Wahoo Take Two

Longtime blog readers will remember my struggles to get along with Hammerhead's Karoo 2 and the Wahoo Elemnt ROAM GPS devices. Well, just before the Victory Ride, weekend before last, I decided to try to give the Wahoo a second chance. Out of all the GPS stuff I've had my hands on so far it was the best experience I'd had. 

I also figured that there had been enough updates since I had parked the unit last year that I may actually have a decent experience with the unit. And - spoiler alert - I did have a decent experience. 

First thing was to update the unit and recharge it. Surprisingly it still was holding a pretty sizeable amount of energy. The update did take a bit, but I expected that after having not updated the unit for many months. Then I download the route file N.Y. Roll had sent me earlier on. That went just fine. 

Only thing left to do was to ride. I had a fit trying to get the route to start, and I ended up having N.Y. Roll start the route navigation for me. But after that I was doing fine. A few notable things as I rode, in no particular order. 

I must have inadvertently turned off the sound for notification of turns because my Elemnt ROAM was quiet while everyone else's GPS units were beeping like crazy. Huh....... This wasn't an issue as I had the directional arrow to watch on the screen. 

It took me a while to get used to the subtle difference between how the map displayed when I was on route versus when I was not. I'd prefer that distinction to be easier to discern. Maybe there is an option within the unit that will allow for this? 

When I went off-route due to N.Y. Roll having a different final route, (I guess I downloaded an earlier version of his route), the ROAM did not go nuts trying to reroute me. The arrow just pointed in the direction of where the route was in reality, like a compass needle. Weird.....

When I returned to the route, the course showed up again and turns and all were spot on. That is, until the end and the Roam never did say I was back on the route again, despite the fact that I knew we were off route from Brandon until just outside of Urbana. By that time it didn't matter, but that shouldn't have happened. 

The Climb function was there and worked. I liked how it wasn't this screaming "CLIMB" alert but was quiet, (again, I must have turned off the sound?) and then the climb was these little roundish dots on the route that my arrow was "eating up" like I was playing Pacman. I thought that was fun.

My data was spot on for mileage, temps, and all of that. I was able to review the ride data later much like I used to do with my Lezyne Super GPS. I liked that. 

So, that is the story so far with the second go-round with the Wahoo Elemnt ROAM. I'll be trying it out more this Summer and I will report back.