Karoo 2 and Power Meters

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Sander Van de Moortel

• August 03, 2022 08:58

I read so little about using the Karoo 2 in conjunction with power meters and I'm really looking to buy one, but I'm not sure which one will give me the best results. I ride SPDs and I'm not going to attempt the Favero hack, so I'm basically down to SRM X-Power and Garmin Rally.

The X-Power doesn't seem to be easy to purchase, but has two advantages that draw me: rechargeable batteries, and the fact that SRAM bought Hammerhead and its hardware may receive the best support on the Karoo 2 in the future.

The Garmin Rally really have my preference but I read that Cycling Dynamics isn't available on the Karoo 2, so I would still have to pair it with my Garmin watch to get any of that data. Also, I'm a bit worried about Garmin perhaps revoking a licence (like Shimano did with the Di2) to display any such data on the Karoo 2.

Also, is the Karoo 2 able to perform all the calibration necessary to use the power meters?

Can anyone post their experiences with the Karoo 2 and power meters, and perhaps confirm or ease my worries about functionality?

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  Todd Thompson

  • August 18, 2022 14:51

  I have Garmin Rally 200 pedals and a Karoo 2 head unit.  The pedals and Karoo 2 work perfectly.

  The only issue I had was calibrating the pedals.  I got an error code but I kept trying and it eventually worked.  I think that I connected the pedals using ANT+ instead of Bluetooth for the calibration. The other issue is that Karoo 2 doesn't currently support the cycling dynamics feature -> so this may or may not be important to you.

   

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  Sander Van de Moortel

  • August 18, 2022 15:03

  Thanks, I can confirm that they seem to work quite well together. Although I cannot make sense of metrics such as "pedal smoothness" (what unit are they in? percent? Of what? How do I improve that? How is it calculated?) I think the documentation is a bit lacking.

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  Michael Carreon

  • August 25, 2022 00:04

  I also have Garmin Rally 200, been using with Karoo 2 a few months now.  I zero-offset on the Karoo before every ride, sometimes it works the first time, sometimes not so it can get frustrating.

  If I stop during a ride for a break (maybe 10 min, not sure?) the pedals and Karoo disconnect, and I have to ride a little before the Karoo picks up their sensors again, which is annoying.

  And just as sad is the only metrics you'll get on the Karoo when using the Garmins are power, L/R balance, and cadence.  No cycling dynamics, pedal smoothness, torque, etc, so your power information will be really limited and all the cool stuff your Garmin pedals communicate do not show up in the FIT file or on your Karoo.

  So if you're sticking with Karoo 2, I wouldn't get the Garmins as you'll not get their fully data functionality.  They're great pedals though.

   

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  John De Baets

  • June 28, 2025 05:53

  Hi, this is a post of 2 years ago, are you able to get more data out of Garmin Rally 200 into Karoo2 after updates or you don’t use it anymore ?

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