Wahoo ace - is bigger better?
Wahoo has shocked the cycling world with its most powerful bike computer yet, the Wahoo ELEMNT ACE.
Straight from arrival you can see this is a huge move for wahoo with the switch to touchscreen and also a much bigger unit with a 3.8” screen, the biggest cycling computer on the market and the first touch screen unit for Wahoo. But is bigger better? I have now been testing this for a couple of weeks and here are my thoughts.
It’s all about size…..
As we have discussed it’s a big computer, and it took the cycling world by surprise and left most of us puzzled as it doesn’t fit on any out front mount you may be using. I had contacted a few people I know in the cycling world about this issue and most of them had the same issue upon receiving their aces, with very few having a mount already installed that is would fit on. However, for the first time I was very happy with the quality of the Wahoo mount that comes with the computer, with the bolt and the roam previous they were plastic and looked a bit ugly being bolted to your handlebars, but the ACE comes with a aluminium mount that keeps the 208g bike computer steady and in place and tucked up against the stem neatly - this is assuming you’re running a two-piece 31.8mm bar and stem.
When I unboxed the ACE and saw the size, I was expecting to take it out and it be big and bulky, but personally, I think it has a neat design and doesn’t look like a brick on the front of your bike -it’s noticeably big, but not ugly - and it is fairly slim and smooth underneath, especially using the Wahoo supplied mount. And this design is to help benefit the in-built wind sensor, which we will get onto later.
Display….
More space means more data! True but not true, the Wahoo screens are as customisable as they have ever been, you can still customise each page, zoom in and out of data fields with the volume button and pick and choose what’s on each page, but the improvements come with the addition of workout profiles (a Garmin feature for a very long time) so now you can have different profiles set with your pre chosen workout fields on them, so for me this will be the normal profile, a time trial and a endurance race profile. This is a much appreciated addition from Wahoo as it was annoying having to change all your screens pre-event or have multiple different screen active all the time.
The screen has also taken a step up, I imagine to allow for touchscreen, with an anti-glare display you can actually see the map and screens no matter if you’re under some trees, in the rain or the sun is beaming down on you. With an inbuilt ambient light sensor, the brightness will automatically change depending on where you are also, and this really helped with improving visibility.
The maps and navigation have also had a upgrade with the addition of map filters such as points of interest, street names on/off and a much easier to use route loading system and creating a route home system. For the first time, you can unlock the screen, find on the map a location, select that location and have a route made to get there without having to go in the app and mess around that way - the perks of having touchscreen. Navigation is cleaner than ever with more screen space for turn by turn navigation, and a direction arrow scrolling across the top of the screen when you’re at the turning. The usual loud beeps are still here for navigation and alert prompts but you can finally adjust the volume of these, and there is a new voice navigation option, however I found this not loud enough especially if riding solo with a headphone in, on a group ride or in a strong wind, and the beeps were much effective.
Sensors, training and workouts…..
Uploading synced workouts is still as simple as it was, with automatically uploaded sessions from training peaks. The workout display is different and took some getting used to, whereas before you had the power target or range and then beside it the power you were doing, you now have the power you are doing and a small bar with a green section in the middle and red either side, the power you are doing is a small black dot that you have to keep in the green (green being your interval zone). At first, this was a struggle to keep in the zone and a little confusing, made easier if you knew the power target off the top of your head, as you can just look at the power output number, but as I did a few intervals it wasn’t as bad as I first thought, you just glance down and see where the black dot is, but this may take some getting used to.
An improvement has come on the interval screen though, where you can skip or move to a set interval. Before you had a small line showing where you were skipping to, however now you have a much brighter and easier to see screen with each interval laid out to select.
Sensor pairing has always been fairly simple, especially once you have done them for the first time, but one thing that surprised me with the ACE was just how quickly it found all my sensors straight away and all on the device, no app pairing needed. With the new “ready to ride” screen, you have all your sensors, and all their battery status there before every ride, where you can also select your workout profile and workouts or routes. Making the usability much quicker and simpler.
The biggest (apart from the screen) addition for bike computer technology, the wind sensor.
You know that feeling when you’re riding into a head wind and then turn round and it seems to also be a headwind? Well that feeling is no more with the new wind sensor.
Okay, this may be a step too far for 99.9% of users. It is a cool feature that has a very niche market, having used it for a couple of weeks, it is nice to see wind speed and the colours showing clearly wether you’re in a airboost (tailwind) or airdrag (headwind)…. Kind of.
If you’re riding solo or on the front of a group it is exactly that, knowing if the wind is with or against you, and this feature, for people like me, is going to be a great help for pacing solo events like time trials or long distance events to know when to push or when to save energy.
Saving energy is a key point when discussing the wind sensor, as riding in a group it is more used for saving energy, as if you’re sat in the middle of the group, the wind speed is dramatically less, as you’re not in the wind, you are drafting. So looking at a racing point of view, this would be great for road racing and seeing how much energy you are saving by drafting.
And for me that’s the point of this sensor, for racing. If you have the money it is a cool bit of tech to have for the day to day cyclist, but at £549.99 it is not cheap. The wind sensor for me is not something that is worth the money for the day to day cyclist, no matter how geeky they are, but does have a place to the small amount of people.
The addition of an electronic bike bell however is brilliant. Double tap on the screen or once on the black Touch Bar and you have a bike bell, perfect for commuting for riding on those cycle paths. Neither of which I do often, but the few times I have, it has been brilliant to have, and sometimes it’s just nice to sound the bell just for a laugh with friends. And besides it’s a nice feature to have included and not having to have a big ugly bell on the bars.
Overview……
The Wahoo ACE is a great bit of kit, obviously designed to push the boundaries of what a bike computer can do. They have updated the features wahoo already have, including ditching the ELEMNT companion app for the wahoo ecosystem app, so everything is one place.
It has new features that the majority of the cycling community won’t use, but are cool to have. Is it an upgrade to the roam? Yes 100% with the addition of touchscreen, better battery life and better usability, the Wahoo ACE is an upgrade, but not a necessary one, especially at £549.99!
Is it something we would like to have in the market? Yes, as it pushes the development forward, especially within the Wahoo market, but is it something we all need? No not really, but then again do we need half the tech we have on our bikes?
I would recommend the new Wahoo ELEMNT Ace as a product, but at the same time if you have the roam or roam V2 and have no need to change bike computer then I would recommend sticking with what you have.
*videos and photos taken from my YouTube first impression video: https://youtu.be/iIezbmMyhJM?si=JDDCuyF8nZQ0XF5l
