Garmin went ahead and launched the Edge 1040 Solar, a GPS bike computer, and the Varia RCT 715 taillight with built-in camera, in India.
The Edge 1040 Solar costs Rs 72,990 while the non-solar version of the same called Edge 1040 Bundle costs Rs 67,990 less. They are available from Garmin brand stores and Amazon India.
Garmin Edge 1040
Key features of the Edge 1040 Solar include electric glass solar charging lenses which Garmin claims extend battery life to up to 100 hours in battery saver mode. The device also comes with multiband GNSS technology for better positional accuracy. The Edge 1040 Solar comes with navigation tools such as turn-by-turn navigation, break route guidance, and off-course notifications.
In addition, it also acts as an energy guide and provides real-time endurance information, cycling capacity and route demands, and personalized ride profiles. Users of a bike equipped with the Edge 1040 Solar can manage cycling activity profiles through the Garmin Connect smart device app on their smartphones.
And there’s more. With the Trailforks app, you can view routes and trail details from over 80 countries and Forksight mode, displays upcoming forks in the route and where a cyclist is within a trail network.
Integrated safety and tracking features such as incident detection, assistance and LiveTrack, along with the tracking and group messaging feature are present, as well as the ease of receiving notifications and pairing with the Tacx internal trainer.
Varies RCT715
Garmin Edge 1040 Solar is compatible with Varia RCT715 radar activated taillight with built-in camera which costs Rs 40,490.
It comes with features like automatic incident capture where video footage from before, during and after the event will be automatically saved and the Varia app can be used to access the video footage, transfer videos or simply customize the camera settings.
The device emits visual and audible notifications to alert passengers to approaching vehicles that are up to 140 meters away. The taillight can be seen up to a mile away, says Garmin, which means that before the radar detects the approaching vehicle, the vehicle’s driver can see the cyclist.
In addition to the Garmin Edge, the Varia RCT715 can also be paired with the Garmin smartwatch. As for battery life, the Varia RCT715 has up to 4 hours of battery life with radar and backlight in high or night flash and up to 6 hours with radar and backlight in day flash – all with the camera recording continuously at 1080p.