Beginning to regret my purchase...
CompletedI bought a Karoo2 after a recommendation from a bike shop and I am beginning to regret paying £350 to be a beta tester - especially as 50 days after I purchased (over the 45 day return window 🙄) they reduced the price by £100!!
I could cope with that though if there were not so many "bugs" or issues that Hammerhead keep implying are the fault of other devices and every ticket logged comes with requests to "test" in different scenarios and then they ultimately say "we have notified the development team" and close the case.
For example my ebike, like all ebikes, calculates the estimated range. In my case I have a lightweight road bike which easily achieves estimated ranges in excess of 256km (make a note of that number...) when in Eco mode on a flat route. I have noticed that the Karoo2 cannot cope with estimated ranges above this number.
Initially I reported that the range on the Karoo was not matching the range displayed on the bike and after many email conversations back and forth with Hammerhead not believing me and requesting photographic evidence they started blaming the bike and pointing me to websites where people reviewing the bike give examples of riding 60km and having battery capacity remaining of 50% as if this was supporting their claim that my bike is at fault. If you read the review it details the ride was mostly uphill in turbo mode on a muddy track etc etc.
Fast forward to me having spent several hours gathering photos during rides etc, I discovered that when the range goes over precisely 256km (or miles) that the Karoo starts counting the range from zero again. For example if the range on my bike shows 266 then the Karoo shows a range of 10km if my bike shows 270 then the Karoo shows 14km. Now given that an 8 bit binary number consisting of all 1s equates to 256 in decimal I suspect it is no coincidence that the Karoo data field for "range" tops out at 256. In fact, when the range shows over 512km the Karoo again starts counting from zero. For example if the bike shows 506km the Karoo shows 250km but if the bike then shows 515 the Karoo shows 3km.
Now these ranges are estimates and are also pretty high but my bike can be easily ridden with the motor off and if you ride with the motor off the range gradually increases over about 30 mins until it eventually shows an infinity symbol (once it reaches 1000 I think). The bike clearly recognises that the motor is off and is constantly recalculating. Even with the motor on and the assistance turned right down to 10% a range of 300km is easily achievable on a flat route, riding predominantly above the 25kmh cutoff speed for the motor.
Hammerhead basically say your bike is incorrectly calculating the range, it is impossible that an ebike has that range and therefore you need to contact the manufacturer. This is just passing the buck. It is not the range calculation that is the issue - it is the fact that the Karoo is different from the bike yet they continue to refuse to accept it. They also say things like “it’s a known issue with xyz brand of bike as if this absolves them of all responsibility. Funny how it’s not made clear before you part with £350 that there are many “known issues” that will affect performance.
I am seriously not happy. Does anyone know how to get a support case escalated or have the contact details of someone senior at Hammerhead?
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Official comment
Hi James, thank you for confirming that the issue was resolved after the recent Software Release.
Comment actions -
Here we go again!
Hi Ali - It's a TCU2 I'm guessing as it's the Mastermind TCU with the live display - not sure how to check but I can ask Specialized Rider Care once they open if that helps.
Just to be clear, the Karoo correctly reports the range remaining up to 256km (or miles) at which point it starts counting from zero again as per the below equation.
n-256
or when the range is over 512 the display shows:
n-512
Thanks
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Dear riders, this is a bug that we are aware of and it will be fixed in the upcoming software update. The software release that was supposed to be released today has been pushed forward as we uncovered a bug on the ATG testing and we will plan it for next release cycle. Thank you for your patience during this time.
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Hi James, as a head of Rider Support team. I am looking at this case to find out the best solution for your use case. However, I would like to inform that there are a few known issues on Specialized eBikes and I will into the case to see if it's related to any of those. Thanks for your patience.
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