ELEMNT: More than one bike?
 

Hello Everyone,

I've done some searching but did not find an exact answer - Can I buy another speed sensor and use my ELEMNT with two different bicycles?

Thanks much,

Cary

Yup.

The Element/Bolt keeps an internal list of sensors and automatically pairs.

Thanks very much, Steve.

For the record, I don't even need a speed sensor for ELEMNT to work(?) - it being GPS and all...

You don't even need to buy a second mount - my Bolt came with the pylon mount and the stem mount so you can use a different one on each bike.

I have separate speed and cadence sensors on three different bikes. All the sensors are paired to the Elemnt. When I pick up a bike and go, it finds the right sensor and everything works like it should. Dead simple.

J.

Hello, thanks everyone.

I forgot about this post... I learned that the ELEMNT will auto switch between sensor and GPS when you pair with your phone. The GPS will over-ride your sensor when paired with phone/GPS and it works just fine without the sensor. People say they have a faster auto pause also. I keep my cadence sensor on my shoe for multi bike (a bit harder on batteries, but no problems otherwise).

Good site for ELEMNT users:

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

I was setting wheel size for my speed sensor, but I now use AUTO. Have not seen any crazy MPH readouts since (it once said I went 74 mph). Will see if it ever happens again.

As I understand it the Elemnt/Bolt will use the data from a connected speed sensor instead of the GPS speed. I don't think having a smartphone paired matters at all as to when the device decides it'll use the speed sensor, did you read that somewhere ?, it really should have nothing to do with how the device functions to determine speed.

As well, I've read from other posts, that the speed sensor is actually slower at kicking the unit into auto-pause as compared to using GPS alone.

If anything I would think that the speed display would use the sensor when available, but miles would use the GPS as it is more accurate over the long term. That said, my old Cateye Astrale 8 wired computer and RidewithGPS on my phone always have the same miles/tenths on any trip, and speed is always more accurate on the Cateye, at least until I paired it with a sensor just this past week and these are always equal now too.

Even though I changed all the cables and bar tape on my road bike just yesterday, and already have Wahoo sensors that pair with RidewithGPS, I re-installed the Cateye. Something about my phone running out of power every time I use it on a long ride even if I leave the screen off...

I'm still considering the Bolt though. I already have the sensors anyway, plus an older Garmin HRM. I could replace both the phone and the cateye with it. I could use it on my commuter too, just to record miles since I don't really care about much else when riding that bike. Cool that it comes with two mounts.

I think a speed sensor is able to better determine distance as it's not leaving those 1 sec. bread crumbs as does a GPS, nor is it susceptible to GPS signal dropouts. Thus it's always advised to use a speed sensor if mt. biking.

I would strongly doubt that having the ELEMNT paired with a smartphone has anything to do with speed sensor vs GPS selection. Lots of bike computers auto select between the internal GPS and the speed sensor. That’s been happening for years.

The Bolt is a nice unit, very reliable, great integration with RWGPS. I was getting 12 hrs usage typically, with a Garmin speed sensor as well as occasional navigating. It doesn’t use GLONASS, but I never needed it.

I only returned it as I was having trouble seeing the navigation cues on the bottom of the data screen and on the map screen. Wahoo reverses the text, so white lettering on black background. I couldn’t read that while wearing sunglasses. Possibly the larger Elemnt is better.

But overall a great unit, much more reliable then my Garmin 810. Functionality was more basic, but i really liked the RWGPS link.

It is. My daughter as a Bolt (she does tri’s and likes the set screw lockin capability). I like the Elemnt’s larger screen. I have no trouble reading the screen while riding for the nav cues or text message text.

Phone-free mode: When you’ve broken your phone, it’ll use the speed sensor for speed/distance
Phone-mode: When you have your phone, it’ll use that for GPS (and thus speed/distance)

Above was from a link.

If you are talking the Wahoo Mini, yes, the GPS track comes from the phone and is required. With the Bolt and Elemnt, the GPS is internal to the device and does not need a smartphone to function. You do not need a smartphone, other for the initial setup, to get GPS position on the devices.

Ahh thanks Steve,

I see the ELMNT does have built in GPS and I was confusing with the other model. I'll test a no-sensor ride without the phone link today. (brrrrrr)