Hammerhead - Building The Worlds Best Cycling Computer
Correct, Hammerhead is still building...
Sorry Hammerhead, after 1.5years of using K2 I must state, that it is definitely NOT the best device on the market.
A device that needs bug fixes (I'm not talking about new features) every couple of weeks from the beginning is simply not well-engineered and sold before having a stable quality.
What I'm really pissed of is that you guys are using your customers as test-employees and let them develop your product. With the big difference that we don't get payed for all the hours of testing, describing bugs & posting ideas for improvement. Instead the customer spends a lot of cash with prospect to receive cutting-edge tech and then discovers that bugs or good ideas that have been reported years ago are still a not solved.
My favourite HH-answer is also "Thanks for your post, I will share it with our product development team"...we all can be sure to never hear something from the product team ever again.
Just some examples of topics that are open since months or years:
- climb/ ascent is reported by a lot of riders to record wrong values
- Live tracker not working stable
or comfort topics e.g.
- navigation functions on device e.g. "bring me to..." still needs to create a route in a complicated way instead of simply entering an adress
- auto route syncronization after creation on any connected platform instead of manually pushing the synchronizing-button on dashboard every time
- rider position marker is still in the middle of the display and wasting half of nice big screen for route view
I don't say that you are not working on all these topics collected by the community and I admit that the device and most features are working.
But advertising a Top-End super fast Device on one hand and delivering a prototype is neither "Quite simply, the finest head unit ever built" nor "Plug into the future" as stated on the website.
Please HH, don't waste your time on an answer for this emotional post...better read the good community posts and feedbacks of your customers and speed up improving the K2 before we are surprised by a even more fancy K3.
Thanks, Kent
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Every bike GPS has bugs and the user base are part of the development program regardless of brand or the operational timeline in which those problems are discovered. I would rather have a device that benefits from frequent updates in which any bugs are likely to be resolved than one with bugs that is updated at the whim of the manufacturer - Garmin being a prime example in releasing firmware patches many months after problems are acknowledged.
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Kent, I totally agree. K2 is not bad...but far away from what they advertise. Your examples are things that I am also waiting since months to be improved.
Especially the bug with the wrong ascent is no go. Measuring ascent is an absolute basic function that cyclists rely on...and exactly this is not working stable in K2.
Hope dies last.
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Hello guys,
thanks for writing this comment. I also am demotivated posting ideas or bugs. Usualy you quickly receive an "answered" label on your post and that's it, you will most likely never hear anything again about your issue. The only possibility is to create a new post and ask again - with the same effect :-(
What I really miss is a list what topics out of the community they really put on their agenda and what they are working on. Also combined with some target time schedule. This would instantly answer many questions and stop people asking things again or feeling ignored.
Jules
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Pure speculation on my part but we've all seen this in other corporate situations similar to where HH is now compared to 18 months ago. I strongly doubt that HH is really in control of it's destiny these days. I don't expect a "K3". I expect the next iteration will be labelled a SRAM device, and SRAM is calling the shots from above and has been for months now, in terms of where the technical focus is and where the cash gets spent. It's textbook takeover/buy-out methodology. To go way out on a limb I wouldn't be surprised if behind the curtain 50% or more or the original HH team has either been eliminated or are working on SRAM-driven projects, be that computers or otherwise.
I said it in these pages the day the buyout was announced. It's not Hammerhead, it's SRAMmerhead, and it's not the least bit unexpected by me at least. Big companies don't absorb smaller operations to "let them do their own thing". Never, ever, ever going to happen. It's called vertical integration in the business world and you very quickly become part of the big guy's corporate world and direction. For all intents and purposes I've called the Hammerhead we bought into with our K2 purchases "history" for the last year. Sad but I strongly believe true.
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@ Bob L I was also of the opinion that the SRAM takeover was the death knell for Hammerhead as a single independent entity. And, just as you so eloquently stated, nothing that has happened since that fateful day has changed my mind. I have been very vocal on this site, as have others, and it is the frustration that is is the worst part. The Karoo2 could have been anything but the 'team' consistently ignore the most requested changes (option to disable re-routing!) and implement some obscure thing that nobody can remember ever being asked for!
But, as Andreas B said above, "Hope dies last", so we all still cling to that vague hope that things will turn for the better!
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I have reset my expectations these days... When I bought the K2 it was marketed as the most "fully featured" cycle computer available. Almost every Youtuber reviewer gushes at it, saying its a Garmin killer etc. On those expectations it has been rather a let down. I can barely think of a single update since predictive climber (over a year ago?) that has really improved it.
But its not all bad... The screen works well in dull light and being a robust brick it works well for me as a winter / MTB unit. Its map and re-routing is a standout feature.
I have just though bought an in-the-sale Garmin 830 for a lot less than I paid for the K2, I kind of wish I had done that when I got the K2. Its a more capable, refined product in almost every way and as a bonus I can use it on rides longer than 6 hours without turning everything off.
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You all make good points and I haven't seen one of my excellent "Feature Requests" fulfilled. But I recently previewed a Garmin 1040 on a 30 day trial and was reminded how obtuse Garmin's menus are and how tedious it is to create routes via their website. I sent it back.
Since my K2 does enough of what I need it to do, with an outstanding display, with useful buttons, with easy route creation, with simple and intuitive menus that I'm happy with the pace of the updates and improvements and not likely to bail on Hammerhead anytime soon.
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Looking forward in my crystal ball to the purchase of my next head unit some day my personal requirement in a cycling computer has been essentially met by the K2. But, and this is important, in researching these devices with an open mind and very little knowledge of them at the time but decades in both consumer and industrial electronic devices (at a career/professional level of involvement in both cases) I know I've never seen any consumer level electronic device as divisive amongst users where the "good and the bad" aspects of each are so close to 50/50 as cycling computers. I jumped on the K2 bandwagon admittedly pre-production as what I hoped would be a clear alternative to being "sold" on what was right by the big two in the industry. The K2 suits my basic needs with some nice touches that set it apart and most important to me it gets my ride data off the bike and onto other platforms where I can view it, chart it, save it. I ride around 10000km per year on local, very familiar country routes so the re-routing fiasco isn't a direct problem for my purposes but I totally acknowledge that the minute I go somewhere unfamiliar I'll be screaming about it to be fixed, which it certainly should have been by now. The issues I've raised about random loss of alert audio on Varia radar is still a nagging "when is it going to happen again" thing for me as are a couple of other issues supported by other users here, battery life, and Di2 support loss because of contractual agreement disputes that should never have come up just to name a few. Would I buy "Brand X or Y" if I HAD to replace the K2 tomorrow? Would I buy a "K3" should it appear after my experiences with the K2? Those are the questions SRAMmerhead needs to set my mind clear on before they lose me as a customer and supporter. As you folks have said, the active support ball has seemingly been dropped in favor of "we've added" stuff many of us just don't see a need for. I hope they turn a major corner in how they view their current customer base and the definition of "ongoing support, feature enhancement and bug fixes" soon, very soon.
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Kent, I couldn’t agree more, you are absolutely right.
From my experience, I can add this. After update: 1.320.1298 I lost the basic usefulness of a gps, speed via gps. I have a speed/cadence (2 in 1) sensor and before this update everything worked, I had speed via gps and cadence via sensor. But after this update, I can't get the speed via gps built-in anymore and I have to use speed/cadence sensor to get the speed.
There is a topic about it: 1.320.1298 update the removal of the "Built-in GPS".
Another example how K2 is the best. K2 does not calculate calories. To get this measurement, you must buy power-meter which is in itself, insane. Many others that cost much less do it even if, without a power-meter, this measurement may be inaccurate, but at least you can have a clue. It has already been requested to add it, among others by myself.
HH promises $25 if you refer it to a friend but personally I couldn't recommend K2 to anyone, even for $100.
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I'm surprised there aren't more mentions of 3rd party app integration on this thread.
To be "The World's Best Cycling Computer", you better work with the most popular training apps (e.g. TrainerRoad) or the leading mountain biking apps (e.g. TrailForks), but these have been left on the "very frequent requests" list, but off the "in progress" list.
I was an original Karoo customer as well as K2, strongly believing that the Android platform would help facilitate these integrations. I'm shocked that neither has been released yet.
This is an area where I would think SRAM's influence might help, as they produce both power meters and mountain bike components. I'm surprised they haven't bought a home trainer company yet.
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Hi y'all - pls throw all your votes on a single thread / feature request, otherwise it will be diluted in votes and never be considered, I'm afraid. This is what past HH practice has shown, unfortunately.
Thread with highest votes to finally integrate Trailforks (after 3+ yrs begging for it!) > https://support.hammerhead.io/hc/en-us/community/posts/1260802074889-Really-hoping-Trailforks-gets-added-to-the-K2
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