Gone are the days when your bike computer just told you how long, far and fast you were riding. Nowadays, it’s all about bells and whistles (or maybe beeps and flashes).
In recent months, Wahoo has been ahead of the curve again with a number of updates that allow riders to control their bike lights, music and GoPro from the Elemnt (disappointingly, the brand’s assault on vowels remains) Bolt and Roam head units. The company has worked closely with SRAM which means you can use the auxiliary buttons on the new Red AXS to control your Elemnt without leaving the safety of your levers.
The last part of the update, GoPro integration, is rolling out today. We haven’t been able to access all the features to test them, but the ones we’ve been able to put through their paces have been nice and reliable.
Smart light control
If you have ANT+ compatible lights, you can now connect and control them from your Elemnt.
This includes going through various settings and automatically starting and stopping at the end of your trip. If you’re one of those who turn on the lights at the beginning of the trip and turn them off at the end, this integration is unlikely to excite you too much. However, if you do a lot of off-roading and tend to switch modes to optimize visibility and make sure you have enough light output to get you home, this feature will make your life a lot easier than to navigate for keys in the dark.
Wahoo Elemnt Light Control
(Image credit: Future)
Music control
Annoyed that you have to stop and take out your phone to get past that annoying part? Don’t get frustrated anymore; the music control screen displays what’s playing on your phone (whether via a music app, YouTube or a podcast) and gives you all the basic functions you need: volume, skip, rewind and play/pause. It’s beautiful in its simplicity, and I’ve found it to be faster and more responsive to operate than directly through my phone, even when I’m sitting at home, let alone riding.
GoPro control
The star guest of Wahoo’s integrative developments was very late to his party; GoPro control has now arrived.
By connecting your GoPro to the Elemnt as another sensor, you are now able to live stop/start, shoot and change modes all directly from your head unit; It’s all much easier and more reliable than pulling your phone out or fishing for a button somewhere on top of your helmet / chest / elsewhere on your bars.
Perhaps the most useful factor in this is the ability to see the setting on your Element so you know you have the camera in the right mode, thus avoiding parts of the footage where you’ve wanted to stop your camera and accidentally miss the main action by turning off the the camera.
There may not be thousands of riders using both an Elemnt and a GoPro, but for those who do, this is a really valuable integration.
Wahoo Elemnt GoPro Control
(Image credit: Future)
This feature uses GoPro’s public API, so it’s only available if your camera is a Hero 9/10/11/12 (not a Mini). Cory Pittman, Senior Product Manager at Wahoo explained to us that this is because each camera works in a slightly different way which means the software is bespoke for each model. Users should pay attention to the specific settings for their model. Wahoo has promised forward compatibility with future GoPro models and is also aiming to develop software to integrate with older GoPros as well as cameras from other companies.
We haven’t been able to test this feature before today’s launch (we’re behind on our GoPro models) so we’ll update as soon as we figure it out and report on its reliability.
Integration of the training program
If you don’t use Wahoo X or Training Peaks, you’ll likely be frustrated by the lack of integration between training programs and Elemnt to transfer workouts directly to your head unit. Wahoo has improved API functionality to make it easier to integrate third-party applications with its system.
Humango, FinalSurge and others have already been added with several more platforms expected to join in the near future.
