After years of saying that the replacement for my Edge 800 wouldn’t be another Garmin, and hearing positive reviews of the Elemnt Bolt, I decided to take the plunge and try the Bolt, and I have to say I’m disappointed.

I really want to like it, but there are a load of minor issues that are really irritating me.

The biggest issue is pairing the phone with the GPS.  One of the reasons I wanted a new GPS was to get text message notifications when I’m riding my bike as I sometimes have to be on-call at weekends.  Unfortunately, in order to get these notifications on the Bolt, you need to pair it with the app on your phone, and to do this, you have to have the app running and to at least turn the screen on (sometimes you need to bring the app to the foreground too).  This completely kills the feature for me, as by the time I turn my GPS on, my phone is packed away in my bag or back pocket.  I don’t want to faff around with my phone every time I get on my bike, I just want it to pair automatically, like it does with just about every other bluetooth device.

Does anyone know if the Edge 520 is any better in this respect? My phone is Android FWIW.

I think that might be an issue with your phone, rather than the bolt – I certainly don’t have to do that to receive notifications on the device – it’s exactly as you say you want, just power the GPS unit on and done.

The newer versions of android have some pretty OTT battery saving “features” (which are also causing issues with Strava) – might be worth excluding the app from the battery saving options and see if its an issue?

I got a Bolt yesterday and while I was very excited and not paying too much attention in my frenzy to get it setup, Im sure there was an option along the way to “allow” the phone to search for the head unit in the background. Maybe you are missing permission?

This might also be useful

https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles/204280494-Android-Bluetooth-Troubleshooting

The 520plus keeps showing text notifications automatically.

I need to work out how to make it stop.

Seems like a great little unit so far though, just replaced my 800 with it.

Make sure everything is up to date. Phone and GPS firmware, app etc.

Im a Bolt user with an iPhone 6s and it connects automatically.

i’ve the standard Element and certainly don’t need to have the app open, the phone (iphone 7) and the Wahoo just communicate by Bluetooth? I get text and emails appear on mine?

i’ve got an elemnt, and i’ve never kept the app open and screen on to receive notifications

that’s been with android 6.0, android 8.0 and iOS 12.

Don’t think it’s an issue with my phone, as I’ve been in touch with Wahoo support and they’ve confirmed that this is how it is and that they have no plans to fix it. I think the issue is that the Bolt pairs with the app, rather than with the OS directly (it’s not listed as a paired device on the phone’s settings).

If you’ve had the app open recently, it pairs when the phone is woken, which happens when you receive a notification, so if you’re lucky, it’ll pair when it receives the first notification and actually tell you about the next one!

From what I can work out, iPhone is different on this point.

i’ve got an elemnt, and i’ve never kept the app open and screen on to receive notifications

It’s not about keeping it on to receive them, it’s about getting them connected in the first place after you turn the GPS on. Once they’re connected there’s no problem .

I think what pdw is saying, is that with other electronic items such as bluetooth headphones etc. you turn them on, the phone finds them & they connect. You don’t need to go into the “Sony Headphones” app for the headphones to connect.

But with the Bolt, just turning it on doesn’t connect it to the phone. You have turn the Bolt on, then open the app on the phone for it to connect. Once the app is open, it will search for the Bolt and connect. Once it’s connected you can then put the phone to sleep & carry on as normal.

I’ve got one, but have never bothered pairing it during a ride. I might have a play about with it this evening and see what’s what.

Got the 520, pairs to my phone and watch as soon as they are on 95% of the time, after that I just turn it off and on again or do the same with the bluetooth connection.

Get call alerts, texts etc through to the main screen – a pause option not to would be nice sometimes too. All in works just like I’d expect, battery is good, GPS is solid and connects with plenty of things, miss the touch from my old 810 though just for speed of nav.

While we are on about the bolt… How do I stop Strava reporting I ride with one? I mean, on the feed title.

I’d keep it if they paid me.

After frustrations with other Garmins I tried a couple of Wahoos and didn’t have the problem you’re having, that but worked fine, but did have other problems.

After trying a few things I bought an Edge Explore and thus far I’ve been very happy with it.

Ugarizza, if you update directly from your wahoo there’s probably some metadata in the fit file that says the device that created it. You’d probably need to use something else like simple-gpx to convert the file and strip out any unnecessary data. More hassle than its worth for me!

You could get some of the NFC stickers and stick it on your bike or something related to your riding gear that you always gets left, such as riding glasses case.  Then you can just swipe your phone on the tag (even if the phone is in your bag) and set the tag to open the wahoo app.

I’ve use the tags in the past for turning on android auto (stuck to phone holder) or by the back door to turn your phones flashlight on and off each time you tap it with the phone.  Clever little things.

520 is one of this weeks CR Black Friday deals

Yeah – what stumpy says.  If I get in my car, I don’t have to take my phone out of my pocket to get it connected.  With the Bolt you need to have the app running to get it connected.  The app can be in the background, but you do have to wake your phone for long enough to get it connected.  You don’t even have to unlock the phone, but you do have to turn the screen on for a few seconds.  Might not sound like a big deal, but it’s one more bit of faff when going for a ride, and by the time I turn my GPS on, my phone is packed in a back pocket or my bag and I’m often wearing gloves.

There’s a few other things on the Bolt that are annoying me.  For example, the turn-by-turn notifications are a bit crazy.  It gives you one bleep well in advance of turn, but the next bleep is when you’re half way through the junction!  I want a bleep 20m before the junction so I know that it really is the next one.  It does show you the distance to the turn, but it’s in tiny text at the bottom of the screen.

While we are on about the bolt… How do I stop Strava reporting I ride with one? I mean, on the feed title.

Go into settings on the app and then “partner integration”. I haven’t tried it, but I imagine if you disable  Wahoo in there it’ll stop that.

Never need to have the app opened nor in the background, nor does the phone need to be awake when I turn the it on to get text notifications on my Bolt. (I can’t read them though as I need reading glasses for close work when the contacts are in for cycling!) It probably helps that the phone bluetooth is always on

Turn by turn I can set the warning distance with RidewithGPS when planning the route.

Never need to have the app opened nor in the background, nor does the phone need to be awake when I turn the it on to get text notifications on my Bolt.

Just tried this. Turning the Bolt on and not connecting it to the app, I don’t get text notifications….

Opening the app and having the Bolt connect means I instantly get text notifications on the Bolt.

Weird that different people seem to get different results. Bluetooth is permanently on, on my phone.

Never need to have the app opened nor in the background, nor does the phone need to be awake when I turn the it on to get text notifications on my Bolt.

Android or iOS?

Turn by turn I can set the warning distance with RidewithGPS when planning the route.

I can see that option when exporting a TCX file, but it’s a paid-for feature.  Can you do it in the free version?

Op is using Android I believe.

New Garmin Edge 130 is impressive I find

I went from an Edge 820 Explore to a standard 820 as a warranty replacement and I have the same bluetooth issue.

Op is using Android I believe.

Yeah, I’m using Android.  I’ve found references on the web that say that iphone + bolt doesn’t have this problem – it just pairs automatically like you’d expect it to.

Wahoo support have confirmed that what I’m seeing is on Android is just how it is, so I’d be interested to hear if anyone on Android doesn’t see this problem.

I’m impressed by the cunning of spooky’s NFC idea.  If I decide to keep it, I might well look into that.

Used my wahoo for the first time this weekend. Unless I’m being dumb, there is no way to see battery level on the head unit? I find that more annoying than anything else.

trail wagger – press the on/off button briefly.  It can also be configured to be on screen via the app.

FWIW, I find my 810 only connects to my Honor 9 if I have the Garmin app running. It never used to do that. It always used to connect automatically to the phone, I assumed it was some software update on the 810

Unless I’m being dumb, there is no way to see battery level on the head unit?

I used to have mine configured to display battery percentage, so it must be possible. Keep digging through the options 🙂

Wiggle have the garmin edge on offer for £149.99 but you can also use the new customer code to give you a further £10 off.

Thanks, I’ll take another look at the options.

Other than that I am really pleased with it. Turn by turn worked well and it’s a nice clear display. Very solid on the bike too.

I find my 810 only connects to my Honor 9 if I have the Garmin app running.

That’s disappointing.  I was about to order an 820.  Anyone else got experience of recent Edge models and pairing with Android?

I’d email Garmin to ask them, but they don’t seem to publish an email address (I knew there was a reason I wanted to get away from Garmin… at least Wahoo respond quickly to emails, even if it just to say “this doesn’t work”)

As above Edge 520 has connected to my last 2 phones fine, no need to open the app to get notifications, not sure if it checks for updates with up closed though

@pdw Ring Garmin support.

0808 238 0000

You’l probably get the usual call centre guff about busier than expected volumes, but they will ask you to leave your number and they will ring you back. The guys there are pretty good and know their stuff.

Much better than the usual (Not much) Help desk!!!

As mentioned above, while the unit is on, press the power button briefly & it takes you to a few settings, but also shows you the battery remaining.

You can add it as a metric to display on a page too.

You can not only let it display the internal battery level but also that of the paired phone.

To the OP and the chap up there with an Honor 9 that won’t connect easily to his Garmin….if you are both on Android have you checked if the partner apps are being power managed to save phone battery? Huawei/Honor particularly can be quite aggressive on apps that are apparently sitting idle in the background. Once you’ve gone into the settings and told them to ignore them all’s good.

Yes.  I have power management disabled for the app.  As above, I’ve been in touch with Wahoo and they’ve confirmed that this is expected behaviour and there’s nothing that can be done about it.  Presumably Android allows an app to maintain a BT connection when the phone is not active, but not to search for new BT connections (unlike the OS itself).