In January 2017, I purchased a Wahoo ELEMNT based on reviews and other rider experiences with other brands of cycle computers. I already had the speed, cadence and heart rate monitors as over the Winter I was lucky enough to have loan of an Elite Crono turbo trainer and using Zwift, you need a speed and cadence sensor for your interactive rider to move and provide your output results.
I had been getting good results from my training using Strava through my phone, but it was bulky attached to my handlebars and I wanted something slim and easy to use when riding with gloves on.
In the box you get three mounts.
A TT mount, a stem mount and an out-front mount.
The ELEMNT is simple to use, it has 6 buttons.
- Power/Menu
- Zoom In/Up
- Zoom Out/Down
- Page
- Start/Stop
- Lap
Some riders have already seen the adverts and criticise the ELEMNT's black and white screen. First of all, it can be backlit. With three settings in the menu button, the backlight can be on/off or have a 30 second on/off setting. This makes cycling at all times of the day possible.
Buttons 2 & 3 zoom in and out. Perfect for drilling down to see just your speed or time (all very customisable) or when on the route screen you can zoom out to see more of your route/location or zoom in to get within a few aerial metres of your current location. The best part, you can see the map in any sort of light, bright sunlight doesn't glare in to the screen and using the backlight at night can show you your route so you wont get lost. This is where the top LEDs come in to their own. When using a Komoot route with Turn-by-Turn guidance, the LEDs will point you in your next direction.
Flashing from centre to left when you need to turn left or flashing centre to right when your next turn is to be right. It will stay green in the centre when you are on your route after your previous turn and will go red if you stray from the route you set.
The ELEMNT will bleep at you before turn commands and will bleep again if you go wrong. It bleeps when you pause for more than 3 seconds just to give you some feedback that an action has occurred.
Another great feature is that it will bleep when you start cycling if you haven't already pressed start, the ELEMNT will ask you if you want to start your ride. Pressing the central start button, will quickly process your start command and the time starts.
One of the best things about the 6 buttons, is that each one is easy to use with or without gloves. They have a anti-slip rubber ridge making it so easy with gloves on to feel the button without having to look down. Great if you need to swap pages as you are coming up to a Strava segment. When of course not using 'Automatically change page when coming up to a Strava segment' within the settings feature which can be activated from your mobile.
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| The ELEMNT at the end of your ride will give a review of your stats. |
There are so many features on the app. Allowing friends and family to follow your live link to track where you are. You can customise most of the pages on the ELEMNT from the app. (I do always tell new users to make sure that when setting up your pages, always make sure that you are zoomed out of each page when customising it)
You can in the settings change the left hand LEDs to show your heart rate, power settings, average speed or nothing. Again, useful for different users, I recently started using the LEDs to watch my heart rate. Noticing when my HR increases and how long it takes to decrease again I hope will soon allow me to track and trace my HR zones to become a fitter rider.
For the racers and more competitive of riders out there, you can sync most Power Meters with the ELEMNT. Again, page settings, allow you to show all of the power outputs per lap or route which ever you need to get the most out of your training. Again, the left hand LEDs can track your average power output if you prefer.
The Lap page can be switched on or off and can be edited as required, but it can't be deleted. On the lap settings, you can set a distance for the lap to automatically lap or manual laps by pressing the left hand button when you get to the end of the lap you are on. If you are using Strava, your last session will automatically sync with the ELEMNT when you are close to your device and from here you can drill down in to all of your lap times and statistic. Below you can see one of our VO2 training evenings working with laps.
Click here for comparisons on the ELEMNT, ELEMNT Bolt and ELEMNT Mini
If there is anything else you would like to know about the ELEMNT or other products in the Wahoo range, please speak to my or click on the link below.
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