If you were a part of the great bicycle boom of 2020, you’re not alone. Covid-19 brought about a dramatic increase in bicycle sales with people looking for ways to exercise as well as get around. There was a reported 57% rise in cycling-related sales during the coronavirus pandemic and for a long while, bikes became the new “toilet paper’ as suppliers and manufacturers struggled to keep up with demand.
While many bikes have ended up in the corner next to the ceiling-high pile of paper towels and the new set of dumbbells, recreational cycling continues to grow in America, with many cities across the country adapting by adding new bike lanes for commuters and weekend warriors to enjoy their rides in safety.
You may still be hard-pressed to walk into your favorite bike shop and grab a ride off the rack, this holiday season it’s all about the stuff that goes on your bike. Because you know it’s more than pedals and a helmet (yes hipsters approximately 86,000 traumatic head injuries are caused by cycling each year…helmet).
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Okay, off the soapbox, gear is where it’s at for your ride and the tech industry has come after cycling in a major way. What good is a ride, if you don’t have all the important data to help you train and more importantly share on social media. Why ride at all if you can’t humblebrag about it?
While Garmin has been the traditional market leader in the pack, the new Hammerhead Karoo 2 has broken away from the peloton and is taking a comfortable lead in the world of cycling information gathering… and sharing.
Out of the box, the Hammerhead Karoo 2 is easy to set up on your bike and equally as easy to learn and use on your ride. At its base, the Karoo 2 is a GPS bike computer. But it goes way beyond that. The Karoo 2 has made it simple for cyclists to do structured workouts, follow and plan routes, train, travel, connect to Strava, and other ways to annoy your friends while getting the most out of every ride.It has a big bright screen, easy to use touch screen, that plays like an Android phone, but don’t worry Apple friends, it’s easy to figure out and learn.
It’s high tech and made to stand up to the demand of everything from a commuter ride to getting a non-fat, soy, almond mocha, nonmocha, slow drip, vegan, two pump, dash of cinnamon latte to a century ride. Packed with a high resolution 3.2” display panel with 16.7 million colors, a responsive touchscreen, with droplet rejection(for water, sweat, and latte’s ), don’t worry if you are from 1987 and don’t like the touchscreen it’s super responsive and fully controllable with buttons as well.
The battery can last for up to 12 hours of ride time and if for some reason you ride more than 12 hours (good for you) the fast charging gets Karoo 2 from 0% – 30% in 30 minutes, and fully charged in under 3 hours, just enough time to eat and share all your information on social media.
You can create a route, grab a route, sync a route and share a route, all with a few taps of the touch screen. You can download training plans from Training Peaks, run duration-based workouts either on an indoor trainer or outdoors. To that point, you can use it indoors or out. It has fully guided workouts with indicators that help you hit your targets. You can set your heart rate and power zones manually or have them auto-calculated based on your max/resting heart rate and FTP respectively.
There’s a lot. It comes down to ease of use and the Hammerhead Karoo 2 is easy to use, loaded with tech, well built, and well thought out.
Finally, it’s easy to unsnap and put in your pocket when you are getting that latte, ending your ride, or wrapping it up as a gift for your favorite cyclist. At $399 it’s in the same price range as its competition and offers much more.
