solid enough that you can feel comfortable riding further in to the lane, possibly on the smooth passenger side tire track, and only move off when alerted? Or do you still reside mostly on the shoulder and just have piece of mind when moving out for whatever reason? Just curious as to how the info is put to use.

MoAlpha

Yeah, that’s my question too. I ride a lot of narrow roads with bad pavement and I pick my position strategically and tactically. If the road is wide enough to stay out of the way I do. I also hear about 99% of approaching traffic and look back a lot. I can’t imagine what I’d do with more information.

kissTheApex

Double holy carp! There are reports that they’re quite high maintenance, but at that price they’re barely more than new pedals!
i find myself riding mostly on the smooth track (passenger side as you mentioned) and only move to the shoulder when I hear the quadruple beeps the head unit sounds when radar detects something. There are some false positives, such as when it detects cars on the freeway when I exit an underpass, or similar cross traffic after a stop sign/light, and when a driver doesn’t pass but hover at your speed, it can “undetect” a previously detected car, but by that time you can hear the car and already know they’re behind you.

i always keep it in the flasher mode, and haven’t followed a rider with it, but some say it starts flashing more frequently when a car is behind. There are also riders that claimed they keep its light off and it comes on when it detects a car, but I’m told that function only works with Garmin head units.

If there’s not much of seat post showing, especially with a saddle bag, mounting can be challenging, but there are 3D printed adapters that attach to the loop of the saddle bag..

WhyFi

Thanks. What kinds of roads are you talking about? Can it detect cars far back enough to be of use on the 45mph country roads (on which the traffic typically drives faster)?

kissTheApex

I haven’t been riding roads with that kind of speed limits since I’ve had it so I can’t comment on that, but I’m mostly on 35 mph roads where people tend to go around the speed limit. The advertised detection distance is 150 yards, and I’ve had cars that far back detected on straight roads. At 45-50 mph, they’re close to 25 yards a second, so one would have seconds to react. At my current level, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable, but I’m a ham fisted, sausage fingered guy, so take it with a grain of salt.

Gplama has has a video review on the tube site that might be in conditions closer to hat you’re looking for, so if you’d like to watch it I think it might give you a better idea.

seedsbelize 

I wouldn't be so sure, about the parents and the half-dressed girls.

MoAlpha

Where do you ride? My activities generally take me to Potomac and the Poolesville area.

WhyFi

State Fair day! It's a vest and arm warmers kind of morning... too bad I'm not riding.


...but I'm still tempted to wear the vest.

seedsbelize 

This discussion has been enlightening. Is there nowhere to ride without traffic?

kissTheApex

Im usually on Sligo Creek pkwy looping between university and nw Hampshire blvds and/or Sligo-forest glen-beach drive to garret park.

Even though ugh they may get a bit repetitive, those two give me 25+ miles to play with, which is where my stamina level is at this point coming back from a long break and health issues.

Once beach drive reopens, I have a nice 45-50 mile route that includes Ross drive and LDS climbs, but at this point I don’t have my climbing legs (however tiny they are).

Depending on timing of your ride start, I’d be happy to lend you the radar, if you’d like to try it.

indyfabz

Happy National Cherry Turnover Day.

indyfabz

FIFY. Fair food photos expected.

ksryder

So I have a few riding buddies that have the Varia, both the first gen and the newest version. Around here we have lots of county roads with minimal traffic but also minimal shoulders, usually about a 55 mph speed limit. I haven't met a single person who has one that has any complaints. Occasionally there will be a false positive but no one has said they had it fail to alert when a vehicle is actually there.

On the first generation model, the lights on the actual unit would light up when a car was coming. If you are following someone with a Varia, that can be sort of useful but you have to be looking at your buddy's tail light at the right time. However, it seemed to give 4-5 seconds of warning time when I happened to notice.

I don't recall if the new generation lights up when it detects traffic or not.

When the person with the Varia calls out "car back" it seems like there might be even more time, as if it alerts on the computer before the lights activate.

It seems like a perfect device for our particular usage -- country roads where there is not much traffic, but you want to know about it when there is. For riding in city conditions where there is constant traffic, I think it's less useful.

With the employee discount it's pretty low risk so I'll probably order one next week or so.

ksryder

Visited the Minnesota State Fair a couple years ago when I was visiting family in Mpls. It was pretty fun, as far as state fairs go. I always enjoy fried things on sticks.

There are a lot of people who are, like, *really* into the Kansas State Fair but I find it underwhelming. Also I have no interest in seeing Poison or Whitesnake or whatever has-been 80s band rehash their 3 hits.

MoAlpha

That's an extraordinarily kind offer. I'd rather just meet for a ride sometime and see if we both survive.