I smashed my 530 for the second time in 2 years and it finally died. I might get a crash replacement (Garmin charges like $130 for a replacement). In the meantime, I’ve been using my 500 most of the summer and this thing will not die. The only feature I miss is climbpro on routes/races I have loaded up. Oh, manually importing rides and workouts is a drag, but alas.
I might just even get the 130 plus unless Garmin drops a 140 soon.
That’s the thing with my v1 Bolt: it does everything I want from it. I usually don’t use navigation features, and if I do navigate I either re-route myself or I’d use my phone to navigate really hard parts.
Longer battery life, now that’s something I’d appreciate. A color screen would be nice, too. (That feels like talking about my anticipation to have my first cell phone with a color screen … back in the very early 2000s.)
My Bolt is getting a bit long in the tooth, the rubber covers of the power button has failed from (almost) daily use and I have some dead pixels (likely due to humidity and/or water ingress). I hope it’ll survive until Wahoo brings its next generation of head units to market, which from the rumors I have seen is 2025. I still really love Wahoo’s zoom feature, but I’m also looking at the competition, including Coros’ head unit. It seems like I should rather wait for the Dura v2, though.
If you don’t use navigation, then an old school (non gps) bike computer will deliver that in a simpler package.
Except I need/want GPS tracking and recording of power and heart rate data.
Ah so you want to share / record your routes. Rather than just keep them as a memory like we used to.
It isn’t just vanity: I commute about 6 hours per week in Z2, which has a significant impact on my training. I’m just saying even my ancient Bolt v1 has all the features I want for that. Unfortunately, I don’t need Climb Pro or whatever the marketing name is for your head unit of choice as it is pancake flat in the new place. Pity, really.
All of which can be done with an old school bike computer or even without a bike computer entirely.
Of course, I can stay in Z2. But would e. g. AT know how to take my commutes into account? Nope. What would I do on my road bike (with power meter)? (The two bikes share the same head unit.)
I have had my Dura for around a month. I have had a positive experience so far. Most of the egregious problems the early reviewers have seemed to be fixed with software updates. I like their approach to the UI. The dial, personally works for me. I have yet to charge the device. I am just running off the battery it had when it had when I pulled it out of the box. It is by no means a perfect device, but for $250 I find there is a lot of value there.
How are people finding the Dura a few months in now? Have most of the bugs been fixed through software updates? How do you like the UI and navigation?
It seems like a decent cycling computer for the $$ - just curious to hear how early adopters are finding the unit
I have been using the Dura since September and have really liked it. They have released serval software updates with new features and improvements. I personal like the UI. The scroll wheel works for me. For $250 it is a pretty solid unit.
Hi there @dcrainmaker or @GPLama has there been any further updates on what your current thinking is on the Coros Dura since the original feedback provided? Did the fix the issues and bugs you found and is it coming around to be a unit that might be worth strong consideration?
I’ve been riding it on almost every ride since last summer, most of the time concurrently with a Garmin Edge 1050 or 840, a Wahoo ACE (or more recently BOLT3/ROAM3), and a Hammerhead Karoo 3.
In general, the COROS does what it says it does reasonable well these days. The biggest exception though is anything and everything related to navigation. I still get very frequent wrong-turn directions (or missing directions entirely), easily, on many routes. And of course, it doesn’t have any offline re-routing navigation, which is sorta a big though (and why it’s so confusing to me that COROS keeps paying bike-packers to be influencers for it, when that’s sorta something you’d actually legit want for bike packing, handling route closures/etc…).
As for battery life, it’s still far below their main claims, though, better than all others except the Edge 1040/1040 Solar, and depending on the mood, the Edge 540/840. The new Wahoo’s don’t come close, neither does the Karoo of course. And for that matter, the old Wahoo’s don’t either.
It’s on the eventual spring to-do list to get a 2025 review out.
(Note: I haven’t really looked super closely at recent power meter data from a comparison standpoint to validate any new quirks, but most quirks in that realm seemed solved last fall. But nothing on rides in the PM department has stuck out enough to catch my eye when I’m looking at other metrics).
Thanks @dcrainmaker, Ray!, on a price/performance basis would you say it is a decent cost benefit vs similarly equipped units out there now?
I’ve been dual recording with the COROS DURA and the ROAM3 so I’ll echo much of the comments from @dcrainmaker. Aside from navigation from a software perspective I personally find the font choice odd with the text being rather thin. My other qualm is with the darn screen, I hate how glossy and reflective it is for me.
In my opinion spending whatever extra it costs for a Wahoo or Garmin is worth it.
Fwiw, on yesterday’s ride, I went with:
From a navigation perspective, the COROS missed somewhere between 20-30% of the turns (like, straight-up never bothered to tell me about them). From a power accuracy standpoint, it’s close, but not identical. If you look at the power data, you see weird sticky-watt-ish type issues. Not super bad like last fall, but just enough that it’s like 1-2 seconds occasionally. Also not exactly sticky-watt, but whatever you call it when it’s randomly splitting the difference.
Data set: DC Rainmaker Analyzer
Wahoo BOLT V3 & ROAM V3 burned at 10%/hour, which is what I see with real-world battery burn rates on these units, using the Full Auto backlight setting, which is what you need in the shade on a sunny day to see those screens. Power/HR/Radar+nav.
Man if they could nail the navigation and actually provide the advertised battery life I would like it as I plan on Bikepacking this year
@dcrainmaker Have you dabbled with Auto Max yet to see what impact it has on battery life?
It’s on the tomorrowish to-do list. I’ve got two units V3 of each now, so I’ll be doing some identical side-by-side tests to try and figure it out.
That is awful. Almost enough to make me get the Karoo 3 now that I see good prices for it and not wait for your review on the Wahoos.
And yes, I think I remember you had the Karoo 3 down to 12.5 hours battery life in practice, but 2.5 more than 10 is still 20% and I am happy to use the battery saver mode if absolutely necessary. And in case of the Roam, that is so much lower than claimed that it’s outright offensive.