Electronic devices

[1Sigma]

Magene P325 CS: Dual-sided power meter and cadence sensor. It's great!  Does what it says on the tin at a price similar to a one-sided unit.

Magene C406 computer: Its fine. Inexpensive. It does the job.  Syncs to Strava and provides all the major metrics. Allows for multiple pages.  It has GPS, but does not have routes. Pages are not as customizable as the marketing leads on. I'll probably replace this in a year or 2. 

ThinkRider X5 Gen 2: Well, I don't have this yet.  Currently in the middle of the Pacific in a shipping container with 14 other units i bought.   I'm fairly confident that it will perform as well as any other unit twice it's price.

X-Tiger Smart Light: Its the one that has different pulse modes, but turns solid red when stopping.
Has a bracket that lets it hide under the saddle between the rails.  Discrete, lightweight. Claimed 20 hour life.  In reality, it might last you a century ride, but that's it.  At least in my case.

Seriously considering getting a Ticwatch Pro 3 Ultra LTE (when released) for biometrics tracking, routes, and just generally as a good all-rounder smart watch.   

[carbonazza]

What are your thoughts now on the Karoo 2?  There have been a lot of updates, but seemingly still quite a few disgruntled users, and almost universally reported still-poor battery life?

How many of the bugs and spoilers you listed have been patched up?

They apparently can't fix the lost sensor issue.
It must be a harder problem than it looks like, as they had quite a few updates since then.
Having to re-enable my power meter while riding  in a peloton after a pause, is terribly annoying and dangerous.
Except that problem, everything is fine, but it annoys me enough that I will probably switch back to wahoo at their next iteration.

For the battery life, if I plan a ride longer than 7h, I attach a 18650 based powerbank to the handlebar, for a few hours more.

[RDY]

They apparently can't fix the lost sensor issue.
It must be a harder problem than it looks like, as they had quite a few updates since then.
Having to re-enable my power meter while riding  in a peloton after a pause, is terribly annoying and dangerous.
Except that problem, everything is fine, but it annoys me enough that I will probably switch back to wahoo at their next iteration.

For the battery life, if I plan a ride longer than 7h, I attach a 18650 based powerbank to the handlebar, for a few hours more.

Is the sensor loss universal, or just some units, or some sensors? 

I still feel like all of the options are crap.  Garmin 'just works' but maps, navigation and rerouting are all crap, and UX is prehistoric.  Wahoo Bolt V2 is laggy, they still haven't fixed their underreporting of power and work done (kJ) on anything other than Favero on any of their products & deny the issue exists, battery drain is insane when stopped or GPS is lost, no sleep mode or screen sleep mode, screen visibility worst in class. Karoo 2 - bad battery life and bugs galore - including by the sound of it a game breaking one with sensor loss.

[carbonazza]

Is the sensor loss universal, or just some units, or some sensors? 

I still feel like all of the options are crap.  Garmin 'just works' but maps, navigation and rerouting are all crap, and UX is prehistoric.  Wahoo Bolt V2 is laggy, they still haven't fixed their underreporting of power and work done (kJ) on anything other than Favero on any of their products & deny the issue exists, battery drain is insane when stopped or GPS is lost, no sleep mode or screen sleep mode, screen visibility worst in class. Karoo 2 - bad battery life and bugs galore - including by the sound of it a game breaking one with sensor loss.

It looses the powermeters on all my bikes, a p2m-road, sigeyi-mtb and quarq-gravel.
But it doesn't loose my heart rate either magene or a whoop.
Shifting sensors stay as well.

They made an update recently, limiting Ant+ sensors to 15, but that didn't help at all.
They told me on their support to change the priority of sensors depending the bike I ride    That didn't help either.
What is stupid, is when you get to the sensor page, it finds it back instantly.
Would it be possible a smart ass there would call the same function when re-starting a ride ?

I agree with you, all these devices look prehistoric, even the Karoo, compared to other apps we use daily.

But just to be clear, except this powermeter loss. If I train myself, I could think of passing by the sensor page before restarting the ride...
As well as the shortish 7h battery life(last longer if you turn your screen off when not riding).
I'm quite happy with it.

[hazzer19]

Is the sensor loss universal, or just some units, or some sensors? 

I still feel like all of the options are crap.  Garmin 'just works' but maps, navigation and rerouting are all crap, and UX is prehistoric.  Wahoo Bolt V2 is laggy, they still haven't fixed their underreporting of power and work done (kJ) on anything other than Favero on any of their products & deny the issue exists, battery drain is insane when stopped or GPS is lost, no sleep mode or screen sleep mode, screen visibility worst in class. Karoo 2 - bad battery life and bugs galore - including by the sound of it a game breaking one with sensor loss.

I notice that the when on my road bike with a Stages gen 3 PM the connectivity stays strong with the K2. On my gravel bike that has a Stages gen 2 PM though the connection gets interrupted very frequently when pausing and sometimes mid spin. Connectivity with a di2 Ant+ only dongle seems good. I notice that notifications from my phone also aren't consistent and the device often needs to be connected again. Battery life isn't great. Putting into battery saving mode helps but still behind the Wahoo devices. Aside from this happy with the nav and UI and functionality.

[RDY]

It looses the powermeters on all my bikes, a p2m-road, sigeyi-mtb and quarq-gravel.
But it doesn't loose my heart rate either magene or a whoop.
Shifting sensors stay as well.

They made an update recently, limiting Ant+ sensors to 15, but that didn't help at all.
They told me on their support to change the priority of sensors depending the bike I ride    That didn't help either.
What is stupid, is when you get to the sensor page, it finds it back instantly.
Would it be possible a smart ass there would call the same function when re-starting a ride ?

I agree with you, all these devices look prehistoric, even the Karoo, compared to other apps we use daily.

But just to be clear, except this powermeter loss. If I train myself, I could think of passing by the sensor page before restarting the ride...
As well as the shortish 7h battery life(last longer if you turn your screen off when not riding).
I'm quite happy with it.

Thanks.

That doesn't augur well at all IMO.

Probably means the person who wrote the call(s) that works has left, the code isn't adequately commented, and nobody there tasked with fixing it knows wtf to do. Or management has its head so far up its ass that they don't consider this a priority fix, so they have the person who knows how to make sensors work doing something else.

I notice that the when on my road bike with a Stages gen 3 PM the connectivity stays strong with the K2. On my gravel bike that has a Stages gen 2 PM though the connection gets interrupted very frequently when pausing and sometimes mid spin. Connectivity with a di2 Ant+ only dongle seems good. I notice that notifications from my phone also aren't consistent and the device often needs to be connected again. Battery life isn't great. Putting into battery saving mode helps but still behind the Wahoo devices. Aside from this happy with the nav and UI and functionality.

Thanks also.

-------

Looks like it won't be viable for me then.  Not prepared to fuck around with dropouts.

Have to stick to Garmin when I want accurate power and don't need routing, and Wahoo when I need routing.   

[carbonazza]

Have to stick to Garmin when I want accurate power and don't need routing, and Wahoo when I need routing.   

BREAKING NEWS !!
It looks Karoo's power meter drops issue has been finally solved in the last update.
I tried my 3 bikes, each a different power meter, and they all came back after a break.

[hazzer19]

carbonazza I'm happy to hear this seems to be resolved for you! but it doesn't appear to be for me

I updated to 1.248.1114 the day it came out and then on my ride on Saturday my 2nd gen Stages PM is still seeing drops in connection. I also moved the order of sensor priority for this PM up the list per Support's suggestion. The other gen 3 stages PM on my road bike which is at the top of the priority list doesn't have connection drops. Although connectivity on the different gen PMs is likely different, I didn't have drop in connection when using both with my Wahoo Roam.

[1Sigma]

So the K2 looks great, but has anyone seen a good, full-featured Chinese option yet?
So far the closest I’ve seen is the igs620, but that one is not without, what I would consider, deal-breaking issues with navigation.

The XOSS, Magene C406, et al are fine for the price and what they do, but are still simple, entry-level computers.

[carbonazza]

carbonazza I'm happy to hear this seems to be resolved for you! but it doesn't appear to be for me ...

You're right, after a few more rides.
I would say, it just drops less

[carbonazza]

BREAKING NEWS !

SRAM bought Hammerhead.
Hopefully this will help them to fix the lost powermeter issue 

[hazzer19]

haha just saw that! Pretty big, SRAM is just buying everything up!

[OlieSimpson]

Magene P325 CS: Dual-sided power meter and cadence sensor. It's great!  Does what it says on the tin at a price similar to a one-sided unit.

How are your Magene P325 CS cranks doing? Would you still recommend them? I'm looking for a new set of cranks with a power meter for my VB-R-168 at the moment and they're at the top of my list.

[ChrisB]

How are your Magene P325 CS cranks doing? Would you still recommend them? I'm looking for a new set of cranks with a power meter for my VB-R-168 at the moment and they're at the top of my list.

Left side crank arm works fine for over two years. Change the battery from time to time and that's it.
The right side spider sensor stopped working for me after a bit more than 12 months. Seems to be a problem with the integrated rechargeable battery.
Loads very quickly and does not last longer than 10min anymore. I guess the Li-ion battery was damaged or a problem with the charger electronics.

[theirishrider]

How are your Magene P325 CS cranks doing? Would you still recommend them? I'm looking for a new set of cranks with a power meter for my VB-R-168 at the moment and they're at the top of my list.

I got them during the kickstarter for the Sub 300 usd price tag, I 100% reccomend them. I really like the. Spot on compared to my elite turbo trainer.  They've been flawless I have to say, follow the instructions and you'll be grand.