Hammerhead Karoo 2

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Only the message on their home page: “We’ve had an overwhelming response and sold through our first pre-orders in just hours, pre-orders placed now are projected to arrive in early December”.

I think that it’s possible to sideload APK apps on that device, so if some functionalities are missing, there could be a workaround. For now, the extra functionalities that I may need: beacon/live logging, Youtube Vanced :slight_smile: (to listen to videos while riding), upload rides to other services than Strava (ex. RideWithGPS), use segments from RideWithPGS, and yeah, import workout files, local or from different services.

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December…just in time for XMAS!!

So live tracking is available already. TrainingPeaks does a workout loader for K1 and K2 already>. THE side loading is doable but I’ve never done it, there is a huge amount of guys who done all sorts of sideloadign successfully !!

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I crashed only once, and my phone, which was mounted as a “bike computer”, stayed intact, contrary to me (2 weeks in coma)…

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SHIT, that’s hectic. Was the bike ok hahahahahaha. Any long-term issues since the Coma?

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It was a new bike, during its second ride… only a little scratch on the handlebar. I’m still riding it nowadays, two years later :slight_smile:
Yes, some long-term issues, but only on the brain side: I have difficulties to read, write, speak. Nothing important, just really annoying.

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At least your sense of humour is in tact!!!

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I ordered mine the day they announced they were taking pre-orders. Not holding my breath, but I’m hoping for mid-October(-ish)…

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That’s some experience! I’ve been hit by a car and ended up in the hospital several times, with all sorts of fractures and contusions. But the only thing close to a coma, was when I was hooked up to a vacuum pump because of a collapsed lung (broken rib punctured it) and was asleep - drugged with pain killers - most of the time. Good times…

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I can agree that Garmin’s support is virtually non-existent and shitty at best.

They do make a lot of products and (some) functionality is overlapping, but the products are targeted at different users / activities.

They innovate, but haven’t quite gotten the routine of doing so right, as with each update, they manage to break something else, or reset stuff to factory default. If you are a Garmin Connect IQ developer, you will probably go insane at some point.

I like my Edge 530 and the Fēnix 5, although the latter has been replaced by an Apple watch (5).

But the Vector 3 has a shitty design and erratic performance, so I ditched that in favour of Favero Assioma’s. Garmin is notorious for designing stuff (battery compartments for instance, on their pedals, but also on their HR monitor), that will drive you nuts.

Also, the pedals do not swap as easy as PowerTap’s or Favero’s.

I’m glad I didn’t buy the first gen Karoo, but I’m giving this one a shot. I like what Wahoo did with their first Elemnt and even the Bolt, but fell for the Edge when that became available.

That was after I first got a 820, which drove me made because of the horrible touch screen and I ditched that too.

So yeah, Garmin is not perfect, neither is Wahoo and probably HammerHead is trying, maybe doing a better job, but I’m not convinced they have (all) the answers.

Then again, it’s the same with cycling software and platforms for indoor training - not one of them is perfect, you probably combine them and you try with each of them to improve/implement according to your needs.

@David is doing one of the best possible jobs of all of them and quite frankly, intervals.icu should no longer be free. Then again, I’m counting on most of you making your contribution, so he can keep doing it :sunglasses:

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Holly sh*t ! :open_mouth:
I’m lucky because I have no memory of what happened that day (and the previous day - unboxing my new bike), and no memory of the pain after the crash. That’s probably a reason why I was able to ride again without any apprehension.

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Sadly, I am experiencing enduring an often maddening pain ever since, but at least my wife can confirm that my brain function has not deteriorated beyond the bad state it already was in before the crashes :joy:

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At some point I was lurking on the Tacx Neo 2, but as soon as Garmin decided to buy Tacx, I put a cross on it. I’ve had confirmation on my bad feeling by reading the FB pages of the Tacx users: lots of problems, and NO support anymore. Bye bye Tacx.

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I’m extremely pleased with my Neo’s - it’s like with most things: people have problems with them, but it’s not always the manufacturer‘s fault.

I ditched two pairs of flawed Vectors, but scores of people are happy with them.

I’m not sure what the consequences of Garmin’s buying of Tacx are - if the same crew is still actively making/developing them, it will be fine. If Garmin moves production to another country, I’m not so sure…

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@Cyclopaat, thank you for your reply and insights. I have always liked to have interaction with who I buy a product from, and with Hammerhead you get that, and you can request a video meeting with them. It’s a nice personal touch that Garmin won’t do. Wahoo…they have room to improve in the space also. as you say, none are perfect, but as a coach I always give the person trying the hardest the most attention…Hammerhead is trying hardest to me.

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In the training (app) realm, I had a similar experience with VeloReality. When I ran into a glitch, we set up a chat and a remote session and solved it.

I had similar issues with Tacx (TTS 4) and that was solved in a similar manner. Also, my first Neo was replaced without a problem when it gave in within 20K km…

Garmin sent me a replacement pair of Vectors, but they were just as shitty. On a software front, they just do as they please. Stages is much the same, feeling that their superior products do not need feedback for improvements from users.

@David is one of the most responsive developers I’ve seen - Today’s Plan and Xert are trying hard, Sufferfest is quite good too (not sure that will last as a Wahoo subsidiary), support declines as you go to TR, TP and Garmin.

I’ve never had issues with Wahoo, so I wouldn’t know.

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So I ws recruited off TrainingPeaks by Today’s Plan, they are really a cut above Peaks with feedback and support.
David is great, I love his work and I have added suggestions to certain charts I want, that will benefit me as a coach but everyone on the platform! It’s much the same with HH.

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Hey Cyclopaat, are you the same Cyclopaat who comments on Sufferfest forum ?
If so, can you tell me what you think about Sufferfest ? I’m planning to try it this Winter (well, probably from today, as the weather is finally turning bad), I like Xert for the outdoors training, but for indoors I need some extra entertainment on the screen…

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Yes, we are one and the same :joy:

I’ve been on Sufferfest between 2011 and 2013/14, but I went into voluntary exile, as I felt that the original philosophy had been sacrificed for commercial gains.

I guess that worked well for them, as the number of minions has grown and Wahoo took them over, probably because they saw a perfect fit.

Out of curiosity and because I am a KoS, which is for life, living in exile or not, I registered for their forum, but as of yet - and probably never - I do not have the intention of becoming active on the platform.

As it has been a while, I’m not really qualified to tell you whether or not it would be a good choice for you. It is definitely a lot more entertaining than Xert, but as (for me) the bad taste in music kinda spoils the experience, I’ll stick to BigRingVR and my own playlists.

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From my understanding, Sufferfest was mostly a fun app to use a few years ago, and since Wahoo took over, it turned into something more efficient, more targeted to really improve your cycling performance.
I also like BigRingVR, and that’s what I’ve been using in conjunction with Xert during the last Winters, my problem is that, during a training session, when you need to push some watts, it’s not really possible to do it on a downhill portion ! And if you do short high intensity intervals with short rest intervals, it’s neither easy to do it on a steep climb: 150W on a 10% climb, unless you have 40+ teeth on your cassette, you will grind instead of trying to spin and take that brief time to recover your breath. Sure, BigRingVR allows you to limit the slope % uphill/downhill, but then you lose the “pleasure” to really ride the selected road.

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I let my phone app control my Neo and use the Ant+ signal to move in BigRingVR.

Also, you can load (ZWO) workouts while watching a video, which will control your trainer and the grade won’t make a difference.

But yes, either method doesn’t follow the real profile - mind you, if you keep pushing 300 Watts while going down, or stop pedaling, that won’t make a difference for your virtual speed. Or not a lot anyway.