Coming Soon... The New Wahoo ELEMNT GPS Computer

This week, Wahoo Fitness announced that they will soon be releasing a new GPS cycle computer - the ELEMNT. A unit, which they feel will rival products like the market leading Garmin Edge range.

My experience of Wahoo products has certainly been promising. In the past, I've tested their Bluetooth enabled TICKR heart rate sensor, as well as their neat RPM Cadence Sensor and Blue SC Sensor. I have also tested their RFLKT+ computer, which is the only other cycle computer to come from the American brand, and used a neat "reflection" of the Wahoo GPS app on your smartphone, to save the cost of housing a GPS within the unit itself. All the sensors and RFLKT+ unit proved to be great quality, and had neat intuitive designs; this trait is something that Wahoo is really pushing with the new ELEMNT computer.

Whilst the RFLKT+ required you to use your phone in tandem with the display unit, to provide a GPS position, the new ELEMNT will be a fully independent GPS unit and be able to do its own tracking and measuring. Wahoo haven't passed up on their App prowess though, far from it; one of the neatest things about the new ELEMNT, will be that it is fully integrated with its own App.

The App will firstly allow you to personalise the display, doing away with fiddly on-device tuning. It will also be able to tie in with your Strava, RideGPS and MapMyRide accounts; allowing you to pull in routes directly from your accounts, as well as sync new workouts using the device's WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities. The idea is to streamline the setup process and allow more time to ride: "Using a bike computer shouldn’t be the hardest part of your ride,” said Chip Hawkins, CEO of Wahoo Fitness. “We saw a need for a well-designed GPS-enabled cycling computer that simplified the riding experience rather than complicating it. We solved that need with the ELEMNT.”

Another neat feature of the ELEMNT will be the innovative QuickLook LED indicators. These lights will be able to provide quick visual indicators of metrics like speed, heart rate, power, navigation and more. It's a neat idea, which has been seen on many indoor workout bikes for some time, but yet to be  fully utilised in a real world bike computer.

Much like Garmin's flagship Edge 1000, the ELEMNT will have the ability to link with your phone to track fellow riders’ locations in real-time as well as receive en-route call, text and email notifications. Like the Edge 1000, it will also have turn-by-turn navigation and mapping capabilities.

Finally, you'll be able to integrate your ELEMNT with other Wahoo products, notably the KICKR indoor trainer. The ELEMNT will allow riders the ability to control their KICKR from their handlebars, without a computer or smartphone. Wahoo also promise that the ELEMNT will even allow you to recreate any saved course indoors, by matching resistance to the ride’s GPS profile!

This is set to be a very interesting release into the GPS cycle computer market, and I'm hoping to test one on the blog very soon. The unit should be available to the public later this year, and will retail for a competitive £279.99.

Could this be the missing ELEMNT of the GPS market?


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