Wahoo Elemnt

....just taking them off!

#bantz

I thought I'd bite the bullet and try this Wahoo lark (replacing a Garmin 800). It's decent but there are certainly plus and minus points over the Garmin.

The connectivity is great, doing some routes on Ride with GPS and just syncing them direct to the Elemnt was much nicer than faffing around with downloading to a PC, plugging in the Garmin, copying over, trying to work out the random name, etc.

Similarly, getting home, ending the ride and finding the ride is automatically on Ridewith GPS/Strava was nice.

Actual riding with it navigating was OK. It seems not all Ride with GPS routes have cues so you do end up just following a line sometimes, the Elemnt doesn't warn you about this (the phone app does).

Routes with cues were pretty decent. It sometimes got confused and would keep Turn Right or Turn Left on the screen for a bit of time after the turn.

The black and white screen definitely isn't as easy to use as a colour Garmin one. Trying to pick out paths, rivers, etc is pretty awkward although it's fine for just on the road. Overall it was fairly easy to follow though.

The bit where it was really poor was trying to find a route if you weren't on it. I was maybe 500 yards from the route but zooming out on the Elemnt you can't see where the route is (due to it being black on black) and you can't pan around at a zoomed in level. I found myself having to resort to RWGPS app and google maps on my phone to get nearer the route and it was still a bit shonky about showing up on the Elemnt until I was riding on it. This was a bit painful and wouldn't have happened on the Garmin where you'd zoom out, get a nice coloured line and cycle in that direction until you hit the route (and pan and zoom if you wanted to look in more detail).

The other big problem is the bluetooth connection to the phone. It seems to drop out a lot. Trying to do an ad-hoc route was a ballache because it'd constantly disconnect and then be searching and then disconnect again. Need to test it a bit more but if this continues it could be a deal breaker and end with me returning it.

The other big issue is that it's pretty limited offline with attempting to navigate to an ad-hoc destination whilst your phone doesn't have any network connection basically impossible. This seems quite a flaw. OSMAND can generate a route and a gpx file whilst offline so I was hoping that the Elemnt app would be able to import this whilst offline. However, it appears that the app can't import if it is not connected to the internet (you get a bad gpx error, even though the same gpx works fine if you're online) which is a bit shit.

Worth reporting this to them. They seem pretty good at updating their firmware/software.

Does that include the $75 tax?

I can't even remember what I wrote that this relates to? :)

Click 'in reply to' above the text :)

Well done... You passed the 'who will spot Scott's deliberate mistake' test... Obviously I knew you could click on that. :)

clicks on that

That was the full price I ended up paying yes... But I had a $200 off code at that time.

Furry muff

Mind you, that $200 then went straight towards the pre-order price for my new dynamo light/charger. :)
Easy come, easy go!

You wanna see how much money I've burned on this ultra/bikepacking shit?

moneygun.gif

Yeah, but at least you have the physical ability to do well in them too!

I've not even placed top 10 yet. I'd start self-harming about it but there's no scar-free body parts left.

You're still too young, that's the problem! :)

The only reason I'm doing all these stupid races is because I don't want to wait until I'm too old!

Taking plunge on elemnt .. too cheap to pass. Given the number of bikes I have the mount was a concern for me as the k edge one is £65 with go pro mount which is ridiculous given the unit is £165. But contacted sigma sport and they said they have that plastic puck that goes into any K Edge mount for £4.99 and I already have those mounts so thats a win win!

For the Alps next week .. are the EU maps preloaded? Can I send routes from RWGPS with free membership straight to Wahoo? Whats the best platform to plan routes on the fly for Wahoo?

EU is preloaded, as are most places. I think Russia and China automatically download when you enter those countries.

I use free RWGPS with it fine. I just need to save a route to 'my routes' and it automatically syncs when the unit is connected to wifi. Note the unit has to be connected to wifi, it doesn't use bluetooth to upload routes. The ELEMNT app has an inbuilt 'route to' function, but it's taken me down some pretty shoddy tracks so I don't really use it. Would be interested if there's an alternative.

Whats the best platform to plan routes on the fly for Wahoo?

App based route builder is Komoot - but one time fee must be paid

Where you get the element for £165? Was that new?

Komoot seemed good for creating on the app but maps aren't cheap (you get one area free so I have London in there but anything else would get pricey).

Ride with GPS seems OK but you can't create a route on the mobile app (not that I can work out anyway). You create a route on the website, (or save someone else's route to your routes) save it your routes and that syncs to the Elemnt.

You can sync via Bluetooth now, they changed that at some point.

Re: my point about gpx tracks not syncing when you have no data connection, I reported that to Wahoo and they said it should have been fixed in the latest version of the app so we shall see.

I think (though may be wrong) that you can now sync routes via bluetooth - one of the firmware updates changed this.

I believe the inbuilt routing function uses google maps cycle navigation, which is currently a bit useless if you want to stay on road.

I messed around with Komoot locally (it gives you one free region) and it came up with a pretty good route, though did include some gravelly bits.

If you're not bothered about turn-by-turn navigation then it's incredibly easy to get GPX files onto the unit from a phone (at least compared to a Garmin).

it came up with a pretty good route, though did include some gravelly bits.

If you choose road bike in Komoot, it will only build asphalt routes.

Where is it 165?

Wiggle platinum discount .. will give komoot a go!