Karoo under-records ride distance
I've suspected for some time that the latest Karoo under-records the ride distance. I've just carried out a test to compare the Karoo with other devices. The data shows the Karoo under-records by an average of 3% compared to the other devices.
I rode with these devices on the bike: the Karoo, the Garmin Edge 1040S, the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt 2, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. The three bike computers all had the same ride settings and were paired with the same speed sensor. Here are the results.
Ride 1 – 03/12/2024
Karoo – 20.55 miles
Garmin – 21.60 miles
Wahoo – 21.55 miles
Apple – 21.53 miles
Ride 2 – 10/12/2024
Karoo – 27.29 miles
Garmin – 28.40 miles
Wahoo – 28.47 miles
Apple – 28.31 miles
Ride 3 – 27/12/2024
Karoo – 35.86 miles
Garmin – 36.69 miles
Wahoo – 36.67 miles
Apple – 36.40 miles
Overall total
Karoo – 83.70 miles
Garmin – 86.69 miles
Wahoo – 86.69 miles
Apple – 86.14 miles
The other three devices are all close together and average 86.51 miles for all rides combined, which is 3.2% more than the Karoo.
Is there a problem with the Karoo's GPS? Can you do anything to make the distance recording consistent with the other devices?
-
Hi James, we cannot say about the other devices, as its consistent with our testing. However, we have tried to work for the accuracy compared to Strava as that's a popular tool used by most riders. We have not across major differences in these numbers from other riders, and we will be happy to look further if there are more riders affected by this.
-
I have a G-1050 & Karoo. If I look at the Speed Sensor details my wheel circumference is 2283 on the Garmin and 2282 on the Karoo, so basically (and amazingly) pretty much the same. Both Sensors are set to automatic calculation.
I do have a flip-flopping between devices for which one records slightly less, it’s sometimes the Garmin other times the Karoo.
The question are:
- how does HH measure distance, via sensor or GPS?
- how often is the sensor data updated? (E.g. due to changing tyre pressures etc.)
(I read an Garmin forum article that stated they update constantly via GPS. I’m not sure if that’s still valid as GPS is not always accurate either.) -
Do a comparative test on a straight road section without bends or road junctions and a separate test on a road with many junctions. If Karoo samples GPS too rarely, there will be a big difference on a winding road (cut corners) and a small one on a straight road. If there is no difference in the tests, it is unlikely to be due to slow sampling.
You can also compare the saved gpx plotted on the map in the mode of connecting points with straight lines (without smoothing) or just points. You will see whether it cuts off a lot on bends or not. -
I will check the gpx files as suggested. From visual perspective they seem quite similar with no significant corner cutting with either of them. I just calculated the difference for some of the recent rides. The short ones are mostly ridden in not very difficult GPS conditions, the longer ones in mountains with some tree coverage. The Garmin Fenix 6 pro distances are comparable to Garmin Edge 830 distances (checked yesterday). The the trend is quite clear.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
6 comments