- Morning, Trainiacs.
Morning, morning, morning.
When I was in Morgan Hill, California,
I was talking to some of the guys
that do a little bit of the marketing for Wahoo.
And we were talking about the new Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM.
This is the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT.
This is what I use on all of my bikes.
I swap from one to the other.
And when it came out with the announcement
that the new Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM bike computer
had come out, I was like, well, it's basically
a new Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT with a color screen.
That's true, but all of the feedback from people,
even outside of Wahoo, are saying that that screen
and these little refinements that they've made,
are really big changes.
And it makes a big difference to your enjoyment
of using the bike computer.
So, while I was down there in Morgan Hill,
I got my hands on a Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM,
and we compared it side by side to said Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT.
Enjoy.
(energetic music)
So, we have here the new Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM.
Now, I did the release of this
when it came out a couple weeks ago,
but at the time,
I thought that it wasn't that much different
from the BOLT.
And I'll show you why.
So, when you pull it out of the box,
the form factor is largely the same as the BOLT.
And we've actually got a BOLT here.
When you put them side by side,
it's actually quite a bit different.
And what I'm hearing here down in California
from the Wahoo people and from people
who have actually used the ELEMNT ROAM
is that it's actually significantly different,
even though it looks that way.
So, all the pictures that you're gonna see of this,
if you were to take a BOLT away from side by side
and just look at the ELEMNT ROAM itself,
you would think that it's really not that much different.
But it actually is.
Let's start though, by getting into
what's the same between the Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM
and the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT.
Now, as far as sensor and app compatibility,
these are going to be exactly the same.
All of your heart rate sensors,
all of your cadence sensors, all of your connections
to Strava, those will all be the same.
You will have to change them, but you won't have anything
that you are compatible with now
and not be compatible with it going forward.
Control is gonna be the same.
Control is going to be best done
through the Wahoo ELEMNT app.
You're gonna be able to change your screens,
all the settings, all of the data points
that you're collecting on the ELEMNT
with the Wahoo ELEMNT app.
Just like you do right now with the Wahoo ELEMNT itself,
and the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT.
Notifications, you're going to be able to get
all of your notifications on the Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM,
the same way that you do with the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT
and the Wahoo ELEMNT itself.
Also, historically, the Wahoo ELEMNT computers
could really only control the Wahoo KICKR,
but over the last few weeks,
as of spring in 2019, now these can control
a lot more of the smart trainers that are out there
with a pre-made workout that you want to
end up controlling with this head unit.
And the form factor, as we mentioned,
is largely the same, and what that means
is that the aerodynamics of the Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM
are going to be similar to the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT.
Of course, there's going to be a little bit of a penalty
for having a wider body with the Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM,
but it's still gonna have
that nice integrated mounting system
that the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT has,
that just looks so clean and like it's all built in
and thought out because it has been.
Let's talk about what's different.
Essentially, it's all the screen.
The screen, the screen, the screen.
The Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM is not really a replacement for
the BOLT.
It's a replacement for the original Wahoo ELEMNT
because it has the same nice form factor
of the ELEMNT BOLT, but with the same screen size
as the larger ELEMNT.
And that screen is now also a really bright, vibrant
color screen.
Now, I'll get to why just having a color screen
and that vibrancy is such an improvement in a second.
The screen is also Gorilla Glass,
and it's mounted flush with the body.
So if we look at, zoom right in,
if you look at the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT,
you can see that there's a little bit of a lip
all the way around.
So that little edge collects dust.
The Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM however,
(chiming)
is actually mounted perfectly flush with the edge.
There is no lip around, so there is no lip
to collect dust around the edge.
This is also Gorilla Glass, and the LED
that is powering this is actually
mounted right underneath the glass.
So, you don't really have much reflection and glare
as you turn this on.
Now, it's this nice bright screen
that makes all the difference.
You've also got now a built-in ambient sensor,
so as it gets darker, see that it gets lighter?
And as it gets brighter, it gets darker.
So, that's going to allow you to just enjoy your ride
a little bit more because you're never going to be straining
or adjusting the screen to match the brightness
of the ambience in the area that you're riding.
As far as the weight goes, the ROAM is
33 and a half grams heavier than the BOLT,
but the battery life is rated as up to 17 hours
with the ROAM, and only up to 15 hours with the BOLT.
Now, as far as the size here,
a lot of people are saying, well, you know,
at first glance, it's quite a bit larger than the ROAM.
But yeah, it is.
But let's compare it to a couple of the other
leading contenders of bike head units.
Now, this is in comparison to the Garmin 520,
kind of the competitor to the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT.
You can see side by side, there is a little bit
of a difference.
But the screen on the ROAM is again, quite a bit bigger.
Now, compare that to the Garmin 1000,
another very common head unit.
The screen is smaller on the Wahoo ELWEMNT ROAM,
and it's taller in the Garmin 1000,
but the size of the Garmin 1000 is like the original iPhone.
And this on the front of somebody's bike,
I find just looks enormous.
Whereas this is still, I would say,
bike head unit kind of size.
It doesn't really seem obtrusive.
So this screen is where it's at.
This screen is what makes the big difference
between this and something like the BOLT.
This large screen is what they had in the ELEMNT
that allowed you to navigate.
But now with the color and the brightness in this,
apparently the navigation experience is much, much better.
And I really didn't think that it was going to be a big deal
until I talked to somebody down here that said,
you don't really realize how much
you're consciously navigating with bike computers
that have a black and white screen,
not a big, bright screen, because you had to think about it
and you just get used to thinking about it.
But once you put this out, and the bright screen
ends up doing a lot of the navigation
and the brain computing work for you.
And in addition to that, this is designed
with several features that'll allow you
to easily navigate and basically, let the computer
do the navigation for you.
So this has a feature where you can go back to start,
so if you end up getting lost, you can just hit start
and it'll automatically reroute your most ideal route
to get you back to the start.
You can have back on track if you get off course
and you need to get back to where you wanted to ride
to continue the ride, you can easily get back on track.
You can route to the start,
so if there is a route that you want,
but it's not actually starting for a couple of kilometers
and you needed to ride to the start,
you can get that route quickly to the start.
And, I think most importantly,
if you start downloading Strava rides
that you upload to this, you can get Strava
turn-by-turn navigation and follow that guideline.
And then finally, the price point of this
is higher than the current offerings by Wahoo.
While the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT is $250
and the Wahoo ELEMNT itself is $279,
this Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM is $379.
So if you don't mind the larger form factor,
if you need some turn-by-turn navigation,
you're not doing the same route over and over and over,
you want a nice big, bright screen
and that extra 120 bucks doesn't scare you,
go for the ELEMNT ROAM.
So there you go, Trainiacs.
That is the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT versus the new
Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM.
Now, as we start being more official
in the world of triathlon, we are getting
more sneak peeks and hands-on with devices
before they're out there in the wild.
So if you aren't already subscribed
and you like little bits of gear reviews like this
to help with your buying decisions,
hit that subscribe button below.
Later, Trainiacs.
Thanks Wahoo, Zwift, Specialized,
everyone out there for bringing me to Morgan Hill.
Later.