Hopefully they will come through and actually start shipping these things next month. I started looking at the Garmin Edge 1000 last weekend, and it's looking pretty enticing right now. C'mon Wahoo....don't make me go back to Garmin yet again.

BTW I noticed that they're doing a ELEMNT bundle with TICKR and RPM, no speed meter!

ELEMNT Bike Computer, TICKR Heart Rate, & RPM Cadence Bundle - Devices

Odd. You'd think they'd bundle the ELEMNT and the speed/cadence sensor first. Unless they are about to release their version of a hub sensor based on accelerometers then shipping all those combo s/c sensors would take a lot of unit sales away from their (hopefully) upcoming hub sensor. In the meantime, use the GPS in the ELEMNT for speed.

J.

I guess they figure you can use the internal GPS to get your speed. I would rather have the more accurate sensor, but I guess you don't need it if you're in an area that always gets good GPS signals.

They have just got to be readying a new hub accelerometer based sensor. The hardware would be identical to their RPM sensor with a software change and a mount change that was to fit the hub.

I have the Garmin hub sensors. But I'm looking hard at the Elemnt just because it is BTLE and ANT+ simultaneously which would make life really easy. Issues are that the mount is yet another proprietary mount and I use my K-edge mount now for a Garmin unit but it also has a GoPro mount underneath that I use for a light mount when the days are short. I'd really not like to be swapping mounts all the time.

J.

PowerTap hubs report wheel rotation speed (they have to). The newer ones broadcast on BT as well as ANT+. $600 is way too much to spend if all you want is speed, but it's possible. And think of all the money you saved by using your phone instead of a Garmin!

The Elemnt doesn't need your phone. It's a standalone bike computer (unlike the RFLKT versions).

J.

Anyone know the size of the Elemnt battery in mAH? I know it's rated at 17 hours, but on tour I'd be often charging from a battery or generator hub.

Battery: lithium ion internal 1750mAh (rechargeable via Micro USB)

Probably a single cell, 6.5Wh, and 3.5 hours to charge at @ 500mA via your dyno USB power supply.

Thanks, so about 60% of an iPhone 6+.

As for charging time, I believe that depends on the device irrespective of the battery at some point. The iphone 6 has the ability to charge quite fast on a 2.4A supply, if I recall. Most USB chargeable battery devices are not set to charge that fast so comparing to an iPhone 6 is probably not going to be a good comparison.

J.

I'm more concerned with charging capacity, i.e. how many recharges I can get out of my battery, 15000 mAh. If I assume 30% lost to inefficiency, that should still get me 6 recharges, irrespective of the hub.

I received mail from Wahoo saying mine ordered February 5th, 2016 would ship within 7 days; a co-worker who pre-ordered last year had his shipped today.

If you don't mind, can you let us know what you and your co-worker think about the Elemnt when you receive them?

I'll definitely do that. Mine shipped on Friday, so hopefully that won't take too long.

I'll also follow up after my March long ride (~205 miles)

Yes, please. I'd like to get one of these for my wife. Apparently they are maybe even making this work with Garmin mounts too.

J.

FWIW, I created a Wahoo ELEMNT Users group on googlegroups, the theory being it'd be useful to have user experiences/bug reports/feature discussions in one place, Ray Maker's site doesn't really support threaded discussions, the cyclogps forums are closing down, and relevant tidbits are likely to get lost elsewhere.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!fo...o-elemnt-users

Thanks for that link. I'll be sure to keep an eye on it.

As a new ELEMNT owner I'm going to order an Edge 810 from Performance or REI with a one-year return policy. I'd have bought a Garmin instead if I knew I'd be unable to access it as a USB storage device from Golden Cheetah under Linux or email myself .fit files. I'd also have passed if I knew the ELEMNT didn't show street names as in marketing/packaging material mockups and allow panning as on competing devices with maps.

I knew it did not yet support basic turn-by-turn from .tcx files but could wait weeks for that. Turn-by-turn is scheduled for release this month (March 2016).

I'll return the ELEMNT in two weeks (comfortably within the 30 day return period) if those issues are not yet resolved and hope Wahoo sorts things out before I get fed up with my next generation of Garmin software problems. Android share-by-email is in the feature back-log (iPhone works); street names are something the development team is thinking about but not publicly committed to.


The software developers' online-presence, responsiveness, and transparency is great. That should lead to a product lacking the software issues which plague Garmins and are the reason I'd love to use something else.

The high contrast screen is very visible in all light conditions, even better than the black and white Edge 500 LCD, although I failed to capture that in pictures. Battery life should be excellent with that display. It can run off external power on long rides although the power connector is on back not the bottom so that limits mounting options. It provides a menu of my ridewithgps routes, and uploads rides automatically or manually to it based on settings (which apply to all authenticated web sites). Live tracking via the website works. It can display phone text message/call alerts when the companion app is running. Full Open Street Map maps onboard simplify setup.


Sometimes you can see where other ELEMNT users are when they've enabled live tracking and started a ride, and occasionally you can see each other at the same time. Harliv and I wandered around with our ELEMNTs but were unable to figure out what caused one to be visible to the other or not. Currently this is all or nothing, and some people will want their location visibility limited to "friends."


Unfortunately, its software does not yet have core features necessary for a GPS bike computer minimum viable product.

My paleolithic Linux kernel (2.6.32) doesn't recognize it as a USB storage device, which means getting data into Golden Cheetah requires jumping through a lot of hoops - either sending to ridewithgps and downloading .tcx files one at a time, or attaching it to a different computer and emailing .fit files. Macs have the same problem. Windows 7 does treat it as a storage device.

Sharing .FIT files via email is an iPhone only feature missing from the Android app. Android email support is now in the feature backlog.

It beeps and the top LEDs flash red when going off-course, then beeps again with green LEDs going back on. Otherwise the navigation features are less useful than on the Edge 500 which predates the ELEMNT by 6.5 years. Unlike the Edge 500 it does not do turn-by-turn directions from .tcx files. It does not display cue sheets from loaded .tcx courses. It does not show scale on the map screen or indicate distance to a course. The off-course indication could be missed because it does not stick like the Edge 500's until dismissed with a button press. Turn-by-turn directions are scheduled for March.


The maps are of limited use. Unlike competing units and the mockups on the box/web site, it does not show street names. Unlike competing units it has no way to scroll the screen to find alternate streets which are invisible when zoomed out. The buttons would work well for this - center bottom: toggle mode route/page on left/right button, zoom on left rocker; pan with left/right buttons and rocker moving in those directions. The team is thinking about street name display.

The dithered grey line is my 200k route from February. Blank space appears the same whether people didn't build roads because they're far from population centers (bottom right) or geography interferes like ocean (Pacific coast on left) and mountains (including Boulder Creek).


It only shows up to two user-defined fields on the map page not the four Murray said might happen. That'd be acceptable if it gave turn-by-turn alerts on other data pages but otherwise stops short - I need to simultaneously navigate, know I'm working at a sustainable pace, know I'm not burning matches, and notice time to eat at reasonable intervals. I also like to see speed and distance so I can guess at when I'll be home or at the next stop and text my wife or reroute as necessary.

It has a nice sensor pairing mode which looks for the strongest signal. Sensor signal strength shows up on the configuration screen. It cannot trigger power meter zeroing, display the calibration value, or display raw torque. That calibration functionality is now in the feature backlog.

Drew, thanks for your review. I've also read the posts on the Google Groups page. Between the weird mapping issues (no street names, even at full zoom, really?) and the reported battery life issues, the Elemnt isn't ready for prime time yet. I hope Wahoo get it sorted out (and heaven knows Garmins don't come out the gate with perfect software either), but for now my decision to "wait and see" on this device seems a sound one, I'll keep with my RFLKT for now.

I heard complaints that the companion app sucks battery from the phone as well? Did you experience that? I get good battery life using Cyclemeter + RFLKT (maybe 7-10% battery drop per hour), so any drain worse than that would make it pointless. Is the companion app needed for text notifications etc?

I haven't run the companion application long enough to notice one way or another.

Yes. That's what sends them to the ELEMNT via BlueTooth.

BTW Wahoo emailed me yesterday and announced that they have a bunch of new products to announce on March 14th!

Too funny. You beat me to the punch. I was just going to post the same thing. My bet is that there is a hub speed sensor for starters that matches their RPM cadence sensor with both BLE and ANT+. I'd also guess that they might have some software that allows someone with a smart phone to be seen on their ELEMNT in their rider tracking software. Maybe a garmin compatible mount?

J.

Someone suggest in another thread: maybe a updated RFLKT? They're running a 25% off promotion that runs out, rather too coincidentally, on March 13th. Actually when the Elemnt was announced I was rather disappointed that it wasn't a next generation RFLKT. Maybe I'll get my wish.

I just returned my Wahoo Elemnt for android as it would not pair with my Google Nexus 5 phone. This unit is not ready for prime time.