Wahoo Elemnt Roam

w00dster

I guess its not as intuitive for me as the Garmin 810 was in terms of navigation. (I'm a technophobe - as said, used Garmin's for years)
I followed a route two weeks ago, road closure over a motorway bridge. The detour was down one junction of the motorway for cars, or for me it was a large circular route. Ended up having to keep getting phone out and checking where I was going, still got lost and ended up doing about 1.5 miles down a gravel trail.
On the Garmin I would have been fine. But that may be more about me knowing how to use the device better.

StillGoing

w00dster wrote:

I guess its not as intuitive for me as the Garmin 810 was in terms of navigation. (I'm a technophobe - as said, used Garmin's for years)
I followed a route two weeks ago, road closure over a motorway bridge. The detour was down one junction of the motorway for cars, or for me it was a large circular route. Ended up having to keep getting phone out and checking where I was going, still got lost and ended up doing about 1.5 miles down a gravel trail.
On the Garmin I would have been fine. But that may be more about me knowing how to use the device better.

Once the firmware has been backdated to the ELEMNT and ELEMNT Bolt, they and the ROAM will do back on track guidance.

wongataa

philthy3 wrote:

Once the firmware has been backdated to the ELEMNT and ELEMNT Bolt, they and the ROAM will do back on track guidance.

I doubt that will be happening.

overlord2

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.

The Garmin also comes with a free function where it refuses to work correctly on holiday/TT/lost.

Oh and Garmin will give you free firmware updates that will brick your unit - smashing.

pblakeney

Might as well have a Shimano v Campag debate. Or Apple v Windows, or Ford v GM, or Nikon v Canon..... Helmets? Nothing will be learned.

StillGoing

wongataa wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

Once the firmware has been backdated to the ELEMNT and ELEMNT Bolt, they and the ROAM will do back on track guidance.

I doubt that will be happening.

They've already said it will.

StillGoing

PBlakeney wrote:

Might as well have a Shimano v Campag debate. Or Apple v Windows, or Ford v GM, or Nikon v Canon..... Helmets? Nothing will be learned.

I agree.

Wahoo have simple set up and useage (for most users). In my experience, the unit has never failed me and the one time the cloud went down, Wahoo fixed it within hours rather than days, weeks, months. However, the ROAM doesn't seem to achieve much over the existing units and is priced too high. The issue with the mount seems to be either a batch fault or end user use, but they are at least working to fix it and compensating buyers who now have to wait with free cadence and speed sensors. If you already own an ELEMNT or ELEMNT BOT, I see no reason to "upgrade" to the ROAM. If however you've had enough of Garmin, then it makes sense to go for the ROAM.

Garmin on the other hand, have a history of great units until they mess about with the firmware. The set up is convoluted to say the least. The support pre-tie in with TACX was woeful. The 530/830 are being hailed as the new dawn and are priced better than the Wahoo. They also have more functions. Early 530 units have suffered with a back button that is resistant to operation and Garmin say they have rectified this, but no free cadence and speed sensors for owners that have had to return their unit.

redvision

Anyone got the roam yet? What's it like?
Particularly keen to hear from anyone who moved from the elemnt bolt.

StillGoing

Yes I have. I said I wasn't going to bother with the upgrade, but saw a good deal to sell my ELEMNT and get the ROAM. It works, simple to set up still as are all the Wahoo ELEMNT units, clear picture, I've ridden with it in the day and night with no issues reading the screen. Following a route is slightly easier with the colour screen in differentiating between A and B roads and waterways. The audible beeps for TBT seem to be louder,so no missing them. Getting back on track works well. Call etc notifications are easily heard. The out front mount is solid so no fear of snapping.

redvision

philthy3 wrote:

Yes I have. I said I wasn't going to bother with the upgrade, but saw a good deal to sell my ELEMNT and get the ROAM. It works, simple to set up still as are all the Wahoo ELEMNT units, clear picture, I've ridden with it in the day and night with no issues reading the screen. Following a route is slightly easier with the colour screen in differentiating between A and B roads and waterways. The audible beeps for TBT seem to be louder,so no missing them. Getting back on track works well. Call etc notifications are easily heard. The out front mount is solid so no fear of snapping.

Sounds like it's a good unit then.
How have you found it compared to the bolt? Is it worth the upgrade?

StillGoing

redvision wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

Yes I have. I said I wasn't going to bother with the upgrade, but saw a good deal to sell my ELEMNT and get the ROAM. It works, simple to set up still as are all the Wahoo ELEMNT units, clear picture, I've ridden with it in the day and night with no issues reading the screen. Following a route is slightly easier with the colour screen in differentiating between A and B roads and waterways. The audible beeps for TBT seem to be louder,so no missing them. Getting back on track works well. Call etc notifications are easily heard. The out front mount is solid so no fear of snapping.

Sounds like it's a good unit then.
How have you found it compared to the bolt? Is it worth the upgrade?

I had the ELEMNT not the Bolt. The ROAM does more than the Bolt though so maybe more worth the change.

redvision

philthy3 wrote:

I had the ELEMNT not the Bolt. The ROAM does more than the Bolt though so maybe more worth the change.

Ah, sorry, you did say that I just misread it.

Sounds like the roam is pretty decent then.
I know it's not a replacement for the bolt itself (rather the elemnt) but reading reviews it does seem many are changing to the roam for the extra features. Think I may well soon follow suit.

pauly69

Decent upgrade if you have the cash to blow. I kept my old bolt as a spare. Fields are bigger, or you can fit more on screen. Nav is way better if you need that. Elevation profile on map screen is nice. Better battery life. Colour does enhance it IMO but is not really used on the normal data fields - I think they could add somethign there. 2 rows of LED's is better too, I use one the configurable one for power zone.

I don't use Nav much, but I'm happy anyway. Route to start is useful for preloaded courses. Still quite a few firmware updates coming through, but it's been entirely stable for me anyway.

My main bugbear is their crappy screw-in tether (plus the fact it's extra), I'd much prefer an elastic one like Garmin do. There is (still) no facility to use a Garmin style one (nothing to loop around on the hardware).

Maps take up more space due to being routable and the unit doesn't appear to have a large amount of storage (about 2.2GB free for maps I think). I have all of UK and Spain (mostly for Mallorca) on there - you couldn't fit all of France or all of Italy on there too, so would have to start getting selective (they have recently split big countries into smaller chunks so this is possible). Not really a deal-breaker but FFS, for the price they're charging they should have just ensured there was plenty of space to hold at least a continent if not worldwide.

Nice unit, still hate Garmin.

StillGoing

redvision wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

I had the ELEMNT not the Bolt. The ROAM does more than the Bolt though so maybe more worth the change.

Ah, sorry, you did say that I just misread it.

Sounds like the roam is pretty decent then.
I know it's not a replacement for the bolt itself (rather the elemnt) but reading reviews it does seem many are changing to the roam for the extra features. Think I may well soon follow suit.

I think it depends on your thinking. There's definitely more to it than the Bolt, particularly the larger display, so for me, that would be the logical progression. The ROAM improvements over the ELEMNT are more additional colours and the routing/nav capabilities, so not really worth the extra dosh, unless like I did, you find someone wanting your old unit at a good price.