And yet they aren’t using it for its best use of 24/7 monitoring… 
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No way I would even consider this as an option. At least five years too late for what it offers. It doesn’t offer any thing like the connection of Garmin bike computers and Garmin watches working together with first beat metrics.
This mock-up of the Rival - when the rumors started - is actually pretty accurate regarding the functions. You basically get a wahoo element strapped around your wrist minus (atm) navigation, segments and workouts and plus automated detection of sports.
The watch - with the current features - doesn’t appeal to me at all. But for a triathlete who wants a no gimmicky version of a wahoo head unit for all three sports that is just worn during the activities it might be an interesting fit. I would be intrigued if running and swimming would be slightly entertaining to me… 
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Sadly I’m not impressed, that’s way too expensive. I was hoping it would be an actual rival for Garmin, but it’s outperformed by my 5yo Fenix 3. It is light, but at the same time it does not feel as solid. I’ve lost GPS mid-run, HR only tracks reliable when the strap is uncomfortably tight and I can’t design individual workouts. The auto-detect of resting in the pool is nice but doesn’t work reliably, lap count is also not very precise.
The touch less transition feature sounds interesting at first. But when I race my pacing strategy is calibrated on times mat to mat. Since T2 often includes a fair amount of running before the official start of the run the auto detect can throw off race timing by a minute or two. That is a lot when you’re giving it everything and can ruin your pacing or at least mess with your head. Granted that’s only an issue when you’re wrestling for seconds.
On the plus side, the display is super clear and sharp, battery life is good, head-unit handover is great and so is the HR broadcast to your head unit (HR works okay on the bike) and I like the elemnt companion app mich better than Garmin connect.
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Garmin could release the touchless transition feature 6 months from now but as @TG333 says a real transition is not that so not sure what the point of the feature is but more than likely with wahoo it could work. Garmin though has surprisingly have been releasing more features that work with covid. My favorite is feature is body battery and it is my most used. First beat being acquired has also been on point.
I have a F6X and yes it is pricey but I got a good health discount through work and don’t see how this compares to any Garmins unless you look at a very low spec watch. But I am sure some some people will buy them as they are anti Garmin. Regardless at least there is another option for people.
True! Gives them the option of providing new features via firmware updates without needing to buy a new watch though.
I think the Wahoo watch is a good option. I want a paired down watch. I don’t need routing or music on my wrist. Currently, I am using a Garmin 245 and I see this as a competitor in that category with the added bonus of being able to interact with literally all my other Wahoo peripherals and head unit.
Bringing this up again. I ordered one today as I was curious for days now and was trying to find out more online but everybody (i don’t exclude myself here) is complaining about functions etc. so I decided to get one to test it.
I know that DC Rainmaker wasn’t thrilled about it though.
I will test it for running, cycling, indoor running, indoor cycling and indoor swimming and will report back if from interest? I wont swim outdoors - I live in Wisconsin and it is too cold 
I will also check on other functions.
We’ll see how this will turn out.
ok, so as I mentioned, I have ordered the watch and it has arrived yesterday.
I ordered the white version (Kona White) and I have to say that it really is a very beautiful piece of equipment. the screen is really nice, and it - despite other people thinking different - not remind me of my Fenix 5 plus that I got rid of.
Anyways, the setup is super easy - just as aways with Wahoo. I don’t want to say too much so far as it is only been a few hours since I have had the watch but these are the things that I can share to far:
- software doesn’t update for some reason even though the Wahoo website lists a different firmware version as most recent version. Customer service is saying it should happen over night…we’ll see.
-24/7 Heart Rate: I know that DC Rainmaker mentioned that the watch does not have this feature but that is wrong information. It has the feature. On the watch, you can look at the last 8min, the last 2 hours (both also during workouts) and the last 12 hours (not during workouts though).
I was wearing the watch on my TR ride followed by a 45min run. What I also like is that little “tickr” icon that clearly shows that the readings are from the tickr not from the wrist (well, in the outside run it was clear anyways as it can’t read through my clothes I guess).
here some pictures:
I personally really like this feature. I have to say however, that all HR readings are with a tickr as I don’t trust wrist HR when working out. As I will never use the wrist HR for workouts, I will not test it. It seems to work fine for 24/7 tracking.
I also like the zooming function (like on the bike computers). I think DC Rainmaker mentioned that the two lower buttons are a weird combination to zoom. This can be changed in the app - I changed it to the lower left and upper right button, which works really nice.
The indoor ride as well as the run were just fine. The only thing that annoyed me was that the watch wants to pair an indoor trainer (KICKR) and I had to figure out how to bypass but when using the watch for indoor rides, it will keep asking again to pair a KICKR. I only paired it to my PM, my cadence sensor and my tickr. It recorded the workout perfectly fine but I think nobody would use a watch for riding indoors. I would rather use my bike computer…but at least I tried it and it works.
While running, I could read the all data fields perfectly fine, even if I had the watch display 6 at a time. Overall, the readability is really good.
I also tried the Multisport handover to the Elemnt bike computer. That is extremely nice and cannot be compared to Garmin’s external display mode. I also need to point out that DC Rainmaker mentions that this is something Garmin has for a long time but I disagree. The way wahoo handles it is outstanding. The Bolt (in my case) takes over completely and shows all your date like it was a normal ride. Once a transition takes place, it switches to the watch. I also like the “new data page” that shows the legs, time, transition, etc. both, on the watch as well as on the Bolt. This is outstanding. I did not try the touchless transition yet.
What I don’t like so far:
- structured workouts (especially for running) need to be supported
- there is an option for brick workouts but only outdoor ride, outdoor run. Why not the same for indoors or a combination of indoor/outdoor?
- Strava live segments not supported - not a big one but it is somewhat stupid
- apple health integration: in theory, the watch writes the 24/7 HR measurements into the apple health app. That would allow to track the HR over days, weeks, months. it would also be possible to find out what the resting HR is, etc. But: in my case, the watch submits completely wrong HR readings to Apple (I don’t think my HR drops as low as 19 BPM). There is something wrong and I was told by Wahoo that the developers are working on it.
- steps are also submitted to the iPhone and that’s fine and works for me.
- sleep tracking is missing and I would really like to have that feature.
Just some thoughts so far after a few hours. I am excited to see if the firmware will update by tomorrow. I will also take it on another run tomorrow to see how it performs.
Will I keep it? At least for 30 days…but so far I like the watch. More to come. let me know if you have any specific questions. I’m happy to share my thoughts.
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Thanks for the update. Really appreciate a user report.
If you ever end up doing pool swimming let us know. I’m always curious how good lap detection works on watches.
will do. I plan to do some pool swimming next week
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another short update.
Today, I was super excited to find out if the firmware would update. Result: NO
I was calling wahoo this morning and the friendly lady didn’t know either. She promised she would follow up with the wahoo team and somebody would get back to me by noon.
By noon, I had an email in my inbox from a guy who said he is the Product Lead for the Rival Watch - that’s nice I think. His explanation why the watch didn’t update on the other hand was not too professional as he basically had to admit that the wahoo website is mentioning a wrong firmware version number and that this will be updated asap - so if somebody bought a Rival and wonders why the firmware is stuck with 1.2.117 instead of 1.2.118 - don’t worry. The version ending with 7 is the latest version that was released. It makes me believe however, that a new version (ending in 18) will be released soon.
He also mentioned that the software developers from Apple and Wahoo are working on a solution with the data transfer issue I have seen (and I’m not the only one). He said I’m on the email list to get notified and updated about fixes. Nice.
Some new bugs have come up today:
I saved a workout (treadmill run today) as I wanted to see the options for editing the workout after is was saved on the watch. Later, I deleted the workout on the app, where I would have been able to also edit it - but the watch still shows the workout in the “history” section. It should update the watch if changes are made in the app - at least I think that would be important or make sense or whatever.
During my outdoor run today I had another thing that I found weird:
I had the auto lap set to 1 mile. After each lap, the watch notified me about the time it took to complete the lap, the average HR and the pace. That doesn’t make sense in that case as the mile time is also the pace - one would think. But there is a difference of lets say 9:00 min for the 1 mile at an HR of lets say 139BPM with a pace of 9:02min/mile - WTF? How can that be? Nothing really bad but simply not possible and something that should be easy to fix.
As I mentioned earlier (yesterday) I always use a HR strap for workouts. Once I finish the workout and take off the strap the watch stays connected to the strap for quite a while, actually until the strap shuts off or I am out of ANT+ reach. I think there should be an option to turn off the strap and move back to wrist HR.
Lastly, I ran a similar route to yesterday’s but added a few miles. One would think that the total elevation gain MUST be more as I ADDED miles to the very same/similar rout. But the watch showed less elevation gain??? That’ cannot be right either.
Overall so far, nothing really bad, nothing severe, Garmin doesn’t show the very same elevation either. I just wanted to mention it.
More to come…
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Thanks for sharing all of that! I really appreciate it. I read on some other blog that Wahoo is going to push out sleep tracking in a software update some time this month? Hopefully that is true. Been toying with the Amazon Halo in the meantime for sleep/step metrics on an interface-less band. I’ll probably end up wearing both.
I am definitely buying one (from REI - gotta get that cash back and dividend, also justifies the price a bit more) at the beginning of 2021. My company provides a stellar health/wellness stipend that I’m going to use.
That would be cool. I think there will be a lot of smaller and larger updates making the watch really great. It has a lot of potential.
I really like the user interface and button configuration so far. I think it is way better than Garmin or Suunto. Interestingly, DC Rainmaker had a different opinion.
I also think that Wahoo needs to work on the Elemnt app to make it more of an app kind of like the Coros or so. Maybe not quite as many things but at least 24/7 HR, sleep tracking, etc. and also make sure to be able to look back more than a week but rather the complete history.
The other big think that is needed is structured workouts. Especially for running and swimming. I don’t care about cycling as I use my Bolt.
I also don’t care too much about other settings like HR alerts or pace alerts as long as I can have structured workouts that provide target HR or target pace/power.
My experience with Garmin and elevation has been about the same. I have had several conversations with their support about it. For example, if I run a loop I would start and stop at the same point. Which should have the same elevation at the beginning and end of my run. However, with my fenix 5 plus (and with my Forerunner 920XT before that) it would show my starting elevation to be different than my finished elevation. Some times they would be off by 100 ft. Garmin support told me that it was within their allowable tolerances. 
Thanks for the updates!
Another update:
- wahoo updated its website showing the correct firmware now:
Indoor Cycling:
I found a bug that seems to be caused by the app not by the watch: When recording ride, the app shows power etc. just like normal, same for heart rate. When looking at the zone distribution, there is something wrong though…a 1.5 hour side only shows a few seconds in every zone - power and HR.
Whaoo says that they are working on it. This must have started after 12/4 as I haven’t had that initially when testing the watch. Anyways, it doesn’t seem to be watch related but I figured it’s worth mentioning.
Pool/Lap swim:
I had a few minutes yesterday to take a dip in the lap pool. The watch seems to perfectly pick up each lap, realizes right away when taking a break for recovery, etc. No issues, nice Wahoo.
What I really like is the fact that after finishing the workout, the app will not upload the file to other apps until approved. To be more detailed: you can edit the workout before it is being released for upload, just like in Tri-Mode or indoor running. That’s a great feature.
I will do more swim testing later this week and I also plan on a brick bike/run indoors by manually switching from bike to run.
Overall, the watch is really fun to use. It is spot on for people who want to focus on working out and don’t worry too much about paying their bills contactless while swimming in the pool - LMAO.
Same for other features like VO2 max etc. ( the Garmin VO2max but also Suunto’s is not correct anyways, at least it was never for me).
The only thing that I’m missing is a feature to track my resting HR and structured workouts… But that’s ok as I think it will be pushed out in a firmware update.
More to come.
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Just to clarify here, I noted that it doesn’t display 24x7 HR in the app (I showed it working on the watch, with the limitations you noted). So while you get the bits on the watch…but as you discovered/noted in your most recent post just above this from yesterday…you don’t see resting/24x7 HR data beyond that, making it kinda tough to leverage. 
Cheers!
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if you can only look at the last 12 hours, is it really 24/7 tracking at all?
Kinda.
Technically speaking it’s placing that data into their app according to Wahoo…it’s just that it’s not exposed anywhere yet. So the data is there, just not accessible.
In theory that data is supposed to go to Apple Health (via HealthKit). But that’s still not working right. I’d get entire days where nothing was inputted, and more recently (yesterday), it’s just inserting a few random HR samples into Apple Health. Like, literally 10-13bpm a few times per day for fun.
On the bright side, I now have the best RHR ever!
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same here. As per Wahoo, the developers are working on it. I guess there will be an update coming soon. I actually don’t think it is a watch issue but rather a Elemnt App issue.
Just today, I had some additional issues that kind of suck. I tried a manual multi sport workout. So I basically started a workout on the bike (trainer). After that workout was finished, I pressed the top right button until it opened the selection of sports. I jumped off the bike, in my running shoes, picked treadmill running and started continuing my manual multisport workout. At the end of my run, the Rival was asking to update/correct the mileage (in my case, the Rival made me fast than the treadmill - damn it ) so I entered the correct (treadmill) mileage and saved the workout. This is what the workout looked on the watch (please also note, that TR, being connected to the very same sensors, comes up with a different mileage & of course speed - this was not the case for indoor cycling only workouts. Maybe it’s because of the transition??):
On the watch, everything seems to be ok-ish. I then opened the app, and ahhhhh - not so much anymore:
!
As you can see, in the workout history the app shows a multisport workout. But the workout itself is completely messed up. It only shows one leg instead of the two (indoor cycling and indoor running) but it also shows the cycling let as running??? It almost seems that the Wahoo App can’t handle the information that comes from the Rival.
Those are all minor issues and I’m sure these are easy fixes but I still wonder why this wasn’t picked up earlier? Who in the world is testing devices for Wahoo?
BTW: the file saved to dropbox, today’s plan or training peaks is also wrong.
Is it a big deal: probably not, i can still record my activities like everybody else would do on their watch. Doing a ride. save. Starting a run. save. But it would be nice if the things, that Wahoo build into the watch would work properly. I almost feel Wahoo released the watch even though it is buggy (or the app, or whatever) to participate in the holiday sales of 2020…
I sent an email to Wahoo about this. no answer, yet. I will keep you posted.
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