The Wahoo Elemnt Roam received a significant upgrade in 2022, the first since its launch in 2019. This adds features including a large increase in memory, a 64-colour screen, dual-band GPS and faster USB-C charging, without changing the bike computer’s dimensions.
The upgrades improve mapping and add climb profiles which were previously absent, adding useful extra functionality to what was already one of the best cycling computers.
Wahoo Elemnt Roam key features and specs
- Easy to read 2.7 inch colour (non-touch) screen
- Upgraded 32GB memory
- Dual-band GPS for improved accuracy
- 17 hours battery life with USB-C charging
- ANT+, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi built in
- Perfect Zoom on maps and data fields
- Tightly integrated phone app
- Now includes climb profiles
Wahoo Elemnt Roam features and technical specifications
The new, upgraded Elemnt Roam looks pretty much like the old version at first sight. It’s the same mid-size device that’s 90.5mm tall × 59.5mm wide × 20.5mm deep with a 2.7in colour screen that’s not touch sensitive, and an array of LEDs above and another on the left side of the screen.
The screen’s matt surface makes it easy to read in sunlight and there’s an ambient light sensor to control the backlight level in shadier conditions.
Size-wise, the Roam is somewhat larger than the Garmin Edge 530 and 830, but smaller than the Edge 1030 Plus and 1040. It’s large enough to read and use easily as you ride, particularly with Wahoo’s choice of a very clear font for its largely black-and-white data screens, but small enough that it doesn’t swamp your bars.
The integrated plastic out-front mount helps to free up bar space as well. The Elemnt Roam clicks crisply into it with a quarter turn and the interface between the mount and the computer is smooth, neat and potentially a little more aero than other brands’ alternatives. Wahoo also supplies a stem mount with the computer.
User interface
One change that you can see on the outside of the Elemnt Roam is the new convex shape for the row of three buttons along the bottom edge, below the screen. The change from the previous Elemnt Roam’s recessed buttons makes them easier to use and also less prone to collect dirt and debris.
As with the old version and the Elemnt Bolt, there’s no touchscreen interface, with the three button array used to control the device while riding.
Two buttons on the right side of the case work with them, providing up and down controls and Wahoo’s Perfect Zoom functionality. A fifth button on the left side of the case turns the Elemnt Roam on and off and brings up the settings menu.
It all works cleanly enough, although you can only scroll in one direction between screens as you ride using the right hand front button. The left hand one has different functions depending on the displayed screen, working as a Lap button on data screens but bringing up route selection and pan and zoom functions on the map screen. The centre button starts and pauses data recording.
New chips
Wahoo has added dual-band GPS to the new Elemnt Roam, which it says allows a more precise GPS fix, particularly if you’re riding between tall buildings or under thick tree cover. It’s something that the latest Garmin Edge 1040 provides as well, but that computer is considerably larger and more expensive than the Elemnt Roam.
There’s also an increase in storage capacity from 4GB to 32GB, which is the same as the Garmin Edge 1040 and Hammerhead Karoo 2. As well as the obvious increase in space for ride recording, Wahoo says that this allows it to offer more detailed maps and that it should make map management easier, as you can keep a much larger area on-device rather than needing to upload new maps if you’re travelling somewhere new.
More screen colours
The 2.7in diagonal screen has also been upgraded from 8-colour to 64-colour. Wahoo hasn’t really used this upgrade to a significant extent though. Although the maps now have more detail, the overall impression when viewing screens and maps is still quite monochrome.
Wahoo says that this is deliberate, so that you’re not overwhelmed with splashy colours but can concentrate on the data. It uses colour selectively for fields like heart rate and power though, where it can give you information about your zones; you can also elect to have power or heart rate zone data displayed via the side LED array.
Another change that Wahoo has made with the new Elemnt Roam is to upgrade to USB-C charging, which allows a full charge in under two hours. Battery life remains a reasonable, if not outstanding – 17 hours despite the upgraded internals.
Wahoo Elemnt Roam companion app
Where Wahoo’s computers really score is their tight integration with the Elemnt smartphone app. This allows you to configure the Elemnt Roam via a simple, clear touchscreen interface, rather than having to do everything on-device, although this is still an option.
Once they’re paired up, which happens automatically when both are turned on, changes made in the phone app are immediately reflected in the Elemnt Roam. This lets you choose a route or workout to follow on the phone and have it available in the computer straight away without needing to make a physical connection or wait for a download.
With its Wi-Fi functionality, routes mapped out in Strava and elsewhere are also uploaded seamlessly to the Elemnt Roam without needing to use the phone app, but they’re easier to select to ride via the touchscreen interface than on the device itself.
Data page configuration
The phone app can be used to set up data page layouts seen as you ride. Rather than a set layout, you select and rank the priorities of data fields by dragging and dropping on the phone.
You can have up to 11 data fields per page and the ranked order determines which ones are removed from view as you use Perfect Zoom to home in on a smaller set of data fields.
You can do the same with up to six data fields on the map page and there are similar pages that can be configured for Strava Live segments, Summit segments, Kickr turbo control and planned workouts.
Other functionality such as linking up sensors and setting the behaviour of the LED arrays can also be managed in the phone app. There are additional tabs that provide ride history and workout stats.
It’s all clean looking and intuitive to use. In contrast, the absence of a touchscreen makes most setup tasks quite fiddly if you try to perform them on the device itself.
You don’t get a web app for use on a computer, so any routes you want to plan will need to be mapped out elsewhere like Strava or Komoot, both of which interface seamlessly to the Elemnt Roam with routes uploaded via Wi-Fi or through the phone app.
Likewise, you’ll probably want to use Strava, TrainingPeaks or Wahoo X if you want to analyse your performance data in detail. There’s a long list of other apps you can link up to your account as well.
Workouts
The Elemnt Roam can be hooked up to run your turbo session and there’s a small selection of workouts onboard that you can select via the app. These include a 20 minute and an eight minute FTP test and a series of interval workouts.
You can add to them from the web and Wahoo links paid-up members through to its extensive Systm workout library that’s part of Wahoo X. You can choose via the app to ride a workout either indoors or outdoors, so you’re not stuck on the turbo if you want to do an interval session.
Wahoo Elemnt Roam routing, mapping, and navigation
Routing options
As noted above, if you want to map out a route in detail, you’ll need to do so in another app rather than the Elemnt companion phone app. It’s then easy to import, load up on the Elemnt Roam and follow.
The companion app does let you set a destination and will quickly plot out a route. Without cycling heatmaps, you may be routed along main roads though. You can also choose to follow a previous route, import a file in .gpx or other formats or get the computer to plot a route back to your start point.
Wahoo’s basemap isn’t very colourful, despite the new 64-colour screen. Most roads show up as black lines, main roads are yellow and bodies of water are shown in pale blue. Wooded areas show up in the faintest green.
There are fainter black lines for the majority of rights of way too. It’s easy enough to see where you are, but the map is not very feature-rich.
Navigation
The spartan mapping makes following a route on the device a simple affair, with a clearly marked route overlay. When you approach a turn, you can set up the Elemnt Roam to give you an audible alert and the top LED array can also be configured to flash to show you the direction to turn in.
That’s paired with an on-screen instruction with the distance to the turn. You get a second LED and an audible alert when you reach the turn. These tend to come late, though, and I’d usually made the turn before they appeared.
Miss a turn and the top LED array will flash red. Carry on and it will flash green, indicating that the Elemnt Roam has calculated a revised route. This usually happens rapidly and reliably, although if you set too complex a problem you tend to be sent back to where you diverged from your planned route, rather than being rerouted to a point further along it.
And the Roam really didn’t like it when I took a cut-through that wasn’t on its map, repeatedly flashing red and beeping at me, although it did finally reroute me back onto the correct road once I got close to the end of the diversion.
Wahoo Elemnt Roam Perfect Zoom, Live Tracking and other features
Perfect Zoom
The most useful and unique feature of the Elemnt bike computers is their Perfect Zoom function, controlled by the two buttons on the right edge of the case.
Rather than being stuck with pre-configured screens with a specified number of data fields, Perfect Zoom lets you cut down from your original selection of up to 11 fields, keeping your highest priority fields on display, dropping the lower priority ones and increasing the font size. Press the lower button and you can add back the lower priority fields.
It’s a nice feature that lets you home in on what’s most important to you as you ride and means that you don’t need to decide in too much detail what you want to see before you start out.
On the map screen, Perfect Zoom lets you zoom in and out on map detail, always keeping your current position towards the bottom centre of the screen. Again it’s a handy feature that’s much easier to use than trying to zoom via a touchscreen as you ride.
Live tracking and location sharing
Live tracking is functionality that’s more-or-less standard on the best cycling computers, when they’re linked up to a smartphone and it’s something that the Wahoo Elemnt Roam provides.
Wahoo also lets you announce your location to other Elemnt users and see theirs, which is potentially useful for group rides or if you’re feeling sociable.
New functionality that’s also useful for groups is the ability to broadcast a route to other Elemnt computers, making it a lot easier to ensure that everyone on a group ride knows where they’re going, rather than having to email a GPX file.
As with most cycling computers, you can also set up the Elemnt Roam to notify you of incoming calls and text messages.
Climb profiles
Wahoo has just added climb profiles to the Elemnt Roam too. It calls these Summit Segments and they work pretty much like Garmin’s. As with Garmin, a profile comes up automatically when you get to the base of a climb, but only on a pre-mapped route. Hammerhead does better and gives you hill profiles on the fly as well as when following a route.
You can see where you are on the climb via a colour-coded gradient profile with the parts you’ve completed blacked out. You get information like climb length, your distance and vertical ascent to go and estimated time to the top. There’s also a screen with a catalogue of all the climbs on your route and their vital statistics.
Some of my local climbs include a flat or descending section part-way up. The Elemnt Roam split several of these climbs into two, whereas Garmin and Hammerhead treat them as one ascent.
This may be something to do with the length and gradient of hills in the Chilterns, because when I mapped out routes over some classic climbs in the Alps and Dolomites they were profiled out as a single climb, even if they included downhill or flat sections.
Supersapiens blood glucose monitoring
Wahoo has also built Supersapiens integration into the new Elemnt Roam, allowing you to continuously monitor your blood glucose levels while riding. If you’re wearing a glucose monitoring patch, the Elemnt Roam’s screens show your blood glucose level at the top, so you can potentially see if this starts to drop and use it as a signal to refuel.
In practice, it’s an expensive add-on, unless you’re competing in long events at a high level. Each glucose sensing patch costs €75 and lasts for 14 days before it needs to be replaced.
Wahoo Elemnt Roam verdict
The new, upgraded Wahoo Elemnt Roam preserves all the ease of use of the older model but adds useful extra functionality, keeping it abreast of the features offered by the best cycling computers from other brands.
Although it’s more compact, with a smaller screen than the competitors, Wahoo has arguably used the available space better. Perfect Zoom helps too. The Wahoo Elemnt Roam is still one of the best options out there if you’re looking for a high end GPS device.
Read our guide to the best GPS bike computers for training and navigation
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Photography: Joseph Branston
