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Help me pick a bike computer - priority is mapping without having to use my glasses

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Help me pick a bike computer - priority is mapping without having to use my glasses

Old 01-20-21, 09:59 PM
  #26  
slowpacer
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Originally Posted by adamrice
Right. I was responding to the point that an app like Jepster, that uses a "night mode" display, would save energy.
Well, according to yourself it would indeed save energy if the screen was OLED and the op never said his phone wasn't. In any case power saved by using an app's night mode will probably be negligible.
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Old 01-21-21, 02:08 AM
  #27  
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i really dont like the price points of any of these bike computers , they barely have enough storage and few allow micro sd cards to hold all the maps , i use the garmin 520 and its a cool luxury but its not very valuable for the full price of over 200 bucks or even the used price of 150 , my phones combined dont even cost 250 and they both work flawlessly , with only the slightly annoying aspect of mounting them , they can brake over time from all the bumps and bangs and with internal batteries can go dead on a ride , but i have gotten by for years with a 50 dollar Samsung and it ran my navigation, strava and music perfectly .
out side or races or trail rides , or displaying your sensors the dedicated head units just dont justify the money they cost when a phone can do everything they do for way less cost , but the head units are very fine luxury to have .
one option i used for a long time and still do even after my head unit acquisition , is OSMAND , this is a gps navigation app thats free and can store very detailed maps of entire states , display multiple tracks and can even edit and create tracks on the go , as well as being free and WAY better than any gps head unit , and i would just carry a battery pack or two with a long usb cord that would charge my phone or head unit on and off for the entire ride .
If you do have the money and dont care about spending i think there are many good choices , wahoo and garmin have the lead with lyzne close behind as well as many other makers coming out , i would just make sure the unit can accept micro sd cards and can redirect routes on the fly , a touch screen to zoom in and out helps too .
one more thing to keep in mind is a lot of these units dont last any much longer than a phone , and the ones that do cost around 300 plus dollars new to equal the battery life of a phone , and i would end up having to plug in my head unit anyway to finish the ride , and if i wanted to use the blue tooth feature it would be impossible without the external batter pack , which i was used to anyway , but it kind of eliminated the advatage of a small independent head unit .
ONE more thing to note is i also used to use OSMAND with its turn by turn voice navigation in my ear with wireless earbuds , so sometimes i would not even have to look at any screen and i could just ride and be buttery smooth in my NAV without worrying about looking down , even when i used to use google maps on a phone with no service , it would still give me voice TbT nav and i would just find a mcdonalds or dunkin and load my return route back home on their wifi !!


Oh and extra note , strava used to accept sensors on the app but no longer does for a while now , and thats the only reason why i even bother with a computer , i used to use a tiny lzyne micro color just to get hear rate , and the strava phone app just bugs out when ever another cycling computer gets too close , they still havent fixed the app , but it seems to work better with more modern phones that have the more advanced gps chips like the even galaxy s7 !
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Old 01-22-21, 11:40 AM
  #28  
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Thanks for all the advice. A bit of an update. I detest bifocals. Don't even use it at home. Just never got used to it. Love my Oakley Jawbreaker glasses and don't want to change or turn them into bifocals. Phone apps won't work for me as I go on very long rides and the battery never lasts. I ride a lot of remote trails and canyons where there is weak or no reception. A phone usually uses much more battery trying to connect in remote areas. I have to keep the phone in airplane mode to make it last. And although I can download offline maps, they don't usually have details of trails in this mode. And the text size is too small.

After some research, I bought the Garmin 1030 Plus. An outrageously expensive unit in my opinion. Been using it for almost two weeks and about 5 long rides (25-80 miles each ride). All I can say is WOW! What a game changer. Never thought I'd love it this much! Extremely configurable, and I'm still discovering all it's features. You have to give it time and slowly customize it. The text on the maps can be enlarged!!! Exactly what I needed. I can now clearly read road/trail names on it's large screen without needing my reading glasses (text set to large). Love how you can pinch/zoom on the map like a phone. Furthermore, I can touch any point on the map and it will instantly tell me the distance/elevation to that point. This is awesome for mountain biking trails.

Then there are the basic features that I've missed out on that aren't particularly unique to the 1030, but new to me, such as constantly showing speed, elevation gain, heart rate, etc. But it's awesome being able to keep the screen on all day (12+ hours) without having to worry about battery. When I had my phone mounted, I constantly had to turn the screen on/off to make the battery last.

Of course, this all came with a heck of a price tag. But as I ride 150-200 miles/week, this is really worth it to me. I find it easier to find new canyon roads and side trails than ever before.
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Old 01-22-21, 11:57 AM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by bikebikebike
Best screen , hands down, is the Hammerhead Karoo 1.
close second is the Karoo2, both Android phone computer fusions. Good mapping .
Breathtaking brightness and clarity. see DCR reviews.
Why do you prefer v.1 over v.2?
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Old 01-22-21, 01:17 PM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by howardv
Thanks for all the advice. A bit of an update. I detest bifocals. ...
After some research, I bought the Garmin 1030 Plus. An outrageously expensive unit in my opinion. Been using it for almost two weeks and about 5 long rides (25-80 miles each ride). All I can say is WOW! ...
... I ride 150-200 miles/week, this is really worth it to me. I find it easier to find new canyon roads and side trails than ever before.
Glad you found something you like.

I asked my eye doctor when I should come back and see him again. He said when you need bifocals. I said I will never need them. He said, on your way out make an appointment to see me in two years. He was off by only a few months. That was 27 years ago.
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Old 01-23-21, 09:24 PM
  #31  
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Hammerhead Karoo1 vs K2

Originally Posted by jadocs
Why do you prefer v.1 over v.2?
The V1 Hammerhead Karoo has the biggest brightest screen in the business.
With the new model there are a lot of them to be had competing against the $120 trade in Hammerhead offers to some on the new model
K2 screen is not a whole lot smaller , but to make it smaller overall they cut battery size and that screen ate a lot of juice so they have dimmed it a bit ( maybe just in software)
Either are still head and shoulders above the other's screens.

K2 at 399$ is a bargain, as these things go.
They both have the screen of an android phone adapted for bikes
Again , I would suggest you have a clear notion of what you want it to do , and keep the notion of a phone as bike computer in the mix.
Feature creep is a bugabear in the whole industry. that and sensor drop, battery life and "features" that are short of what is advertised.
Inexpensive sensor logger and PAN (personal Network) similar to what cars have become is a ways off.
the OP's ended up with a 1030 and for $600 it better perform.

Last edited by bikebikebike; 01-23-21 at 09:35 PM.
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Old 01-27-21, 01:28 PM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by bikebikebike
The V1 Hammerhead Karoo has the biggest brightest screen in the business.
With the new model there are a lot of them to be had competing against the $120 trade in Hammerhead offers to some on the new model
K2 screen is not a whole lot smaller , but to make it smaller overall they cut battery size and that screen ate a lot of juice so they have dimmed it a bit ( maybe just in software)
Either are still head and shoulders above the other's screens.

K2 at 399$ is a bargain, as these things go.
They both have the screen of an android phone adapted for bikes
Again , I would suggest you have a clear notion of what you want it to do , and keep the notion of a phone as bike computer in the mix.
Feature creep is a bugabear in the whole industry. that and sensor drop, battery life and "features" that are short of what is advertised.
Inexpensive sensor logger and PAN (personal Network) similar to what cars have become is a ways off.
the OP's ended up with a 1030 and for $600 it better perform.
I have both the K1 and the K2. The K2 screen is easier for me to read and I find that I set the brightness at about half of what it was set at on the K1.

Totally agree with the commentary about Karoo being the best solution for a nav computer and for readability. I also own a Garmin Edge 1000 and a Wahoo Elemnt. Neither of those are anywhere close to Karoo for map quality or navigation.

Besides all of that, you can put an external bluetooth headset or speaker to work on the Karoo and get audio verbal turn by turn directions. Indispensible in navigation because at the most critical times (ie. Intersections where you have to turn) you can be heads up and still get the turn directions. No other bike computer can do that.

Karoo supports the Varia Radar and their implementation is head and shoulders above even Garmin’s. A big reason is the screen resolution and the resulting graphical display.

Garmin’s screens are all kind of low res and muddy in comparison to the Karoo. Wahoo’s are even lower res and their maps don’t have street names. You get turn by turn directions but not much else. It’s being fairly charitable to say the Wahoo products have “navigation.” It’s only true in the barest sense of the word with what’s available in the bike computer industry today.

J.

Last edited by JohnJ80; 01-27-21 at 01:40 PM.
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