Author Topic: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT  (Read 77548 times)

PaulF

  • "World's Scariest Barman"
  • It's only impossible if you stop to think about it
Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #150 on: 17 June, 2018, 10:52:27 am »
Easy to add the battery percentage to one of your pages, as I just discovered, to keep an eye on it.

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #151 on: 17 June, 2018, 12:43:23 pm »
Easy to add the battery percentage to one of your pages, as I just discovered, to keep an eye on it.

Top tip!
The sound of one pannier flapping

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #152 on: 17 June, 2018, 12:58:23 pm »
Oh nice! Usually I press the power button very quickly.

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #153 on: 19 June, 2018, 12:15:43 pm »
Bugger! I dropped my Bolt face down onto some concrete about a week ago  :facepalm: and have damaged the screen, it doesn't look cracked externally, but the whole screen isn't looking great and a solid black patch seems to be spreading from one corner, and I can now no longer read the bottom right field at all. I assume this is not going to be repairable?

Wow! I contacted Wahoo about whether it would be possible to repair the device, they said "With the BOLT, due to the manufacturing process, we are unable to repair the screens. However, I am more than willing to offer you 40% off of a new unit (single use code) as a crash replacement." - this would mean I could buy a replacement Bolt for £119.99, which seems like a no-brainer! I was actually half tempted to try the new Garmin 520 Plus, but even the cheapest price I found (£233.99, if using the -10% discount from DC Rainmaker) for use at Clever Training) would be almost double.

That's pretty good customer service!

There only minus points I find with the Bolt are:

* No colour maps (on the flip side the screen, when not damaged, is very read-able, even in sunlight)
* No turn-by-turn direction with Strava routes (but works well with RideWithGPS and Komoot - I tend to use the former for planning routes at home on my PC, the latter I use for on-the-fly route planning on the road - I don't find the suggested routes as good as RideWithGPS, but the RideWithGPS mobile app doesn't allow route-planning, or at least didn't the last time I looked)

The Edge 520 Plus does have colour maps and turn-by-turn directions from Strava, but isn't supported yet by the Komoot IQ app and the integration with RideWithGPS is a bit clunky

Also on the Bolt:

* You can't pan the maps, so if you go off course e.g. to visit a point of interest, it's not always easy to find it again. Don't know why they don't implement this, can't be that hard! Apparently the Edge 520 Plus can't pan either (though the 820 can)
* Occasional odd data recording (e.g. I apparently had a maximum speed of 67mph on the recent London to Brighton ride...)
* If you turn the Bolt off whilst recording (e.g. to save battery at a lunch stop) it doesn't always recover correctly. I tend to just leave it on now, the battery life is very good anyway, so it's not usually an issue
* At night time, would be nice to be able to have it auto-turn on the backlight when a turn direction is displayed and to leave it on for 8 seconds

I do prefer having buttons to a touchscreen (e.g. like the Edge 820)
Old enough to know better, but young enough to do it anyway

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #154 on: 19 June, 2018, 04:21:18 pm »
Also noticed that the 40% discount also applied to accessories, so picked up a Tickr Heart Rate strap at the same time as ordering a replacement Bolt :-)
Old enough to know better, but young enough to do it anyway

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #155 on: 27 June, 2018, 10:12:02 am »
Quote
I had the battery pack in an empty bidon & connected to the bolt (on the out front mount) via a curly usb lead and right-angle plug.  This will come in handy on rides over 15 hours.  Not sure what to do if it's raining.

I had my Elemnt connected to a bank throughout 10hrs of rain (some of it torrential) during a recent ride; it didn't miss a beat. I decided not to disconnect the external cable while it was raining as that might have provided a way of ingress but I know the connector is in a different place on the Bolt so don't know if that information is of any use or not...

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #156 on: 27 June, 2018, 11:42:10 am »
Quote
I had the battery pack in an empty bidon & connected to the bolt (on the out front mount) via a curly usb lead and right-angle plug.  This will come in handy on rides over 15 hours.  Not sure what to do if it's raining.

I had my Elemnt connected to a bank throughout 10hrs of rain (some of it torrential) during a recent ride; it didn't miss a beat. I decided not to disconnect the external cable while it was raining as that might have provided a way of ingress but I know the connector is in a different place on the Bolt so don't know if that information is of any use or not...

Thanks - good to know.
The sound of one pannier flapping

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #157 on: 17 August, 2018, 05:30:34 pm »
Anyone had trouble with charging on their Bolt? I'm in the Alps at the moment and I can't charge my unit, I've tried 3 different cables different power banks and a charge on the mains all to no avail. Bit annoyed as its not that old and I'm on holiday.

Looks like a phone call is needed.

Arno

  • Arno
Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #158 on: 17 October, 2018, 10:04:16 pm »
Bought an elemnt bolt last year, used 3 or 4 days a week for commuting and sunday rides.
A few weeks before the waranty expired, the flap covering the side zoom button started peeling off.
Got a replacement fairly quickly from Wahoo with a new unit when this issue was mentioned to them, top customer service there.

Recently, the battery of the replacement unit  seems to have died on me, (after being used for only a few months). The battery lasts for about 15 minutes from fully charged now.
Not sure if its related, but this happened after charging the unit with a powerbank (a Teknet https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FBD3MVA ) . That power bank still charges my mobile phone without a hitch however, but am wondering if there could have been some bad interaction between it and the GPS.

When I mentioned the powerbank story to Wahoo support, they suddenly became silent. So I guess in their view the power bank is at fault there.

Arnaud.




quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #159 on: 19 October, 2018, 01:27:25 pm »
Bought an elemnt bolt last year, used 3 or 4 days a week for commuting and sunday rides.
A few weeks before the waranty expired, the flap covering the side zoom button started peeling off.
Got a replacement fairly quickly from Wahoo with a new unit when this issue was mentioned to them, top customer service there.

Mine has started doing this too. Did you contact wahoo direct, or did you have to go through who you bought it from?

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Arno

  • Arno
Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #160 on: 19 October, 2018, 02:14:24 pm »
Bought an elemnt bolt last year, used 3 or 4 days a week for commuting and sunday rides.
A few weeks before the waranty expired, the flap covering the side zoom button started peeling off.
Got a replacement fairly quickly from Wahoo with a new unit when this issue was mentioned to them, top customer service there.

Mine has started doing this too. Did you contact wahoo direct, or did you have to go through who you bought it from?

J

Contacted Wahoo direct and they organised pick up of old unit and delivery of a new one in about a week.

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #161 on: 29 October, 2018, 07:49:57 pm »
I have a route saved in my Wahoo Elemnt, I am looking to join the route a third of the way around.  Will the Wahoo realise I have joined the route mid-way and direct me along the breadcrumb along the final third to the end of the route?
Frequent Audax and bike ride videos:

https://www.youtube.com/user/djrikki2008/videos

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #162 on: 29 October, 2018, 08:14:55 pm »
I have a route saved in my Wahoo Elemnt, I am looking to join the route a third of the way around.  Will the Wahoo realise I have joined the route mid-way and direct me along the breadcrumb along the final third to the end of the route?

Yes. I have the Bolt and that is exactly what it does. Wherever you join the route it will let you know the 'route has been found' and it'll give you the breadcrumbs from there to follow.

Eddington: 133 miles    Max square: 43x43

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #163 on: 29 October, 2018, 08:24:47 pm »
I have a route saved in my Wahoo Elemnt, I am looking to join the route a third of the way around.  Will the Wahoo realise I have joined the route mid-way and direct me along the breadcrumb along the final third to the end of the route?

Yes, as psyclist says, that's what it does. It can be confusing in as much as the red lights flash for a few seconds (off course) even though you are now on course before flashing green, confirming you are on course.

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #164 on: 29 October, 2018, 08:30:43 pm »
Great that's good to know- thank you.

Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk

Frequent Audax and bike ride videos:

https://www.youtube.com/user/djrikki2008/videos

Arno

  • Arno
Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #165 on: 17 December, 2018, 03:12:30 pm »
Bought an elemnt bolt last year, used 3 or 4 days a week for commuting and sunday rides.
A few weeks before the waranty expired, the flap covering the side zoom button started peeling off.
Got a replacement fairly quickly from Wahoo with a new unit when this issue was mentioned to them, top customer service there.

Recently, the battery of the replacement unit  seems to have died on me, (after being used for only a few months). The battery lasts for about 15 minutes from fully charged now.
Not sure if its related, but this happened after charging the unit with a powerbank (a Teknet https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FBD3MVA ) . That power bank still charges my mobile phone without a hitch however, but am wondering if there could have been some bad interaction between it and the GPS.

When I mentioned the powerbank story to Wahoo support, they suddenly became silent. So I guess in their view the power bank is at fault there.

Arnaud.

So.... wahoo unexpectedly came back for this battery issue on a replacement unit at the end of November ( after 2 months of radio-silence) and promised a replacement despite the original unit being out of warranty.

In the mean time I had bought a new unit having not heard from them. Side button covers peeling off too now on that one. Don't think I was being rough with it either. So this one hopefully will also be replaced.



Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #166 on: 29 January, 2019, 01:33:23 pm »
I got a Bolt last year and used it a number of times. All good, but I have a question regarding a 'use case' I've not done before but will be shortly:

- while following a saved route with TBT and taking a cafe stop half way around, I want to pause/stop the ride, and maybe take the Bolt with me off the bike into the caff, then return to the bike, having everything re-pair, and then continue from where I left off, following the remainder of the saved route

- I want the completed ride to remain as a single ride, not split into two


Basic stuff, I realise!

If it wasn't for me wanting to maybe remove the Bolt from the bike and trouser it while at the caff, I assume I could just rely on the Bolt's Auto-pause feature... but since I do want to remove it from the bike, what manual steps if any do I need to do to have it work the way I want it to?

Should I pause it, turn it off, etc on stopping? Then what do I need to get to get going again, re-commencing the route I'm following?

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #167 on: 29 January, 2019, 01:58:37 pm »
Should I pause it, turn it off, etc on stopping? Then what do I need to get to get going again, re-commencing the route I'm following?

Generally I leave it switched on and just carry it into cafes. But if it is going to be a longer stop, I do sometimes switch it off. The steps I use are:

- Switch unit off by pressing the left hand button for a few seconds
- About a minute before I want to restart riding, I switch the unit back on
- It can take a minute or so to recover the ride
- Then I select the route again, it generally doesn't take long to find the right place on the route and TBT is available again

You end up with a single track at the end of the ride.

I've not had any problems doing this, but I have heard of people claiming that the ride hasn't restored. That is why I usually just leave it switched on, as a precaution.

Eddington: 133 miles    Max square: 43x43

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #168 on: 29 January, 2019, 02:05:19 pm »
Rarely take the wahoo off the bike at stops, much to do with the sort of places I stop and I'm set up to charge on the go.
But have used the manual pause function on a couple of occasions.
(I don't believe in Auto-Pause... ok really it's because it's more useful to know your overall average when doing Randoneé)

On mine some sensors re-pair automatically, while my wahoo speed and cadence sensor are very quick to drop after stopping (even if not paused) and only re-pair when the wahoo is on the settings screen, which is odd as at the start of each ride they pair ok.

Which also reminds me the speed sensor is flashing red so is probably about to run out of battery.

One feature I've noticed with the wahoo software is that you can start and stop routes while riding without affecting the recording, which is great as my old Garmin would just crash if you did anything other than start at the start of a route, and would almost certainly crash if it thought you'd finished the route...

The one risk to be aware of if "pocketing" the device when paused is the End Ride screen pops up after pausing, so you're at risk of telling it to discard the ride which is a greater danger to your data than accidentally splitting the ride! (As you can at least combine files)

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #169 on: 30 January, 2019, 04:28:05 pm »
Thanks for the replies.

I'll try just (manually) pausing it first of all and see how that works out. Less to go wrong, but more battery usage, which may not be a problem for the duration of my rides.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #170 on: 21 June, 2019, 12:58:45 pm »
So.... wahoo unexpectedly came back for this battery issue on a replacement unit at the end of November ( after 2 months of radio-silence) and promised a replacement despite the original unit being out of warranty.

In the mean time I had bought a new unit having not heard from them. Side button covers peeling off too now on that one. Don't think I was being rough with it either. So this one hopefully will also be replaced.

What's your status with the peeling side buttons? The buttons on mine have basically peeled off completely now. I put in a ticket with wahoo, they have arranged collection, then will send me a new one. I'm glad I now have a second unit (after the original crashed on RatN). Means I can keep riding for the few days between collection, and arrival of the new unit.

J

--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Arno

  • Arno
Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #171 on: 23 June, 2019, 02:41:25 pm »
So.... wahoo unexpectedly came back for this battery issue on a replacement unit at the end of November ( after 2 months of radio-silence) and promised a replacement despite the original unit being out of warranty.

In the mean time I had bought a new unit having not heard from them. Side button covers peeling off too now on that one. Don't think I was being rough with it either. So this one hopefully will also be replaced.

What's your status with the peeling side buttons? The buttons on mine have basically peeled off completely now. I put in a ticket with wahoo, they have arranged collection, then will send me a new one. I'm glad I now have a second unit (after the original crashed on RatN). Means I can keep riding for the few days between collection, and arrival of the new unit.

J

They arranged collection of the faulty unit and sent a brand new replacement quite quickly after getting back in touch.
Didn't realise the unit was actually benefitting from a two years warranty rather than one.


telstarbox

  • Loving the lanes
Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #172 on: 11 July, 2019, 12:22:02 pm »
On the Bolt, presumably you can follow a GPX route turn by turn and record the actual ride (to go onto Strava) at the same time?
2019 🏅 R1000 and B1000

PaulF

  • "World's Scariest Barman"
  • It's only impossible if you stop to think about it
Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #173 on: 11 July, 2019, 12:32:29 pm »
On the Bolt, presumably you can follow a GPX route turn by turn and record the actual ride (to go onto Strava) at the same time?

You can on the ELEMNT so I assume you can in the Bolt as well.

Re: Wahoo Elemnt BOLT
« Reply #174 on: 11 July, 2019, 12:37:38 pm »
Yes (at least mine does) - it wasn't obvious on day one that it did, I had to do a trial run to find out. Assuming you press the start button to start recording of course!