@DameLisa well there has to be SOME downside to living in shangri-la. 
Hah.
[quote=“AlexEllermann, post:34, topic:13566”]
It shouldn’t be this hard. I’ve put a Karoo 2 on my Christmas list. If I get one, the Garmin will move, permanently, to my trainer. There, I’ll use it to glom together multiple Sufferfest sessions when I don’t feel like spamming my Strava followers.
Sir Alex,
I’ve heard that the Garmin used GPS to establish speed, so if you put it on your trainer, you’ll be going 0 KPH. That will really tweak your Virtual Watts if you use them…
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The Garmin does have an indoor trainer mode. It works quite well.
It does indeed. It recorded my KoS with reliability and aplomb without trying to steal control of the trainer
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Of course no one wants to stop, but a puncture or some other mechanical may force the issue… Ah there’s the rub!
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Really happy with my Karoo 2. What’s impressed me the most has been the amount of developer support on the software with regular updates and communication about the updates.
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You need to watch GPLama’s review of the device. It has a LONG way to go to match features now available on Wahoo and Garmin. The good part is that that Hammerhead is launching them quite frequently and they don’t bust what already works.
Every rider has different needs. I don’t care about most of the features and analytics found on most bike computers. I only want a good navigator that won’t take me down weird little dead ends due to glitches in its mapping, is easy to read when I’m chewing stem, and will quickly reroute me on the fly when I miss a turn. I can get all the HR monitoring and speed tracking I want from my watch.
My wife got me a Karoo 2 for Christmas. I look forward to playing with it the next time I’m home during a (relatively) warm spell.
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Good to hear. Were you able to make use of the part exchange offer or are you keeping the Garmin for indoor duties?
If you are happy to, I look forward to hearing your real world experience of the Karoo once you’ve had chance to get to put it through it’s paces on a few rides.
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I’m not going to claim that the Karoo2 is perfect, and I love mine, but his “review” was a bit rubbish, and his recent “5 things about” was unfair, mainly because he didn’t do the same for Garmin/Wahoo, for instance, he complained that the screen swipe isn’t animated, well it least it works every time and is quick unlike on my Garmin 520. If he was was taking about the Garmin, he would have said “takes to long to re-route … why when the Karoo can do it instantly even on a 100 mile route”, the thing about shane and dcrainmaker, is their buisness is to create clicks,
After being a long term Garmin user (currently have a fenix 6 on my wrist), Garmin is seriously outdated (and I used my K2 on a 100mile ride at the weekend and still had over 50% battery left, Edge will still be working out which way to go at the road works that caused a diversion)
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I dropped the Garmin some time ago, so it has a cracked face. I sent a photo of it to Hammerhead; we’ll see what they say. If they don’t accept it, I’ll mount it on my Kickr to record sessions in which I do multiple workouts.
I’ll be happy to share my thoughts after I’ve logged a few rides. I will say this: it was very easy to set up.
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Thanks for this real world perspective.
FWIW I’m not planning to move away from my Elemnt Roam but it’s always nice to know the pros and cons of what else is out there. E.g. I think I’ve read that the Garmins can’t navigate a route and do Strava Live Segments at the same time. If that’s true it’s a complete deal breaker for me because that’s functionality I use almost every ride!
I’ve logged a few rides. I love the Karoo 2! It has a huge, and easily readable, screen that doesn’t clobber me with data. It doesn’t have the annoying mapping artifacts of the Garmin (no more weird u-turns, even at the T-intersection that gave me so much trouble on my Garmin). It reroutes on the fly very quickly, whether it’s adjusting for a missed turn or realizing that I’ve cut my ride short and am heading home. The audio and visual turn alerts are clear and easy to understand. Better still, the visual turn indicator appears in a banner across the bottom of the screen, as opposed to taking up a whole screen of its own. This allows me to plan for the next turn, and the turn after that, when required.
Best of all, the Karoo 2 is basically an Android phone without the phone and camera parts. While it doesn’t offer access to the Google Play Store, I am able to sideload apps like Komoot, Spotify, Libby, and Hoopla. Not only am I able to listen to my audiobook as I ride, but the Karoo auto-pauses the narration whenever it tells me about an upcoming turn instead of talking over it.
TL;DR: The Karoo 2 is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for helping me find it, gang!
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Thanks for the update Alex. Great news that you’re getting on so well with the Karoo 2 and that it has fixed all the issues you had with the Garmin.
If I was in the market for a new head unit the Karoo 2 would be high up on the list, as things stand though hopefully my Roam has still got plenty of life in it!
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Yeah. I’ve been “suffering” with a Garmin 820 going on 6 years and have been considering the Karoo 2, which looks really good. Only hesitation so far is its size. I generally prefer a smaller unit on the bars. I may go for it anyway.
I own a Garmin 800 and 820. The 800 is rock solid and is incredibly reliable at recording sensor data. But it is an antique, and missing a lot of functionality, like integration with radar/lights for outdoor riding.
The 820 does everything I need a head unit to do, and more. Except for maintaining consistent communication with sensors. Virtually every ride has a few seconds where either the power/cadence or the heart rate or the radar drops out, which is frustrating even if it doesn’t ultimately affect overall accuracy.
I wonder if it is a unit specific issue. My 820 is absolutely rock solid and I never get sensor dropouts. Occasionally it disconnects from the phone but that is quite rare. My 820 is also now ancient, and batterynlife is declining but apart from that is super reliable. I have a Bolt2 which is awesome for battery life and Nav, but I like the extra numbers/data and customisation I can get on the 820, including profiles for different bikes or different kinds of riding. Plus not having to use my phone to change stuff, I can do it on the unit while I ride.
The Karoo looks ace…but they don’t ship to NZ, so it is impossible to check one out.
Thanks Sir @AlexEllermann - Karoo 2 on the list for future purchase!
I have mixed feelings about my 830. Like @DameLisa I really like the customisation and different profiles - I have my screens set up with exactly what I need, using a combination of graphical and numerical data. And it plays nicely with my Di2.
The navigation is atrocious though. I’ve often had to pull out my phone and Google maps for help. This includes the elevation data - on a ride this weekend it displayed a +4% gradient when It was a brief downhill on a long climb, showed the steepest climb sections (12 -13%) at 4-6%, the gentler gradients at 12-13%, and finished the climb a couple of hundred metres early. Gee, does that hurt when it’s a new climb!
Yeah I’ve never used it for Nav. If I need Nav (when rising gravel) I’ll use the Bolt