SRAM & Hammerhead have simply launched the newest model of their GPS biking laptop, the “new Karoo”. This unit combines much-asked-for {hardware} updates, with a smattering of software program updates, to offer a pure evolution over the present Karoo 2.
This mannequin represents the primary {hardware} variant produced since SRAM’s acquisition. But regardless of that, the Hammerhead staff operates largely independently – selecting their very own element/manufacturing factories and extra. In fact, as you’ll see, there’s actually elevated integration with SRAM. This sample is roughly the identical as different SRAM-acquired manufacturers, like Zipp.
In any occasion, the brand new Karoo 3 is nearly completely a hardware-focused improve. However they’re notable ones: A a lot brighter display screen, a loud AF beeper, 30% extra battery life, and extra. There are only a handful of tiny software program options/variations to the present Karoo 2, because the Karoo 2 has been getting continuous updates that the Karoo 3 simply rolls proper in. Nonetheless, I’ve been driving with the Karoo 3 for a couple of months now, placing it by means of its paces on a number of continents with fairly different driving situations. From steamy and sunny, to dumping rain within the chilly mountains, and every thing in between.
Besides, technically, it’s not referred to as the ‘Karoo 3’, however reasonably simply the ‘Karoo’. Hammerhead is particularly involved about associations with the time period ‘K3’ and its connection in identical areas to a bunch of dumb white-sheet sporting morons. Nonetheless, after I seek for that time period, I simply get a Belgium pop lady that sings the track Mango-Mango. In fact, like every thing else, I’m simply gonna name it like it’s – it’s the Karoo 3.
As typical, this Karoo is a media loaner, and it’ll return to SRAM. After which I’ll exit and get my very own for any future testing wants. Additional, whereas I did attend a media occasion a couple of months in the past, I paid for all my very own journey/flights and lodging. Should you discovered this assessment helpful, you need to use the hyperlinks on the backside, or take into account changing into a DCR Supporter which makes the positioning ad-free, whereas additionally having access to a largely weekly video collection behind the scenes of the DCR Cave. And naturally, it makes you superior.
With that, let’s get into it!
(Oh, and keep tuned for my arriving shortly in-depth assessment of the brand new SRAM RED AXS teams and corresponding energy meter, which I’ve been driving for a couple of months now.)
What’s New:
Just about every thing new right here is hardware-based, and individually very minor – however in complete, they’ll add up. Most significantly, these are variations/enhancements lots of people have requested for. Let’s dive into them, beginning on the {hardware} aspect.
– Elevated show brightness
– Added Corning Gorilla Glass cowl, growing visibility
– Added ambient gentle sensor (to vary show brightness in realtime)
– Elevated button “crispness”
– Improved rain efficiency dealing with
– Elevated inner area to 64GB (from 32GB)
– Elevated RAM to 4GB (from 2GB)
– Elevated processor to 2Ghz (from 1.1Ghz)
– Elevated audio chirp stage to JFC loud ranges
– Added devoted/new energy button
– Decreased weight to 118g (from 132g)
– Eliminated SIM card slot
– Added telephone companion app for syncing rides/routes/exercises/firmware notices/and so forth
– Added dual-frequency/multi-band GNSS/GPS
– Elevated battery measurement to three,200mAh (from 2,800mAh)
– Elevated battery length by 30% as a result of “important battery subsystems work”
– Revamped Hammehread Mounting system (referred to as HMS) with adjustable plate and new screw system
– Modified to Android 12 64-bit (Karoo 2 is on Android 8 32-bit)
– Elevated worth to $474 from $399
Now, on the software program aspect, most issues are the identical. Besides, there are some things not coming to the Karoo 2, for causes that frankly Hammerhead can’t appear to justify, and a few that they’ll. In fact, that’s not a lot totally different than Garmin not justifying why the Edge 830 isn’t getting new software program options the Edge 840 bought. The one distinction is that Hammerhead sorta made their ‘model’ all about continuous updates for present fashions. Garmin has traditionally made their ‘model’ about not updating present fashions (albeit, that has ever so slowly gotten higher).
Within the case of Hammerhead, the Karoo 2 gained’t get connectivity to the companion app, as a result of {hardware} restraints on the Karoo 2. Likewise, there are UI tweaks that aren’t coming to the Karoo 2 both (equivalent to among the structured exercise bits).
Now, let’s take a better take a look at the brand new show brightness, First at 0% brightness stage (indoors and open air in direct solar):
Then at 40% brightness indoors and open air (I’m doing each indoors/open air as a result of it may be a bit simpler to see the variations indoors).
After which at 100% brightness:
Although, the obvious is certainly with the black information fields in direct solar (and no, these aren’t scratches, simply smudges, the Karoo is a fingerprint magnet):
Now, whereas it’s a lot brighter – I’ll say that having ridden some 800km aspect by aspect with the trio of the Hammerhead Karoo 3, the Garmin Edge 840, and Wahoo ROAM V2, the Karoo 3 is the least viewable of the three. However, it’s not onerous to see both. I’ve written tons in tremendous vibrant sunny situations of the Canary Islands and Florida, and by no means had a difficulty viewing the Karoo 3 display screen. Taking video/photograph of the display screen is {hardware}, however that’s a pictures downside, however not an actual eyesight downside (and thus, be cautious of critiques that don’t differentiate between these two issues, which is at all times a problem taking a photograph of a small darkish display screen towards a vibrant white/out of doors background). Nonetheless, right here’s all three, in largely direct daylight (my arm is barely blocking the Edge 840), and the Karoo’s brightness at 100% on a sizzling 92*F day:
Right here’s one other shot, on a not-so-hot Netherlands day, however nonetheless direct solar:
I used each Darkish and Gentle person interface modes in these high-sun areas, and customarily discovered the sunshine mode labored higher in solar. However that’s simply my private choice.
{Hardware} & Configuration Choices:
First up is powering on the Karoo, which requires holding down the button on the underside close to the charging port. It is a new button added to the Karoo 3, and I respect it. Although, I do want all of the buttons had some type of etched labels on them. Hammerhead’s thought is that this enables buttons to be dynamic and assigned in software program. However I feel there’s nonetheless worth for brand spanking new customers in having glanceable etching on the aspect of key buttons.
In any case, the Karoo 3 has 5 buttons in complete, together with two on all sides. That is along with the touchscreen discovered throughout all the prime show.
Hammerhead talks about new enhancements on the display screen, each from a visibility standpoint, but additionally a rain utilization standpoint. For higher or worse, I’ve bought to check each of these areas in-depth. On the display screen visibility, I talked about that up-top, so, let’s cowl the rain. First, there’s the ‘Rain Lock’ function (swipe from the highest), which does precisely what it says: Locks the display screen. However, setting that apart, what about simply driving within the rain? Paradoxically, I basically began and ended my multi-month check interval with heavy rains. Final night time I bought rolling thunderstorms, and simply slammed with rain. I didn’t use the rain lock in any respect, and was in a position to simply swipe between information pages and the menus (see the video for the total phase):
Now, I suppose we must always briefly speak in regards to the slight up to date mount. The Karoo makes use of the Hammerhead Mounting System (HMS, no relation to Her Majesty’s Ship). It’s their very own mount design that permits you to slide the unit in entrance the entrance, with about an 1/eighth of a flip to lock it. It’s completely effective. The up to date mount design each provides a lower-level GoPro mount adapter (additionally usable for lights), in addition to ensures that the bolt on the mount (for the handlebars) can not fall out the underside. Additional, it permits entrance/again adjustability of the underside GoPro mount.
However, the world of third celebration bike mounts largely runs on Garmin quarter-turn mounts, so fortunately Hammerhead included an adapter, which I’ve additionally used (for a few years).
With the unit began up, you’ve bought the principle display screen reveals your trip profiles. These are mainly customizable profiles that include your information pages and settings. In my case, I’ve bought one titled ‘DCR Street Profile’, and one other for ‘Coach Profile’. Should you’ve bought an present Karoo unit, it’ll supply emigrate all these over.
You’ll be able to tweak these profiles by tapping the 4 dots within the decrease left nook, which opens up the principle menu space. Right here you may change the Profiles, but additionally see previous rides, deliberate routes, structured exercises, pair sensors, and all assortment of different settings. Additionally, should you’ve bought third celebration Android apps (just like the display screen recorder app I’ve right here), you’ll see that within the listing too.
Trying on the trip profiles you may add information pages, change routing preferences (e.g. dust, pavement, gravel), change turn-by-turn and notification settings, and many extra. Once I take a look at areas the place Hammerhead has surpassed Wahoo, it’s these kinds of particulars that matter. It’s the way you compete with the likes of Garmin, and Hammerhead shifted about 1-2 years in the past into nailing all these little particulars.
From a knowledge web page standpoint, you may tweak your layouts right here, and add extra pages. Knowledge pages can have as much as 10 fields per web page, together with each straight numbers in addition to chart-like metrics. It’s typically fairly versatile.
All of those are tweaked on the unit itself, reasonably than the companion app. As an alternative, the companion app at this level is absolutely extra about syncing information, than tweaking information. In actual fact, for the time being, you may’t tweak something on the Karoo out of your telephone. Nonetheless, it appears like Hammerhead sees this as the beginning of the true companion app journey, reasonably than the end-state (beforehand the app solely surfaced notifications, now it pulls in all the information you really care about).
Earlier than we speak sensors, we’ve bought the remainder of the settings. Most of those are fairly simple. Stuff like importing to Strava and TrainingPeaks, but additionally ones that embody having Heatmaps populate, by way of a partnership with Suunto. I dive into the maps down beneath although.
You can even customise your energy and coronary heart charge zones, although that’s just about the tip of any physiological metrics. Not like Garmin, there’s actually nothing else right here in that realm of coaching standing/restoration/and so forth. In speaking to Hammerhead, it doesn’t sound like they’ve any intention on increasing that space both. I suppose with out the larger image information from a wearable, it’s onerous to get helpful recovery-type metrics. Be aware you may configure energy zones over on the Hammerhead Dashboard web site too.
Extra settings embody pairing a Bluetooth audio headset/headphones, which might help you hear alerts on headphones, but additionally allow you to playback apps like Spotify, should you side-loaded these (right here’s a complete submit on how to do this).
One of the helpful adjustments although with the brand new companion app is the power to have Stay Monitoring by way of your telephone’s information plan, reasonably than having to purchase/keep an additional SIM card (as a result of the SIM card is now gone within the Karoo 3). The companion app, as soon as paired, will routinely then broadcast your place in your Stay Monitoring map.
When you toggle this web page off/on once more, you’ll get a brand new QR code, killing off the outdated one (in any other case, it’ll keep the identical). The map web page is accessed by way of a QR code that you would be able to share from the settings web page proven above. It’ll carry you to this map right here:
The one annoying half although is that it doesn’t present your historic monitor previous to loading the webpage, and every time you re-load the webpage, it resets that for the viewer, which is simply downright silly. Right here I’m practically 2 hours into the trip, and it simply reveals my deliberate route in yellow, however by now I took a really totally different route for the underside half of this complete factor.
So lastly we get into the sensors piece. The Hammerhead Karoo helps each ANT+ & Bluetooth Good sensors, together with issues like energy meters, coronary heart charge sensors, velocity/cadence sensors, biking radar, biking lights, and extra. These are all paired throughout the Sensors menu, in a type of a sensor ‘pool’, which means that every trip profile can use sensors as they see match. So you may have a number of energy metes (thus bikes) paired with out concern. Nonetheless, if you wish to restrict one energy meter to a particular trip profile, you are able to do that too. The world is your oyster.
As well as, Hammerhead (now owned by SRAM) has additional expanded the Karoo’s integration with SRAM sensors. In actual fact, it’ll routinely pull in your SRAM sensors/tools into your Karoo, by way of your SRAM account. This contains all of your shifting, energy meters, blips, tire stress sensors and extra. It’ll even specify which bike it’s from (inside your SRAM AXS App/Account), in little textual content above it. And, it’ll group them by bikes too, so it’s all tied collectively. It’s tremendous nicely executed.
Be aware for the Karoo-driven actions, there’s tons of them, and it contains utilizing the Blips as nicely (for particular totally different actions).
Likewise, you’ll additionally get alerts for low batteries as nicely:
In fact, the scenario with Shimano has not modified. Shimano infamously yanked entry to point out Shimano Di2 shifting information from Di2 group units two years in the past, after what has basically amounted to an inner Shimano miscommunication failure. One that when occurred, they have been unwilling to confess their mistake on. In actual fact, a Shimano rep as soon as described it finest as “there have been no adults within the room”. Sadly, Shimano continues to be unwilling to press undo on that licensing revocation.
Whereas there are third celebration workarounds (and they’re actually fairly nice), it’s nonetheless not the identical as native-level integration. Hammerhead/SRAM famous they even flew Japan to attempt to meet with Shimano about it, however Shimano refused to fulfill on the topic.
In the end, similar to it was two years in the past – this solely hurts Shimano clients. Shimano doesn’t make a competing head unit, and with the huge (overwhelming) majority of Hammerhead customers on Shimano Di2 (Hammerhead has this information by way of sensor information, however wouldn’t let me print the exact quantity), this continues to easily damage Shimano’s personal clients. In any case, no one else (Garmin/Wahoo/and so forth…) blocks Shimano energy meters from connecting to their bike computer systems, just because they make a competing unit. Albeit, given the well-known accuracy problems with Shimano energy meters…that’d most likely be doing these individuals a favor.
In any occasion, with every thing all set, let’s get into the small print of each day driving.
Day by day Driving:
To begin your trip, you’ll both faucet the decrease proper yellow play button on the display screen (or the corresponding bodily button), or, faucet the trip profile you need first, then do the identical.
Relating to lag, every thing feels just about simply as laggy as earlier than. It’s a smidge quicker, sure, however not some main quantity. You’ll be able to see this within the video the place I present them aspect by aspect. I discover it will get barely laggier the longer right into a trip you go, or with extra issues (like routing/and so forth…) enabled. It’s not a deal breaker, and a lot of the lag is within the pre-ride menus.
In any occasion, with that, you’ve bought two choices for the information pages: Gentle mode or Darkish mode. You’ll be able to toggle between them by swapping down from the highest. Typically talking, I discovered darkish mode good for darker/wet days (on daily basis in The Netherlands), and light-weight mode good for sunny days (on daily basis outdoors The Netherlands).
In fact, as you trip, you’ll see your information fields replace accordingly (until you crash), after which you may change between them by both transport or urgent the 2 higher buttons (left or proper aspect).
And, should you’re on SRAM’s latest RED AXS system and the bonus button, you can even configure the distant buttons to vary information web page or different features:
All of this works precisely such as you’d anticipate. I haven’t any points right here from a during-ride standpoint, each trip was spot-on and I noticed no crashes or lack of information. I’ll probably hit about 1,000km on the Karoo 3 within the subsequent few days.
Shifting alongside, you can even do structured exercises on the Karoo. Hammerhead has lengthy had TrainingPeaks integration (so exercises might be pushed to the Karoo), however just lately additionally they added TrainerRoad integration too. I wrote about that in additional depth right here, so positively verify that out.
Nonetheless, apparently, the person interfaces between the Hammerhead Karoo 2 and Karoo 3 are literally totally different on this space. The Karoo 3 has a brand new pop-up drawer (similar to the maps/Strava Stay Segments one), that has a structured exercise. In idea, this might be higher, however in follow, inside that drawer, it’s by some means worse. This isn’t the drawer’s fault, that half is nice (and will keep), however the brand new UI took one thing that was already unhealthy (structured exercises on the Karoo), and by some means made it even worse.
Above is a good instance, the purple part is the precise interval – the black part behind it’s a customized information web page I needed to make to point out the precise goal energy. That crimson line with the sq. on it, the sq. reveals the goal vary. Why on earth doesn’t it inform me the goal vary? Right here’s how this seems on different bike computer systems – be aware the goal vary specified (Wahoo in higher left: 319-339w, Garmin at prime: 319-33w). Be aware the lap energy displayed on Garmin, and 3-second trailing on Wahoo. Be aware the pattern graph displaying too. None of that is powerful stuff – simply copy what everybody else has carried out.
As I stated in my submit in regards to the structured exercises, it’s simply the weakest a part of the ecosystem, and I’m fairly satisfied no one at Hammerhead really makes use of it. It simply lacks the kinds of info you’d really wish to see (like clearly marked numerical energy ranges, trailing averages in these ranges, and so forth…). It’s simply not tremendous usable.
On the brilliant aspect, it is a good time to carry up the audio alerts. They’re insanely louder now. A second in the past whereas writing the structured exercise part I made the error of beginning each a Karoo 2 & Karoo 3 side-by-side indoors on my desk. I’d forgotten how insanely loud that beeper is on the Karoo 3 by comparability. The Karoo 2’s is a mild nudge to provide you with a warning. The Karoo 3’s is a sharpened baseball bat to the pinnacle. You’re not gonna miss any upcoming flip notifications, ever. Nor will your unborn great-grandchildren. You’ll be able to hearken to it within the video up above.
Within the occasion it’s an excessive amount of, you may silence all alerts, by swapping down from the highest:
Subsequent, there’s Strava Stay Segments. These segments will routinely be pulled in out of your favorited listing on Strava (with a paid Strava account), and displayed on the Hammerhead Karoo. As prior to now, I’d argue Hammerhead simply has the most effective general Strava Stay Segments show, because it cleanly reveals you a number of ‘targets’ (e.g. KOM, your pals, and so forth…) on the identical display screen, together with different information like elevation, place relative to the end, and so forth… First, you’ll get a warning about an upcoming phase from the drawer (in orange):
As you trip, you’ll see your rivals and placement throughout the phase. As at all times, you’ll must resolve at this juncture whether or not or to not dethrone your pals. At this juncture, given I used to be display screen recording this trip for the assessment, it left me no selection besides to take GPLAMA/Shane Miller down:
Clearly, I simply executed that activity, for which the Karoo rewarded me. I even managed to seize a PR, notable as a result of this was a considerably lazy try. Heck – I didn’t also have a tailwind both. In fact, I anticipate the following time Shane visits, he’ll probably make an earnest effort at amassing a few of these again. However for now his loss will likely be remembered right here.
Subsequent, there’s Hammerhead’s Climber function, which is akin to Garmin’s ClimbPro performance. This function will routinely detect and present upcoming climb info, each for routes and non-routes alike. Hammerhead was the primary firm to take the Garmin ClimbPro idea, and then adapt it to free-riding eventualities. And it labored nicely right here too. You’ll see a brand new drawer pop-up with the climb particulars as you method it:
After which through the climb (it is a totally different climb, clearly), it’ll present varied consistently updating metrics to the highest. On this case, I’ve expanded out the Climber web page, however you may have it half-sized too.
Hammerhead famous that again in March, they considerably up to date the mapping for Europe (particularly Europe solely) to have higher elevation information. One of many points Hammerhead’s lengthy had, is that their elevation information for Climber is kinda crap. Thus, you’d see all kinds of loopy upcoming gradients that merely weren’t true (both in your favor or not). Having examined this replace a bunch on climbs/rides within the Italian Alps and Canary Islands, the information is certainly higher than earlier than, but it surely’s nonetheless not wonderful.
Nonetheless, on the entire the function is nicely executed, and I wouldn’t overthink the occasional quirks in tight switchbacks overshadow it an excessive amount of. Oh, and you may at all times swipe it down out of the best way, like right here, the place you see the blue bits there indicating a climb, but it surely’s in any other case hidden from view:
Now, earlier than I overlook, I do wish to be aware the smartphone notifications, which might seem in your unit. I wish to be aware them, primarily as a result of it’s annoying. Not the notifications per se, however the truth that you really can’t (ever) dismiss them from the display screen. The one technique to dismiss them is to do it out of your precise telephone. Thus, they’re at all times there within the gray drawer on the backside (you may decrease the drawer, however not in any other case dismiss any given notification):
It’s a kind of issues that’s not a giant factor within the grand scheme of stuff, however is tremendous annoying to take a seat there and see it on a 3-4 hour trip. That stated, for a single notification coming in, ultimately you may see it:
From a battery perspective, Hammerhead claims a 30% longer battery life, and issues typically appear to pattern that course. Try the accuracy part, the place I dive into the battery burn testing a bit extra.
Now, as soon as your trip is accomplished, you’ll get a abstract of the trip on the unit. Whereas all my rides add to Strava marked as personal by default, I nonetheless *LOVE* the truth that I can title the trip right here if I wish to. That’ll switch to Strava that method. Tremendous good contact.
You’ll additionally see on the backside which websites it’s going to sync/add to.
In fact, you gained’t see a ton of stats right here on this abstract web page in comparison with Garmin (and even Wahoo), however extra stats can be found up on the Hammerhead Dashboard website (together with all of your different rides):
With that, let’s dive deeper into navigation, one of many key Hammerhead strengths.
Mapping & Navigation:
Beginning with the map aspect of issues, the Hammerhead contains free downloadable maps for wherever on the planet. Or at the least, in all places I’ve tried to trip (heck, even North Korea might be downloaded!). To obtain maps, you’ll go to settings, then Offline Maps. It’ll really even warn you that you simply don’t have maps for the area you’re in, once you energy it on. That’s useful should you journey, and overlook to seize maps for it.
You’ll see the listing of maps on the prime that you simply’ve already downloaded, after which down beneath you may choose further international locations/areas. It’ll additionally present ‘Close by Maps’ (which incorporates the world you’re in).
While you select to obtain a map, there are two items. There’s the absolutely detailed map itself, but additionally the Suunto-powered warmth map. I at all times select each of them.
Downloading occurs by way of WiFi, and clearly will depend on how huge a map you’re downloading, and the way superior your WiFi is. Once more, I respect right here that Hammerhead permits smaller per-country downloads, reasonably than the large 10-15GB downloads that Garmin requires for his or her maps (which might be tough on lodge wifi, if in any respect).
Along with your maps set, then it’s time to navigate someplace. You’ve bought two primary choices right here: Loading a pre-created route, or navigating on the fly to a given level/location. For the on-the-fly routing, you may drop a pin someplace. As well as, you may route again to dwelling/begin. In idea, it helps tackle navigation, but it surely merely saved telling me “No Web Connection” regardless of very clearly having each WiFi and paired smartphone choices related to the web:
However dragging a dot across the map is simple sufficient, and most of the people are likely to do one-off navigation that method, versus typing an tackle (assuming it’s a straightforward place to seek out).
Lastly, with the brand new Hammerhead companion app, you may ship addresses from Apple Maps and Google Maps to your Karoo. You’ll use the ‘ship to’ possibility from inside these apps, when will then use the Hammerhead companion app to ship it to the Karoo, the place it’ll show-up as a pin on the Karoo to immediately choose.
Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of persons are most likely going to be utilizing a pre-loaded route. This may be from just about any of the key platforms, together with Strava, Komoot, RideWithGPS, TrainingPeaks, and extra (or a GPX/and so forth route file). You can even use their very own website to create routes too:
In my case, I make most of my routes in Strava and Komoot, then routinely sync into the Karoo. What’s cool right here is that you would be able to create collections for these, as I’ve proven beneath. That is one thing sorely lacking from different suppliers, particularly for individuals like myself that create a lot of routes in a lot of areas. It simply makes it a lot simpler to kind routes:
These collections carry over to the machine too, letting you extra shortly flick through them. In fact, you don’t must create any collections, you may simply have a giant listing and type accordingly.
When you faucet on a route, you may see a map of it, the elevation acquire, and select to observe the route in reverse.
After that, you’ll begin driving it. You can even choose a route mid-ride as nicely, should you change issues up. That stated, it doesn’t show the elevation profile for the route, nor does it show the map behind that preview web page, which is kinda odd.
As you trip, you’ll see flip notifications routinely displayed. These notifications are a part of one of many ‘drawers’ that come out from the underside, for the navigation aspect. There’s additionally a drawer for Strava Stay Segments and Climbing particulars.
You’ll be able to swipe up on that yellow drawer to see a listing of upcoming turns. Apparently, and surprisingly, I additionally get some POI gadgets routinely added (Hammerhead additionally helps handbook ones too). For instance, on my trip final night time I bought ‘Windmill’ added to the listing. I do not know the place this got here from (Strava, by some means, I presume), although I do respect the unit successfully reminding me to stick to the ‘should at all times embody a windmill photograph on any Strava submit’ Netherlands rule.
Should you go off-course, you’ll get just about on the spot and automated re-routing. That is dynamic, so it’ll determine one of the best ways to get you again heading in the right direction up forward someplace. You’ll be able to see the coloring adjustments of the road right here to crimson (I ignore this flip, and catch-up the route a minute or so later):
Likewise, you may select to route again to dwelling at any time. Final night time throughout my sundown trip, the thunderstorms bought a bit spicy. That by itself wasn’t really a difficulty, reasonably, it was that it darkened issues up significantly, such that my end time was now a lot darker than I’d deliberate for not having entrance lights on the bike. So about 35KM into my giant loop, I instructed the unit to easily route me dwelling in probably the most direct method potential. It did so, and general I’m fairly happy with the route it gave me. As at all times, I made some tweaks in realtime given native data, but it surely simply adjusted accordingly to maintain pointing at dwelling. The coloring right here on the route line is pink.
Be aware that the reddish colours on the map is the warmth map information. As famous earlier, I’ve had actually good luck with all the warmth map information right here in Europe (and even in components of the US I’ve ridden), given the variety of individuals with Suunto watches on the market (since Suunto gives this information). However, should you’re driving (particularly on trails) in an space that’s not standard with Suunto customers, then this information is prone to be very skinny. However you may see right here in The Netherlands, it’s actually hearth:
General in relation to mapping and navigation, the Karoo retains its place within the top-2 placement with themselves and Garmin. Whereas Wahoo’s navigation is nice (and the ‘push from telephone’ on the spot routes higher), for me the general on-device particulars offered by the Karoo push it past Wahoo, given I primarily use pre-planned routes reasonably than on-demand locations from my telephone.
GPS & Elevation Accuracy (and Battery):
On this part, I’m going to take a look at the GPS accuracy of the Karoo 3, in addition to the elevation accuracy (altitude). The Karoo 3 features a new multi-band/dual-frequency GPS/GNSS chipset in it, which ought to considerably enhance GPS accuracy. That does are likely to burn extra battery, but, Hammerhead has made the choice (like Wahoo), to have it set as ‘always-on’, versus Garmin’s selection of letting you enhance battery life (fairly considerably) by decreasing the GPS from multi-band to common GPS. In Hammerhead’s case, I believe that the battery draw of the GPS chipset is comparatively inconsequential in comparison with the phone-quality stage display screen battery draw (whereas in Garmin/Wahoo’s case, the GPS chipset is without doubt one of the greatest battery attracts).
Likewise, on the elevation accuracy, Hammerhead has had points prior to now with large elevation errors. At a media briefing, the corporate says these points have been particularly associated to a producer error in a particular element, for a particular set of items. I haven’t seen any apparent historic points on the small fleet of Karoo 2 items I’ve, which probably simply merely means I managed to not get one of many unhealthy geese.
In any case, with so many rides on this below my belt, I’m largely going to concentrate on the more difficult rides/terrain. Or, stated otherwise: Rides the place issues both did go fallacious, or may have gone fallacious. I’ve numerous very mundane rides that I’m going to save lots of you from.
With that, I’ll begin with a quick mundane trip, as a result of generally the mundane reveals off failures the most effective. This trip in Florida final week was 3.5-hours and 100KM of backwards and forwards on a really straight street with just about no elevation acquire (a couple of toes per 20KM loop). It’s an effective way to validate how exact the GPS is over the identical route, whereas additionally seeking to spot any apparent elevation gadgets. Right here’s the high-level route, in comparison with the Wahoo ROAM V2 & Garmin Edge 840:
As you may see, straight as a pencil. Trying extra intently alongside all the route, I don’t see any significant variances off the route/street:
Likewise, elevation, I additionally don’t see something too worrisome, be aware that the size of this chart may freak you out, until you notice we’re speaking a whole vary of about 25 meters right here. You’ll be able to see although that solely the Garmin seems to be compensating for climate shifts (probably through the use of GPS to re-correct altitude), whereas the Wahoo & Hammerhead items slowly drift upwards.
From a battery burn standpoint, right here’s how the three items in contrast (with no display screen recording on for any of them). On this case for the Karoo 3, I largely had the map or energy pages up, however with no navigation loaded. All have been related to a Varia radar, energy meter, and HR strap. The display screen brightness was round 40-50%. The estimate of 12.5hrs appears cheap, given being on the map display screen (bear in mind the max is 15 hours right here):
Subsequent, let’s take a look at a climb in Gran Canaria, this one begins off with a gradual false-flat for an extended whereas, earlier than finally a pleasant switchback laden climb.
Right here’s the general plot and information, together with a bunch of watches/items:
We will see on this comparatively tame street part, there’s no issues with all of the items correctly following the street round this interchange (besides a little bit of offset from the COROS Vertix 2S):
Heading up into the principle climb, right here’s a switchback part. No points from any of the bike computer systems, both on the going up, or the descent again down this identical part:
In actual fact, on the best way again down I ended and did a boatload of again & forth on one specific part (for video stuffs), and you may see it’s spot-on right here, all staying on the roadway.
And at last inside this trip, if we take a look at a tunnel (maybe 150-200m lengthy), we don’t see any entry/exit errors from any items – it simply appropriately makes a straight line (proper the place that inexperienced GC label is):
Taking a look at elevation for this plot, general very shut on the climb, however we do see a little bit of separation by time we attain the highest from all of the items. If we take a look at the part after the primary drop, we are able to see we’ve bought a ramification of roughly 25-30m between them. The Karoo is notably the bottom of the bunch at 440m, whereas the others are all clustered round 455-465m. You’d be unlikely to note this if simply driving with a single unit.
Be aware that for this trip, I used to be display screen recording, thus, battery stats wouldn’t make a lot sense. Nonetheless, regardless of the display screen recording, the Karoo 3 confirmed it was on-target for about 11 hours of battery life (together with having a course loaded, and largely being on the Climb & Navigation pages).
Subsequent, one other climb in Gran Canaria. This one I began from a ship (nicely, I bought off the boat), after which instantly headed up an extended hour+ climb, some 1,000m of acquire, earlier than looping again round to city. Right here’s the high-level view:
If we take a look at among the actually difficult switchback sections, we see it’s basically flawless. All of the items are, when going upwards:
As I begin to descend (a unique route down), we see the one unit that continues to have hassle with quick descents is the COROS Vertix 2S. Different items are spot-on, together with the Karoo 3:
Likewise for one more bit right here:
Nonetheless, elevation is one other story. Proper off the bat, you may see the Karoo 3 is hard-wrong right here. Regardless of beginning at sea stage (actually, getting off a ship within the ocean and beginning the trip), it didn’t appropriately replace elevation.
In actual fact, it reveals as -126m at the beginning if I take a look at the Hammerhead post-ride dashboard (on the DCR Analyzer above, we don’t presently present adverse elevation, we merely flat-line at 0m):
So, what provides? Was this an elevation failure like seen on the Karoo 2, or one thing else? I despatched it over to Hammerhead, and right here’s what they despatched again:
“After diving into the trip logs, it seems like elevation calibration didn’t hearth till after this trip; it additionally seems your Karoo was not related to the Companion App on the time of this trip. Had it been paired to the brand new Companion App or related to Wifi, your Karoo would have calibrated elevation earlier than beginning the trip. The staff dove into the numbers and elevation offset from Amsterdam to the beginning location of this trip, and confirmed that the elevation numbers would have been appropriate if calibration had occurred earlier than the trip.
Karoo ought to fall again on GPS for elevation calibration if a community connection will not be out there – the staff is investigating as to why that didn’t occur in your Karoo for this trip. We’ll observe up with findings.”
Certainly, this was the primary trip on the island after flying in. Additional, the companion app wasn’t opened (as they didn’t have it out there until the day after). In fact, as they identified, this shouldn’t have been an issue. This could have instantly used GPS for preliminary calibration, because it did for each different trip.
And that’s the factor: That is the one trip that did this. Each different trip reveals correct/appropriate elevation. I even went again and checked out each trip after I traveled throughout these two months, to see if the primary trip again and failures. None did. Solely this single trip was weirdly offset.
In any case, yet another trip – this time again in The Netherlands looking out for tulips. Oh, I discovered them:
Right here’s the trip overview:
Right here’s a boringly good part of random roadway:
And one other boringly good part of random roadway:
And right here’s the elevation profile, which once more, thoughts the size right here. These are all very a lot the identical:
And at last, one other battery burn chart. It is a 3-hr trip, with largely map pages up on all these items (besides the Epix Professional). I didn’t management for brightness ranges right here, so my guess is the Edge 840 was on full brightness for this one, therefore the upper battery burn. All had energy meters and coronary heart charge sensors paired, and the Edge 840 would have additionally had Join IQ sensors (CORE) additionally paired.
Once more, a fairly constant consequence on the 12-13hrs estimate with the map web page, for the Karoo 3.
In any case, GPS accuracy general, I see solely good issues on the Karoo 3’s information plots right here. There’s completely nothing of concern in any of the eventualities I’ve checked out. I’ve not but had an opportunity to go mountain biking with it, simply sorta how the journey cookie crumbled. However I’ll achieve this subsequent week, and can add these information units in right here.
On the elevation aspect, the information speaks for itself. I had two months of good elevation plots, but a single elevation preliminary calibration failure (the place it merely didn’t set the preliminary worth, every thing trended in any other case appropriately). You’ll be able to resolve from that what you’ll.
Product Comparability:
Now, I’ve bought a really stupid-deep comparability video/submit arising both Friday morning between the three main items on this market: Garmin Edge 840, Hammerhead Karoo 3, and Wahoo ROAM V2. Just about each certainly one of my rides thus far has had all three items side-by-side, so I’ve bought tons of each technical information, however extra importantly, observational information evaluating them.
And the competitors has arguably by no means been higher between these three. Every has their very own strengths in several classes – from battery life, to simplicity, to depth of options/integration, and numerous extra classes. I’ve divided up that video/submit into quite a lot of classes, so you may determine which items are most attention-grabbing to you.
Once more, keep tuned for that for Friday morning!
Wrap-Up:
The brand new Karoo isn’t a revolutionary improve, however, it doesn’t must be. There’s no firm within the sports activities tech area that has as many upgrades/updates to their machine as Hammerhead has. It updates with new options roughly each two weeks, and has been doing so for years. Most of these new options are minor, however each few months you’ll get some big-ticket gadgets. The factor is, they don’t all must be large new options. That’s essentially what’s made their chief competitor, Garmin, the chief in lots of out of doors watch/biking markets: Victory by a thousand cuts (options).
Thus it’d be simple to take a look at the Karoo 3 and see solely modest upgrades in {hardware} in comparison with the Karoo 2. Certain, every of the upgrades is appreciated, however no singular new factor on the Karoo 3 individually screams ‘purchase me now’. As an alternative, it’s the data that the Karoo 3 takes intention on the chief {hardware} annoyances of the Karoo 2, and addresses them. Likewise, it’s the data that the Karoo 3 is the brand new ‘baseline’ {hardware} for which updates will come. Hammerhead says that whereas the Karoo 2 will proceed to get updates, there will likely be circumstances the place the Karoo 2 gained’t get new options the Karoo 3 has (such because the companion app, or among the new UI options, and so forth…). That hole will solely widen over time.
Not that it issues a ton, you may’t purchase a Karoo 2 should you tried (it’s been out of inventory nearly in all places for months). Hammerhead stopped making them final summer season, and has been constructing and stockpiling Karoo 3 items since earlier than Christmas (sure, 6 months in the past).
The place Hammerhead must focus their consideration now’s build up that companion app to Wahoo-like ranges for plenty of secondary duties, in addition to enhancing their structured exercise participant. I’d additionally wish to see them actually spend some legit time on efficiency/velocity enhancements. With all the brand new {hardware} good points (processor/RAM), this factor must be massively quicker than the Karoo 2, and it’s at finest a fraction of a second quicker (at finest). Severely Hammerhead, spend actual dev time on this.
However at this juncture, Hammerhead has managed to change into one of many few competitor manufacturers to Garmin to truly make it over the hump from ‘cute startup’ to a really legit competitor and a product that I’d be joyful to trip with as my common bike laptop. As at all times, I stay up for no matter new set of function updates comes each two weeks.
With that – thanks for studying!
Discovered This Publish Helpful? Help The Web site!
Hopefully you discovered this assessment helpful. On the finish of the day, I’m an athlete similar to you in search of probably the most element potential on a brand new buy – so my assessment is written from the standpoint of how I used the machine. The critiques typically take lots of hours to place collectively, so it’s a good bit of labor (and labor of affection). As you most likely seen by trying beneath, I additionally take time to reply all of the questions posted within the feedback – and there’s fairly a little bit of element in there as nicely.
Should you’re looking for the Hammerhead Karoo 3 or every other accent gadgets, please think about using the affiliate hyperlinks beneath! As an Amazon Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t value you something further, however your purchases assist help this web site rather a lot. Much more, should you store with TPC (The Professional’s Closet), you may save $40 on purchases over $200 with coupon code DCRAIN40! The Professional’s Closet has been a long-time accomplice of the positioning right here – together with sponsoring movies like my cargo bike race, in addition to simply being an superior Colorado-based firm full of excellent people. Verify them out with the hyperlinks beneath and the DCRAIN40 coupon!
And at last, right here’s a useful listing of equipment that work nicely with this unit (and a few that I confirmed within the assessment). Given the unit pairs with ANT+ & Bluetooth Good sensors, you need to use absolutely anything although.
Garmin RTL515 Varia Radar
The Garmin Varia radar alerts you to automobiles arising behind you, nicely earlier than you see them. It is superior for quieter roads (nation roads/mountains), particularly on longer rides. It is much less helpful for metropolis driving.
Wahoo RPM Sensor
This twin ANT+/Bluetooth Good sensor will transmit cadence not solely to your bike laptop/watch, but additionally third celebration apps like Zwift, TrainerRoad, and extra.
And naturally – you may at all times sign-up to be a DCR Supporter! That will get you an ad-free DCR, entry to the DCR Quarantine Nook video collection filled with behind the scenes tidbits…and it additionally makes you superior. And being superior is what it’s all about!
Thanks for studying! And as at all times, be happy to submit feedback or questions within the feedback part beneath, I’ll be joyful to attempt to reply them as shortly as potential. And lastly, should you felt this assessment was helpful – I at all times respect suggestions within the feedback beneath. Thanks!
