Wahoo Bolt routing woes

LeeDa

Does anyone know if you can change settings for how the bolt routes to destinations specifically stick to roads?

On numerous rides having a mare with it taking me down unrideable pathways.

Poppa Wheelie

I'm not sure you can on the Bolt app itself.

Personally I hardly ever need to create a route on the fly, but if I do, I just use the Kommot app on my phone to create the route, then sync that route to the Elemnt.

Ok, having to setup my phone as a wifi hotspot isn't ideal but you only have to tell the Bolt the wifi SSID and password of your phone once. After that, it will connect each time I turn on wifi sharing on my phone.

dave27

I would recommend Komoot as well, use it weekly to plan rides and you can alter the type of riding you are doing.

I could be wrong but I don’t think you need to set up a WiFi hotspot to sync. Normally I create the route on Komoot and save, go to the Wahoo app to refresh routes, select the route and it syncs to the unit.

cgfw201

Dave27 wrote:

I would recommend Komoot as well, use it weekly to plan rides and you can alter the type of riding you are doing.

I could be wrong but I don’t think you need to set up a WiFi hotspot to sync. Normally I create the route on Komoot and save, go to the Wahoo app to refresh routes, select the route and it syncs to the unit.

This.

I was sitting in a café yesterday and a bloke there was losing his mind trying to connect his Bolt to the café wifi to transfer a route.

Insanity. Just turn on your Bluetooth and do it that way, 100x easier.

But yes, the routes the Wahoo App creates tend to use National Cycle Network routes which invariably aren’t great on a road bike.

pippi_langsamer-2

cgfw201 wrote:

Dave27 wrote:

I was sitting in a café yesterday and a bloke there was losing his mind trying to connect his Bolt to the café wifi to transfer a route.

That's funny! Poor fella...

Yep, Komoot is still my go to app for route planning. Never bothered trying to plot on-the-fly. If you pre plot a route on Komoot, it'll give you a break-down of the types of route surfaces so you should be able to avoid unexpected surprises. Love the fact I can plot on the laptop from wherever, and it's synced with my Bolt automatically.

Poppa Wheelie

Dave27 wrote:

I would recommend Komoot as well, use it weekly to plan rides and you can alter the type of riding you are doing.

I could be wrong but I don’t think you need to set up a WiFi hotspot to sync. Normally I create the route on Komoot and save, go to the Wahoo app to refresh routes, select the route and it syncs to the unit.

You're right to correct me. As I said, I've hardly ever needed to create a route on the fly hence, I'd forgotten that your phone will send the route to the Wahoo via BlueTooth.

As a rule, I normally turn on my Wahoo when I get my bike out of the garage thus it connects to my house WiFi to update any routes I've recently created or any firmware updates it needs and I'm all good to go by the time I've put my shoes and polystyrene party hat on.

When I'd originally paired the Wahoo to my house WiFi I also paired it to my phones WiFi hotspot but now you mention it, I don't recall ACTUALLY ever needing to use the hotspot. But it's all set up if the need arises.

surfercyclist

Not tried Komoot, I use RidewithGPS for the rare occasion I use routing with my Bolt. Most times I just wing it and if in doubt check route on way if I get lost.

ibr17xvii

SurferCyclist wrote:

Not tried Komoot, I use RidewithGPS for the rare occasion I use routing with my Bolt. Most times I just wing it and if in doubt check route on way if I get lost.

RidewithGPS with TBT works pretty much flawlessly for me with my Bolt.

Now just waiting for them to add Varia Radar support which Shane Miller says is currently in Beta.

Would love to test it out but not sure how you become a beta tester. Guess I'll just have to wait.

davebradswmb

The onboard routing on the Bolt is rubbish. I tested it once just on my commute and it took me onto the canal towpath. This kind of made sense from work as the canal goes right by work but I ignored it anyway to follow my normal route. I then tested it again half-way home and it still took me back onto the canal despite this being about a mile out of the way. The weather was good and I wasn't in a hurry so I decided to follow it anyway. As expected the towpath was attrocious in places. It is only something that I would use in absolute desperation now.

I have had problems with using Komoot where it refuses to use some roads as it thinks that they are blocked at some point, so now I stick to Ride with GPS, and I have managed to plan a route back to base on my phone using the app pretty successfully.

Poppa Wheelie

Interesting,

One thing I have been lead to believe is that if you import a GPX file, from say Strava into RWGPS, it does not create the turn-by-turn cue sheet thus, only gives a breadcrumb trail without the turn instructions. However, Komoot does create the TBT cue sheet thus gives full instructions.

So it seems that if you want to create a Turn-by-Turn route FROM a GPX file created or downloaded from any other site, Komoot is the tool to use but, if you want to create a route from scratch, RWGPS is the tool to use.

Longshot

Yep, RWGPS works well with the Bolt - never had an issue except in built up areas - complicated junctions can be difficult to navigate especially if your eyesight is less than perfect.

Never tried onboard routing and, given what I've read above, won't in the future.

ibr17xvii

Longshot wrote:

Yep, RWGPS works well with the Bolt - never had an issue except in built up areas - complicated junctions can be difficult to navigate especially if your eyesight is less than perfect.

Never tried onboard routing and, given what I've read above, won't in the future.

100% my experience as well.

Roundabouts can be particularly confusing as well especially the TBT notifications, I tend to follow the breadcrumb line at those.

Poppa Wheelie

Longshot wrote:

complicated junctions can be difficult to navigate

To be fair, I've driven cars with built-in Sat Nav's that don't work as well as the Wahoo.