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(I suspect I post basically this question every couple of years with the name of the device changed, but here goes anyway…)
I see that the Wahoo Roam v1 is going for under £200 now, which puts it into my range of acceptable pricing.
Any good reason to avoid it? I want it solely for navigation (both pre-planned and in the field) on roads and gravel trails; I have zero interest in Strava segments or power meters or anything else that tells me just how unfit I am, or in posting my rides to Twitbook or wherever.
I realise it has some shortcomings (it’s bulky and fugly, there are varied reports of battery life and build quality, it won’t navigate “north up”) but its big win is that it is very easy to get routes onto it—assuming that by now Wahoo have fixed their phone app, which was a disaster when I last used it.
Garmins are obviously all unreliable and hard work to get routes onto, so while I’ve still got an old 810 with OS maps on it, I’m not going back to them for navigation. Which leaves Wahoo, Hammerhead (a bit pricy for my tastes, but maybe worth it?) and presumably some shonky Chinese offerings. Of these, as far as I’m aware Wahoo have the last friction in the route loading process (especially as a RideWithGPS user).
But I can’t see much in the specs of the Roam v2 or Bolt v2 that gives them any advantage on the usability or navigation front. Fair?
Bottom line: is the Roam v1 a good unit for navigation these days or does a little more cash buy significantly less frustration?
Cheers 🙂
I suspect I post basically this question every couple of years with the name of the device changed, but here goes anyway…
I won't lie, I saw the thread and "what, again?" 🙂
Also interested, my Mk1 Bolts screen is playing up and was thinking about those Roams. Or a Mk2 Bolt or Roam
i have a Roam V1 and its been great, i had 6 Garmins in a row, i believe the hardware is great, but found software poor, had a few batteries go, and poor battery life against what was claimed, but not had a garmin for last 4-5 years
The Roam is the opposite, computer itself is fairly simple, everything is done on phone app, and you can link to RWGPS, Strava, Komoot etc, plan a route on them or Wahoo, they will be in the Wahoo app and straight to head unit.
Battery life with navigation i find is about 14-16 hours, and it just does the simple things well without too much fuss.
I have the Bolt (V1) and I think it's perfectly good for navigation, so without looking at the Roam and only going off the name, I suspect that'll do a perfect job for you too. So long as you plot the route out accurately it'll keep you on the line and it's possible to setup Turn by Turn with the right route creator. Turn by turn with the beep turned on so you get notified when you ned to turn is probably pretty neat.
The app works well I think, I use Strava to create the routes, any route I mark as a favourite is immediately available in the app to set as my route. The only draw-back is that you can't set a route on the device, so you do need your phone at least when you get the bike out of the shed. But I suppose if you don't know where you're going you should take your phone anyway.
Probably another consideration is that the Wahoo setup is incredibly flexible, you can have the maps page, a mini-maps page that shows you the upcoming gradients as well, use the lights and/or the beep with the navigation and if you ever decide you want to know how unfit you are you can have whatever views you want with just the bits you want to know about where you want it.
I want it solely for navigation
Surely for this criteria alone an eTrex or equivalent would be better?
Garmins are obviously all unreliable and hard work to get routes onto
Not that I'm trying to change your mind but getting routes onto my Edge 530 couldn't really be any simpler. I usually draw them up in Komoot (app or web) or Connect (app or web) and they're synced across as soon as I switch on my Edge. The old days of connecting cables and so on are long gone.
I think the Roam 1's still pretty good tbh, though it's not always great at re-routing if you stray off route when it occasionally tries to send you one some ridiculous, convoluted trek along pointless side roads rather than just going back 800m and taking the turn you missed. Otherwise I find it straightforward to use and mostly it just works. Routes synch automatically from Komoot or Strava. Ditto, routes upload automatically. Minimal hassle.
It has less internal memory than the Roam 2 I think and a slower processor, but it works fine for me. I'm too stupid to cope with Garmin's user-hostile interface and I find the Wahoo a lot more logical. You can add custom screens, reminders, live Strava segments if you want to etc. I'm sure there's Garmin stuff that does all this and more, but every time I use a Garmin, it does my head in. YMMV etc.
The one thing I would sort of like from the later v2 Roam is the clever climb stuff where it shows you gradients etc in advance even if you've not following a pre-loaded route, but in all honesty, while it'd be nice, it's more a frill than a basic necessity.
The missus has an Edge Explore, I think, which seems to be a source of endless frustration, but as above, I'm sure it works fine if you can bond with it.
Garmins are obviously all unreliable and hard work to get routes onto, so while I’ve still got an old 810 with OS maps on it, I’m not going back to them for navigation.
I'd say they've improved over the years, I do keep bemoaning my Edge Explore's battery life (and Garmin still seem to bump prices if you want to be able use a device for an entire day or longer) but navigation is now a strong suit for at least a couple of 'affordable' Garmin devices.
I'm currently trying out Lezyne for similar reasons, I want an affordable bike Navigation tool (with useful battery life), I looked at Wahoo too, it really only came down to the deals about at the time.
I won’t lie, I saw the thread and “what, again?” 🙂
😂 Probably not helped that I never post anything else these days! Though it reflects my response to seeing new GPS releases and thinking “oh, a bit shit again” 🙂
I have the Bolt (V1) and I think it’s perfectly good for navigation, so without looking at the Roam and only going off the name, I suspect that’ll do a perfect job for you too.
I have the Bolt v1 and largely hated it (for reasons which, as the above comment alludes to, are well documented) but the Roam fixes some of the more compelling issues, and I live in hope that the app has improved.
Not that I’m trying to change your mind but getting routes onto my Edge 530 couldn’t really be any simpler. I usually draw them up in Komoot (app or web) or Connect (app or web) and they’re synced across as soon as I switch on my Edge. The old days of connecting cables and so on are long gone.
Interesting. I can’t even remember what process I used (I know that at some point it involved Komoot on the basis that it was one of very few things that are usable as route creators on a phone) but the problem was that the connection from Connect on my iPhone to the device (whether the Explore or the 810) was so unreliable that it as unusable.
I think the Roam 1’s still pretty good tbh, though it’s not always great at re-routing if you stray off route when it occasionally tries to send you one some ridiculous, convoluted trek along pointless side roads rather than just going back 800m and taking the turn you missed.
The flipside to that is that Garmin rely too much on U-turns. Often I’ll decide to divert down a quiet road away from traffic (especially when I’ve asked the device to come up with a route instead of me meticulously planning it in advance) and it’ll spend a couple of miles telling me to U-turn, it won’t allow me to convey the fact that I’m riding away from a road I don’t want to be on. It’s not the worst navigation problem, but an annoyance.
navigation is now a strong suit for at least a couple of ‘affordable’ Garmin devices.
I’ve always been happy with the way Garmin displays navigation, particularly its ability to remain “north up” and its detailed view of junctions on approach to them. They’re the best at that. It’s just the unreliability and the friction of working with routes that kills them for me, along with patchy battery life.
I think I should probably just take a punt on the Roam; no-one’s yet come along and said it’s a complete disaster.
Though I’m sure I’ll find something to moan about 😄
I’ve always been happy with the way Garmin displays navigation, particularly its ability to remain “north up”
I am pretty sure the Wahoo/Elmnt app has an option for 'north up'
I've moved back from a mk1 elemnt to a Garmin Edge Explore and the only downside is the poor battery life. The iq apps on the device and the connect app on my phone make getting a gpx onto the device as easy as a wahoo.
The map detail and having the directions read out on my phone make up for the downsides.
A refurbished and essentially new Edge Explore can be had for £125-160 depending on who you get it from or which way the wind is blowing at Amazon.
I am pretty sure the Wahoo/Elmnt app has an option for ‘north up’
It does, but not when navigating a route. At least that always used to be the case, and I’ve never seen it; Wahoo never showed any interest in implementing it as a feature. I still dislike “travel up” for two or three reasons, but I got so fed up with Garmins failing to talk to phones that I think maybe it’s the lesser of two evils.
@Bez, please do keep us updated if you get the V1 roam.
I've been struggling along with a lezyne thing for years, really ought to replace with something I can see without a magnifying glass 😉, but have baulked at the prices
The map detail and having the directions read out on my phone make up for the downsides.
Conversely, the map detail is one of the things I dislike most about Garmins 🙂 It becomes very hard to see paths and minor roads at a glance when they’re running though things like (IIRC) green areas of trees, or when they coincide with boundaries of areas. There are a lot of details in Garmin maps which add no value (why do I need to see where woods are when I’m following roads?) and can’t be removed, but which detract significantly from what I do need to see. Visually I find them a bit of a mess. I forget the details, but it bothered me enough that I spent many tedious hours using antiquated Windows applications to create custom maps that look quite similar to the Wahoo ones. And I don’t want to repeat that process 😉
Fair enough, I'm happy with the detail versus the inconsistent nature of the wahoo maps. Like how I can see a the driveway and turning circle of a big house detailed but go into FC land and the foreheads aren't marked, only the bridleways!
please do keep us updated if you get the V1 roam.
It’s been ordered… Start Fitness had it for £180, with an additional 10% discount for signing up to emails. Bargin.
my Mk1 Bolts screen is playing up and was thinking about those Roams. Or a Mk2 Bolt or Roam
Mine did this (out of warranty) so I emailed to ask if anything could be done and got a hefty discount on a mk2.
I've had the Roam v1 for a couple of years, having also bought a Garmin 530 last year and used that twice, it made me love the Roam even more, i don't tend to put routes in, i just it for roaming, funnily enough, and the way the map pans and you easily zoom it means you can do a lot on the fly, the 530 with button presses to do that meant you were needing to stop.
I did do a couple of routes, and i see that they do a lot of public routes via the app, so you can download all those who people make accessible around your area, and further afield of course, so could be useful.
I might have to get another though, my poor roam has had a few falls, snapped the back off it, knocked the charger port out, burned out the corner of the screen, but it keeps ticking at least.
Halfords are currently offering 20% off on bike accessory orders over £150. I've just ordered an Edge Explore 2 and the price drops to £199.
If you collect Microsoft reward points you can convert these to Halfords gift cards too (I managed to save another £25). Delivery is free as well.
Bought a roam from start fitness and being a complete non tech person it's pretty good so far. Few sweary moments but I like it.
It just arrived, so I’ve fiddled with it over lunch.
My main beef so far is that they continue to hate anyone who wants a “north up” map. In addition to still not allowing it when navigating (it’s only been six years or more since people started requesting it), if you add data fields to the map screen it doesn’t reposition the pointer, so you start losing map to the north of it. If you add even one field it’s quite irritating; if you add five then the pointer basically disappears under them, making the screen entirely useless (unless you head south all the time, perhaps).
Couple of other minor niggles, nothing more than mild annoyances at worst. Wahoo still really need to look up “font hinting”. But generally it was set up really quickly and connected to Komoot and RWGPS easily so I have instant access to all my routes. (That bit has always been Wahoo’s strongest point.) Fortunately it looks as if the app behaves itself now (on all previous occasions—with the Elemnt, Elemnt Bolt, and three different phones—it rapidly burned the phone battery).
I’ll try to give it an outing at the weekend.
Serious question: isn't a phone just as good if not better for this sort of thing? It's what we have always used, with something like trailforks/MTBproject/OS maps in some variety depending where we are. Is it a battery life and robustness issue, or does a dedicated GPS unit really have some functional benefits?
Apologies for the thread hijack
Having previously owned two edge 530’s (returned both owing to faults / issues) I’m looking at either the bolt v2 or roam v2
Generally for loading routes and giving them a follow, not seeing much difference between the two other than screen size
Has anyone experience with both units? Is the roam worth the extra spend over the bolt?
Serious question: isn’t a phone just as good if not better for this sort of thing? Is it a battery life and robustness issue, or does a dedicated GPS unit really have some functional benefits?
Multiple reasons:
- phone touchscreens don’t work in rain
- phone screens aren’t very readable in bright sunlight, and consume lots of power with the backlight, which is permanently on
- battery life isn’t good enough for long rides (see previous point); maybe it is with a massive phone, but I don’t like massive phones
- my phone (iPhone SE, which is small by today’s standards) won’t fit on my 13cm stem, and I use a bar bag so can’t mount it out front (and wouldn’t want it exposed like that anyway)
- I’d have to keep changing the phone case between one that slides into a pocket and one that mounts on the bike
- using the GPS would run down the battery that I also use for paying for stuff, making emergency calls, checking maps, etc
- personally I find most phone apps are pretty crap for road navigation, YMMV
@james-rennie I said I’d report back…
Currently out on its first ride. Stuck a tiny 8km route on it just to test it. Deliberately went off course at one turning. It immediately crashed and rebooted. It restarted with the recorded data seemingly intact, but failed to return me to the screen I was on or to resume navigation.
Manually started navigating again, it failed to render my route ahead, rode a bit further and then it managed to draw it. Next opportunity, I went off course again. And again it crashed and rebooted.
All of which is useless to me. Never mind the minor but numerous irritations that still haven’t been addressed by Wahoo.
So I’ve put it in my bag and it will be going back, and Wahoo have had three strikes now. I’ve given them a fair crack of the whip with three different units, and they’ve given me three pieces of shit.
Reluctantly back to Garmin AGAIN, then…
Sigh
Glad I checked back in to read this as that doesn’t sound very good (and goes against the normal comments that wahoo are pretty faultless).
What garmin will you get?
Dunno… last one I had was the Explore and it was largely ok, so the obvious likely candidate is the Explore 2, I guess.
Or maybe a Hammerhead. Haven’t tried one of those yet. Though they’re way over budget.
My friend bought a wahoo roam after my suggestion. We set off together doing the badger divide. My wahoo roam worked flawlessly.
His was a pain in the arse. Turned out he's bought it from Europe so he hadn't downloaded the UK maps. Couldn't sort it in the wilds of Scotland. He wasn't impressed.
Just wondering if you have the same issue?
Don’t think so, the maps seem fine.
Shame you’ve had that experience. I’ve had a Roam v1 for a good few years now and it is generally faultless, other than the annoying tendency to reroute a long and weird way round as mentioned already. It did reboot on me once a couple of years ago, under similar circumstances I think, but it’s never happened again so perhaps fixed with a software upgrade.
Now I mention it, updating the software has been a massive PITA every time but otherwise I’ve been very pleased with it.
10% off Start fitness still, with a the bank holiday code "bank", unfortunately you can't stack codes..
My 810 is starting to play up again, so got a Bolt v2 ordered. Though £160 for the Roam v1 was tempting but I decided I wanted a newer device.
Ah! Good spot, thanks. Hadn’t even bothered looking at the site, as I’d used up my 10% signup discount on the Roam. Saves me a 2hr round trip to the nearest Halfords that has one in stock. Ordered! 👍
So…
Raised a support ticket with Wahoo; apparently the issue is known and they’re working on a fix. Last firmware was dated 2 May so the defect has been in the wild for a month now. Hmm.
Start Fitness won’t take it back as it’s been used. Mildly annoying, seeing that it’s literally as new with the protective films intact and no accessories touched, so no different to having tried on some clothing and taken it off again, but I suppose they’re within the letter of their policy. Not sure why there’s a 30 day return policy if all you’re allowed to do is spend that time looking at the box, but hey ho. First World problem. I’ll wait for the promised firmware update and then it’ll go on eBay—assuming the Explore 2 that just arrived works out.
Reluctantly back to Garmin AGAIN, then…
For the time being I've stuck with Garmin. It does stuff that I don't like, but honestly It's better enough* than everything else.
*Or least is less annoying than everything else.
Or maybe a Hammerhead. Haven’t tried one of those yet. Though they’re way over budget.
Big, really really big unit. You need a third party app to see anything other than basic data, and for the price they are, that's lame. Nice display (it's only real party trick), but too many other things hat aren't good enough the price of them.
Literally just about to take the Explore 2 out of its box and power it up, and up pops an email from Hammerhead saying they’re selling the Karoo 2 for £235 with a risk-free 45 day trial and a free colour kit. Looks like we’ve got ourselves a three way bake-off 🤪
😂😂
Well, Wahoo just released new firmware that supposedly fixes the problem:
https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005939120
Will see if I can give it a go at the weekend.
I finally got round to doing a short ride to test all three units.
Wahoo have fixed the crash. Unfortunately, while it doesn’t reboot the device, it also doesn’t actually do any rerouting. So it’s still shite.
The Explore 2 seems to be a definite improvement over the Explore. The mapping is way clearer, the screen is much better in bright sun (though still gloss finish, so reflects stuff) and it has some useful new functionality. A few quirks (eg I’m not sure why I sometimes get a through-junction view when navigating but often don’t) but overall seems fine so far. Connectivity to the phone hasn’t gone hatstand yet.
The Hammerhead is generally pretty nice. The screen isn’t as good as the other two in bright sun but it’s adequate, but it beats them in other conditions. Rerouting is impressively good. The data fields could really use a visual designer’s touch, and there are a couple of minor quirks, but I think I’ll raise those as feature requests and see what happens. The only real niggle I have on day one is that it chewed through way more of its battery than the other two, but I’ve not tried it’s battery saving measures yet.
The Wahoo is destined for eBay and I’ll keep the others for a while.
+1Not that I’m trying to change your mind but getting routes onto my Edge 530 couldn’t really be any simpler.
Previous Garmins have been awful for getting routes onto (unreliable connection to phone as said above). Whether phones or Garmins have improved I don’t know but haven’t had any problems at all with the 530!
selling the Karoo 2 for £235 with a risk-free 45 day trial and a free colour kit.
Guess who bought theirs a smidge over 45 days ago for £359 and is now well pissed off! 🙄I complained and they let me have a HRM for half price... Still it wasn't £125 off just £27.
Anyway the Karoo is great - they have just redesigned all the data fields and it's all kicking off over on the Karoo forums as people seem not to like it. Personally I think its OK - not that much different really. Tiny bit smaller text maybe but meh..🤷♂️
Rerouting is brill and it syncs routes saved in Strava/Komoot really well. The map design is great with different colour route plots depending on whether it's rerouting, on a climb, original route, somewhere you have ridden already this ride etc.
Needing to keep the screen on 25% brightness to get the battery to last 8hrs + but it's really visible even at that brightness.
Lezyne Mega XL is reduced to £54 on CRC, or you can buy the bundle with rear light and aero mount for £69.
Great price for a unit that really can do 48hrs battery with a proper map and offline routing, just a question of whether GPS tech has moved on in the last ~4 years.