Wahoo Element Bolt

[jfranci3]

Two minor things annoyances. #1: I don't like the mount very much, but I'll get used to it. Actually, the mounting is fine -- it's the width of the "hoop" which seems unnecessarily wide and thick. #2 : Gosh this thing is lightweight. It "feels" cheap, compared to a Garmin 1000 but I know that's just perception. The software inside does seriously work.

Finally..... I haven't figured out where to locate all my left/right power data. I know its there (it is displayed in TrainingPeaks), but cannot find the settings on the companion app. )

1) Yeah, the garmin is intuitive to mount as you turn it a full 90deg. The Wahoo does something like a 30deg turn and doesn't give good feelings that you have it right. I suspect this is some compromise due to some patent and wanting quad lock capability.
2) yes, I think the plastics on the surround add to this. Once it's mounted and a little dirty-ish, I feel this is a non-issue.

3) I'm not sure it gives active left/right. I know at the end of ride I can get L/R on the summary page.

[kytyree]

I'm not sure either about L/R but there are several fields related to pedal data that you can add to a page.

[7ducati]

I've had my Bolt for a couple of weeks now and couldn't be happier. My only annoyance is that now that I'm doing early morning rides when it's dark, the only backlight options are on all the time or 5 seconds. I haven't found a good way to just to reach down and turn the backlight on temporarily, other then tapping the power button, which opens up the settings screen. On my Edge 500, I could hit one of the side buttons to turn the light on and keep the current page open.

Any other Bolt users know which button to push to accomplish this?

[glepore]

^+1

[dastott]

Stupid question perhaps but was wondering if I can do set up on a new iPod Touch? Don't actually have a smartphone. Cheers.

[kytyree]

If you can run the wahoo elemnt app and connect to the bolt via Bluetooth I'd assume so

[holsen]

I have Garmin 1000 units, which are just obscenely large and heavy. If the BOLT has significantly better real-world battery life, I'll be a buyer. But, I'm not keen to be a beta-tester in this first batch of production units. I'll give it 120 days in the market, then look carefully.

It's exactly the same software and hardware as the original Elemnt ... According to all the reviews, look like there's nothing Beta about this one, the wrinkle were taken out through firmawre updates to the original ... just ordered mine ...... anyone interested in a 510?

[JayAy]

My only annoyance is that now that I'm doing early morning rides when it's dark, the only backlight options are on all the time or 5 seconds.

The backlight timeout can be set from the companion app|settings|backlight timeout. You can set the value from 0 to 255 seconds.

[jever98]

Out of interest - is it possible to change the backlight from always off to always on when you ride? Like you start in the dark, want it on, and then want to switch it off at some point.

Thanks

[kytyree]

https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000217984-Does-the-ELEMNT-Bolt-have-a-backlight-


Haven't tried it but this is what their support says, which includes full on, then again no mention of the 0-255 seconds?

[JayAy]

Out of interest - is it possible to change the backlight from always off to always on when you ride? Like you start in the dark, want it on, and then want to switch it off at some point.

Thanks

Yes it is.

[7ducati]

The backlight timeout can be set from the companion app|settings|backlight timeout. You can set the value from 0 to 255 seconds.

Correct, but what annoys me is that I can't just push a button while I'm riding to activate the backlight. On my garmin, I tapped the power button and the backlight turns on, WITHOUT changing the current display screen. On the Bolt, if I tap the power button, it goes to the settings menu, which defeats the purpose of turning the backlight on to check the time or my speed, etc..

It's a very minor annoyance, for sure.

[kytyree]

Does zooming in or out on the page trigger the backlight?

I can't remember (rarely ride in the dark) but with the two buttons right there together that might be pretty close to just pushing one button.

[dpmcalli]

OK Ive got back from holiday and had a chance to test my shiney new BOLT for a few rides. Overall Im hugely impressed and it solves all the major annoyances I had with my Garmin 820. Desipte the price difference, for me, this is the superior device by a significant margin. Here are some of the pros and can Ive discovered so far starting with the cons:

Cons

No ambient light sensor - Great feature of the Garmin was a dynamically adjusted backlight based on the ambient light levels. With the BOLT you only have on/off or timed (triggered with a button press)

Included mount - Its just a bit naff and flimsy feeling. I love how it integrates with the head unit itself but the handlebar clamp is a bit ugly

Recovery Advisory - I miss this from the 820. When wearing a heart rate sensor, the Recovery Advisor would give you an estimate on the recovery time after your ride. Perhaps 3rd party site you can connect to can offer this type of functionality?

Live Tracking - Functionality works very constantly (which in a way makes it better than the 820) but its very bare bones. You only see a dot showing where you currently are. No ride or route stats. I imagine this will be improved in future.

Incident Detection - This was nice one time when I had a bad crash. The Bolt doesnt have the that hardware to be able to do this. Not a major feature but a minor nice to have.

Pros

Overall experience - Hard to overstate how good this is. So simple to set up and configure. When riding, changing pages and zooming in and out is extremely fast and responsive, the complete opposite to the Garmin which was a laggy mess. Its early days but Ive not encountered any bugs or strange behaviour (the Garmin would regularly crash, hang, lag,not turn off etc)

No touch screen - Yes this is a plus for me. The 820 touch screen many times did not work in the rain or extreme high or cold temps. Sweat would cause it to freak out, gloves were hit and miss, sometimes it would just not recognise a touch for no real reason. By contrast the buttons on the BOLT are large, tactile and work perfectly every time.

Route Creation and navigation - Somehow this is better than the 820, despite this being one of its major selling points. Route creation on with RidewithGPS is vastly vastly superior to Connect Courses. You can choose difference maps (google,OSM, OSM bike, RWGPS etc etc) some which are really nice and clear for showing bike routes. You actually get elevation information for your route (shocking!). You can easily export the route to gpx, tcx without knowing some obscure url to share with others. You can reverse a route and do advanced things like split routes up and manually draw lines for areas where following the road breaks. All your routes are synced over wifi with a press of a button or you can send it via the app. So much easier that Garmin connect. At any point you can load another route in seconds via the app (great if you want to find a local pub using google maps and then send the route there to the BOLT). The route is loaded in seconds rather than minutes and give clear turn by turn instructions. Zooming in and out is close to instant unlike the slow and laggy 820. LEDs are a nice touch when navigating but can be hard to see in direct sunlight. You have worldwide maps not just your region. You don't have street names (apart from in the turn by turn notifications) but that's not something Ive ever needed. Overall for route based navigation, I cannot believe this is better than the 820 but it really is.

Live Segments - This is implemented better than Garmin imo, I like how it shows you what is nearby on the dedicated page. LEDs are great here, the screen is nice and clear when you are giving it your all and toggling between PR and KOM is so much easier when not using the touch screen. Just needs people Im following to be an option

3rd Party integration - Wahoo aren't trying to tie you to their ecosystem and are happy to sync with a bunch of 3rd partys. Garmin are becoming more and more like Apple in the way they treat their customers in this respect. Its silly because Garmins Connect site is just terrible and letting others do it better would make more sense

Clever little touches - This feels like a tool designed by and for cyclists. Little things like when you dont have a sensor connected the field doesn't just sit there just showing a null value taking up valuable space, its removed so other fields can fill its place, I love the weekly summaries at the end of the ride, notification beep is nice and loud so I can hear it over the wind noise, zoom feature is genius, data fields and pages can be added and moved on the fly.

Im sure theres more but its late and Im tired. Overall if you on the fence between this and one of the newer Garmin units just get this. Nothing more to say.

[jever98]

Just got an Elemnt (yes, it's a bit of a brick, but I like the big screen). One ride in, must say I like it. Some little things I would improve:

1) Page changing: it would be great to be able to scroll left and right through pages, instead of having to go right all the time, especially with many pages. The lap button could be in the middle (instead of start) and the start button maybe by holding down 2-3s? With auto pause it gets used very little.

2) Add current lap and last lap VAM: both would be great as a training tool. Current VAM jumps around a lot even on smooth climbs and average lap VAM can be a great tool to track progress. I hope they will add it to the plethorra of fields.

3) Make the field list searchable: there are so many fields that it's tough to go through them when customising pages. Making them searchable would be great.

4) Panning the map: Currently I don't see a way to pan the map if I need to. that can be useful at times.

Looking forward to exploring more.