Wahoo ELEMNT (Roam and Bolt v2) on Specialized e-bikes (Garmin Edge compared)

[dynamic]

I am likely sold on this little guy. The question is only does it replace the garmin forerunner or supplement it.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I have no slightest idea! I was pondering about buying a sports watch but could not find any application for it (for myself). Cycling is my only sports activity. As I am on blood overpressure medications, my HR cannot go really up (so my Polar OH-1 is gathering dust). I am not interested in detailed workout data, I do not plan workouts, and I had no chance to try the latest Wahoo computer on serious hills (none around).

Therefore, I use the Wahoo for this functionality:

• A universal dashboard/display for:
  • Speed
  • Distance & time ridden
  • Clock
  • Thermometer
  • E-bike battery level (works with the SL Range Extender, too. The great feature here is reporting the charge of each battery independently; Specialized presents the integrated value such as 150%)
  • Distance remaining for a route
  • Assistance mode
  • Average speed
  • Cadence
  • Rider's Power
• A GPS navigation tool that easily imports routes from Strava, RwGPS, Komoot and other services. You can ask Wahoo to "Take You To..." and the planned routes are not bad at all! The Re-Routing feature is fast and it works just great!
• A recorder for sports trackers (I automatically upload my rides to Strava and RwGPS).
• I do not use Planned Workouts, Climbing, Strava Segments, or KICKr, ANGi or Garmin Varia integration.

There are two features of ELEMNT computers to be aware of:

• Even if an ELEMNT is an autonomous device, it is good to have a charged smartphone in your pocket in the case you would like to use the "Take Me To..." feature conveniently because...
• ...pointing to your desired destination on the device by using the buttons is indeed tricky!

I have ridden with many members of local gravel cycling clubs. The riders are split into Garmin and Wahoo users, and I should find a Karoo2 user yet In Polish gravel cycling, Wahoo computers are more popular than Garmin. Reasons:

• A "pure" gravel cyclist is not so much interested in workout data, planned workouts, detailed training analysis. (Unless they ride road in peloton, too).
• The Wahoo buttons are very practical in rough terrain, cold & wet weather
• Small size and low weight are appreciated
• Good GPS navigation is the most valuable feature there. For a gravel race (or a group ride), participants are issued with a route, and it is necessary to follow that route to the letter. Of course Garmin can do the same but Wahoo seems to be more focused on that purpose.

 

[Allan47.7339]

I am likely sold on this little guy. The question is only does it replace the garmin forerunner or supplement it.

Look at dcrainmaker's reviews for sports electronics and watches. I use a bike computer for riding and my watch for hiking etc otherwise it's redundant data.

Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM V2 (2022) Bike Computer In-Depth Review

Today Wahoo has announced their latest bike computer, the new Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM. Unofficially it’s the ROAM V2 or ROAM 2022 or ROAM 2nd Edition or whatever you want to call it – but no matter the name, it’s Wahoo’s

www.dcrainmaker.com

 

[dynamic]

Look at dcrainmaker's reviews for sports electronics and watches. I use a bike computer for riding and my watch for hiking etc otherwise it's redundant data.

Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM V2 (2022) Bike Computer In-Depth Review

Today Wahoo has announced their latest bike computer, the new Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM. Unofficially it’s the ROAM V2 or ROAM 2022 or ROAM 2nd Edition or whatever you want to call it – but no matter the name, it’s Wahoo’s

www.dcrainmaker.com

I have read everything dc rainmaker has written on every device I have tried.

The problem for me is ultimately convenience. The watch saves time so far. And it gathers off bike data. However, offbike data doesn’t appear to be very valuable so far. Not to mention that my apple watch gathers all off bike activities (except sleep) just as well. Wearing two watches is also annoying.

 

[steelgtr]

I have a 2022 Turbo Levo Comp and got the new Garmin Explore 2. I don't care about fitness training, etc but do want the most telemetry from the E-Bike itself. I do like the trailforks integration. Does Wahoo do that? Deciding whether to return the Garmin if the Wahoo is better for my needs? (Mostly fire trails, etc nothing too technical) Thanks.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I have a 2022 Turbo Levo Comp and got the new Garmin Explore 2. I don't care about fitness training, etc but do want the most telemetry from the E-Bike itself. I do like the trailforks integration. Does Wahoo do that? Deciding whether to return the Garmin if the Wahoo is better for my needs? (Mostly fire trails, etc nothing too technical) Thanks.

I have answered your questions under another thread.

 

[steelgtr]

Thanks, I really need to know whether either of these will show remaining distance on Gen 3 (2022) Spesh eMtb?

bob

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Thanks, I really need to know whether either of these will show remaining distance on Gen 3 (2022) Spesh eMtb?

bob

You mean, Range? This is the only thing I cannot tell you. Giant e-bikes can display the figure but pre-MasterMind Turbo e-bikes could not because the older Specialized e-bikes did not calculate the Range. Chances are the MasterMind Levo can do it; the capability is in both Garmin Edge and Wahoo ELEMNT.

 

[dynamic]

Thanks, I really need to know whether either of these will show remaining distance on Gen 3 (2022) Spesh eMtb?

bob

I believe both will. But I wouldn’t trust what either says. You can put that info on the internal display. Does this bike have an mcu?

 

[Allan47.7339]

According to the Specialized 2022 Turbo Levo Comp page, it does not have Mastermind. Garmin is trying to add an ebike distance alert when navigating a route to the 1040 but it just generates a nuisance alert on my Creo. I think he will need to use Mission Control or the Blevo app on phone to get distance remaining calculation.

 

[steelgtr]

You mean, Range? This is the only thing I cannot tell you. Giant e-bikes can display the figure but pre-MasterMind Turbo e-bikes could not because the older Specialized e-bikes did not calculate the Range. Chances are the MasterMind Levo can do it; the capability is in both Garmin Edge and Wahoo ELEMNT.

Yes, range. ty

 

[steelgtr]

I believe both will. But I wouldn’t trust what either says. You can put that info on the internal display. Does this bike have an mcu?

It has the basic TCU not the Mastermind.

 

[steelgtr]

I have the Edge Explore 2 and it has data fields for "smart travel" and "Range" but they display low wrong data that doesn't change when traveling.

 

[dynamic]

According to the Specialized 2022 Turbo Levo Comp page, it does not have Mastermind. Garmin is trying to add an ebike distance alert when navigating a route to the 1040 but it just generates a nuisance alert on my Creo. I think he will need to use Mission Control or the Blevo app on phone to get distance remaining calculation.

Garmin range estimates is broken in a bunch of ways. The only reason I went back to garmin is because:

1) my bikes no longer support the ebike protocol. Which eliminates most of the problems I had with garmin.

2) my next bike will not be electric at all, and I find the garmin feature set to be better in that scenario.

Note: I have owned wahoo and garmin now. I dislike/like aspects of each.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

1) my bikes no longer support the ebike protocol. Which eliminates most of the problems I had with garmin.

"Break a thermometer, you will have no fever"

 

[steelgtr]

What I don't know regarding Range calcs is if Garmin/Wahoo are getting that data from the bike or if they are doing the calcs based on available data (speed, mode,battery, etc)

 

[steelgtr]

If the computer is calculating the range, I may try Wahoo instead.

 

[steelgtr]

According to the Specialized 2022 Turbo Levo Comp page, it does not have Mastermind. Garmin is trying to add an ebike distance alert when navigating a route to the 1040 but it just generates a nuisance alert on my Creo. I think he will need to use Mission Control or the Blevo app on phone to get distance remaining calculation.

Mission Control only supports that with Mastermind TCU Not sure about Blevo

 

[Stefan Mikes]

What I don't know regarding Range calcs is if Garmin/Wahoo are getting that data from the bike or if they are doing the calcs based on available data (speed, mode,battery, etc)

The Range parameter is provided by the e-bike (it belongs to the E-Bike data fields). I can guarantee this information (it works with my brother's Giant Trance E+ Pro 2). It has never worked with Gen 1 TCD-w or TCU.

If the computer is calculating the range, I may try Wahoo instead.

No, it is the e-bike.

Mission Control only supports that with Mastermind TCU Not sure about Blevo

As none of my Turbo e-bikes has the Mastermind, I use BLEvo for calculating the Range (it is very accurate). I ride with the smartphone (running BLEvo) in my backpocket. I check the Range only occasionally, that is, during my stops.

That was like the BLEvo dashboard looked like when I was using the smartphone on the bars and was using the app features to the max. Now, the smartphone has been relegated to my pocket and I use the O-Synce remote to mimic the performance of MasterMind MicroTune with Gen 1 Specialized e-bikes.

The choice of Garmin vs. Wahoo is very personal. I have had Roam v1, Bolt v2 and Roam v2. My choice of Wahoo was dictated by perfect buttons, allowing me operating the computers all year round including frost and raining in gloves. I also like the concept of configuring the bike computer from the smartphone. (With Garmin, you can only configure it from the device; make a single change in the data screeen organization, and you have do all the work from the scratch for the Edge).

Still, both devices offer equal capabilities. Only Garmin Climb Pro is believed to be a better feature but I hear Wahoo has improved their Climbing recently, too (I do not use the Climbing features so I do not know).

 

[steelgtr]

The Range parameter is provided by the e-bike (it belongs to the E-Bike data fields). I can guarantee this information (it works with my brother's Giant Trance E+ Pro 2). It has never worked with Gen 1 TCD-w or TCU.


No, it is the e-bike.


As none of my Turbo e-bikes has the Mastermind, I use BLEvo for calculating the Range (it is very accurate). I ride with the smartphone (running BLEvo) in my backpocket. I check the Range only occasionally, that is, during my stops.

View attachment 143557
That was like the BLEvo dashboard looked like when I was using the smartphone on the bars and was using the app features to the max. Now, the smartphone has been relegated to my pocket and I use the O-Synce remote to mimic the performance of MasterMind MicroTune with Gen 1 Specialized e-bikes.

The choice of Garmin vs. Wahoo is very personal. I have had Roam v1, Bolt v2 and Roam v2. My choice of Wahoo was dictated by perfect buttons, allowing me operating the computers all year round including frost and raining in gloves. I also like the concept of configuring the bike computer from the smartphone. (With Garmin, you can only configure it from the device; make a single change in the data screeen organization, and you have do all the work from the scratch for the Edge).

Still, both devices offer equal capabilities. Only Garmin Climb Pro is believed to be a better feature but I hear Wahoo has improved their Climbing recently, too (I do not use the Climbing features so I do not know).

Thanks, I did pay for Blevo and guess that's the way for non mastermind Levos. A bit overwhelming to setup but I'll dig a little deeper. Thanks for the info

bob