Wahoo elmnt ROAM -at intervals - review

[redefined_cycles]

Got the ROAM and thought it might be useful (for some) a long term review set. So here it is

[Richard G]

Bit light on detail that review...

[redefined_cycles]

Bit light on detail that review...

Haha. Its coming. Although the first one is classed as the 1st hour review so... watch this space!

[redefined_cycles]

So... I started off this morning opening up the box which had been recieved from Condor as everywhere else was out of stock (plus Condor people are nice to deal with and efficient and polite). Looking good I thought but then tried to get the device rputing me from itself to the local park (one of the main new features, along with the colour in the background which mainly for me is showing the water/streams etc so a from me for obvious reasons).

However upong first check of navigation to park it all started going a bit off and negative feeligs setting in. Kept telling me that I needed to load maps (but they were already upon the unit) so I was perplexed...

Cut forward 15 minutes and after a sit at the park whilst little one rode around on his Islabike, I'd figured that the maps needed updating.

Got home, already connected to home wifi (which as its predecwssor the Bolt, it did seamlessly), I deleted the extra maps - for South America etc etc etc - thus saving myself over 1.3g of storage space which was a negative review when one reviewer sonewhere on web stated it only had 500mb of free space - and updated the UK/Europe maps. Ready for work, so I gave it its first test...





Loaded up Peaks divide (which I'll probably never do as its a lot gravelbiky and I only have Frieda and Stan (the Sonder)), which be around 10 miles west of me and then commenced to travel in opposite direction. I'd told the unit to route me there and it kept seamlessly shpwing me a blue line with correct direction. Each time I missed a turn and in a few seconds it'd fogured out the next turn already. Once it goes on the route that you want thw arrows become black. Got to Bradford and smiled.

First test: road bike (actually in car at below mph average) and only on roads. I gave it a thumbs up and pulled out one of them thwre northerly smiles (apologies Londoners )



Couple of minutes later before getting out of car I turned on the phones data and the ride was already there in Strava

First impressions: well done Wahoo...

Wahoo

[due]

Good start, cheers for sharing!

Interested to see how it will cope off-road. I know it's still mostly road orientated, but if I head off down a bridleway for example will it have a fit and tell me to get back to the nearest road, or just go with the flow and keep navigating? Might be largely down to how it treats the 'flags' given to tracks on OSM as either rideable or unrideable, which aren't always correct.

[Richard G]

You got any pics of what it does when you're off a road / track?

[Asposium]

???

when on a bikepacking event we're (typically) following a line, so the ability to re-route on the roads matters diddly squat

battery life and readability when the backlight is on low would be useful. will the unit last ~24hours in constant use (for a BB200 for example)

can bluetooth, wifi, and unnecessary battery draining features be turned off?

is the charging USB port accessable when mounted (assuming here the batteries are not user changable)

is there microSD card slot? useful to have the route saved onto a microSD card, then, in the event of needed to hard reset the unit can simple navigate from the card having wiped the user data from the device

as mentioned in your previous thread, we (as bikepackers) desire a different feature set to a roadie

[redefined_cycles]

To answer all above Qs but not in any particular order... dont forget, its an intervalled (is that a descriptive enough word!)review and this first one was the first hours impressions

No memory card but I suppose you could say its as good as the memory on the phone as mine (previous Bolt) used to hold over 50 big rputes on the device and/or phone. 1.2gb is still available on the ROAM and thats after having synced (automatically from the phone app) at least 30 routes onto it.

Regards batt life and all, BOLY used to last me a 15 hour ride without much ado so this 17 hours prescribed seems appropriate (but it will get clarified once its tested - hopefully in second week of June when on a ride to the South.

Richard, off road capabilities (though not tested on a BB) were decebt on the ROAM so am expecting decent enought from this but whatch this space.

Asposium, the interface of where the charging port is.a bit tight when used with its standard upfront mount and (similar design) I used to get round this by using a Garmin upfront mount where the device sits higher up and the port is accessible for charging on the fly...

Readability on the Bolt was good (veey good in sunlight) and the ROAM screen looks sharper. But its still to be tested.

Lastly, its all kindof a WildWest review of real life living with it and like I said, I shall update as and when I've managed to put out on in/on the field a bit more...

[redefined_cycles]

Oh... I forgot to say. I only ever needed to hard reset the Bolt (previously) on a few occassi9ns and if routes are wiped then they can just be added by turning on bluetooth and dragging from phone (just clicking a little turn Right icon)... So far this seems the exact same...

[Asposium]

Oh... I forgot to say. I only ever needed to hard reset the Bolt (previously) on a few occassi9ns and if routes are wiped then they can just be added by turning on bluetooth and dragging from phone (just clicking a little turn Right icon)... So far this seems the exact same...

does this ^ process require an active internet connection?

[redefined_cycles]

Nope... It really is (if your looking for a jack of all trades, no bells nor whistles approach) is a lovely concept the Wahoo team are onto.

In DC rainmakers review he classed the fact that Wahoo not investigating the competition and all their latest gadgetery as a poor show. I actually viewed that as the very opposite and hopefully it'll show through... Am thinking that the Wahoo way is, lets be the best we can be without too many glitches and allow the competition do continue as they are...

Will confirm in 15 (to be sure)

[redefined_cycles]

JUST ANOTHER INTERVAL (in pics)

[redefined_cycles]

Granted, the only someone in their wrong mind would have the whole (although it is breadcrumbed but without the reduction in dots/points from RWGPS) HT550 in one file...

But, the answer to Asposium, would be a yes...

Need gps and bluetooth turned on though (it must be that low enegry bluetooth connection thingy)...

[Asposium]

assuming i am reading your reply correctly; the requirement for internet connectivity for disater recovery (i.e. re-install the route following a hard reset) is a major flaw [i'll be generous and call it a "limitation"].

as is the absence of a microSD slot.

far easier to have the route of a microSD card safely stored in one's luggage.
been there, trust me, when the sub standard has very much hit the fan the last thing one wants to be doing is faffing with one's phone. keep in mind the GPS will have also "forgotten" the phone during the reset.
will a reset be needed? likely not. if it is will it be at the most inconvenient moment? of course.

it does read as if you're trying to convince yourself this is a good device for bikepacking.

sorry, still don't see how this is "better" {*} than an oregon

a rhetorical question based on a hypothetical situation (though based on a very plausible reality)
you're riding the BB200, and going for a sub-24, so stopping for any length of time isn't an option.
the battery in the wahoo is running low, and won't last until the end
it's raining
to connect a USB cable risks water ingress
what do you do?

----
{*} "better" is a subjective measure and very much a matter of one's person opinion; though in terms of the oregon (or similar) seems to be the collective group opinion

[redefined_cycles]

Yup. Definitely. Sorry if it feels like I'm convincing myself. I merelt needed something that worked both on and off road and was cheap enough...

Not sure if I'm able to do a sub 24 hour time to be honest. Time will tel and I'll only be entering off course if I feel I might be able to live through the trauma

[Asposium]

Yup. Definitely. Sorry if it feels like I'm convincing myself. I merelt needed something that worked both on and off road and was cheap enough...

no need to apologise, was merely an observation.

when i do such things (try to convince myself) it is usually because i know said purchase was a bad idea.

[Richard G]

it's raining
to connect a USB cable risks water ingress
what do you do?

You always leave it plugged in. You can connect / disconnect at the power pack end if you're worried about running out the battery (you wont).

I must admit that this unit reminds me of the Lezyne GPS I bought (and almost immediately returned). Good on paper, but really not ideal for bikepacking (which was a shame as the battery life was vaguely exciting).

[redefined_cycles]

Just a quick one. Been out for the first ride (only 18 minutes but still, its the first)

Kept it on routing mode and it continued to navigate and redraw my line as I missed turns. I remember on my 1000 (Garmin) way back when, before I got my Bolt a year or 2 ago, I would try my best to not go off turn as the experience was just not as seamless. So an A* (provisionally) to Wahoo for managing to make it a nice a d friendly experience of navigating and redrawing the boundries etc...

20 mins in nav mode with the back light off (obviously you can't extrapolate fully the battery life from this but still, its some news!) And I managed to go through 4% of batt. Am having good feelings and hoping that if I don't use the auto dimming options and draw my route with breadcrumb (no turn by turns) it should last a good while...

Someone mentioned screen previously and the best way to describe it is, it looks like a kindle (if that makes any sense) with the matt effect that should hopefully (the Bolt was good in sunlight and not too much glare with the matt screen) be nice on a bright day... For some reason the screen texture feels like an upgrade over the Bolt but I can't quite put my finger on it...

Couple of negatives (but only cos I'm being really picky and dont wanna convince myself that I dont wanna keep convincing myself that I made a good choice (for me) too much

The cover that covers the plug. Seems a bit flimsy and I imagine I would need to double and triple check for risk of water (nevrr was a problem with the Bolt and maybe I'm being OCD)... So I will be keeping a keen eye on that...

There was one more thing... let me thinks....



Right... the buttons are a bit stiff and need to be really pressed (the main 3 on front but not the side ones which are protruding so good) and a risk that in time (4 or 5 years!!) they mihht get worn if ones not careful at not poking em with nails!!

[Asposium]

Kept it on routing mode and it continued to navigate and redraw my line as I missed turns.

but we don't use routing mode on events.

create a simple GPX (even if only round the block), load that GPX, then follow.

turn off re-routing

go off the GPX and see what it does

[Asposium]

20 mins in nav mode with the back light off (obviously you can't extrapolate fully the battery life from this but still, its some news!) And I managed to go through 4% of batt. Am having good feelings and hoping that if I don't use the auto dimming options and draw my route with breadcrumb (no turn by turns) it should last a good while...

4% in 20mins is 12% per hour (assuming a linear drop)

100 / 12 = ~8.333hours (8h20mins)

hmmm

[johnnystorm]

assuming i am reading your reply correctly; the requirement for internet connectivity for disater recovery (i.e. re-install the route following a hard reset) is a major flaw [i'll be generous and call it a "limitation"].

as is the absence of a microSD slot.

far easier to have the route of a microSD card safely stored in one's luggage.
been there, trust me, when the sub standard has very much hit the fan the last thing one wants to be doing is faffing with one's phone. keep in mind the GPS will have also "forgotten" the phone during the reset.
will a reset be needed? likely not. if it is will it be at the most inconvenient moment? of course.

it does read as if you're trying to convince yourself this is a good device for bikepacking.

sorry, still don't see how this is "better" {*} than an oregon

a rhetorical question based on a hypothetical situation (though based on a very plausible reality)
you're riding the BB200, and going for a sub-24, so stopping for any length of time isn't an option.
the battery in the wahoo is running low, and won't last until the end
it's raining
to connect a USB cable risks water ingress
what do you do?

----
{*} "better" is a subjective measure and very much a matter of one's person opinion; though in terms of the oregon (or similar) seems to be the collective group opinion

The odometer on my Elemnt says I've used it for 9600km so hopefully this is an informed opinion....

In this time the Wahoo has never spazzed out like all my garmins have and needed a reset. The closest that it has come to that was on LEL when I had plugged in a dead battery and I ran it flat and it turned off. I wasn't paying attention to why it switched off so I switched it back on and used it until it switched off again and I realised my error. Once a new battery pack was connected it rebooted immediately, said "recovering ride", counted up from 0 to 100% and carried on like nothing had happened.

For two BB200s (and countless audaxes) I've left the cable plugged in to it, and plugged in a battery when it got to about 20%. If you recall BB200 was rather damp. Both my exposure six pack and Diablo went on the blink, the wahoo was fine.

Regarding phone faffing it's not too hard to find a phone that's waterproof and in any case the time it takes to add a file most phones will survive a few drops of rain. I also think it sends the file via Bluetooth so no wifi, etc needed.

[johnnystorm]

Kept it on routing mode and it continued to navigate and redraw my line as I missed turns.

but we don't use routing mode on events.

create a simple GPX (even if only round the block), load that GPX, then follow.

turn off re-routing

go off the GPX and see what it does

Presumably it works the same as the old Elemnt and flashes red LEDs at you and reflashes green when you go back on course.

[johnnystorm]

20 mins in nav mode with the back light off (obviously you can't extrapolate fully the battery life from this but still, its some news!) And I managed to go through 4% of batt. Am having good feelings and hoping that if I don't use the auto dimming options and draw my route with breadcrumb (no turn by turns) it should last a good while...

4% in 20mins is 12% per hour (assuming a linear drop)

100 / 12 = ~8.333hours (8h20mins)

hmmm

Mine is a bit wierd as you can lose 2% while it finds a signal as you get your bike out and then goes on to last for 200km.

[redefined_cycles]

Kept it on routing mode and it continued to navigate and redraw my line as I missed turns.

but we don't use routing mode on events.

create a simple GPX (even if only round the block), load that GPX, then follow.

turn off re-routing

go off the GPX and see what it does

Presumably it works the same as the old Elemnt and flashes red LEDs at you and reflashes green when you go back on course.

Does indeed. It was flashing and cursing me for a fair while (possibly at least 15 mins) but kept cool in the navigating dept...

Regarding my mention of them buttons. After writing that I reflected and remembered my Bolt. I think I had that feeling upin first use of that too and thereafter it was fine so possibly I was just being harsh (fot being harshes sake)...

I formed opinion: yup (but probably misjudged and hopefully the buttons will wear in and remain nice and stiff but not go loose... as opposed to being ok now and then becoming floppy in the yeats ahead ) ran my Bolt throigh at least around 3000 miles of which around only 500 max was off roading. Buttons stayed nice and never bothered me...

[redefined_cycles]

Kept it on routing mode and it continued to navigate and redraw my line as I missed turns.

but we don't use routing mode on events.

create a simple GPX (even if only round the block), load that GPX, then follow.

turn off re-routing

go off the GPX and see what it does

Yup... stil to come and on week of 11th (I think) I've a 200 mile road ride to Landan. So will be able to test the breadcrumb, battery life and feedback that hopefully...