Review Wahoo ELEMNT

akkypac

Active member
Patreon
Jun 2, 2018
58
32
East Surrey
Product Image:
20180622_144018.jpg

20180622_144050.jpg


Product name: Wahoo ELEMNT GPS Bike Computer
Price paid: £249.99
Score (out of 10): 9

Review: Although I would refer other potential purchasers to Wahoo's own site for detailed specs and reviews of this plus the smaller BOLT (in the UK, it's https://uk.wahoofitneas.com/devices/bike-computers), I can confirm that the Wahoo ELEMNT is an excellent companion accessory for an EMTB, certainly competing well in price, features and battery life against the Garmin. Not sure about others.

Besides the compact aerodynamic design (shockproof with a waterproof IPX7 rating) and a choice of three bike mount options, what I particularly like is the simple interface which includes three main pages of customisable display screens (Workout Data, Climbing and Map controllable via the smartphone app; Lap Data is another one apparently visible after first lap) of which one can display a whopping eleven data metrics!

With the simple but sturdy buttons, navigation is easy with the right-hand up/down controls serving as menu selectors as well as zoom control for the mapping and visible metrics (if eleven is too much of a strain on the eyes).

There's also an excellent set of LED indicators to guide you through turn-by-turn navigation, however, keep in mind that this is dependent on the linked account used. There is no inbuilt turn-by-turn; only GPS mapping.

Whilst some may make unfavourable comparisons of this mono device with fancier colour touchscreen alternatives or quibble about the lack of street names in the mapping, these are minor sacrifices considering the excellent battery life (17 hours is claimed) and essential functionality/practicality, i.e. a sturdy affordable bike computer clearly visible in all weathers.

It's worth keeping in mind too that the excellent ELEMNT smartphone app handles all the detailed setting controls, Strava/RideWithGPS/Komoot etc. app integration and fancy post-ride analysis so you're not short-changed in any way.

For my own EMTB purposes, I've found it works well with the Komoot app - Strava is fine but it can be tricksy with turn-by-turn if 'cues' aren't added - and have a Bluetooth connection via ANT+ to display my battery power status. Sweet! (NOTE: I should clarify that the picture above shows the *ELEMNT* battery % but can also show your *phone* battery %; the *electric bike* battery % seems to be only visible via the menu button as far as I can see.)

I know that Rob has the smaller BOLT which is equally excellent.
 
Last edited:

Cyclejunkie

Active member
Founding Member
Mar 27, 2018
140
97
Deal Kent
Product Image: View attachment 2272
View attachment 2273

Product name: Wahoo ELEMNT GPS Bike Computer
Price paid: £249.99
Score (out of 10): 9

Review: Although I would refer other potential purchasers to Wahoo's own site for detailed specs and reviews of this plus the smaller BOLT (in the UK, it's https://uk.wahoofitneas.com/devices/bike-computers), I can confirm that the Wahoo ELEMNT is an excellent companion accessory for an EMTB, certainly competing well in price, features and battery life against the Garmin. Not sure about others.

Besides the compact aerodynamic design (shockproof with a waterproof IPX7 rating) and a choice of three bike mount options, what I particularly like is the simple interface which includes three main pages of customisable display screens (Workout Data, Climbing and Map controllable via the smartphone app; Lap Data is another one apparently visible after first lap) of which one can display a whopping eleven data metrics!

With the simple but sturdy buttons, navigation is easy with the right-hand up/down controls serving as menu selectors as well as zoom control for the mapping and visible metrics (if eleven is too much of a strain on the eyes).

There's also an excellent set of LED indicators to guide you through turn-by-turn navigation, however, keep in mind that this is dependent on the linked account used. There is no inbuilt turn-by-turn; only GPS mapping.

Whilst some may make unfavourable comparisons of this mono device with fancier colour touchscreen alternatives or quibble about the lack of street names in the mapping, these are minor sacrifices considering the excellent battery life (17 hours is claimed) and essential functionality/practicality, i.e. a sturdy affordable bike computer clearly visible in all weathers.

It's worth keeping in mind too that the excellent ELEMNT smartphone app handles all the detailed setting controls, Strava/RideWithGPS/Komoot etc. app integration and fancy post-ride analysis so you're not short-changed in any way.

For my own EMTB purposes, I've found it works well with the Komoot app (Strava is fine but it can be tricksy with turn-by-turn if 'cues' aren't added) and have a Bluetooth connection via ANT+ to display my battery power status. Sweet!

I know that Rob has the smaller BOLT which is equally excellent.
Great review and yes what a great bit of kit ????
 

m1bjr

Member
Oct 22, 2018
23
13
Plymouth, UK
Just don't pair the Levo to the Wahoo (it's seen as a power meter device) if you auto upload to Strava. It corrupts the speed data so all rides are about double the distance and average speed in Strava. KOMOOT seems to handle it OK.
 

RobNevyn

E*POWAH Master
Patreon
Nov 19, 2018
191
169
Central Coast NSW Australia
Nice review @akkypac, I am looking at one of these or the Garmin but I've wondered how these things go with mtb's & emtb's, how do there fare if you have a decent stack or flip the bike? A lot of folks I see have them on the top of the stem and I thought that it would be easy to damage.
 

akkypac

Active member
Patreon
Jun 2, 2018
58
32
East Surrey
Nice review @akkypac, I am looking at one of these or the Garmin but I've wondered how these things go with mtb's & emtb's, how do there fare if you have a decent stack or flip the bike? A lot of folks I see have them on the top of the stem and I thought that it would be easy to damage.
It's a good point @RobNevyn and obviously depends on your riding preferences. I suspect most serious riders prefer a lean cockpit anyway so might avoid these fripperies. For those of us, however, who like a quick bit of trail guidance (without pulling out a much more delicate smartphone every 2 secs), this is a pretty robust bit of kit and should easily soak up a few wipeouts.

GPS trackers aside, I'm curious to know what others feel about e-bike displays in general. Check out the large display on the latest Haibike Flyon below, for instance.

Haibike FLYON bikes with TQ motor usher in a new era of integration | E-MOUNTAINBIKE Magazine

Great looking bike but I suspect there'll be some divided opinion on this evolution.
 

RobNevyn

E*POWAH Master
Patreon
Nov 19, 2018
191
169
Central Coast NSW Australia
this is a pretty robust bit of kit and should easily soak up a few wipeouts.
Thanks mate, good to know, I imagined that they would have to be fairly robust.

GPS trackers aside, I'm curious to know what others feel about e-bike displays in general. Check out the large display on the latest Haibike Flyon below, for instance.
Haibike FLYON bikes with TQ motor usher in a new era of integration | E-MOUNTAINBIKE Magazine
Great looking bike but I suspect there'll be some divided opinion on this evolution.
That Flyon screen is a little on the large size for my liking, personally don't think I would go much larger than the Elemnt or Garmin 520, I'm even considering the Garmin 130, although less functionality it is a nice small size.
Each to their own I suppose, some folks may like the larger size of the Flyon screen for the extra visibility.
 

m1bjr

Member
Oct 22, 2018
23
13
Plymouth, UK
These are super tough, unlike the fragile Garmin. I've stacked a couple times on trail and on road now. They have built in the failure modes - I hate manufacturers that do this. On the 1000 and others the GPS aerial is also in the back panel. Nothing is easy or cheap to fix on a Garmin.

Also, no touch screen is a POSITIVE on an mtb. Lots of crud and rain on the touch screen does upset it, despite what they claim. And you don't need special gloves to operate it in winter as its button controlled - sturdy buttons....KISS.

In the map window, its quite clearly showing bridleways and walking trails on Dartmoor. And it leaves a thick black line (breadcrumbs) where you have been on the map, even in no-mans land. So it's really easy to get back to a place you have been and retrace a route if you get lost etc. After trying the edge 1000 with a fancy colour OS map its just too small for us oldies!
 
Last edited:

Jul 19, 2019
64
62
West Lancs
Has anyone figured out how to simultaneously show rider power, battery, and assist mode on the Wahoo?

I've emailed Wahoo Support to see what their ebike features are compared with Garmin. They say it's not available but it's on their roadmap.

I'd take that to be "do not expect to see it until you see it". Although my past experience with Wahoo is very good (they were very responsive in troubleshooting an issue I was having, didn't fob me off with template responses and really dug deep) and I much prefer my Elemnt over any of the Garmins I've had I'm not sure when/if we'll see this.
 

Cyclejunkie

Active member
Founding Member
Mar 27, 2018
140
97
Deal Kent
I've emailed Wahoo Support to see what their ebike features are compared with Garmin. They say it's not available but it's on their roadmap.

I'd take that to be "do not expect to see it until you see it". Although my past experience with Wahoo is very good (they were very responsive in troubleshooting an issue I was having, didn't fob me off with template responses and really dug deep) and I much prefer my Elemnt over any of the Garmins I've had I'm not sure when/if we'll see this.
Just read this I contacted them about e-bike support about a year ago, there is a thread on here somewhere about it they told me ‘it was on there to do list or words to that effect but to no avail, but saying that I am more than plz with the Element Bolt I use after 3 Garmin Edge 705 failures
 

Mate

Member
Jan 4, 2021
39
48
Amsterdam
I am using the Elemnt on my Turbo Levo and this works fine. Just because I manipulated my wheel circumference, my speed and distance are not correct in the Elemnt.
Because I automatically upload my data in Strava and recalculate my distance there, I have nevertheless registered my correct data.

Does anyone here know if it is possible for the Element to register my speed and distance via GPS?
 

EMTB Forums

Since 2018

The World's largest electric mountain bike community.

518K
Messages
25,437
Members
Join Our Community

Latest articles


Top