Alternative to Garmin/Wahoo computer

Hi. Lots of options out there no one ever send to mention. Lezyne, Stages, Bryton etc. Wonder if anyone has any reviews or opinions on these? I’m going to buy something around 530-Roam level.

Nothing against Garmin or wahoo just want to consider everything.

Hammerhed Karoo 2

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Hmm heard a lot of warranty returns on this one. It’s on the list in not fully convinced at the price though

Hammerhead Karoo 1. It’s a little heavyweight, but it’s fantastic. Wahoo is fantastic too.

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You mentioned the most obvious suspects, but the Hammerhead Karoo 2. All of them have strengths and weaknesses. The Hammerhead head units are supposedly very strong when it comes to navigation. So it’d help to know what you look for. If you look for something cheaper, I don’t think you’ll find much, at least not without compromises. If you only need a GPS unit, the Garmin 130 might be of interest.

Second Hammerhead 2, been a Garmin boy all along (have fenix on wrist, radar, scales e.t.c) but after bad experiance with 820 (soooo slow, did you press the screen or not) I was looking at 1030 plus, or Hammerhead 2, wen’t with the HH2, so much bette than the 820, when you miss a turn on a route, doesn’t spend 10 minutes calculating the route, screen is 100x more responsive (and you can use buttons as well) and looking at the screen is like going from a Nokia 3210 to a Galaxy 20

Not saying it’s perfect, but happy made the swap, and looking at the update log (which also applies to HH1) seems like new functionality is always around the corner

I would buy HH if it had better battery life. I’m very happy with the Edge 530.

/JB

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I use a Stages M50. Very happy with it: good battery life, AWESOME bright screen and the UI is really nice (color wheel for power is super-easy to read when working out hard). On-device workouts are also really good.

Unfortunately TR workouts do not push to Stages headunits. That would’ve been fantastic. So please everybody, buy Stages and complain to TR about integration :wink:

I got my bolt a good 4(?) years ago now so can’t comment on Stages and Hammerheads but at that point the other options all had consistent flaws.

Sometimes the popular options are the best ones and popular for a reason. Having said that if I needed a new one the Stages does look rather nice.

Would be ideal if it had a Wahoo/Garmin twist mount, the Dash mount is very poor, gave up using mine and went back to my Roam. (all your other points spot on though)

My mount seems to be ok. Only lacking a clear “click” as feedback when in place

I’m not looking for something cheaper happy to pay around £300. I think I would like on the fly navigation I’m not 100% sure I need it. I just want to consider everything.

@sjkpt the stages ones are interesting, worth a further investigation.

Bryton 750 looks intersting. They sponsored Israel Start Up which is where I saw it.

I was using a Leyzne Micro a colour C for a season.
Worked quite well a basic unit. Battery life was a few hours which was good for mtb. It actually had decent navigation when connected and used with a phone.

Inexpensive and works well.

Replaced with a Garmin 130 for longer battery life and off-road dynamics.

Same but mine wobbles a lot too, I used as small piece of rim tape to ‘pad out’ the slot in the Dash, not ideal.

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Depending on your riding and style you may prefer one over the other. I went with Wahoo, because I like the clean, simple UI and love the zoom feature. I wouldn’t want to be without it. Setup is slick, but if you want to customize the UI in a way that Wahoo did not include, you are out of luck. Navigation works fine in conjunction with a smartphone. In case of doubt I default to my iPhone, even if I had a head unit that was more geared towards people who navigate.

So IMHO have a look at the screens and how you can configure them. Do you like them? Can you customize them to the degree you want? That sort of thing.

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The Sigma Rox 12 is a pretty solid unit. Especially when it comes to navigation. It has the full on touchscreen experience a la edge 1030 or hammerhead, but is significantly cheaper. You can check DCRainmaker for a review.
It’s a bit older by now, but worth a look. Although I’m not sure about availability outside of Europe.

Looks good but it’s a similar price to the Karoo 2, around £330-400, and quite hard to get in the UK.

I have a couple of head units from Bryton, 310, 420 and a Lezyne Macro. They all work fine, pair with their own and 3rd party sensors including power meters and they all sync to Strava. What these models don’t do is navigation except breadcrumb route which is next to useless but they are at the lower end of GPS computers. When a new computers is needed, I will probably have a good look at the Hammerhead.