Yep, this was both rising and riding 
gravel.
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Haha indeed
Never any sensor dropouts with my 820, but I’m running rev 11.2 as subsequent versions worked worse for me in various ways.
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I have had some dropouts with most released versions of it the software, and a couple of versions never gave those dropouts. However, with one of my cadence sensors, I believe it was a wahoo blue, it would routinely get “stuck” and display and record a constant cadence equal to the last value for twenty or thirty seconds, even if the bike was stopped. The last releases of the software seem to have fixed that for me, but the dropped sensors is worse. There have been many complaints on the Garmin forums, and it is somewhat random in that messing around and restoring it to factory settings either before or after the upgrade sometimes makes the problem go away, until it reappears a month or two later. If you found a version that is stable for you, congratulations.
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I’ve become used to the random ‘device found’ messages. What really bothers me is the random stop/start stuff. I can actually predict when it is going to happen around here. FWIW, SirusXM also drops signal in some areas around signal lights that were recently updated. Looks like we have a massive RFI situation due to the deployment of several emergency communications system deployments.
OK! I loved my Edge 830 until I got my new gravel steed and started using it for navigation! Yesterday was the worst - I did a great new ride after putting the course into my Edge and …. It didn’t miss a beat. So much so that when I thought it was taking the p*$$ out of me by sending me down an Equestrian trail I ignored it and rode around in circles for a while. It was right. But it’s seldom right. So yesterday was the last straw - the trust is gone! Put it up for sale tonight and it’s gone already. Karoo 2 unless Sir @AlexEllermann is now doubting his purchase.
I’m still happy with mine, but I haven’t used it since my last post on the subject. It’s deep winter here in my part of the world right now, so I’m pretty much basement-bound.
When you say you put a course into the Edge, did you allow the Edge to determine the course or did you lay it out yourself using an app and then download to the Edge? Personally, I’ve always laid out courses myself then downloaded them to the Edge, or downloaded courses already laid out by others (mtb, sportives, etc.) When laying it out myself on the computer, I have access to many resources to help decide the best route; maps, satellite views, street view, Strava heat maps, rider reports, etc…
Thanks. Summer here - I might build up some use before you!
Thanks. As per you - I always lay them out myself or import those others have laid out. The course will be spot on in Garmin Connect before I send it to the Edge, but when out riding it frequently tells me to do a U-turn (when I don’t need to - although if on a new route I may not know that) and battles to get me back on course.
I’ll miss the Connect app for the analysis (but probably not as much as I think) and yes, the Karoo 2 is a little bigger than I’d like but overall the positives appear to vastly outweighs the negatives.
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In my experience, an Edge telling me to do weird things like that are due to errors in the map on the unit, errors in the downloaded course, or lack of correspondence between the two. This goes back to starting with an Edge 705 in ~2010. Back then, maps were much worse and errors more frequent. Nowadays, I very rarely run into issues with road courses. Mtbing can be more problematic map-wise.
Yep, mainly running into problems with gravel/ MTB. Issues too on the road but never specifically delved into it. Will post my experience with Karoo 2 once I’ve used it for a while.
I vaguely recall reading that the weird u-turns in Garmin are intentional “errors” so they can tell if someone has stolen their map. Don’t know if that’s true, but it would explain a lot.
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Back in the day, I had far more problems using Open Street maps on my Garmin then when I used the maps Garmin provided. That’s back when Garmin was selling them.
Generally, for mtbing, I have the course displayed on the map and don’t have the unit navigate it. There are usually too many turns and oddities to bother with trying to use turn-by-turn nav. I just look at the map and follow the course. That said, there are some mtbing areas were turn-by-turn works OK, but many where it doesn’t.
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Logged quite a few rides with my Karoo 2 and most importantly many on gravel, including a recent 4 day bike-packing trip that was mainly gravel roads, equestrians trails, old forestry roads etc.
In a nutshell: Love it.
Pros:
GPS. Main reason I bought it. Superb. Incredibly accurate. Clear and timely turn by turn. Great map to follow. Super quick re-routing on the fly. And, when it re-routes you your turn by turn “drawer” turns red until you’re back on course when it turns back to yellow again. (Numerous drawers available at bottom of screen that can be swiped down to hide, or up to full screen.) On a very challenging mainly off road bike-packing route it was close to flawless.
Screen - super bright. Large. Great touch screen with side buttons x 4 if you’d prefer.
Customisation. Plentiful with great options. A little different to Garmin in that it offers you different page lay-out grids and you choose what to put in them. Garmin offers you a numerical option and by choosing a number you then create your own page/ screen. I usually use one main screen and one or 2 secondary/ tertiary screens. For bike-packing I had the upcoming elevation (next 5km) graph down below. So accurate and what a pleasure.
Profiles. Really nice - you get to choose whether you want a bike profile, riding profile or a mix. I have a road profile for my road bike and 2 profiles for my gravel bike - just a general gravel profile and a bike-packing profile. Because what I want to see when doing a multi-day bike-packing trip is different to what I want to see on a single gravel ride.
Climb function. Outstanding. Not only do you get the upcoming gradients colour-coded (as per Garmin) but you get a scrolling gradient “ticker” below in 100 metre blocks (5 blocks) as you ascend. Also, opens in a drawer rather than a new screen. The drawer you just close if you don’t want it.
Loading/ importing/ creating routes. Super-easy. No clunkiness here.
Battery. GPS usage and screen brightness dependent (multiple options to vary this including battery saver mode/ screen off etc) but I managed 8 hours with GPS usage and screen on all the time. Essentially being a mobile phone it appears to have smart quick charging and charges up super quick before slowing down for the final 5-10%
Strava live segments. Not used yet but very customisable what you want to see. And again opens in a drawer rather than a new screen so easy to get rid of if you don’t want it on that ride.
Plays nicely with my Di2 with great graphical displays of gears. Hood buttons to change screens etc.
Plays nicely with my Garmin Varia and Bontrager Flare lights.
Easy to use. Intuitive. There’s no clunkiness here. No “why is this in this section/ place?”. Clearly designed by cyclists themselves.
Cons:
Not many.
The USB port cover - no “dongle” to keep it attached. Lost my first one within a week (while riding). Fortunately a spare came in the box.
No companion app. A very basic (but useful) web interface. Great interaction/ linking with other apps like Strava, Training Peaks. And you can side-load many other apps (android system).
Climb function not 100% accurate - on gradient or distance. Better than Garmin’s but can still leave you short on a climb or occasionally wondering why it says -2.4% when you’re actually climbing!
Left out some turn by turn instructions. Very few but some. E.g. it would assume you’d know to follow the curve of the left fork rather than take the right. The map was always correct so an easy swipe to check.
So, overall very happy with it.
Hope this helps those of you contemplating getting one.
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Really interesting and good to know that you’re pleased with the karoo 2. Thank you for taking the time to post.
Did you take an external battery pack for recharging on your 4 day trip or was there easy access to mains power?
Glad you found it useful. There’s no doubt I miss some parts of the Garmin Connect app (metrics in particular) but already not the unit itself. Access to power varied so took a 10 000mAh battery pack. Took less than half of it to charge it from 15% to ~70% while still using it for navigation. Screen off except for when it came on for turn by turn or climbs.
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I had a series of gamins a few years back. They were all fantastic for months, then things got corrupted. The dreaded " where possible do a U turn" kept coming up . The Wahoo bolt had an inferior display, but I was surprised how easy the breadcrumb trail was to follow. Everything just worked, connectivity was hassle free, and it was the first head unit I actually trusted.Support was also brilliant
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