Hammerhead Karoo 2
 

What would have to be in one for you to buy, and at what price?

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/04/...-bike-gps.html

As a Kickstarter buyer of the first Karoo... I just wouldn't. I'm not being a paying beta-tester for the guys at Hammerhead a second time... fool me once and all that. I sold mine a year ago-- and I shipped out a sealed-in-the-box replacement unit, as my original stopped taking a charge just a few days before its first birthday. I still contend that it's some of the best cycling-specific hardware out there-- but the software is pretty bad, and they're still breaking quarter-turn mounts, after more than one redesign. It's no surprise the new one is half the size of the original.

They still haven't gotten the software right-- the battery will still drop from 40% to 0% on a whim, navigation still crashes routinely, etc, etc. And mind you, the Karoo has been on the market for 2 years. I imagine they will have corrected a great deal of the failings of the Karoo with the 2, but I'm not gonna be a guy that pays to find out. Looking at the initial software roadmap from the Karoo release, some of the promised features still aren't implemented. They just added Strava Live Segments this week-- and that implementation looks fantastic-- but at too great a cost, IMO.

If you want a full-featured unit that works every day (read: stable) then I can't see it being a product from Hammerhead, unless they completely replaced the entire software team.

Why would I want one? My ten year old Garmin 500 still works perfectly well. No mapping features on a bicycle GPS interest me at all. I know where I'm going. Even when I don't know exactly where I am, I still can get to the destination.

All I want is a unit that will record information from the various sensors on my bike and my body, along with it's GPS track log information about where I was. I like to review my data after the ride, so data collection will always be the main function I want.

Things that might make me buy another.... Control of lighting, control and display of radar information IE Garmin Varia, Live Di2 information while riding and being able to change some Di2 settings during the ride. Allow me to read text messages and alert me to phone calls. (many times I miss the ring with the phone in my jersey pocket). Control and setup of cameras. Maybe at some point control a drone following me.

Essentially I want a device on my bars that will handle all that stuff and more. Either by software it comes with from the factory, via software upgrades or allow me to add apps. Sort of like a smartphone. But not my smartphone. I still believe I should keep my phone on me and as protected as is reasonable just in case I need it for an emergency.

Anything navigation or map wise is fine if it does, but not what I'm going to be looking for at all.

Karoo was selling for about $300 around Christmas or something, so about $100 off list, might have been cheaper, can’t recall. At that time the website was doing the hard sell with notifications that the price was going up to $500 soon. I never checked if it did, assumed they’d have a new unit that was about that price. The 2 might even price to what a Garmin 1030 sells at - $600.

I always thought a major issue was no smartphone interaction. Both Garmin and Wahoo do this and one key advantage is the phone apps can use cell data to get and receive data, either a completed ride uploaded or a navigation course downloaded. As far as I can tell, the Karoo only offers WiFi, which isn’t always available as any touring cyclist can tell you.

A review I just read seems to indicate they’ve done major improvements to the interface that allows routes creates elsewhere to be imported, I’d be curious to see how that works and how well, as that’s a feature I use a lot. Garmin upped the ante with the iQ system of apps that allows a seamless connection to RWGPS and TrailForks, as easy as the Bolt I used and it actually works very well.

If Hammerhead gave me a 2 the beta test, I’d try it, but as the Dr indicated above, I’ve no interest waiting for them to roll out features at what has to date been a glacier pace. So I’m not buying one anytime soon,

I've owned the original Karoo since last August. Logging about 2,500 miles on it. I haven't had any of the problems that I've read about here and other threads. Frankly I think it's great. I'm not sure if I'd buy Karoo 2, since this unit does all I want it to. I use it on every ride and download into my Strava account at the end of the ride. I've created routes as well as downloaded the route for the canceled charity ride in Solvang, CA. I've uploaded my rides into Google earth as well. Maybe I got lucky, but it works, even in sub freezing temperatures that we experience in the fall and spring.