Like a lot of road cyclists, I really like my Garmin Varia, which I've owned for a year or two. It's been one of my best bike purchases in recent years. It gives me plenty of warning of cars approaching from behind before they become audible.I've never liked the original Garmin mount that it came with though, which attaches to the bike seatpost using a rubber spacer and O-ring. It looks untidy and doesn't really fit properly. My seatpost has a teardrop profile, so I need to use the spacer that's shaped for aero frames, but it's not quite the same shape, and so doesn't fit properly.
This weekend I built a bespoke mount which attaches to the bike's seatpost clamp instead. My seatpost clamp uses a 8mm threaded steel cylinder into which the bolt threads into. I replaced this threaded cylinder with a 8mm diameter aluminium bar, which I drilled and tapped to create an M5 thread. Into the lower end of the bar, I attached a spare Garmin mount I had, which came from a SuperStar Components TT Garmin mount.I'm pleased with the result. My new Varia mount feels solid and I think it looks much neater. It's also slightly lighter than the Garmin mount too, at 22g for my mount versus 40g for the original mount, which is a nice little bonus.
