The takes I’ve seen so far agree that it’s not yet accurate enough, and doesn’t yet record the right metrics, for this use case. Ronan McLaughlin at Escape Collective is by far the best source of insight here IMO. I think his take is that at some point it might be able to provide some type of “aero score” for a ride, but even that would be full of caveats.
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Does anyone know if you can turn the wind sensor off? I assume the constant readings are taking battery power, so if you could turn that off would it increase the rather uncompetitive battery life?
Will from Cyclingnews with a pretty damning take on the Ace in its current form. FWIW this does suggest you can turn off the wind sensor @BarryG !
Thanks for that
And ouch…thats a bad review
Cant help but think this is so brand damaging to Wahoo. Launching it in March, with 4 more months testing and its likely user reviews would be so much better, which would increase sales much more than the 4 months head start they will get (but then face headwinds of really bad reviews)
Yeah it’s a weird one. IIRC Wahoo went thought a near-death experience as a company recently, right? And I believe this is their first real new hardware release in quite a few years; even the last Bolt and Roam updates were mainly to the guts of the units, not new form factors or anything.
So I have to wonder about the development and decision making process that got them to the Ace; was this a project that started under former leadership and was seen as a sunk cost that needed to be completed? Or was it rushed out by new management feeling like they needed SOMETHING new?
It’s felt for a while like Wahoo was maintaining its position as second in the market behind Garmin based on inertia more than innovation; I have a Bolt and like it fine, but it looks and feels incredibly dated compared to latest Garmin and Hammerhead units. After holding out hoping the Ace would be good, I’m now looking hard at a Karoo 3 or 1050, and I’m guessing I’m not alone as a Wahoo fan now looking elsewhere. Bummer.
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Yeah, the CEO (Chip?) has been on a PR push recently, showing they are the good guys, and they just got into an issue with PE debt. So not for first time, PE almost ruined a company…but it kills alot of that goodwill when you botch a launch, get users to front you cash-flow when you ship a product you must know yourself is unready…
They should offer these ones at a 50% discount almost like a kickstarter…
And as for brand damage…put it this way if they announce a new Bolt/Roam V3 in March I 100% wouldnt pre order it based on fears it’s like the Ace
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Yep, this is my motivation for looking elsewhere. Even if they release a new Bolt/Roam in the spring, I have little faith that it’ll actually be fully cooked for another ~6 months after that. I believe the Ace update map stretches into the second half of 2025, so they clearly know it needs work. Bad look.
From looking at Wahoo’s website, it looks like the custom alerts and Strava Live Segments now work on the ACE. No longer says coming soon.
Update for those released yesterday: https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles/22860229203346-ELEMNT-ACE-2024-Firmware-Release-Notes
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So it seems like this addresses several of DC Rainmaker’s annoyances about firmware on launch. It’s a shame for Wahoo that all the negative reviews around launch will live forever online and probably remain at the top of searches forever.
Edit: GPLama says the elevation graph fixes still don’t work for him even after the firmware update. What a cluster-F by Wahoo.
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Yeah, for me it adds Strava, but yesterday it failed on routing with the new firmware. Had a route with basically two loops, then a climb (off-loop), then back again for one final loop. Garmin & COROS had no problems with it, Wahoo failed from pressing the start button. Sigh.
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@dcrainmaker Oof at COROS handling it fine and Wahoo not. That’s a real bad look.
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Ray predicted as much, based on their track record they have earned in the sports watch realm.
I don’t have a cycling computer but would like to buy one and use TR outside in the spring. Watched a lot of reviews but what a “swamp” is that …
Does TR prefers a brand or model?
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TR officially supports Garmin, Wahoo and Hammerhead/SRAM head units. Basically, I’d choose your preferred screen size and budget.
- Garmin 840 is a solid choice.
- Wahoo Bolt and Roam are mature and great. Choose according to screen size.
- Hammerhead makes this easy, just pick the latest Karoo.
Feature-wise, all are good and mature. Wahoo makes setup easier and they have a zoom feature I personally love, but other people don’t think is important at all. Garmin makes setup more complex. They have more options, but in all likelihood you won’t need them. My Wahoo Bolt v1 has so many data fields that are useless to me, so take that for what it is worth. Hammerhead is more smartphone-like, something Garmin and Wahoo are just going towards. The only negative of Hammerhead (well, Shimano really) is that it can no longer connect to Di2 drivetrains. Shimano put the kabosh on that when SRAM acquired Hammerhead.
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Just throwing out that one man’s “complex” is another’s “way more options”. I kind of think of Wahoo as Apple and Garmin as Samsung if that helps you decide. I absolutely agree that the zoom feature on a Wahoo is awesome, and I really wish Garmin would add it. Both are great computers, it just depends on what you want. DCRainmaker does an amazing job comparing them all on his website.
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Agreed, and you likening it to Apple (Wahoo) vs. Windows (Garmin) makes total sense to me. 
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Go play with some in a bike store. Ask your riding friends if you can see what they’ve done.
Personally, Garmin hasn’t ever been an issue for me and I think the solar charging models are worth the money. The UI is complex in a way I like with different profiles for different ride types. Garmin tends to not ship half baked software. Once it’s setup, you might mess with it every few months.
thanks you all!
So the new Wahoo Ace is a bit more “Android/Windows” from what I understand