Wahoo Elemnt Roam

Tashman

New offering from Wahoo

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/wahoo-elemnt-roam/

cgfw201

Looks pretty smart. Probably not going to upgrade the Bolt just yet at that price though, but makes buying a Garmin 1030 even more of an insane choice than it already is.

StillGoing

Tashman wrote:

New offering from Wahoo

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/wahoo-elemnt-roam/

Tempting for the bigger screen size and improvements with features over the ELMENT and Bolt, plus the ease and simplicity of set up over Garmins. The Edge 530/830 works with the Neo for re-riding routes, but I use the TCAX app to re-ride routes. Makes more sense to stick with what I know works and that's the Wahoo.

keef66

I'm mainly interested in navigating places I've not been before, plotting routes in RWGPS, uploading them to a device and being given turn by turn prompts. For the whole of the ride.
I've given up trying to get any of that from my ironically named Garmin Touring.
The Garmin 520 Plus sounded like it would do it, but some of the actual user feedback suggested otherwise.
I was considering one of the Wahoo Elemnts, but now the Garmin 530 sounds like the real deal.

And at £260 it seems a better proposition than the Elemnt Roam at £300.

DC Rainmaker seems to agree re the pricing, and possibly the TBT navigation

gabriel959

Yep, looks like the Garmin Edge 530 is the superior product, better battery life, cheaper, better navigation. The Wahoo needs to be £250 to start competing.

redvision

I love my wahoo products, and have said for ages that the bolt was the best cycling gps on the market. However, the launch of the 530 and 830 last week was a huge step by Garmin and, if reliable, may displace the bolt at the top.

I held faith that wahoo would respond but whilst their blurb looks good, dcr is not that impressed and if he's right, they may have taken a step backwards or sideways, with the Roam.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/05/wah ... eview.html

keef66

We bought a Bolt for our eldest son's birthday in January. It was the best bang per buck and most suited to his needs at the time, and as a compulsive smartphone user he seemed blown away by the ease of setup and wireless synchronising with the rest of his digital world. And the blue highlights perfectly matched those on his bike and kit. That was especially important apparently.

I'm hoping the recent Garmin launches don't take the shine off...

meursault

gabriel959 wrote:

Yep, looks like the Garmin Edge 530 is the superior product, better battery life, cheaper, better navigation. The Wahoo needs to be £250 to start competing.

Agreed, not to mention how ugly this thing is.

StillGoing

meursault wrote:

gabriel959 wrote:

Yep, looks like the Garmin Edge 530 is the superior product, better battery life, cheaper, better navigation. The Wahoo needs to be £250 to start competing.

Agreed, not to mention how ugly this thing is.

The ROAM isn't ugly? It just looks like a larger Bolt with a semi-coloured screen.

TBT routing has never been a problem for me with the ELEMNT and the ease and simplicity of set up is light years ahead of Garmin.

thegreatdivide

It really is an ugly unit.

alanyu

Why don't wahoo put a larger battery into its GPS computer? Enough space for it and I've written about this to wahoo's team, but they just don't do that. I prefer wahoo's screen. Even though it was not colorful before, it (and SRM's) is still one of the best screen. Garmin's screen is just bull shit by comparison. Color is not so important but high visibility is.

However, now I cann't find a good reason to buy another wahoo's top-end. I'm not keen on LEDs. At the same price with edge 530, only the screen is advantage.

StillGoing

[url][/url]

alanyu wrote:

Why don't wahoo put a larger battery into its GPS computer? Enough space for it and I've written about this to wahoo's team, but they just don't do that. I prefer wahoo's screen. Even though it was not colorful before, it (and SRM's) is still one of the best screen. Garmin's screen is just bull shoot by comparison. Color is not so important but high visibility is.

However, now I cann't find a good reason to buy another wahoo's top-end. I'm not keen on LEDs. At the same price with edge 530, only the screen is advantage.

Why does it need a larger battery? Battery life is 17 hours. It has world maps installed and is quick enough to load up routes. Start up isn't lightening, but then again, neither was the last Garmin I owned.

As for the device being ugly; explain? Its a bloody bike computer not a work of art to be exhibited in the Tate. Are you claiming the Garmin, Cateye, Lezyne, Bryton or whoever devices are more aesthetic? They all look the same; a grey, black, white or whatever box on the front of a bike.

davebradswmb

alanyu wrote:

Why don't wahoo put a larger battery into its GPS computer? Enough space for it and I've written about this to wahoo's team, but they just don't do that.

Battery life has always been Wahoo's main advantage (for me at least). It is only recently that Garmin have been able to match the 15 hour battery life of the Bolt - and 15 hours is long enough for me, I don't expect to ever do anything much longer than about 12 hours.

I guess one reason is that there is a weight penalty? DCRs review lists the weights of the various offereings, and the Roam is already significantly heavier than the Bolt, and I would guess that at least half of that weight gain is down to an increase in the battery size to support the colour screen.

alanyu

philthy3 wrote:

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alanyu wrote:

Why don't wahoo put a larger battery into its GPS computer? Enough space for it and I've written about this to wahoo's team, but they just don't do that. I prefer wahoo's screen. Even though it was not colorful before, it (and SRM's) is still one of the best screen. Garmin's screen is just bull shoot by comparison. Color is not so important but high visibility is.

However, now I cann't find a good reason to buy another wahoo's top-end. I'm not keen on LEDs. At the same price with edge 530, only the screen is advantage.

Why does it need a larger battery? Battery life is 17 hours. It has world maps installed and is quick enough to load up routes. Start up isn't lightening, but then again, neither was the last Garmin I owned.

As for the device being ugly; explain? Its a bloody bike computer not a work of art to be exhibited in the Tate. Are you claiming the Garmin, Cateye, Lezyne, Bryton or whoever devices are more aesthetic? They all look the same; a grey, black, white or whatever box on the front of a bike.

First, connected with power, speed and heartrate, with backlight on, you will find the battery drops quickly, especially after more than one year's using. I don't want to take a power bank with me for sometimes crazy riding about 300~400km for over 12~15 hours.

Second, I have never said wahoo is ugly.

alanyu

davebradswmb wrote:

alanyu wrote:

Why don't wahoo put a larger battery into its GPS computer? Enough space for it and I've written about this to wahoo's team, but they just don't do that.

Battery life has always been Wahoo's main advantage (for me at least). It is only recently that Garmin have been able to match the 15 hour battery life of the Bolt - and 15 hours is long enough for me, I don't expect to ever do anything much longer than about 12 hours.

I guess one reason is that there is a weight penalty? DCRs review lists the weights of the various offereings, and the Roam is already significantly heavier than the Bolt, and I would guess that at least half of that weight gain is down to an increase in the battery size to support the colour screen.

Weight penalty can be one of the reason. However, I think you should compare Roam with Elemnt instead of Bolt. Roam is slightly smaller than Elemnt but much larger than Bolt, but it's still lighter than Elemnt.

Talking about battery life, connected with power, speed and heartrate, with backlight on, you will find the battery drops quickly, especially after more than one year's using. The total battery life is always decaying while using. Now it's not enough for my sometimes crazy riding.

grenw

redvision wrote:

I love my wahoo products, and have said for ages that the bolt was the best cycling gps on the market. However, the launch of the 530 and 830 last week was a huge step by Garmin and, if reliable, may displace the bolt at the top.

I held faith that wahoo would respond but whilst their blurb looks good, dcr is not that impressed and if he's right, they may have taken a step backwards or sideways, with the Roam.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/05/wah ... eview.html

Exactly this. Love my Bolt and far better than the 510 it replaced but after 2 years Wahoo come out with.... colour and slightly better nav.

keef66

Having read the first reviews of the Garmin 530 I was kind of assuming Wahoo would come up with something better / cheaper than this. More than a little disappointed.

It's almost as if Garmin had prior knowledge of the feature set and pricing of the Roam, and pitched the 530 to screw them on both counts.

MiddleRinger

keef66 wrote:

It's almost as if Garmin had prior knowledge of the feature set and pricing of the Roam, and pitched the 530 to screw them on both counts.

Yep. It seems like Garmin have nailed this one, smashed Wahoo out of the park with their 530/830 devices coming out just prior to Wahoo and with (from all accounts) excellent ROAM-beating features.

Still, the #Wahooligan fanboys will probably lap it up.

StillGoing

alanyu wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

[url][/url]

alanyu wrote:

Why don't wahoo put a larger battery into its GPS computer? Enough space for it and I've written about this to wahoo's team, but they just don't do that. I prefer wahoo's screen. Even though it was not colorful before, it (and SRM's) is still one of the best screen. Garmin's screen is just bull shoot by comparison. Color is not so important but high visibility is.

However, now I cann't find a good reason to buy another wahoo's top-end. I'm not keen on LEDs. At the same price with edge 530, only the screen is advantage.

Why does it need a larger battery? Battery life is 17 hours. It has world maps installed and is quick enough to load up routes. Start up isn't lightening, but then again, neither was the last Garmin I owned.

As for the device being ugly; explain? Its a bloody bike computer not a work of art to be exhibited in the Tate. Are you claiming the Garmin, Cateye, Lezyne, Bryton or whoever devices are more aesthetic? They all look the same; a grey, black, white or whatever box on the front of a bike.

First, connected with power, speed and heartrate, with backlight on, you will find the battery drops quickly, especially after more than one year's using. I don't want to take a power bank with me for sometimes crazy riding about 300~400km for over 12~15 hours.

Second, I have never said wahoo is ugly.

Disagree. I have a P2M for power and cadence, Di2 and Wahoo speed and heart rate sensors connected. I've Live Track running in the background connected to my phone. My backlight is on 10s standby as I find I can read the screen without needing it other than the odd occasion. The battery life is good enough for 100 mile rides with plenty of life left afterwards, and I'm no speed demon being around 5:30 for 100 miles. My old 705, 810 and 820 would struggle with that and be in the throes of a dead battery by finish.

The ugly comment wasn't aimed at you, which is why it is in a second paragraph. It's aimed at the Garmin lovers who just want to have something to convince them that the Wahoo is no good.

redvision

MiddleRinger wrote:

keef66 wrote:

It's almost as if Garmin had prior knowledge of the feature set and pricing of the Roam, and pitched the 530 to screw them on both counts.

Yep. It seems like Garmin have nailed this one, smashed Wahoo out of the park with their 530/830 devices coming out just prior to Wahoo and with (from all accounts) excellent ROAM-beating features.

Still, the #Wahooligan fanboys will probably lap it up.

As I said in my earlier post, the 830 and 530 do look good BUT it's too early to say they have overtaken the bolt as the devices aren't on sale yet and we all know what garmin are like with new products. On paper they look great, but so did the vector 3 pedals, so did the 820.

alanyu

philthy3 wrote:

alanyu wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

[url][/url]

alanyu wrote:

Why don't wahoo put a larger battery into its GPS computer? Enough space for it and I've written about this to wahoo's team, but they just don't do that. I prefer wahoo's screen. Even though it was not colorful before, it (and SRM's) is still one of the best screen. Garmin's screen is just bull shoot by comparison. Color is not so important but high visibility is.

However, now I cann't find a good reason to buy another wahoo's top-end. I'm not keen on LEDs. At the same price with edge 530, only the screen is advantage.

Why does it need a larger battery? Battery life is 17 hours. It has world maps installed and is quick enough to load up routes. Start up isn't lightening, but then again, neither was the last Garmin I owned.

As for the device being ugly; explain? Its a bloody bike computer not a work of art to be exhibited in the Tate. Are you claiming the Garmin, Cateye, Lezyne, Bryton or whoever devices are more aesthetic? They all look the same; a grey, black, white or whatever box on the front of a bike.

First, connected with power, speed and heartrate, with backlight on, you will find the battery drops quickly, especially after more than one year's using. I don't want to take a power bank with me for sometimes crazy riding about 300~400km for over 12~15 hours.

Second, I have never said wahoo is ugly.

Disagree. I have a P2M for power and cadence, Di2 and Wahoo speed and heart rate sensors connected. I've Live Track running in the background connected to my phone. My backlight is on 10s standby as I find I can read the screen without needing it other than the odd occasion. The battery life is good enough for 100 mile rides with plenty of life left afterwards, and I'm no speed demon being around 5:30 for 100 miles. My old 705, 810 and 820 would struggle with that and be in the throes of a dead battery by finish.

The ugly comment wasn't aimed at you, which is why it is in a second paragraph. It's aimed at the Garmin lovers who just want to have something to convince them that the Wahoo is no good.

5.5 hours is of course enough. My friend's edge 520 can also work for 8~10 hours now. I've said my crazy riding is over 12~15 hours, during which I need backlight on for at least 2~4 hours, or even sometimes starting after dinner to avoid strong sunshine. I have to take a power bank with me for this.

keef66

@ Revdee: Agreed. I'm waiting till they actually hit the shelves and I read a lot more actual user feedback. DCR's review makes it appear the 530 will do TBT reliably but I want to hear from UK riders who've got it to work for an all day ride / audax.

After my experience with the Touring I need to be convinced before giving Garmin any more money

StillGoing

Well 530, 830 or ROAM, I'll be sticking with my ELEMNT. The battery life is good enough for my needs, the screen is nice size for me to see it without needing glasses, it does TBT for downloaded routes and connects to all of my devices without issue. It let me down once all the time that I've owned it and that was when the cloud went down for a few hours a year or so ago. Wahoo sorted it within hours unlike Garmin who atek weeks, months even years to sort out issues.

cgfw201

Given the prevalence of the Elemnt & Bolt (literally everyone i know has one, 30+ people), I suspect they'll stick around til the Elemnt/Bolts die. Fortunately they seem pretty bomb proof so may survive til another iteration of the Elemnt line.

If I was getting something new today it would have to be the 530, seems miles ahead of the competition which is a bizarre turnaround given where garmin were 2 years ago.

keef66

philthy3 wrote:

Well 530, 830 or ROAM, I'll be sticking with my ELEMNT. The battery life is good enough for my needs, the screen is nice size for me to see it without needing glasses, it does TBT for downloaded routes and connects to all of my devices without issue. It let me down once all the time that I've owned it and that was when the cloud went down for a few hours a year or so ago. Wahoo sorted it within hours unlike Garmin who atek weeks, months even years to sort out issues.

TBH till these last 2 announcements the (now slightly discounted) Elemnt was the thing I was considering buying. Now I'm not so sure.

Maybe I need to borrow son's Bolt to see how I get on with the navigation on that...

martybsays

Wahoo has a good, strong design language. The new Roam looks like part of the family. It's pretty sleek, but the form factor larger than I prefer. Love the Bolt and will stick with it for its natural life, then replace with whatever succeeds the current model - probably the Bolt 2.

philbar72

i think its a needed upgrade but the game seems to have moved on a bit.

Garmin have gone to a hardware platform that seemingly uses a more efficient battery / power cycle whilst allowing for more connections and a partial backlight when needed as well as better (faster) processing, for less battery usage. this looks good (and compared to older computers looks great) but if the garmins are reliable, then they have the better product in terms of usability. though that's an interesting one as until we get the product, we won't know as Ray Maker et al get beta software or pre release stuff...?

redvision

Sounds like wahoo are having some issues with the roam, namely the mounts, and have delayed shipping.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/05/wah ... kages.html

StillGoing

Oh dear. Obviously the mount needs a re-design or stronger (and possibly heavier) material. To Wahoo's credit, they have responded to customers that have ordered with the following;

1. We can ship you your brand new ROAM as soon as it arrives and, as a token of our gratitude for your patience, we are able to offer a TICKR heart rate monitor or RPM Speed & Cadence sensors free of charge.

2. Alternatively, we can refund you for your purchase.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and hope that this plan to get you ROAMing illustrates our commitment to assuring you are completely satisfied with your Wahoo purchase. Please let us know if there is anything else we can help with and thank you for being a Wahooligan!

Respectfully,
The Wahoo Team

w00dster

Keef66 - The navigation on my Bolt isn't as good as what it was on my 810, but its an awful lot more reliable. It may just be me, but since getting the Bolt I have to admit I'm less adventurous. The Bolt works really was for my general use case, connecting to my devices and recording my ride. If navigation was more of a requirement I'd go for something else.
I was an avid Garmin fan having used multiple device types over 15 years. However the 810 and the 520 were just to unreliable for me.
I still use a Garmin eTrex, I'm not against Garmin products and glad they are back with what appears to be some good products. But its fair to say they went through a slump for a good number of years.

StillGoing

w00dster wrote:

Keef66 - The navigation on my Bolt isn't as good as what it was on my 810, but its an awful lot more reliable. It may just be me, but since getting the Bolt I have to admit I'm less adventurous. The Bolt works really was for my general use case, connecting to my devices and recording my ride. If navigation was more of a requirement I'd go for something else.
I was an avid Garmin fan having used multiple device types over 15 years. However the 810 and the 520 were just to unreliable for me.
I still use a Garmin eTrex, I'm not against Garmin products and glad they are back with what appears to be some good products. But its fair to say they went through a slump for a good number of years.

I don't get the navigation issue. A free Ride with gps account, plot your route 10 miles or 100 miles and get TbT signals. Go off course and it lets me know. Unforeseen roadworks and road closures? Get the phone out, Google maps to get bearings and head back on course. But the new software that is being backdated to older units too, will mean you don't even have to do that anymore.