On Monday morning, an email landed in my inbox. It was from the California-based Hammerhead brand, whose Karoo 2 computer I’ve been a devotee of for years, due to its sleek design, bright, colourful screen, intuitive function and regular firmware updates, which have become something of a calling card for the brand.
Above most everything else, the Karoo 2 is known for these updates, which are beamed directly into their units around the world. Seemingly every week, Karoo 2 users will receive an email outlining the new updates. From there, all we need to do is power up our Karoo 2 units and select “update.” And Voila! Bugs are fixed and new features added.
However, according to Monday’s email, the Karoo 2 will stop receiving its regular software updates after the first release of 2026.
“We remain committed to the long-term goal of building the best possible cycling computers, and we continue to invest even more in this endeavour,” the email read in part. “To continue driving our product line forward, we will be discontinuing regular firmware updates on the Karoo 2 after the first software update of 2026.”
It’s not like the Karoo 2 is going anywhere. It’ll still function just as it does once its final update is installed. I’m assuming my Karoo 2 will last just as long as the Garmin Edge 810 I’ve been using on my track bike for over a decade. (Side note: if you’re reading this, Hammerhead, we track folk would love a mount for aero bars and/or an under-saddle mount.)
Enter the newish Karoo, a $524.99 bike computer that rolled out last year, and one I’m sure is more than worth its price point, especially if you’re a Karoo 2 user and take advantage of the brand’s offer to take 30% off the upgrade price.
I’m not going to get into the minutiae of what makes these two computers different. You can read that in the review here. What I want to do instead is zoom out from Hammerhead, because this move to sunset Karoo 2 updates is symptomatic of one of the bike industry’s biggest issues: how they get us to keep giving them our money.
Suddenly, our quivers need a gravel bike, a cyclocross bike, mountain bikes—one hardtail, one full squish, ideally—a road bike, a TT bike, and on and on and on. Just because they can’t make us buy a new road bike every year doesn’t mean they can’t make us buy a new bike every year.
And the problem isn’t exclusive to bikes. In a world where many of us have washers and dryers in our homes, I would argue that we only need one pair of bibs, a jersey, a wind vest, a jacket, and maybe a few accoutrements such as gloves, caps, and toe covers.
But we don’t. We exceed our needs by a dozen country miles.
Now, of course, this is an extremely pot-kettle-black situation, as I’m as guilty as anyone, with drawers full of dozens of jerseys and bibs, and no fewer than twelve bikes in my basement. I have two pairs of cycling shoes: one for road rides, one for off-road, and one for indoor use. I have more helmets and more pairs of cycling sunglasses than I’m ready to admit.
Point being, even though I don’t need most of this stuff, the cycling industry’s marketing machine has me firmly in its grip. And if we’re being totally honest, I’m probably going to buy a new Karoo in no time at all, even though it’s something I emphatically do not need. Why? Partly, because I’m a sucker. Partly, because, dammit, I want my updates.
I don’t fault Hammerhead for releasing a new product. They’re a business, and their goal, like any other company’s, is to make money so they can keep creating great products. And I hope they do, because they make one of the best cycling computers I’ve ever used.
I just wish that, in the pursuit of keeping the lights on and continuing to offer the best cycling computer on the market, they’d let their older products retain the core feature that made the Karoo 2 so special in the first place—the updates— even if that means I only buy a new one every ten years or so.
