This article was produced in association with Hammerhead
In the polite society we all live in, there are some opinions you know are best kept to yourself. You don’t like coffee, or you support a League Two team, you still take a teddy to bed, you voted Brexit... You know the ones. So in that vein, I feel I have to express an unpopular opinion right up front. I don’t like Apple products. I much, much prefer Android. There. I’ve said it. I have upset a proportion of you. But please – bear with me.
I could write a whole piece about my reasons, but that’s not what this is about. And when it comes to bike computers, it’s a little easier to justify since the mighty Mac doesn’t make one. In 2018, I was getting serious about my cycling and felt I needed a bike computer (in the cycling need kind of way – I need a new helmet, I need a new top, I need a new bike...). So when I heard that a startup company was making an Android-based new unit, I jumped on the very small bandwagon and became one of the first people in the UK to get a Hammerhead 1.
And boy, did my ride buddies mock. “Why have you stuck an iPad to your handlebars?” “Why is it as aerodynamic as a brick?” “Do you know what to do with that?” To begin with, I wasn’t feeling like I was a trailblazer. It simply wasn’t that good (apart from one thing, on which more later). The software was imperfect. It was complicated. The buttons confusing. Uploading stuff was tricky. It had no beep. And then people started reporting that it would break off the mount and disappear under the wheels of a van after a short time – like mine did. The battery was poor... and so it went on.
But then, courtesy of the Android system and Hammerhead’s policy of improvement, it started getting better. Every two weeks there was a free update. EVERY two weeks. Sometimes the update was small, sometimes it was game-changing. The system started to become intuitive. It started to make sense. Hammerhead listened to feedback and updated the system. It got better and better.
The moment of epiphany came on a three-day tour of the Peak District with six mates. At an admittedly complicated junction, the computers of my ride-mates said we should go right. I disagreed: “No. Hammerhead says turn left.” Much abuse followed, I was ignored, and we turned right, into a headwind, and taking a 15-mile detour... to get back to where we started. Hammerhead had been right.
Which brings me to the company’s biggest selling point. The navigation on Hammerhead is brilliant. Even Hammerhead 1. It comes in colour and is clear, visible and, in my experience, nearly always bang on. Yes, there may be some debates about the minutiae of distances and elevations versus other systems, but as a mapping system to get you where you want to go and back, it’s the best out there.
So, when Hammerhead 2 came along in 2022, clearly I needed to get one. And it was a big improvement over the 1. It was smaller. There was a beep to tell you you’d missed a turn. There was better rerouting, more data fields, Di2 integration (with a simple bit of sideloading – try doing that on any Apple kit!), the list went on...
And the real testament is where we are today. Those ride buddies of mine who laughed at me in 2018? Well today, more than half of them have a Hammerhead on their bike now. And they love them.
Which brings up, finally, the Hammerhead 3 that I’ve had a small play with recently. What’s my verdict? Firstly, the redesigned mount seems much more robust and appears less likely to fail around the puck fixing points, which is where both of mine have gone. On the unit itself, the buttons are much more positive in action and screen response is quicker. In terms of functionality, currently both Hammerhead 3 and Hammerhead 2 seem at first glance to essentially be identical, however, there is scope for divergence as Hammerhead 2 users don’t get access to the companion app. This could become more significant with updates in the future.
Starting up was very easy, as my Hammerhead 2 setup was replicated on the Hammerhead 3 when I connected my account, which was a nice surprise. Even all my profiles and data fields transferred over with no problems. I decided to ride with both Hammerhead 2 and Hammerhead 3 on my bars for comparison on a ride at the weekend. I set screen brightness to 60 per cent on both units and the Hammerhead 3 is brighter and the warning beeps noticeably louder. Both of these are significant improvements on the older unit.
Battery life is much better, although my Hammerhead 2 is two years old so there will be some degradation. But on a three-hours-and-three-minute ride, with the unit ‘on’ for four hours 20 minutes, total battery was at 78 per cent on the Hammerhead 3 and 54 per cent on the Hammerhead 2. On a 2:21 ride with 3:36 total time, the batteries were at 83 per cent and 62 per cent, respectively.
Both units were mounted side by side, but on both rides there were some very marginal differences in distance, elevation and time, and I only downloaded one of each ride to Strava which again showed a marginal difference. One possible issue is the Di2 integration. Since SRAM took a share in Hammerhead it seems that’s not possible now, which might be an issue for many. There may be a workaround, but on this initial test I haven’t found one. However, Hammerhead’s history is a story of; ‘Here’s an issue... and here’s a solution,’ so watch this space.
The big question is, would I buy a Hammerhead 3? If I didn’t have a Hammerhead 2 and was in the market, then the answer would be a big yes. It’s a great piece of kit and the biggest issues of the 1 and 2 have been designed out. It does almost everything you want it to do. It’s not cheap, but you don’t change your bike computer that often, so in your head you can amortise it over many years.
The screen is brilliant, and the buttons better. The data fields are excellent and the navigation is the best there is. And the software updates keep coming, so what you have today will be better in a year’s time – which is a big factor. And, of course, because it’s on the Android system, if it doesn’t do what you want it to do today, one day some clever techie out there will work out a solution, put it on one of the Facebook user groups and tell you how to make it work. Just don’t tell Apple!
Ken Pritchard is Rouleur's event director
