Best for navigation - Garmin 1000 or Wahoo Elemnt

ollie.williams260

Hi,

I'm currently using a Garmin 520 and becoming increasingly frustrated with how poor the navigation is. I've now sold it and am looking to replace it with a computer that's better at navigation.

Currently on the shortlist is a Garmin 1000 or the Wahoo Elemnt, would consider others too if they're any good. I use it for training so need to be able to see power, laps, etc over the maps (ideally customisable fields). The final point I would add is I have no sense of direction so it need to be idiot proof for directions.

What's people experience of the Garmin 1000 or the Wahoo Elemnt? And is there another Ic should consider?

Thanks
Ollie

shmooster

The 520 doesn't really do nav properly, aside from the Elemnt and the 1000 there's also the relatively new Garmin 820.

FWIW rumour is the 1000 is likely to be replaced in early 2017 as it is approaching 3 years old and that seems to be Garmins refresh cycle these days

noodleman

The Wahoo Elemnt is a fantastic bit of kit but it wont do navigation in the way the 1000 will. You can plot turn by turn routes on Ridewithgps and upload them and you can view a map of anywhere in the world to see where you currently are but you can't enter a location when your'e on the move and expect it to direct you there.
Having said that, i personally won't touch a Garmin again since i bought the wahoo. It has a few very minor issues but they're always being looked into by the wahoo team and generally sorted pretty quickly. Unlike Garmin which in my experience are full of glitches from day one and are never fully fixed before a replacement model is introduced, starting the whole process over again. People seem to swear by Garmin despite every one of our club rides having at least two or three people with missing miles, units turning off, off course warnings even though they're not and numerous other niggles.
If you can live without sat nav style directions i'd highly recommend a Wahoo Elemnt.

ollie.williams260

noodleman wrote:

The Wahoo Elemnt is a fantastic bit of kit but it wont do navigation in the way the 1000 will. You can plot turn by turn routes on Ridewithgps and upload them and you can view a map of anywhere in the world to see where you currently are but you can't enter a location when your'e on the move and expect it to direct you there.
Having said that, i personally won't touch a Garmin again since i bought the wahoo. It has a few very minor issues but they're always being looked into by the wahoo team and generally sorted pretty quickly. Unlike Garmin which in my experience are full of glitches from day one and are never fully fixed before a replacement model is introduced, starting the whole process over again. People seem to swear by Garmin despite every one of our club rides having at least two or three people with missing miles, units turning off, off course warnings even though they're not and numerous other niggles.
If you can live without sat nav style directions i'd highly recommend a Wahoo Elemnt.

I can live with turn by turn as long as it's correct. I don't want to spend more money on a Garmin only to be stood in the middle of no-where again. I've only heard great review for the Wahoo which combined with the price difference seems to be the way Im currently leaning. I would be keen to hear if anyone has negative experiences with the Wahoo?

fat daddy

noodleman wrote:

The Wahoo Elemnt is a fantastic bit of kit but it wont do navigation in the way the 1000 will. You can plot turn by turn routes on Ridewithgps and upload them and you can view a map of anywhere in the world to see where you currently are but you can't enter a location when your'e on the move and expect it to direct you there.
Having said that, i personally won't touch a Garmin again since i bought the wahoo..

errr, this exactly ..... get the 1000 if you want navigation ... that said I would rather use moss on trees and a magnetised pin on a string before I touched another Garmin again

really being lost is a more pleasant experience than I have had with the unreliability and awkwardness of the garmins

Love the Elemnt though .. its renewed my faith is useable tech with a sensible UI

deejaysee

The 1000 is quality imo.
Does everything you need it to and the round route generator is really really handy.
Would recommend to anyone

hsiaolc

ollie.williams260 wrote:

Hi,

I'm currently using a Garmin 520 and becoming increasingly frustrated with how poor the navigation is. I've now sold it and am looking to replace it with a computer that's better at navigation.

Currently on the shortlist is a Garmin 1000 or the Wahoo Elemnt, would consider others too if they're any good. I use it for training so need to be able to see power, laps, etc over the maps (ideally customisable fields). The final point I would add is I have no sense of direction so it need to be idiot proof for directions.

What's people experience of the Garmin 1000 or the Wahoo Elemnt? And is there another Ic should consider?

Thanks
Ollie

Use your phone. One of the best thing I did was to switch to my phone. Especially navigation with google map is great.

noodleman

hsiaolc wrote:

ollie.williams260 wrote:

Hi,

I'm currently using a Garmin 520 and becoming increasingly frustrated with how poor the navigation is. I've now sold it and am looking to replace it with a computer that's better at navigation.

Currently on the shortlist is a Garmin 1000 or the Wahoo Elemnt, would consider others too if they're any good. I use it for training so need to be able to see power, laps, etc over the maps (ideally customisable fields). The final point I would add is I have no sense of direction so it need to be idiot proof for directions.

What's people experience of the Garmin 1000 or the Wahoo Elemnt? And is there another Ic should consider?

Thanks
Ollie

Use your phone. One of the best thing I did was to switch to my phone. Especially navigation with google map is great.

Using a phone versus using a dedicated cycling computer has been discussed elsewhere on this forum.
(A) No one wants £600 worth of phone sat on their handlebars.
(B) Battery life is poor compared to a computer.
(C) A phone can be a vital piece of equipment if you need help in an emergency, which isn't much good if you've used nearly all of your battery for a ride.
(D) A phone is easily ripped off your bike by a thief whilst in towns/slow moving traffic. + a whole host of other reasons. Might be fine for popping round the block or on a short ride with a mate but a phone is no replacement for a cycling computer.

StillGoing

Garmin 820. Nice and compact and proper mapping. Screen size is the same as the 520. I've had no problems with turn by turn notifications using the old 810 or the 820 and the IQ Connect apps make a nice change to the standard Garmin screens for data and a lot easier to read if you're long sighted like me.

ollie.williams260

Thanks all!

markhewitt1978

The ELEMNT is great for navigation with it's turn by turn directions, but with the caveat that it only works well if you've planned your route in advance on ridewithgps and synced it before you start your ride.

If like on Sunday I decide that I'd rather take a different route home to the one I planned there isn't really anything I can do to plot the revised route. At least you can leave the map page open so you can see when a junction is approaching.

StillGoing

Your question (per the title) is best for navigation - Garmin 1000 or Wahoo Elemnt. Simple answer is the 1000.

superlightweight

I've had an Elemnt for a few weeks now and so far, so good. I've planned a couple of routes using ridewithgps and the turn-by-turn navigation has been spot-on and easy to follow. The prompts for junctions will pop-up on whichever screen you are on so you can still have all the relevant metrics displayed. However, I did download a route this weekend that I didn't create (it was a popular route for my start and end points) and for some reason I didn't get the turn-by-turn notifications. I basically had to follow the arrows on the map page the whole time, and in this situation the only metric you can have displayed on the same page is speed. Bit frustrating but it worked fine. Other than this, everything else about the Elemnt is so simple, setting up, syncing etc.

markhewitt1978

superlightweight wrote:

I basically had to follow the arrows on the map page the whole time, and in this situation the only metric you can have displayed on the same page is speed. Bit frustrating but it worked fine. Other than this, everything else about the Elemnt is so simple, setting up, syncing etc.

You can configure it to have four metrics displayed at the top of the screen on the map page. Which should be more than enough for most purposes.

ollie.williams260

Maybe the 1000 will be better....

feisty

New firmware just released for the Elemnt which improves mapping

markhewitt1978

feisty wrote:

New firmware just released for the Elemnt which improves mapping

I haven't tried mine yet but apparently it has a "route back home" and "route to destination" feature, although I don't think you can specifically tailor the route.

Also it now allows route syncing via bluetooth from your phone - previously it would only sync over pre-defined wifi which was a pain if you'd gone out and forgotten to sync your route.

Now that's available what I really need now is an iPhone app where I can plot my own route and transfer it to the ELEMNT. As quite often while I'm out I'll think "I'd rather go back this way" so I'd like to be able to plot that out on my phone and have it route me.

feisty

I think the new elemnt app does allow you mid ride to create and then customise route. Haven't tried myself yet. There's a YouTube video on wahoo site I haven't yet watched

markhewitt1978

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdl3t53ZpPE there is this one.

markhewitt1978

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA0Jj9x8iSA It seems to can route by tapping on a place to go there, which is great, but I'd like to be able to make a route by tapping on multiple places or dragging the route so it takes specific roads.

I can't test it as it insists on having the ELEMNT connected before it will work.