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Wahoo ELEMNT updated with improved GPS guidance for mid-ride route changes

Written by Tyler Benedict
16 Comments
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Ever been out on a ride and decided to change plans and head somewhere else? Or get a call to meet your sweetie somewhere for a snack? Now, you can get to them with the most direct route thanks to Wahoo ELEMNT’s new trick – anytime updates.

Through the companion smartphone app, you can enter a new destination and update the ELEMNT in real time, then let it provide turn by turn directions. Or, if you’re just hungry or thirsty, you can search for a restaurant, convenience store or other point of interest. Additionally, routes created with RideWithGPS or Komoot can be uploaded to the device via Bluetooth, letting you add a route without having to be connected to WiFi.

Lastly, should you be utterly and hopelessly lost, you can select the Follow Your Tracks option and have it bring you home. This one’s available without even connecting to the app, providing a breadcrumb trail to take you back to your starting point. Everything here’s available with a free over the air update either through the app (and the app, too, has an update available) or via WiFi on the ELEMNT itself.
Tyler Benedict
11,282 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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16 Comments
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Marcassin
Marcassin
8 years ago

Best in its class

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Collin
Collin
8 years ago
Reply to  Marcassin

I’d have to disagree. I’ve had mine for about 8 months now, and have mixed opinions about it. Yes, adding new fields is a breeze through the app, the screen has great clarity, and the battery life is pretty good, but garmins sync through your phone is way smoother, and the GPS reception on the Elemnt is horrible. Without a speed sensor, it would literally miss sometimes as much as 30% of the distance on my ride when mountain biking. On my normal MTB group ride (Michigan single track) Everyone in the group would have 30+ miles, mine would only show 24. I now have a speed sensor (which I never had to have when I had my garmin 500 and 510) its closer, however when I upload to strava, since it goes only via GPS, it makes the distance short again.

Next up is the sensor drop outs. For the longest time, they would drop out completely and the only way to get them back is turn on and off the unit. Now they “fixed” it, however, the sensors (both power and hr) drop out several times a ride. It does pick it up again a few seconds later, but while in a race or MTB ride, you only glance at your computer for a second at a time. If it’s in the drop out phase, you get no info until the next time you have a second to look. Then once you are done with the ride, the power times are way off. For example one race, the unit said my best 5 minute power was around 450 watts which is almost impossible for me. Training peaks had a much more believable 330ish.

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Wahoo Murray
Wahoo Murray
7 years ago
Reply to  Collin

Colin, If you want to reach out to me directly (murray @ our company website) and I would love to dig into your power meter issues. This release fixed up the power numbers for all the power meters we could find and test, so if you are still having issues we need to know what power meter it is.

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Matteo Matz
Matteo Matz
7 years ago
Reply to  Collin

I have an Elemnt, use it for mtb. Have not seen any sensor dropouts or GPS coverage issues; including riding through forests. Had a garmin 520 before, IMHO the Wahoo unit wins on all fronts.

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Stefano
Stefano
8 years ago

+1 Collin,

The E has come a long way since its introduction, but there are still many flaws that significantly hamper its usability in comparison to the garmin units. While the sensor dropouts have largely been fixed, the power numbers are just plain inaccurate. Normalized power, and XX min power numbers might as well come from the random() function.

However, the screen is great, kickr control is great, 9 screens are great, routing is great, battery life is good, updates are good, and a few things are fair.

Even when I purchased mine, back in March, I thought it may be sorted by Christmas. It looks like it largely is; perhaps by spring?

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wahoomurray
wahoomurray
7 years ago
Reply to  Stefano

Stefano, Power metrics should be resolved in the latest release. I would love to chat to you about the details and see what power meter you have, many power meters send different data that effects our algorithms. If you can email me (murray @ our company website) and we can take a look. It would be great if we can get this sorted before the end of the year.

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biker jk
biker jk
7 years ago
Reply to  wahoomurray

I have large discrepancies between the Wahoo Elemnt avg and NP versus Golden Cheetah avg and XPower (similar to NP). I’m using a 4iiii power meter. Elemnt NP is consistently notably above Golden Cheetah xPower.

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Scott
Scott
8 years ago

The newest update should have average power fixed. version 1217. I’ve done 2 rides on the newest version and my power from the Elemnt matched strava and training peaks. Wednesday avg power 291W from a very steady state ride, strava and TP both said the same. Then yesterday a slow ride with my wife with lots of climbing and lots of coasting 3hours 153W, with a 1 min block at 600w, all numbers matched in Strava and TP.

As far as sensor drops, the Elemnt shows — or na on screen sometimes when the sensor drops. I’ve seen data from other brands of computers where there are tons of sensor drops but you just never realize because they just display the last number they got, but they still drop.

So hopefully the average power issue is in the past now.

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Collin
Collin
8 years ago
Reply to  Scott

They still have not addressed the elephant in the room: horrible GPS signal. At the very minimum, GPS is what separates a modern bike computer from an old Cat Eye’s of the 90’s. In this day and age, I shouldn’t have to have a wheel sensor unless I’m going some place with long tunnels.

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Marcassin
Marcassin
8 years ago
Reply to  Collin

On the contrary, I have a better signal with the Elemnt than everything I had before on Garmins.

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CW
CW
8 years ago

Despite some bugs still to be fixed, I prefer the Elemnt to anything else I’ve owned in the past.
As someone who uses it almost 100% on dirt, my main complaint is the Elemnt pausing my ride in the middle of tough, technical climbs when average speed is below 5mph.
It usually happens several times on a ride will lots of steep, technical climbs… and it is very annoying / distracting.
My other complaint is for the sister Wahoo product, the Tickr, HR Monitor. The central snap design of the Tickr drives me crazy by popping off way more than it should.

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Jason
Jason
8 years ago

Ahhh okay thanks for the candid feedback. I was about to buy one. Now I think I will check back in 2-4 years. Sounds like they are doing the beta testing on their customers. Perhaps hiring a few garmin engineers would be a good investment? I was hoping to support a company that was a legitimate option to garmin. 500/510 are too pricey, makes me think of the old dash mounted nav systems used for driving. $300 seems high as well as very profitable. Seems garmin has the monopoly for a few more years at least.

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Anders
Anders
8 years ago
Reply to  Jason

Hiring Garmin engineers? Are you kidding? I haven’t tried the Elemnt, but it can’t be worse than Garmin 820. The 820 is so full of bugs that I’m sure that many people will buy an Elemnt instead …

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JohnT
JohnT
8 years ago

My ELMNT gives accurate power data, I’ve compared it to my Garmin and no problems at all. It seems for most people power data is fine, but some folks with less common power meters have problems (I have a Quarq Riken). Only major bug I’ve encountered was inability to download routes on some wifi networks but looks like that’s been fixed now as you can download routes through bluetooth. As for inaccurate GPS, I find that windy singletrack in the woods is the hardest test and the ELMNT is significantly more accurate than my Garmin 910, although still some glitches in deep woods. I would never use autopause with any GPS device on the mountain bike due to slow speed turns, I save that for the road. Overall I’ve found it reliable and robust, unlike my Garmin 910 which regularly fails to download files for the entire 5 years I’ve had it.

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GeneralGyser
GeneralGyser
8 years ago

I just picked up a Lezyne Super for $150. Only have a few rides on it but so far has solid connection to my HR and power meter (stages) on the road. Good on the MTB but not a ton of trees where I ride. Phone upload is pretty smooth pushing it directly to the Stravas. Also it has a live tracking feature that lets my wife stalk me on rides. For the money and features it beats out the Garmin and the Wahoo plus it matches my pump :p

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Henry
Henry
7 years ago

“Additionally, routes created with RideWithGPS or Komoot can be uploaded to the device via Bluetooth, letting you add a route without having to be connected to WiFi.”

Not the case according to Wahoo support today 1/4/17. Only routes created with the Elemnt app can be synced to the device using WIFI. Routes from RWGPS/Strava require a WIFI connection to sync to the device..

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