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TECH NEWS
2021 Wahoo Elemnt Bolt opener - 1Wahoo updates Elemnt Bolt GPS with improved navigation and colour display
Wahoo has given its Elemnt Bolt GPS bike computer a major revamp, adding a colour display for the first time, along with improved navigation capability and a memory that’s much larger than before.
Display
The updated Elemnt Bolt still has a 2.2in (56mm) 240x300 pixel screen but the big difference from before is that it’s now 64-colour rather than black and white, like the Elemnt Rival GPS multipart watch that Wahoo introduced towards the end of last year.
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Wahoo says that it wasn’t interested in adding colour just for the sake of it, but that this update enhances the user experience by allowing you to highlight key data fields – your power output, for example, or your heart rate – and making navigation clearer.
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Wahoo says that further clarity is provided by an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the backlight to suit conditions. This is a feature that’s already found on the Wahoo Elemnt Roam, and we’ve found it particularly useful on evening rides when you start to lose the light.
Read our review of the Wahoo Elemnt Roam
The screen is made from scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass.
You still get a series of LEDs above the screen which help in providing turn-by-turn directions, signal that you’re approaching Strava Live segments, and offer additional notifications.
Navigation
The new Elemnt Bolt features what Wahoo calls Smart Navigation which was previously available only on the Elemnt Roam. This means that if you stray from a route that you’re following, the Elemnt Bolt will automatically re-route you. This is a pretty big step forward.
You can also change your destination, route back to the start, and retrace your ride directly from the Elemnt Bolt rather than needing to go via Wahoo’s Elemnt smartphone app. The ‘Take Me To…’ feature – which works out the route and navigates you to a place of your choosing with turn-by-turn directions – is also now available on the device whereas it was just a feature of the app previously.
Other features
The previous Wahoo Elemnt Bolt had a 4GB memory but that has increased massively to 16GB on the new version so it can hold mapping data for much larger geographical areas.
Read our review of the first generation Wahoo Elemnt Bolt GPS cycling computer
Wahoo says that, as before, it has an IPX7 waterproof rating and a 15-hour run time. Charging is now via a USB-C connector which is more robust than the previous Micro USB connector. Everything is still controlled by three buttons at the bottom of the device, but they’re convex now, so slightly raised.
One of the best things about the Elemnt Bolt – and other Wahoo devices – has always been the ability to customise the data screens easily through the Elemnt app, and that remains the case. You open the app, add the data fields you want to see, move them into an order you like, and your setup is reflected on the device. It’s the same with the new version, as is the ease of integration with third-party apps, such as Strava.
You can receive calls, texts, WhatsApp messages and email notifications on the Elemnt Bolt mid-ride, or turn them off in Do Not Disturb mode.
The new Elemnt Bolt is considerably more expensive than previously, up from £184.99 to £249.99. It’s available now. A test sample has just arrived so we’ll have a review on road.cc soon.
Wahoofitness.com.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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21 comments
Been waiting for restock of the Bolt at Wiggle for ages, as hoping a newer model might be incoming before long.
Won everything in the final WTRL Zwift league race on Tuesday so have just rewarded myself with one of the new Bolt from Wiggle (I get a discount and had a £50 voucher). Sadly it won't be here until after the weekend, which will probably involve the first outdoor riding i've done for months!
Well I'm off to watch DCrainmakers video for fun.
I've already watched GPLama's and he loved it though maybe Balarat doesn't match the route option density of Amsterdam.
The only flaw I saw on his was with the route recalculation feature. It was just too quick. He was deliberately wanting to see what happend when he took wrong turns and was pleased with its response. What I saw was an on-screen route change made so quickly that if you weren't paying attention (exactly when you might miss a turn) you might not even realise that the route had been changed and you had missed something. Better either a slightly longer delay before recalculating (with off-course warning during the delay) or a manually prompted choice (tell the rider they missed a turn and offer either reroute or go back to original route).
Wow, pretty sure I paid £149 for my Bolt last year, that;s a chunky price increase
To be fair, that's a massively doscounted price!
From what I've read the RRP has not changed. Reducing an old/outgoing model's price is just sensible.
Wahoo's product strategy is a bit bizarre as you can still buy the bigger Roam that is now looking worse than the new bolt (slower processor, no USB-C, fewer colours) but much more expensive. I still like my Bolt that's been going for over 3 years but I've seen less innovation and updates than when I first bought the device. The lack of Ant+ light control is still an irritation.
to be honest ..unless you actually need 15 hours of "always on" battery life without lunch stop to recharge... the Hammerhead Karoo2 is altogether a better mapping device .
True ... but the Hammerhead 2 also costs an extra £110.
Actually the map and screen on the Karoo2 kinda suck IMO. Pretty hard to see on the rougher stuff. And I'd always take battery time and small size.
If the maps are the same as the old model, then they will be just as useless, but in colour. Does anyone know how/where you can get maps that you can actually use?
What's wrong with the old maps?
BTW the new maps contain elevation data. I don't know much about the details on them etc. DC Rainmaker made a great review of the new model just yesterday
I'm happy to be corrected but it does seem like not that much hardware has really changed from old to new bolt. As such if NONE of the new software (say turn prompts in the nav coding for example) gets updated on the original Bolt I will be pretty disappointed with Wahoo. After making such a big deal of doing things better than garmin... they might just be doing the same thing.
The Bolt Colour - a colour screen and all the software we could but didn't give the old model because £££. Plus our QC on batteries are still just as bad as Garmin!
Faster processor, better screen & increased memory on the hardware front.
Agree would like to see the new features on the v1 but not gonna happen IMO.
my bolt has been brilliantly reliable for 3 years and the battery still lasts for ever...so nothing like a garmin in my experience...though apparently garmin have improved in recent years from what I understand. They couldn't get much worse...
I've got the edge 830 and the speed/features and battery life are excellent. Much better than the previous model. I only switched from wahoo to Garmin because of the nav. Wahoo app setup and integration is miles ahead of Garmin connect which is rubbish.
The new features appear in the old Bolt. For example, integration with most popular messengers now allows you to see notifications right on the screen.
Turn-by-turn navigation is heavily dependent on the maps and processor so I doubt they can implement this on the older model. I wish I'm wrong.
From reading DC Rainmaker's attempt at making a review, it's come out of the factory absolutly loaded with bugs. He's had to give up doing an indepth analysis until they sort it out. Not a good start.
Not to be outdone by Garmin on the bugs front
If you read the article and comments, he mentions it's a bug specific to Amsterdam and other cities with extreme population and bicycle path density. GPLama hasn't experienced any of the bugs that Ray had found, neither had the other 100 or so testers before Wahoo sent out the units. Also a Wahoo engineer showed up personally to Ray's location to troubleshoot it with him, so that does at least demonstrate they are really trying to be on top of the situation.
I should hope so - when DCR says on video your new product is 'totally unusable', you've got a PR disaster. I've run a Bolt for 4 years - the software is significantly worse now than it was 2 years ago. I swear they must be employing sacked garmin engineers.
So basically, if you live in a city you're currently screwed. Stop being a Wahoo fanboy. It's bugging straight out of the blocks.
From the same post (and the comments below) it's clear that the issue has been identified by Wahoo team and the new firmware is already live. I think Ray will update the post as soon as he has new update and enough data.