Hammerhead's new Karoo Share beams routes and fully customised rider profiles straight from one 2024 Karoo to another over Bluetooth — no phone, no signal, no apps — but it pointedly leaves original Karoo and Karoo 2 owners out in the cold.
What Karoo Share actually does
Anyone who has stood at a trailhead watching a mate fumble with a phone, a flaky signal and three different apps just to load today's route knows the pain Karoo Share is aiming at. The feature lets one Hammerhead Karoo send a route — or an entire rider profile (your dialled-in data fields, screen layouts and pages) — directly to another Karoo, and the receiving rider can start pedalling within seconds.
Crucially, it does this offline. There's no companion-app handshake, no QR code, no cloud round-trip and no need for either rider to be in cell coverage — a genuinely useful trick for South African gravel and MTB riders heading into the Karoo, the Cederberg or anywhere the bars on your phone disappear.
“Whether at the start line of a race, a group ride meetup, or a remote trailhead, Karoo Share removes the friction of last-minute setup and makes it easier than ever to get dialed and ride together.”
Under the hood it leans on Bluetooth for the device-to-device link, so both riders simply need to be near each other — one puts their Karoo into sharing mode to become visible, the other sends. The Spanish outlet Brujula Bike summed up the pitch as "sending routes and profiles from one Karoo device to another in a matter of seconds, without the need for a smartphone, coverage, or external platforms."
The trade-off is that transfers are strictly one-to-one. This isn't a replacement for mass route distribution — you still want Strava, Komoot or Ride with GPS to push a route to 50 riders before an event. Karoo Share is about immediacy on the day, not logistics in advance.
By the numbers: the 2024 Karoo
View data table
| Battery capacity (mAh) | |
|---|---|
| Karoo 2 | 2800 mAh |
| Karoo 3 (2024) | 3200 mAh |
Generation jump: Karoo 2 vs 2024 Karoo
| Karoo 2 | Karoo 3 (2024) | |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 132 g | 117.7 g |
| Battery capacity | 2,800 mAh | 3,200 mAh |
| Onboard storage | 32 GB | 64 GB |
| GNSS | Single-band | Multi-band (L1+L5) |
| Launch price (USD) | $399 (~R6 600) | $474.99 (~R7 800) |
Specs: DC Rainmaker / BikeRadar
What the reviewers say about the Karoo
Four outlets on the 2024 Karoo
Independent verdicts from across the cycling press — follow each link for the full review.
Solid evolutionary upgrade
“the Karoo 3 takes aim at the chief hardware annoyances of the Karoo 2, and addresses them”
Read the full reviewBest for SRAM AXS riders
“If you're a SRAM AXS user, the Karoo offers the best and simplest access to the data on tap.”
Read the full reviewRecommended
“Overall, I'd highly recommend the Karoo 3 and am very sad to be giving it back.”
Read the full reviewEditors' Choice 2024
“It's a great unit – and with over the air updates, it'll just keep getting better.”
Read the full reviewHow to use Karoo Share
The flow is deliberately quick. On the sending Karoo, open the Apps menu from the home screen, tap the Routes app, choose the route you want to send, scroll down and select Karoo Share. On the receiving Karoo, put the device into sharing mode so it becomes discoverable, keep the two units close together, and confirm the transfer. The same Apps-based approach is used to send a saved profile.
Both devices must be the 2024 Karoo, in Bluetooth range, with sharing mode enabled on the receiver.
Karoo, recently
- 15 May 2024The 2024 Karoo launches
Third-gen unit lands with multi-band (L1+L5) GNSS, a brighter anti-glare screen, a lighter 117.7 g body and deeper SRAM AXS integration, at $474.99 (~R7 800) / £449.99 (~R9 800) / €499.99 (~R9 400).
- 19 Mar 2026Karoo Share goes live
Free Karoo OS feature adds offline, device-to-device route and profile sharing — exclusive to the 2024 Karoo.
Tap to vote — see how readers lean
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
Will Karoo Share work on my Karoo 2 or original Karoo? +
No. Hammerhead has limited Karoo Share to the 2024 Karoo (the third-generation unit). The original Karoo and Karoo 2 can neither send nor receive.
Do I need phone signal or internet to use it? +
No. Karoo Share works fully offline over Bluetooth. The two devices just need to be near each other — no smartphone, data connection or third-party platform is required.
What exactly can I share — just routes? +
Both routes and rider profiles. A profile carries your customised data fields, screen layouts and pages, so a friend can copy your whole setup, not only the GPX file.
Can I send a route to several riders at once? +
No. Transfers are one-to-one, so for a big group you'd still distribute the route in advance via Strava, Komoot or Ride with GPS, then use Karoo Share for any last-minute fixes.
How do I actually share a route? +
On the sender: Apps > Routes > tap the route > scroll to Karoo Share. On the receiver: enable sharing mode so the device is discoverable, keep them close, and confirm.
Sources & further reading
- Hammerhead's new Karoo Share feature allows riders to share routes between devices — BikeBiz
- Hammerhead launches Karoo Share, its system for sharing routes in seconds and offline — Brujula Bike
- Hammerhead Karoo 3 In-Depth Review: Worth the Upgrade? — DC Rainmaker
- Hammerhead Karoo 3 review: the best GPS for SRAM AXS owners — BikeRadar
- Hammerhead Karoo 3 GPS bike computer review — Cyclist
- Editors' Choice 2024: Hammerhead Karoo 3 GPS Unit — Singletrack World
- New Hammerhead Karoo integrates with SRAM AXS and improves GPS accuracy — BikeRadar
Karoo Share is a small feature that solves a very real, very annoying problem: getting the right route and setup onto a riding partner's head unit when you're standing in a car park with no signal. As a free over-the-air addition to an already well-reviewed device, it's a clear win for 2024 Karoo owners.
The catch is its exclusivity — locking out the Karoo 1 and 2 makes it as much an upgrade lever as a goodwill gesture, and the one-to-one limit means it sits alongside, not instead of, your usual route-planning apps. If you're shopping current-gen, it's a genuine point in Hammerhead's favour; if you're on older hardware, it's another reason the new unit keeps pulling away.
