Hammerhead (SRAM) Karoo 2 – June Features

Another month is here as is another month’s worth of Karoo features. In a jokey way, it’s getting boring that they keep pounding out feature after feature. This month sees the arrival of one of my favourites AND with a novel twist.

Must Read: Hammerhead Karoo 2 – Garmin Killer

Lap by Location

Lap by location was originally introduced by Garmin over a decade ago if I recall correctly. It then went through several years and several models’ worth of invisibility as it was inexplicably removed. IT eventually came back and you’ll probably find it squirrelled away somewhere in the depths of an Edge’s menu if you have one.

If you are racing any kind of circuit it’s just a nice feature to have. I recall once doing the 10-mile TT at the Hillingdon circuit and I think it’s 10 or 11 laps or something.  Anyway, the point is that very many people, myself included, can’t count to 10 (or 11) when going flat out. A lap-by position is definitely useful for that and also for my 11km laps around my local Richmond Park. According to Strava, that’s one the world’s most cycled places so there are patently a LOT of people doing laps.

Of course, you can set the lap distance beforehand or you can just press the lap button but the latter is a bit amateurish in a race (even though we are all amateurs!)

How it works

Hammerhead introduces auto-lap pins which can be set at the start of a ride/race or wheneve the lap button is pressed. After that, lapping is automatically triggered at the same place.

the twist in the tail is that the lap marker has some added intelligence in that in knows which direction you should be travelling for it to count as a lap. Thus a figire of 8 or double-backed course where two ‘lanes’ are in a similar geographic position will not add extra laps.

ANT+ Tire Pressure Sensors

I still haven’t got one of these, and at over $300 a pop I’m not likely to, but if I had I could now show you a picture of the Hammerhead recording front and rear ANT+ tyre pressures with SRAM/Quarq’s Tyre Wiz. We’ll just have to settle for a stock photo from SRAM’s site.

You can display live tyre pressure or tire pressure depending on your nationality and the pressures are recorded into the FIT file.

Di2 Removed – eTap boosted (a bit)

Di2 still works on your bike but the Karoo 2 has no digital link to it whatsoever. This was removed at Shimano’s insistence (#Doh).

Next, SRAM shifting data can been seen on your dashboard after every ride and there’s even a pretty graph. Added to that is the new ability to sync the Hammerhead Account with the AXS web dashboard for more deetailed analyses.

Interesting: Partly delivered today is the abilty to see tooth count during shifting. This shows the actual gear tooth counts currently in use eg 52×28. It might be nice to see the divided out ratio too? But I always find these metrics to be ‘one metric too far’, invariably I have different cassettes on different wheels and when I change wheels I jsut can’t be bothered to make the corresponding changes in the head unit. Sorry!

Added Shift Data for .FIT Files

Shift data can be viewed on Dashboard after each ride, in summary as well as line graph form.

• From the sensor info page of your connected drivetrain, you can configure your gearing to see your recorded shift data as tooth counts (e.g. 52×28) instead of gear indices (e.g. 2×11). Note: showing tooth counts in-ride is in development but not yet possible. 
• Visit our Knowledge Base article here to learn more about adding Shift Data to your FIT file.