Garmin Edge (or Wahoo Elemnt Roam) and Specialized Turbo e-bikes [RESOLVED]

[Stefan Mikes]

Interestingly, both Garmin Edge and Wahoo Element bike computers rely on sensors. For example, a Wahoo speed sensor is a necessary buy for a traditional bike, with the Wahoo power meter as a nice extra. Specialized and Giant e-bikes with ANT+ already have the appropriate sensors.

I have found this information incorrect (I apologise!) Wahoo and Garmin both rely on the built in GPS if no other related sensors are present!

 

[Allan47.7339]

If you are riding with others and trying to maintain a certain speed, the add on sensors are much better. They also work better if you are in deep forest or canyons and want to measure every meter of distance.

 

[ActionJackson]

Live Track
You can share your ride with family or friends: It works exactly as Strava Beacon.

Excellent review Stefan! If you by chance have a screenshot of what the tracking beacon looks like can you please post it? Strava Beacon is useless in Japan because it doesn’t provide lat / long or geo location names etc. - here’s a sample :

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Wahoo Live Track shows your actual ride progress, and the remaining route (if you ride with a Route). It does not show the ride data (all are zeroes) though.

If you are riding with others and trying to maintain a certain speed, the add on sensors are much better. They also work better if you are in deep forest or canyons and want to measure every meter of distance.

An excellent comment! Thank you!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Additional information:
There is a known glitch of the Wahoo ELEMNT Roam: If the stop takes a long time, the ELEMNT might lose the connection with the e-bike "sensor". Restarting the motor won't help: The user has to restart the ELEMNT. Fortunately, the current ride will be restored. Downside: The ELEMNT restart and the ride recovery take some time.

It is not possible to restart a Garmin Edge during the ride but I have not heard about losing the sensor connection by the Edge on a ride and during any stops.

 

[kahn]

Additional information:
There is a known glitch of the Wahoo ELEMNT Roam: If the stop takes a long time, the ELEMNT might lose the connection with the e-bike "sensor". Restarting the motor won't help: The user has to restart the ELEMNT. Fortunately, the current ride will be restored. Downside: The ELEMNT restart and the ride recovery take some time.

It is not possible to restart a Garmin Edge during the ride but I have not heard about losing the sensor connection by the Edge on a ride and during any stops.

I guess part of the "lost" connection might be the fact that if a stop is too long the Specialized bike turns off the power completely. No power - the connection to the Garmin/Wahoo/whatever might be severed.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The bike computer should continually search for sensors. My brother was turning his Giant Trance E+ off for stops, yet his Garmin could reconnect at each turning the motor on.

 

[kahn]

The bike computer should continually search for sensors. My brother was turning his Giant Trance E+ off for stops, yet his Garmin could reconnect at each turning the motor on.

Here's what happens when Mission Control loses a connection for a while and then reconnects. We were not flying but on a ferry boat and the Specialized was off for about 45 minutes and then 30 minutes. It did not have those same long tracks when we stopped for lunch since we were not moving.

 

[ActionJackson]

Wahoo Live Track shows your actual ride progress, and the remaining route (if you ride with a Route). It does not show the ride data (all are zeroes) though.
View attachment 102192

Thanks. Appears they’re using Mapbox so maybe there’s a chance. We did find a workaround which is simply sharing the location via iPhone.

 

[DaveMatthews]

The bike computer should continually search for sensors. My brother was turning his Giant Trance E+ off for stops, yet his Garmin could reconnect at each turning the motor on.

Many times I've stopped at a store or a rest area and left the Garmin 530 on/recording the ride. The Stance shuts itself off after 3 to 5 mins or so (I haven't timed it), but when I start the bike up again the Garmin immediately resumes the ride/monitoring.
On top of that, most of the time I take the Garmin with me into the store, way out of range for the Bluetooth or ANT+ to remain connected to the Stance.
When I return everything immediately syncs up again with no intervention by me except perhaps to simply power up the bike again.
Love it!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Many times I've stopped at a store or a rest area and left the Garmin 530 on/recording the ride. The Stance shuts itself off after 3 to 5 mins or so (I haven't timed it), but when I start the bike up again the Garmin immediately resumes the ride/monitoring.
On top of that, most of the time I take the Garmin with me into the store, way out of range for the Bluetooth or ANT+ to remain connected to the Stance.
When I return everything immediately syncs up again with no intervention by me except perhaps to simply power up the bike again.
Love it!

I recommended the 530 to my brother based on your advice Dave, and my brother is very happy with it! On the other hand, my latest gravel cycling group ride involved no less than three Roam

 

[DaveMatthews]

I recommended the 530 to my brother based on your advice Dave, and my brother is very happy with it! On the other hand, my latest gravel cycling group ride involved no less than three Roam

I'm certain Wahoo will patch/fix the anomaly you're experiencing, no worries. And it's great that we have so many devices/options to choose from!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Jacek has asked me why I bought the Roam but recommended the 530 to him. My answer was simple: "You own a Giant, and I own a Spesh. Let us own different bike computers, too, to compare different devices". What a surprise! Differently operated, the products of two different brands share practically the same functionality!

 

[DaveMatthews]

Jacek has asked me why I bought the Roam but recommended the 530 to him. My answer was simple: "You own a Giant, and I own a Spesh. Let us own different bike computers, too, to compare different devices". What a surprise! Differently operated, the products of two different brands share practically the same functionality!

Yeah, I think all of the choices have most of the desired functionality. It comes down to how they're presented and ease of use.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Here's what happens when Mission Control loses a connection for a while and then reconnects. We were not flying but on a ferry boat and the Specialized was off for about 45 minutes and then 30 minutes. It did not have those same long tracks when we stopped for lunch since we were not moving.

View attachment 102219

Good thing about the ELEMNT is that when it looses the connection with the e-bike, it is switching to the GPS very soon. That way, your ride is still tracked albeit less accurately.

I wonder what would have happened if I PAUSED the device prior to switching the motor off.

 

[jlubeck]

I have used a Garmin Edge 1030 for years with a Garmin Remote. It works flawlessly and I do not have to take my hands off the hoods in order to flip through screens. I am getting the Turbo remote buttons installed shortly and there may be a little bit of a war on the right shifter for real estate.
I have also found an excellent data field to add to my edge.

Connect IQ Store | Free Watch Faces and Apps | Garmin

apps.garmin.com

It can be configured for anywhere from 2 to 10 fields. I have it configured for the only 2 fields I am interested in (Support level, battery remaining) and integrated into the home screen. It neatly takes up 2 of the 7 fields on the first screen. Nearly all of the info I am interested in (time, distance, elevation, heart rate, battery remaining, support level and time of day) are on my 1st Garmin screen. Remote button has a hot key to flip to the other screen of interest (map).

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I have also found an excellent data field to add to my edge.

My brother uses this on his Edge 530, too.

Besides, my current config of ELEMNT Roam is this:

The Battery % in the left column is for e-bike, and the Battery % field bottom-right is for the device battery.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The First Negative Wahoo ELEMNT Roam Ride Report

If you ride a bike with no sensors, the Roam solely depends on its GPS, which might be inaccurate but it works. Add a speed sensor (it is actually a wheel RPM sensor) to get more accurate distance measurement; in case the sensor gets disconnected, Roam will switch to the no-sensor mode, and everything is still fine. It is not so nice when you have connected your e-bike as a sensor:

Case A: Let us assume the entire e-bike gets disconnected for any reason: the Roam will switch to its bare bone version, which is fine (had such a situation once)
Case B: Let us assume only the wheel RPM sensor of the e-bike got disconnected because of some reason (probably a software bug or whatever). In such a situation, you still can see the E-Bike Reported Speed, Battery Level %, Cadence but Biker's Power value becomes zero. However, the Roam thinks the e-bike is stationary, and gets into Auto-Stop, meaning the Distance and Time variables get frozen, and your ride is not recorded anymore. What a bummer!

I should always keep BLEvo running on my smartphone in the back pocket for backup purposes! The Roam deprived me of 17 km of my Strava ride data, the data I had to re-create manually post ride. Interestingly, the return ride was served by the Roam without any hiccups. Yes, I could see a large "LEV Motor Error" message on the ELEMNT twice. What error?! No error has been ever reported for my Vado SL before. (I think the Roam is the error really...)

I don't complain. Things happen. I only need to learn to keep a backup device with me. I also intend to disable the Auto-Stop. Besides, the calibrated perfect Schwalbe Smart Sam 37-622 wheel circumference has been 2159 mm (as opposed to the default value of 2180 mm for 38-622).

 

[DaveMatthews]

The First Negative Wahoo ELEMNT Roam Ride Report

If you ride a bike with no sensors, the Roam solely depends on its GPS, which might be inaccurate but it works. Add a speed sensor (it is actually a wheel RPM sensor) to get more accurate distance measurement; in case the sensor gets disconnected, Roam will switch to the no-sensor mode, and everything is still fine. It is not so nice when you have connected your e-bike as a sensor:

Case A: Let us assume the entire e-bike gets disconnected for any reason: the Roam will switch to its bare bone version, which is fine (had such a situation once)
Case B: Let us assume only the wheel RPM sensor of the e-bike got disconnected because of some reason (probably a software bug or whatever). In such a situation, you still can see the E-Bike Reported Speed, Battery Level %, Cadence but Biker's Power value becomes zero. However, the Roam thinks the e-bike is stationary, and gets into Auto-Stop, meaning the Distance and Time variables get frozen, and your ride is not recorded anymore. What a bummer!

View attachment 102389

I should always keep BLEvo running on my smartphone in the back pocket for backup purposes! The Roam deprived me of 17 km of my Strava ride data, the data I had to re-create manually post ride. Interestingly, the return ride was served by the Roam without any hiccups. Yes, I could see a large "LEV Motor Error" message on the ELEMNT twice. What error?! No error has been ever reported for my Vado SL before. (I think the Roam is the error really...)

I don't complain. Things happen. I only need to learn to keep a backup device with me. I also intend to disable the Auto-Stop. Besides, the calibrated perfect Schwalbe Smart Sam 37-622 wheel circumference has been 2159 mm (as opposed to the default value of 2180 mm for 38-622).

Hmmm... bummer. I wonder what is causing the dropouts?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Hmmm... bummer. I wonder what is causing the dropouts?

No slightest idea. I expect some software bugs as the whole thing works via ANT+. The issue has been reported by other Roam users, so I'm not alone. I can see the device occasionally gets updates via WiFi, so the issue might be eventually cured. So far, I intend to Pause the device manually for any stop longer than a minute.