Hammerhead Karoo 2

That is because of Garmin’s crappy software, not an inherent problem with BT. One of the main reasons I ditched Garmin year ago.

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And that’s exactly my point. The choice is between manufacturers, not technology standards.

And no manufacturer is doing everything remotely well. Garmin doesn’t do Bluetooth well. Wahoo don’t do on-device management or battery life particularly well. And Hammerhead doesn’t do smartphone integration or battery life particularly well.

So pick your poison, as they say.

Which is exactly what we want from a competitive market - the ability to choose a product that’s closest to meeting our individual needs, not adapting our needs to what someone else wants.

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I have found Wahoo battery life to be pretty damn good…at least for the rides I am doing / planning. Pretty sure I could get through SBT GRVL this weekend with it, whereas with the HH I am bringing a battery pack.

Can you explain more about “on device management”?

Yup…100% agreed.

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Best post on the internet today

I totally agree, it’s easy to focus on the aspects of a device that you don’t like, but don’t pretend that that they are all perfect

I went from 820 to K2, because I hated the navigation, I loved the K2 but couldn’t live with the battery life, so went to a 1040, love the battery life, but the navigation (or more re-reouting) BT and bugs make me sad, for a start up HH have done a incredible job, for a market leader, Garmin hasn’t, but at the end of the day, pick your solution and get out and ride

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I have the K2 set up to just display a handful of text values (no maps). The battery life is fine set up that way. I don’t care about the maps, I know the trails I’m riding on quite well.

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I’m not suggesting you leave the HH WiFi connected to the hotspot. In fact, I don’t think you can run WiFi while the HH is reciting a ride. But, if it’s too many steps to swipe your hotspot on, you can leave it enabled and it won’t run unless it’s joined by one of your approved devices.

Anyway, to each our own. It’s never been a hassle for me to upload my HH activities via WiFi.

BTW, Nice car! I’d be happy w that too.

Having been in the Wahoo ecosystem until recently and now on the Garmin Edge 1040 I agree that neither of the big Hammerhead competitors has nailed it completel either. Bluetooth sync on Garmin is a mess and usability is not always the greatest.

Still think Wahoo is heads an shoulders over the HH in terms of battery life. As for the on-device management, no it is not that good. But the app is bloody great.

I don’t have a Wahoo (but looking at a bolt V2 as a mini screen computer for races), but what I’ve heard is that most configuration is done on the phone, not the computer. So if you don’t have your phone with you and can pull it out, there are lots of things (data screens, etc) that you can’t configure.

Garmin computers are almost entirely configured on the device, and Hammerhead has a similar approach.

I’ve gone back and forth on this. And I haven’t done a head-to-head comparison on battery life. But I’ve had several long rides on the HH Karoo where the battery life worked out to 12 hours (these were 4-hour and 5-hour rides, where the battery drained at about 7.5 percent per hour).
What I’ve heard about Wahoo is that battery life lands between 10 and 15 hours - but again, I don’t have one so haven’t tested it.

Curious why you’re taking the HH over the Wahoo for SBT gravel? Is display more important than battery life? Or maybe something else?

I imagine the cost of a SIM (and its data) is highly dependent on your carrier. I recently switched to Google Fi. They sent me a SIM at no cost, and data goes against my existing data plan. I never hit my data quota, so the SIM card is effectively free for me.

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My iPhone hotspot is on all the time, my Karoo never connects automatically to it however. I need to go in my iPhone settings, turn the hotspot off and on again and then wait like 10 seconds for the Karoo to find it. Not very seamless.

Does Garmin not do the ride transfer via Bluetooth?

My rides always upload automatically when I save them and open the Garmin app (I guess that’s not automatic) is that not via BT?

Admittedly I’ve never found the continuous BT connection reliable at all when riding, but I got annoyed with the notifications anyway and turned them off. It seems to stay connected when using Live Tracking.

If Garmin put a SIM into the 840 and do the “Climber” thing that’d be perfect.

I don’t know that I really have a good answer TBH :rofl:…. except that I think the Climb feature will be nice to have for SBT (even though Wahoo has a similar feature). I do think the Nav is just a touch better than the Wahoo, as well.

In the end, I have been using the HH for a few months consistently now and don’t really wanna flip back for what is an A event for me.

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Good idea to keep it consistent. Also, I find the HH Karoo screen really impressive, and works at 25% Brightness for me in all conditions. Easy to switch off the touchscreen component when I sweat too much it it rains…

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Yeah, I’m too old for that…:crazy_face:

I’ll probably have mine at least set to 50% if not 65.

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I don’t know, but I think it depends. If the Garmin has WiFi, and it finds a WiFi network that it knows, then I think it probably uses WiFi to upload the workout.
The Edge 130 and 130 Plus don’t have WiFi, for instance.

In my experience, Garmin Connect doesn’t store any workout history in the app. Every time I went to look at a workout, it reloaded the data from the internet. I have had a Garmin device for about 12 months though, so it may have changed…

So your experience might be the device connecting through the app, or it might be the device syncing to the cloud, and then your phone getting the workout from the cloud…

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On my 530 rides/workouts upload automatically via Bluetooth to my phone, and sometimes via WiFi. What usually happens- I pass the house, end ride, and while riding around the block my watch thumps and shows the ride has been uploaded to Garmin, Strava, and TrainingPeaks. Without taking my phone out of pocket. And before pulling into the driveway.

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That’s my experience with my watch. Probably with my 530 too if I wait long enough. I usually give it a bump by syncing the Garmin App just because I don’t usually bring the 530 inside with me after the ride.

I don’t know about the ride data being on the cloud. It’s never been an issue as I don’t usually analyse the rides on Connect, but I see it upload to TR/Strava. I obviously need an internet connection to upload to TR where I analyse it so I’ve never had a reason to try without.

Works like this via Bluetooth;

  • Garmin device syncs to …
  • Garmin Connect app on my phone

which syncs to …

  • Garmin Connect cloud over cellular data or WiFi

And then GC Cloud sends to Strava, TrainingPeaks, Intervals.icu, RideWithGPS, SRAM AXS, Xert, and a few more.

It all happens in less than a minute - the time it takes to ride around the block on my quick cooldown.

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Just wanted to drop a note on the navigation and re-routing

Also battery update: 5:32 ride time (5:45 total time with stops), all the sensors - 50% brightness - 46% battery remaining.

I gotta say the K2 saved my ride today! The re-routing worked flawlessly, was an hour into a route on unfamiliar roads when I got rerouted due to a house fire, road was completely closed, trucks everywhere. I hooked a right at the nearest turn off the road and the K2 took me a few miles to the west, had me skip over a couple really busy through streets, about the time I started to doubt I was back on the original route.

My Bolt last year would have shit the bed if I got that far off route.

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