Now that the newest generation for each of the major vendors is out, I’m looking to replace my aging Bolt v1 that has given me some reliability problems this year (unable to load routes at the last minute, leaving me without navigation in a race), so I’m thinking it’s time to upgrade. Wahoo support has been … okay. They had a couple of opportunities this year to secure my business going forward that they did not avail themselves of, but they also didn’t manage to put themselves on a do not buy list either.
So, what are the pluses of each ecosystem that set them apart from the others? I mostly ride gravel fondos / races where I’m just racing myself mostly. The Garmin pacing features piqued my interest but, other than that, I don’t even know what features are useful that I should be looking for.
Edit: Before someone says it, I’m aware that I can’t really go wrong. This just seems like something people might have opinions about, making for a fun thread.
If you are doing longer gravel races, especially with routes loaded I would be a bit hesitant to recommend the newest x50 but would definitely consider the 1050.
It’s expensive but the screen is really really good.
I don’t find many of the added fluff that garmin has useful personally, stuff like pace plans are interesting but not something I’d bother with for racing.
I’d read through the dcrainmaker reviews on them, they are very in depth. Also the usual GPLama videos.
I’ve been happy with my Garmin 830, but I’m a very basic user; I’d been using an Edge 510 (I still have it and it still works) until I decided I really needed some maps. It’s been seamless loading routes (from Garmin Connect, sometimes at the last minute over the phone). Maybe go for the 840 to save some $$$ over the new stuff.
I’m in the same boat as you, I am still rocking my Bolt v1. I’d start with the question: What features do you really need? In my case, I want color maps e. g. to distinguish between lakes and forests (I moved to an area with lots of lakes). I want 6 data fields when using maps. That’s about it. Due to a distinct lack of mountains and even hills, climb features are useless.
So any modern headunit will work for me. I’d also like 15+ hours of battery life, so weirdly that’d exclude the new 850 and 550, but still leave the 840 and 540 as options.
The only reason why I’d hesitate to switch away from Wahoo is the zoom feature, which I really, really love. It is what attracted me to the Bolt in the first place.
I’m on the cusp of replacing my 6 year old 530. Its button are getting wonky.
With the x50s now out, I expect Garmin to put the x40 series on sale in the next month or two. The 1040 just had a big sale and is effectively out of stock in most places (biketiresdirect has some, but that’s about it). I’m waiting for a sale to get a 840 because I want a touch screen. I put a price alert on camelcamelcamel.
All I need is routing and a power meter connection. None of the new x50 features is worth the extra cost to me.
I think I’m basically the same. Would like color and a somewhat larger screen to help my aging eyes. Maybe the ability to add notes to my cue sheet so that I can remind myself that the next turn on this steep gravel descent is a hairpin. Theoretically I could use the climbing features but, since I’ve never had them, I don’t know what I’m missing.
I was interested to see @dcrainmaker poop all over the Wahoo v3 screens in his review of the Garmin. He previously said they were all fine, so I don’t really know what changed his perspective there.
Does anyone have any experience with the Karoo? I spoke to a few people who liked them at OTGG, but we didn’t really get into the whys and wherefores.
”The ROAM 3 display has three brightness levels, Low/Medium/High, and I found that riding outside in the sun, you pretty much need to be in the High mode (which is the default). Just with the ACE, if the backlight goes off (by default it’s always on), things get unreadable quick.”
And from my ACE post (Dec 2024):
”That said, when dimmed (as effectively required to get half-decent battery life), it’s much harder to read.”
“The reason I say that, is if we look at the Hammerhead Karoo 3 and Edge 1050, both of which have *FAR* more demanding screens (in terms of battery burn), both can outperform it, even in far brighter settings with far smaller batteries. And then if we look at similar screen technology types, like the Edge 1040, that too easily outperforms it on any setting you want.”
Now, if you’re talking prior generation screens, yeah, those were fine. But these new ones mostly suck.
Arguably, this is the single biggest difference for Hammerhead, and the one I get the most questions on. Thus, I may go over my 3-paragraph limit here. Apologies. First, the Karoo 3 is definitely more viewable than the Karoo 2, due to the increased brightness and new top-cover. Equally, and this is *super important*: All there units are totally viewable in all lighting conditions. I’ve done everything from night riding, to thunderstorm riding, to bright sunny Florida and island riding. I can view all three units without any real issue.
With your additional comments here, I see that I read more into that than was intended. Thanks again.
My reading skills are clearly lacking since this was for the v2 units.
Yeah, that and having six data fields in the Roam v3 vs. only 4 in the Bolt (v1). I’d really like to have 3s power, cadence, heart rate, speed and distance displayed when using maps. I need maps, because I have the sense of orientation of pollen floating on water (i. e. random movements).
ROAMv2 might be a simple upgrade for me. Just need to stop dithering before they’re all gone. The Garmin 840 has great battery life but, other than that, I’m not sure it has a lot that’s relevant to me for the extra $50 and having to change out mounts and get used to a new system.
I’m reckon most people end up liking the unit they have (confirmation bias ).
I went from the bolt v1 to the Karoo 3. The screen and the navigation were a revelation. The screen is easy to see and the maps are easy to read and follow. Sending a location from Google or Apple Maps to the unit for routing is a nice touch!
Since I’ve had the unit they’ve shipped a ton of updates and improvements to the point where they now have a basic App Store.
I’m a buttons fan, so having buttons and a touchscreen is handy.
It definitely doesn’t have all the features of a garmin - garmin has more features hands down. And battery life tops out at 15 hours in normal mode (30 I think in battery saver) but that’s never been a problem for me
Let me tug on that string a little: what (new?) features do we actually need or want? (I’m honestly asking.)
Apart from better maps and more data fields/a larger screen, my Bolt v1 does everything I want. A touch screen might make some things easier and I’d also like colored backgrounds that indicate power or heart rate zones (that’s one feature of my Wahoo Rival that I really like). But that’s not something, which requires new technology or a faster processor. A bell (which seems a standard new feature for all new head units) is great, too, but no rocket science.
I love my Bolt v2 - colour & bright enough for me, simple & has zoom - but would appreciate a slightly larger screen, so will either patiently await a Roam 3.5 or 4 , or maybe consider a Karoo eventually….
I have cycling money to burn, and would probably have bought a Roam v3 if the screen had been decent (passing on my Bolt to someone), so Wahoo really fluffed it there I think.
Bolt v1 to Karoo 3 - routing was a big change for me.
Garmin wise, no idea . But I think if you looked at their feature usage (pure speculation) I reckon you’d find the core features are used by everyone and then all those other little features have small numbers of very regular, dedicated users.
So the hypothetical benefit of garmin is if you WANT to use a “niche” feature it’s there. Like nutrition alerts - I don’t care but some people really do.
Can you expand on that? (Especially since I am considering the Karoo 3 as an alternative once I need to upgrade.)
For comparison, here is how I use routing most of the time:
I create a route with MapOut and export that to the Wahoo app. I then load it.
If I need to deviate from the route, I do that by hand (e. g. because of road closures or if the gravel sections are too rough for my aero road bike).
If I need to think about alternatives on the fly, I take out my iPhone and use the much better screen (which has pinch-to-zoom, etc.).
Wahoo’s routes are often, hmmm, rather suboptimal, suggesting repeated turns onto small roads in a suburb rather than sticking to the major traffic arteries.
What I’d like to see:
A way to transmit routes from Apple Maps to my head unit.
Automatic re-routing. (This has been added to Wahoo’s v2 generation of devices.) Quality of routing matters, though.
Yeah, I would describe myself as Karoo-curious as well, especially since SRAM seems to have won my business for the time being at least. I’d consider the Garmin if it weren’t for the 12hr battery, which is right on the edge of my longest rides and would have me gritting my teeth toward the end of my ride.
I know you are not talking about Garmin, but the quality of the Garmin 1030 rerouting is extremely variable. I’m guessing that until you get a distance away from the route that the next way point is quicker via an alternative route, it’ll try to re route you do a circular u’turn or an actual u’turn (if there’s no handy circular u’turn). Then when you get to that distance the rerouting is perfect. So you have to go on instinct and ignore the first half dozen reroute recommendations. Its actually an improvement over my defunct 800 and 1000s so hopefully its better in newer units
My other bug bear is despite you saying no to ‘route to the start’ it still tries to reroute you as you go to a well known start point and you might not go by a cyclepath etc; I’m quite glad my sound doesn’t work on mine or the constant beeping would get annoying
).
- but would appreciate a slightly larger screen, so will either patiently await a Roam 3.5 or 4 
, or maybe consider a Karoo eventually….
. But I think if you looked at their feature usage (pure speculation) I reckon you’d find the core features are used by everyone and then all those other little features have small numbers of very regular, dedicated users.