Hammerhead Announces New Hardware: Quick Hands-On with HMS

After years of hardware draught, for the first time since the Karoo 2 back in April 2020, cycling GPS maker Hammerhead has announced some new hardware (actually in April 2020, that’s when they announced plans for the announcement, different from announcing the hardware).

Nonetheless, the past be past…what’s most impressive this week is that they didn’t just announce one new unit, but rather, multiple new units. This strategy is a departure from the existing model which only has a single offering. Now, the newer units are offered in both a regular and integration option, as well as ones primarily aimed at the mountain bike community.

To begin, the exterior of the unit has changed from a plastic shell to that of pure aluminum. The coloring matches the vendor’s typical offerings, which have a glossy black look. This is true of all models in the range, including that mountain bike offering. What’s notable though is that throughout this, Hammerhead has decided to continue with their proprietary mount system – arguably, tripling down on it with the new ‘HMS’ product branding. In fact, with these new models, we see a new GoPro integration feature. You can finally pair up the new models straight to your GoPro, for clean forward-looking GoPro shots. Or, I suppose, GoPro crotch shots. Your choice.

The GoPro integration, of course, also means you can use that connectivity port for other 3rd party devices as well, including lights, other action cameras, and more.

The aluminum materials choice gives the Max XL with GoPro integration offering a weight of 69g. Whereas the non-GoPro option is 56g. The mountain bike one really comes in nice and light at 37g.

Now, when it comes to manufacturing, Hammerhead has outsourced manufacturing of these new models to a well-known US-based manufacturing company – K-Edge. While undoubtedly SRAM (Hammerhead’s parent company) could utilize their more powerful manufacturing facilities, K-Edge is respected within the industry, especially when it comes to aluminum exterior product production.

Taking a closer look at the offerings, you’ve got three specific models within the so-called HMS product range. They are as follows:

– K-Edge Max XL ($57.99): Compatible with 31.8mm handlebars
– K-Edge Max XL Combo ($72.99) Compatible with 31.8mm handlebars
– K-Edge Boost Stem Mount ($52.99): Compatible with 1 1/8” or 3.18mm steer tubes
– K-Edge Arts & Crafts Project Edition ($12.99): Compatible with an entire PDF’s worth of very small text

The first two are normal handlebar mounts, using Hammerhead’s newly-branded HMS system. That’s the “Hammerhead Mounting System”, and essentially are out-front mounts, one including the GoPro style adapter, and one not. The Boost Stem mount is mountain bike focused of course, but still contains the new HMS system.

Here’s a look at those three:

And then there’s the plastic bag Arts & Crafts project edition. That’s technically called the “HMS Insert Kit”, and the idea is that you take all these parts, a bunch of spare time, and then an existing mount that you have (some 50 different ones are compatible), to create the pinnacle of custom Hammerhead Karoo mounts.

On their site, they’ve got a giant PDF of all the different existing specialty mounts that it’s compatible with. Further, there’s a YouTube video you can watch to see just how much time you’re going to spend on this effort measuring things out.

Now, I’ll let someone else do that testing. After all, I’ve got plenty of things to get done today with new device testing that isn’t limited to just a mount. Albeit, a really nice mount. (But seriously, I’ve long used K-Edge mounts for a wide assortment of things – and they’re awesome).

And yes, you’re welcome for the post. It’s rare I get to have fun with clickbait. A dreary weather day, after watching a cyclist run over my drone last night seemed like the perfect opportunity for it.

With that – thanks for reading (even if you didn’t want to).

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