First Look: Wahoo ELEMNT
The current GPS cycling computer market is dominated by Garmin and, increasingly, smartphones. Today, Wahoo announced its entry into the market with the ELEMNT, an intriguing GPS unit that capitalizes on that trend by taking full advantage of smartphones and the Internet.
The ELEMNT is a GPS head unit with a barometric altimeter, ANT+, Bluetooth Smart, and WiFi. A companion app—available for iOS and Android—is used to customize the ELEMNT's display and features, which should be much easier than navigating a maze of an unfamiliar operating system’s sub-menus.
The unit has a 2.7-inch (diagonal) screen, weighs 100 grams, and has four gigabytes of internal memory. The battery is rechargeable through the unit’s USB connection; Wahoo claims 17 hours of battery life. It will connect to both Bluetooth and ANT+ sensors, including power meters.
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Like most of Wahoo’s products, the ELEMNT isn’t closed off from third parties. Once enabled, the ELEMNT can wirelessly upload rides to MapMyRide, Strava, RideWithGPS, and Training Peaks accounts, as well as pull information like workouts from those accounts.
In addition to time, speed, distance, and information pulled from paired devices like power meters, the ELEMNT has maps and provides turn-by-turn directions. Maps are preloaded into the device and the unit can automatically download courses from a rider’s Strava or RideWithGPS accounts.
If allowed, it will also show the real-time location of your friends on the map, so you’ll know if they’re really just a couple minutes away from the ride’s meeting place. (The other riders must also have the ELEMNT and companion app.) There is also a live tracking feature.
When winter comes, the ELEMNT can be used to control Wahoo’s KICKR and KICKR Snap trainer, and it can take the GPS data from a previous ride and simulate it indoors by automatically controlling the trainer’s resistance.
Wahoo calls the high-contrast, gray-scale display “DayBright.” It’s not as pretty as a Garmin Edge 1000’s color display, but it is very clear and readable. Augmenting the display are rows of LED indicators along the top and left side of the screen. These are customizable, allowing the rider to get information like heart rate or power zones at a glance, or as navigation alerts. Naturally, the ELEMNT also provides on-screen alerts for incoming calls, texts, and emails.
The unit will ship with three mounts: out in front, stem, and aero. Additionally, Wahoo is working with K-Edge on a mount.
The ELEMNT will sell for $330 when it goes on sale later this year.
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