I always feel the need to defend Garmin when I see statements like this…
They were terrible in the edge 820 edge 1000 era - but in the last 2-3 years software has been really good and i’d say “wahoo lost my ride” and “hammerhead lost my ride” are far more common statements on strava than the “F&^%&g Garmin” that used to be everywhere.
For connectivity issues between Garmin head units now i’d be looking at the software or settings on the phone rather than assume a bug with Garmin software - and i fully admit that wasn’t always the case.
When you move back or forward to a different step, the erg resistance moves to that step.
Anyway - like many, I ride in a group who use Garmin, Wahoo and Hammerhead. I have seen use issues with all. I suspect that at least 50% of the time those issues are the user, and the rest of the time they are quirks with the unit. I think all are fully functional. All have a couple standout features, and all have a few quirks to live with. Even though I am a Garmin guy, it sounds like you are already a Wahoo person, so I would suggest that the path of least resistance is to stay with Wahoo.
I did the mistake of trying a Garmin after running Wahoo for many years, took me one ride before I went back.
Some things that are key for me in a bike computer:
I can look at the road while I zoom in on the map (perfect for descents where I need to quickly zoom in and out based on corners etc). Being able to do that without looking down is really nice.
Less is more for me, I ride 95% with a map, and all I need is to see which road I am on, and which turn to take next. I don’t care for street names or whatnot, I need quick glance and good contrast.
I like to run everything from the app, takes way way way less time. Once route is loaded, I just want to press start and stop on the unit. If I need to change route I’ll do that on my phone.
Wahoo has very good anti reflection and visibility in the sun. Felt like I saw more of the trees and sky on the Garmin (1040) I tested.
With that said, it feels like those who dislike Wahoo have never used one, and those who have gone from Garmin to Wahoo don’t go back. And those who run Wahoo and try Garmin immediately go back to Wahoo. At least within my circle.
I like the comparison someone else mentioned a while ago:
Garmin is like Android, perfect for those who wants a Swiss army knife that does 100 things mediocre, Wahoo is more like iPhone, not as feature rich, but it does the basic things very well.
I don’t care for widgets, touch screen, do it all on the unit etc. I set mine up, and then I want it to just work. Wahoo is probably more a performance computer, where Garmin is an “adventure and feature” computer.
Also, cannot stand the bird chirp noise from the Garmin, the beeps on the Wahoo are so so much better.
I agree, i really dont see a reason to buy a roam over the bolt. That being said, i went thru 3 bolts last year ( the temp sensor and elevation went out on all). Wahoo kept replacing, so warranty was great.
Here is my experience on Bolt vs. Roam. I started with the original Bolt, then upgraded to the Bolt V2 after the climbing features came out. Then I signed up for my “A” event that would be 10+ hours. I began to worry about the possibility of the Bolt’s battery not being able to complete the ride. I did not want to have to even think about battery life for my event so I upgraded to the new Roam.
I am much happier with the Roam. Here are the advantages as I see them.
Larger map screen is easier to read
More available data fields means I’m not switching screens nearly as much
Battery life
and here’s the surprise: The larger unit means the buttons are quicker to locate, differentiate and press, especially with winter gloves. But the ease of button selection/pressing is very noticeable even without gloves.
Since I only had the new Bolt for a month before deciding to upgrade. As @alexfthenakis mentioned, Wahoo offered me a “crash replacement” discount. I thought that was nice too.
I was plenty happy enough with my bolt and would have kept it until it’s battery life was totally fubar (when retired it was only 6 hours max) if it wasn’t for tracking issues.
It was easy and simple to operate and did more than enough for me. So I’d probably still be in the wahoo ecosystem and looking at roams otherwise.
Not a Garmin defender, but I’m always puzzled when I see the many complaints about Garmin reliability/functionality/etc, since it doesn’t track with my experience. I first began using Garmin navigation hardware professionally in 1999 and have owned multiple iterations of their fitness GPS units since then, too. In that time I’ve had exactly three issues with my Garmin fitness unit(s) not doing something it was supposed to do:
2019 during a Gran Fondo in MD my 820 died unexpectedly 1.5miles from the finish. I blame myself, though, since I had a portable battery and was enjoying the ride so much I wasn’t tracking battery usage. Plugged in the external battery and was able to save/download ride without issue. Battery life was a constant issue with this particular unit, though. I learned that once it dropped to 30% to plug in an external battery since it could die without warning.
2021 during a regular fitness ride (same 820) failed to upload. Ride was saved on the unit but wouldn’t download. Never figured out what happened here; “Garmin Gremlins” at work I suppose.
2023 during fitness/recreational ride close to home my 830 froze up and stopped recording for approximately 1 mile, then began functioning normally again. This was a puzzler, although I think electrical interference was to blame. That portion of the route was in a narrow valley where two sets of 725kv powerlines cross the roadway multiple times, and a third set crosses perpendicular to the roadway. Purely anecdotal though, so it could have been something else causing the issue. After I crossed over the ridge out of that valley it began working normally again.
Everyone’s experiences and needs are different; the Garmin units have a ton of features that I don’t use and the interface can be complicated for new adopters. If I were buying a new cycle computer now, I would probably purchase the 1040 Solar but also look seriously at the Hammerhead. I really like the display, interface and features, but battery life is too short IMO.
Even if you implement these, you still can’t pause the workout or advance to the next interval with a single button AFAIK; on my 840 you have to go back to the default workout screen, then swipe up to reveal the “fwd-pause-back” buttons, then use them, then reverse these steps. This is super annoying, as I often need to briefly pause a workout due to traffic or to be sure I’m at the bottom of the hill when the VO2 interval starts (or whatever.)
I’m a Roam 2 user coming from Bolt 1 and 2. Very happy and would recommend. Bigger screen and battery life is advantage over Bolt 2. I recently acquired a Garmin Fenix 7 and absolutely hate the Garmin ecosystem, not intuitive at all, and just reaffirmed my decision to never go with a Garmin head unit. Additionally constantly seeing my buddy struggle with the touch screen and loading maps was another reason.
I went from Wahoo to Garmin. I’m pretty sure I’ll go back. The Garmin is too complicated, and there are things about Wahoo that I really like, especially how zooming a data screen brings in more and more fields, which is the PERFECT way to have a data page.
Adding to this (and I have not yet had time or bothered to dig into this), but I seem to have “ghost recovery” intervals when I do outdoor workouts on my 840. After a scheduled recovery interval, the “ghost” recovery interval occurs (goal wattage 0-124w) and there is no timer or countdown associated with it. I need to swipe up on the workout screen and then arrow over to the next work interval in order to advance, otherwise it will just sit in the “ghost” interval.
When I would do outdoor workouts on my Roam V1, the screen was simple and intuitive…the default Garmin workout screen is a hot mess.
Yes! Same! WTF is up with that? I was so confused I took a picture of the screen the first time this happened. It’s like a 90s “recovery” interval with no timer visible, appended to the real recovery interval (which happens normally.) In my case with was with Nunburnholme, a workout I’ve done many times outdoors with Wahoo and never experienced this. Anyone know the cause and a fix?
I think you are on a “end interval with lap button” interval, in this case there is no count down, but it still provides you with a target power until you press the lap button for the next interval
Also confused. It does this at the end of every rest interval, and these extra rest intervals don’t exist in the workout. If you do nothing you will progress to the next work interval after ~90s. This doesn’t happen with Wahoo head units as far as I can tell.
Is this supposed to happen, as a way to give you some “slack” in the rest interval? I have not tried hitting “lap” to proceed to the next interval; if that actually works this is a somewhat handy (if rather opaque) feature.
I found that location tracking flaky as well. They might have fixed it in the meantime, but I lost trust in it and I just use the Glympse app instead to share location. Now that I think about it, I should just use the location sharing that iOS has built in now. Looks like Android has it also.
With Wahoo you can see your riding buddies current location on the map in real time (if they also have Wahoo and kept the default setting). That’s nice if you miss the start of the group ride and are trying to catch up by taking shortcuts (it’s me).
