I’ve been a huge fan of Wahoo since I got the original Elemnt a few years ago…it just worked and did not come with extra bells & whistles providing unnecessary complications. The in-app screen configuration is still fantastic.
That said, it is becoming increasingly difficult to upload activities through the Wahoo app. When checking the screen where I can see what apps it is uploading it too (Strava, Training Peaks, etc), the wheels just spin and spin. I usually need to close the app and restart it.
This had been one of the biggest benefits when I switched to Wahoo…files uploaded seamlessly. Really kinda bummed it is becoming such a hassle.
Not being a Wahoo owner I could be talking garbage but Garmins can be quite slow until you delete their history. Can you delete some of the Wahoo history files?
If its new I doubt its the ride log history; my old 130 became very slow after only a few months of ride history. At least it was only syncing to GC but it took long enough!
Had a bolt. Navigation was terrible. Did a 1700km multi day ride. When it rebooted one day it lost the history and wanted to send me back to the start of the route for 4 days. At least I could follow the bread crumbs. It was not smart enough to continue the route. Had a 1030 that was great. But it was getting long in the tooth. Downgraded to a 130 plus as Garmin said it would work with everything including the rally pedals (not really.). Was going to use the 130 plus until a 1040 comes out. I do a few back country bike packing races a year. I am just going to use My samsung phone for long trips. I have a way to charge it on route and will use rwgps for backcountry routes. For regular everyday riding I will just use the 130 plus. It has performed much better than the bolt did non navigation. But then the bolt lasted way longer than my 3 week experience with a kicker core! lol
I would say it works ~85-95% as well. I’ve never had the screen totally not respond with gloves but it may take a couple swipes or taps to get it to register. But usually if I’m riding with big gloves it’s also in the snow so I don’t mess with my computer as much as I might in the summer.
Can’t speak directly to any challenges Garmin may be having, but I know our IC lead times aren’t getting any shorter. Still up to 1 year for some (including Bluetooth modules).
I still have it somewhere and I liked the unit despite its bugs (main one being that when it sync’d via bluetooth it would drop all the ant + sensors) but after getting used on daily commutes for a couple of years its battery started getting sketchy.
The form and screen of the edge 130 are top notch. It was the main two reasons why I bought it and it didn’t disappointed, BUT…
Every update fixed one bug and created another two
It’s a summer computer only. It turns off when temp goes below +5C. Early morning Spring rides anyone? Nope!
The computer have very simple fields, which is fine being the bottom trim, but at some point the software was capped to only 2 IQ fields for the whole pages. This is intentionally downgrading your equipment.
I used it for commuting too. As I have a speed sensor I don’t need GPS (to save battery). I setted the computer to no GPS. This was fine until a software update reverted to GPS anytime you turned it off, plus you are now forced to categorise the ride. This is was done to force me to provide data for the Garmin heatmaps. There are plenty of of MTB rides in central London now
The charging port is in the back of the computer. The battery life was not great so if you want to plug a power bank it’s more difficult than the “conventional” bottom facing port.
The close/restricted ecosystem feels to pushy. It’s my data.
For a year now i use my old phone with Xert and Komoot. I created a rule to change the displayed app with the volume buttons and it rocks!
I’m also more conscious about digital waist. Hoping the phone lasts until Karoo V3 is realised.
In a few words, Garmin abuses it’s dominant position to do whatever they want. Happy to support the underdogs!
Rant over… cheers for listening, I feel mutch better now
So I got myself a new Garmin 530 after 5 happy years with Wahoo. I decided on a change due to the better MTB mapping and the integration of trail forks on Garmin. I paired my tech and all appeared good and then went to ride and it would not pick up the power2max metre. After spending hours over a week trying to make it work, checking batteries, checking with my wahoo, checking firmwatre etc etc it still would not work. Garmin software sucks as does the setting up procedure. I guess if it works well then great it has more features etc than other bike computers but in my past experience that is a big if. After a week I sold it on and happily back to the wahoo.
I am having a good experience with my Garmin 530. Battery life is excellent. Screen layout is good. I don’t have experience with Wahoo. Since I have years of data in Garmin ecosystem, I stayed with them.
i did the same switch and never had much of a trouble with the 530 except a button problem on my first device I eventually exchanged.
Features work, syncs flawlessly and the dashboard/app are way ahead of Wahoo - loads of data and analysis.
I am lost between Edge 830 and Bolt 2. I am planning to run 600km+ brevet and some guys say they have seen other randonneurs losing their rides using Bolt. But I see here a lot of comments from long distance riders that they prefer Bolt for better stability than Edge for long rides. Which one should I go?
I can’t comment regarding the latest wahoo firmware.
I have done 3 everests (I’m slow, so 24+ hours) with an original element, and have had issues on 2 of them due to the length of the ride. I don’t think I had an issue on my most recent one, which was 2020.
I did not lose the rides, however the head unit went from working fine to displaying ‘recovering ride’, which took 10-15 minutes to complete. It did recover the ride, however I was stopped at the side of the road waiting for it to complete. The only data ‘lost’ was the bit that was not recorded between the time it started recovering and I stopped riding. All data was recovered. First time I continued on, then hit this again. At that point I stopped the ride, and started a new one, combining the files afterward.
So on 2 of my 3 long rides I have had significant, but not terrible issues with my Wahoo. (again, this is on firmware from years ago - the rides in question were 2018,2019,2020.) My edge 530 has been fine, although my edge 500 did eat a few rides, which prompted me moving to wahoo.
I strongly prefer the wahoo interface to garmin. Moving to the edge530 from the wahoo was almost as bad as moving back to the edge 500 - you are really going back to another era in user interface design. If you are familiar with even an ancient garmin, the current edge series (or even watches) will be quite familiar. Garmin can do more stuff (ie connect IQ fields), is more configurable, but then has weird quirks like needing to use a connect IQ field to get ‘lap ascent’. (I think that was the field that is not provided stock.)
Since you are looking at the 830 which is a touchscreen my UI complaints don’t really apply, I haven’t used one of those, just the 530. I am now using the garmin more as it seems to have more accurate elevation tracking that wahoo, at least for my units.
Thanks a lot for the comment. I understand 530 which is basically 830 without touchscreen with everything else identical is a good option. I hope Bolt2 doesn’t have same “recovering ride” issue that your Element showed.
I agree with you regarding interface and personally prefer wahoo for this reason so I would like to go for Bolt2 but am just not sure it will keep my 600km+ rides without losing them.
I had a similar issue. I was riding a 1700 km ride over a week or so. On day three the wahoo kind of puked and lost the ride. I then rebooted and when it recovered I loaded the ride back up. The problem was that it would not pick up the route from where I was at. All I could do was route back to start or I think I could have reversed the route and started over from the end and then used navigate to start for distance. I was able to follow the breadcrumbs on the screen but as I was not in the actual ride I did not have access to all the screens if I remember correctly. I ended up just continuing the ride and watched my distance from start continue to increase for the rest of the ride. Picked up a garmin 1030 shortly after that. As I do a lot of long multi day trips I will never trust a wahoo again. Garmin simply asks if you want to reroute to the start or not and then picks up the route(I believe as its been a bit as I sold the 1030 last year hoping for a 1040).
The wahoo interface where you set up everything on your phone is light years ahead of Garmin and makes the garmin look like an apple 2 for usability. Really hoping they have adopted on phone setup for this new generation.
different smell