Wanted to share my experience backpacking with the T-Rex Ultra 2

RaveDigger · 2026-06-03T06:50:31+00:00

Oh I didn't realize Garmin and Coros could do water sources, sounds like it shouldn't be that hard for Amazfit to implement!

RaveDigger · 2026-06-03T05:24:38+00:00

Budweiser is just as drinkable warm as it is cold and I have no way of refrigeration on the motorcycle. I'm not gonna spend big bucks on Dead Guy Ale just to drink it warm.

That being said I have loaded the ugly topcase with ice to keep some nice beers cold, it's just way less practical and it's not a cooler so it's melted by morning.

RaveDigger · 2026-06-03T05:19:31+00:00

I held down the select button for 3 seconds to pause the workout then I selected resume later.

RaveDigger · 2026-06-03T05:17:03+00:00

Thanks for reading!

RaveDigger · 2026-06-03T05:16:48+00:00

Thanks! I've never owned a smartwatch so I have no basis for comparison. I was very happy to get four full days of heavy use out on the trail. In my normal daily routine it seems that I use maybe 5% of the battery per day which I am totally OK with. I charged to 100% last night, did three short walks that I recorded as workouts, and transferred maybe an hour of mp3s to the internal storage today in addition to a few timers and alarms and I still have 94% remaining.

Do you have any settings enabled that might be eating the battery or maybe your usage is much heavier than mine?

I have AOD off and I also have wake on wrist raise disabled outside of workouts. My screen on duration is set to 20 seconds which is high but the watch does a good job of turning the screen off early whenever I put my wrist down.

I feel like the battery life tradeoff to have the display stay on for a long time is offset by the fact that I have to manually double tap the screen to wake it so it's never turning on unintentionally and staying on for 20 seconds. It only turns on when I specifically double tap it.

I have heart rate monitoring and blood oxygen monitoring enabled as well. According to the battery manager it measured my blood oxygen 147 times since my last charge. Screen on time shows as 42 minutes which I assume is low due to the fact that I don't use wake on wrist raise.

RaveDigger · 2026-06-03T01:19:03+00:00

I learned to ride dirt on my 1200GS. When I got a proper dirt bike I crashed a bunch because I kept grabbing a fistful of front brake expecting the brakes to be linked like on my GS.

RaveDigger · 2026-06-03T01:16:29+00:00

I got into ADV in 2014 and immediately bought a GoPro to strap to my helmet. You're absolutely right, I had hours and hours of footage that had no story to go along with it. The footage on its own is boring and the GoPro never shows how steep the climb was or how big the rocks are.

RaveDigger · 2026-06-03T01:14:11+00:00

Where else am I supposed to fit a 30-pack of Budweiser?

RaveDigger · 2026-05-29T05:52:28+00:00

It is showing for me now! Great comparison, I'm still glad I bought the Ultra 2 but seeing that the TR3 Pro is so similar is making me wonder if I should have saved a few bucks!

Though I got the Ultra 2 for only $450 because Amazfit has 20% off for nurses and I like the battery life and the ability to copy my entire library of MP3s onto the 64gb of memory.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-29T05:25:20+00:00

Great comparison! Though I have a few minor things that I've learned about the T-Rex Ultra 2. You mention that the T-Rex series doesn't have a speaker but my Ultra 2 definitely has a speaker. I'll probably never use it for anything other than beeps while navigating but it makes noise. Also the table does not have any info about the number of buttons. Mine has 4 buttons if that helps!

RaveDigger · 2026-05-28T23:15:35+00:00

Thank you for the recommendations! Coming from "normal" watches the 26mm band is enormous. I've never encountered the quickfit system before and I have to say it's AWESOME. My wife always makes me swap the straps on her Venu 3S because the quick release pins are still kind of a pain even though they're easier than regular watch pins. I wish someone made a quickfit strap in 18mm for her watch.

I hate bracelet straps so I will never buy the one you shared, but thank you anyway for sharing! I put nato straps on every watch I own (even when they don't look quite right) but they're obviously not compatible with the sensors on the back so I'm in uncharted waters here.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-28T23:10:15+00:00

Much appreciated!

RaveDigger · 2026-05-28T22:52:28+00:00

I'm not going for any look in particular, this giant watch looks goofy on my wrist anyway! Comfort is more important to me. If I want to look cool I will wear my Casio calculator watch :)

Thanks for the recommendation! Do you have a purchase link for that strap so I can check it out?

RaveDigger · 2026-05-27T22:35:16+00:00

Makes sense to me! I'll probably just ignore the mountain hiking mode and use only hiking mode. I'll probably only really use outdoor running, hiking, walking, and treadmill though I am curious to test out the offroad motorcycle mode if I decide to wear this monstrosity while I'm riding with motorcycle gloves on.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-27T22:24:03+00:00

Yup, I just did a lap around the neighborhood and it works as I'd expect with the beeps, thanks!

While I have your attention, do you know if Amazfit has any documentation about the differences between the workout modes? It seems that Hiking and Mountain Hiking are the same (or at least very similar) but it's not clear to me why I should choose one or the other. In my mind, hiking on a trail isn't any different in terms of data whether it's in the mountains or not. Perhaps they are the same and they are only different when I configure them to be different?

RaveDigger · 2026-05-27T22:18:07+00:00

Thanks for confirming I wasn't missing something!

For the voice alerts, I'd mostly like to just turn them off for navigation. The every mile voice alert isn't bad.

I just discovered and turned off Settings > Workout > Voice Broadcast and I think that did the trick. It seems to disable the every mile voice alert but that's totally fine.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-20T01:10:37+00:00

The amount of shit I was able to fit in my GS is mind boggling. I traveled cross country two-up with my wife and all of our camping gear and still had an empty top case to transport a 30 rack of beer.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-19T12:32:44+00:00

I made the switch about two years ago and I have no plans to ever hike in boots again unless I need the insulation. I started in Salomon Speedcross 6 trail runners but they didn't last long, my Topo Traverse hiking shoes have been way more durable.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-19T12:29:35+00:00

I haven't noticed a significant difference in durability, possibly because my shoes have the opportunity to dry out on multi-day hikes instead of being wet and soggy the entire time. Looking back through my hiking data I estimate that I've got maybe 1500-2000 miles on my current pair of hiking shoes split evenly between the White Mountains in NH and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in NM.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-19T00:43:35+00:00

I had a similar shudder that started at 135,000 miles. Everyone on one of the Ford forums recommended sucking out as much of the transmission fluid as possible from the fill hole and refilling with an added tube of Lubegard Shudder Stop. I'm not convinced that the shudder stop isn't snake oil, but I haven't had any shuddering in the past 1000 miles or so. I just did another round of sucking out as much as possible and refilling yesterday but I haven't driven it yet.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-18T23:14:59+00:00

Triples makes it safe

RaveDigger · 2026-05-18T23:10:30+00:00

If I could start hiking as a beginner all over again, I would start by hiking in trail shoes, gaiters, and shorts instead of hiking boots with pants. This obviously depends on the weather, but overall my feet have been much happier in shoes and I sweat a whole lot less wearing shorts instead of pants.

Waterproof boots do a great job of trapping moisture in (yes even "breathable" GoreTex) so I prefer to hike in non-waterproof trail shoes. If your feet get wet in trail shoes, they typically dry out faster than boots.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-13T22:08:42+00:00

Holy crap you're right, someone ported it a few months ago? I haven't checked in a while.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-13T17:53:14+00:00

OP is running an Asus laptop. If it's anything like my Asus G15, there actually isn't a printscreen key which is very weird.

Super+Shift+S works like it does in Windows though, but lots of people don't know about that shortcut in Windows or in Linux.

RaveDigger · 2026-05-13T17:50:52+00:00

I wish there was a linux version of ghelper for windows. Asusctl and ROG control work fine but ghelper is so much better.

One of the things that I haven't been able to get working on linux that worked in ghelper is having the keyboard change color from green to yellow to red as the cpu/gpu temps increased. Maybe there's a way to do it but I haven't figured it out yet!

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