@dcrainmaker Ha! I just realized… Wahoo: Good bike computers, underestimated watch segment. COROS: Good watches, underestimated bike computer segment.
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I think it is fair if Coros introduced analogs of the different GPS tracking modes that sports watches come with, where you can make different trade-offs on the battery life–accuracy curve. It is not cool to obscure that to customers.
It is weird that they felt it necessary to risk taking a hit in their reputation. I’d rather have great battery life (if possible), solid connectivity and data recording of the usual sensors and breadcrumb navigation than a so-so attempt at offline routing.
When I saw that Coros in its current state did not reliably display radar alerts (as was the case in @gplama’s video) that made it an unviable product for me. I rely on my Varia every single day I commute.
Yeah, that occurring really p*ssed me off. I’ve always just accepted that when there’s a radar connected that companies put the priority of that alert above all else.
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I own a Wahoo Rival (got it on a clearance sale for 99 €). It is so obvious that Wahoo did a reverse Coros. Their UI paradigm follows that of a bike computer and it doesn’t quite work on the watch.
The Rival is missing two big features IMHO, automatically switching on the background light if you raise your wrist (so that I can read the time at night or in the dark) and a weather widget.
The Rival does have some nice subtle layers of polish, e. g. that in some workout modes seconds are larger than minutes to make it easier to hold a yoga pose or some such for a given amount of time.
Now shipping in September…. but there’s more to the story. Sigh.
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Shipping is to recommence 26 Sep 2024 apparently
What chance does it have this time?
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The chances for an entertaining review is quite high, I’d say.
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where are things at this point in time for the Dura? @GPLama and @dcrainmaker is it starting to come together?
Not sure to be honest. I was so burnt by the whole initial review process and their requests to effectively provide them with a ton of free consulting on follow-up updates they called ‘testing’ that I haven’t put it back on the bike.
I haven’t had the time to ride with the latest updates in the hope it performs as well as the box of other bike computers I already have.
The short of it - I don’t like the unit. I don’t like anything about the release process we’ve suffered through with the DURA.
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thanks for that honest reply. Hopefully they sort things out and learn from this series of obvious mistakes. For those of us out here in the world of wanting a good computer system, this sort of thing just muddies the water. If it was as was suggested by @dcrainmaker, Coros typically get things sorted out in time. Is it likely this unit will clear the hurdles and be a good cost vs benefits option and if so when?
That’s ALL of us. And we already have one. There are several manufacturers to choose from. Garmin and Wahoo are obvious choices. Karoo may be a third.
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maybe so but in the wrist options Coros is a legitimate player… but it looks like they missed the mark on this one. It has some very significant abilities for a really impressive price, if it was a good package. It has solar charging for very long events, it has most of the key items that the competition has but for some reason has some issues and per @GPLama pointed out they burnt a lot of good will with people like him who do independent testing. So as I noted on a price/ performance point of view it could be a giant killer. But only if it was a good product. That is the part of the story yet to be told. To quote @dcrainmaker from his hands on review:" I would not recommend buying this device today, but I think if I were to fast-forward to the fall, it’d likely be stable enough for tech geeks to toy with. And then if COROS can keep driving hard, then I suspect by next Spring, they’ll be in a position to be highly competitive with the lower-priced Wahoo offerings (e.g. the BOLT series), or other more budget-focused units.
I think what COROS has envisioned could be super fascinating, especially around battery life. It’s just a question of whether they can get to there, from here, and what sacrifices might be made."
It is an intriguing option but it is the if and when that is a problem.
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Listened to Chris from the Nero Show talk about it and I’m almost sold. It seems like they’ve fixed the big bugs.
The only Garmin in the price range is the 530 which is so old (and mines already showing its age) and a Bolt if it’s on sale. At 250 it really doesn’t have competition.
There are some limitations which they discuss in the podcast, but for me it would be perfect.
It’s getting better for sure. But there are still quirks. I’ve had it on almost all my rides. I haven’t looked super closely yet on the most-final firmware at power recording bugs from before, so, those might still be there.
I think the biggest standout gap is really lack of offline re-routing. A good example of that was this weekend I went for a ride, and Strava Routes cut-off a long switchback (like, a 1KM switchback), when it decided to MTB between the two closest points of the switchback. I didn’t notice the error when I made the route.
And as I was riding, no biggie, my brain just ignores it and stays on the road. But the DURA got rather angry about it, alarming all over the place, because I was off-route, and most notably out of cell range. Thus, it couldn’t re-route. So it just kept on crazy-alarming until I finally told it to stop trying to re-route.
Battery life is legit good now, very good. But I guess I remain conflicted on having such crazy good battery life, but not being able to go into the woods with it (no cellular range). That’s where the majority of people want that crazy battery life. COROS argues instead that it’s really more for being able to leave on your handlebars almost permanently, given solar gains. Thus, more for everyone else. And that piece is true. I can’t remember the last time I charged it.
At some point soonish, I’ll start my ‘final’ review on it. I have plenty of data, but need to dive into some of the structured workout/etc type bits a bit more deeply.
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Yeah… that rerouting requiring live mobile connectivity is real rough.
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That is something that might be a deal breaker for some.
Personally I keep a Garmin Fenix handlebar adapter tab in my saddle bag for my fenix 7 because I’ve had issues with my 530 before, so i already have a back up device in the rare case of no signal and requiring a re route.
I’m really wondering about the digital crown as the method of interaction 
When it’s cold and raining and you have gloves on it can be tricky to work a normal touch screen / button interface and that digital crown just seems finicky.
I’m not in the market for a head unit but I will be interested to see if any reviewers consider usability or they all just focus on functionality…
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my usage case does not require routing so I would not find that a problem at all. I am looking at my 520+ and wondering when it will start to degrade to the point where battery life is a problem. When that happens I will be looking for something that will take its place and this seems in the right price range. If it can do all the stuff that a 520+ can and a few more then it is all good to me, then the addition of solar charging is a cherry on top. The one thing I don’t need is something that is not dependable or has some flaky quirk that makes normal operations a problem, the rest is just nice to have.
I also worry about the digital crown thingie I have no experience with that sort of thing but it seems weird.