I was intrigued when Wahoo announced its third-gen Roam GPS cycling computer this spring, hot on the heels of its flagship Elemnt Ace model, which garnered polarising reviews due to its size. Controversial perhaps, but I loved the Ace’s XXL proportions and appreciated its ambitious feature set, including the unique wind sensor. Nevertheless, I accept that it’s not a head unit suited for everyone, or for every ride.

It was clear that Wahoo needed to bolster its mid-market offering with a computer that, while complementing the Ace, offered versatility, affordability, innovation and broader market appeal, like many of the best bike computers.

Competition has stiffened considerably in the GPS head unit market since Wahoo introduced the second iteration of its mid-tier offering – the Elemnt Roam v2 – in 2022. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a prevalence of touch screens, increased battery life, solar charging, full-range speakers, and higher resolution displays boasting increased contrast and a wider gamut of colours. Additionally, individual brands have included a smattering of miscellaneous bells and whistles, including, ahem, digital bells. Ding dong.

So, I was curious to see what path Wahoo would tread with the Elemnt Roam 3, which it launched alongside a revised Elemnt Bolt 3 and a brand-new radar device, the Wahoo Trackr Radar.

Incidentally, the brand has dropped the prefix ‘v’, along with some other signature features, which I will come to. To make this review less verbose, from now on I’ll refer to the unit as the Roam 3. Typing ‘Elemnt’ repeatedly triggers my spell-checker, not to mention my OCD.

Construction

On first impressions, the Roam 3 shares the same design language as its predecessor and current siblings in Wahoo’s GPS bike computer range. It’s more brick-like and less organically shapely than much of its competition, but that’s not to say it’s ugly; instead, the Roam 3 has a reassuringly robust aesthetic. With its squared-off form and signature row of three textured buttons, it resembles the outgoing Roam, albeit slightly taller and subtly deeper.

Other than the increase in size, which is nowhere near that of the Ace, as some of you will be relieved to know, the most obvious departure is the removal of the two lines of LEDs that dominated the face of the Roam in the past. Unique to Wahoo, these vertical and horizontal rows served as navigation prompts and indicate an assortment of metrics, such as power output. Gone but not forsaken, this functionality has now largely been incorporated into the main screen, which seems entirely sensible to me.

Upping the physical size of the unit from 3.5" x 2.3" x 0.7” (89mm x 54.4mm x 17.8 mm) to 3.8" x 2.1" x .78" (96mm x 53mm x 24mm) and dumping the LEDs has enabled Wahoo to increase the size of the screen from a modest 2.7" (68.58mm) to a more competitive 2.8" (71mm), which may not sound much on paper, but it makes a sizeable difference.

The improvements keep coming. The screen’s resolution is bumped from 240 x 400 to a crisper 320 x 480, and it now displays 16 million colours, up from a paltry 64. The big news, of course, is that it’s now a touchscreen.

It’s quite possible that the larger case has also enabled Wahoo to accomodate a bigger battery, because the Roam’s claimed battery life has increased from a respectable 17 hours to an impressive 25 hours. At a ‘doable’ average speed of 25km an hour, that provides 625km (390 miles) of range. More on battery life later.

The increased size has certainly allowed it to include a full-range speaker, bringing both turn-by-turn voice guidance and a digital bell to the Roam for the first time. Memory has doubled from 32 GB to 64 GB (the original Roam, from 2019, had just 4 GB), providing more room for global mapping, and RAM is now 2GB.

Despite all these improvements, the weight of the Roam 3 has increased by just 0.5 oz (15 g), so it's now 3.8 oz (109 g) up from 3.3 oz (94 g). That’s equivalent to half the weight of an AA battery, which is hardly anything – your conscience probably weighs more, I know mine does.

Many features remain unchanged because they were already best in class. The Roam 3 continues to offer dual-band GPS connectivity (supporting GPS, GLONASS, BEIDOU, Galileo, and QZSS) and USB-C for both charging and data transfer. Built-in hardware includes a barometric altimeter, ambient light sensor, compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE 5.0, ANT+ and ANT+ FE-C.

The Roam 3 ships with a robust plastic out-front mount, a lanyard, and a USB-C charging cable. If you already own a collection of bikes fitted with Garmin mounts, Wahoo (and other brands) sell inexpensive inserts that make the two ‘standards’ compatible.

Overall, the Roam 3 seems to be well-constructed from quality plastics. Gaps between the body components—screen, upper case, lower case, etc.—are minimal, and there’s a neat, removable rubber cover to keep dust and excess water out of the USB-C socket. The Roam has an IPX7 water ingress protection rating, which means it should withstand being dunked in 1 metre of water for up to 30 minutes (P-Town, Ore., inhabitants can breathe a sigh of relief).

Given its apparent build quality and the reliability of previous Roam incarnations, this unit should last as long as the best of the competition.

The Ride

Initial Setup

Wahoo sent me a sample Roam 3 to review just as my two brothers and I were departing on a 1,000-mile cycling journey across France. In fact, Wahoo bundled three Roam 3 computers together with three of their new Trackr Radar units for us to try. Due to a lack of time, my brothers had no choice but to set up their computers during our pre-departure breakfast, over the hotel Wi-Fi.

Wahoo, in common with Hammerhead, has a reputation for producing head units that are straightforward to set up and easy to operate. The Roam 3 continues this tradition with one important caveat. Wahoo has made the original Wahoo Elemnt companion app (available for both iOS and Android) redundant, replacing it with a new Wahoo app that can manage and control all of the brand’s products, from heart rate monitors to smart trainers.

Despite the fact that Wahoo makes some effort to warn users that the new app must be used to set up the Roam 3, both of my brothers downloaded the deprecated Wahoo Elemnt app, which didn’t get them very far. Three croissants and two cups of café noisette later, they realised their mistake, downloaded the correct app and all was well. However, they are not alone, online forums are full of people querying why their new Roam won’t play nicely with the Elemnt app. Wahoo really needs to make this incompatibility clearer to new users.

Fortunately, I did download the correct app to my aged iPhone 11 from the get-go, and setup was painless. It’s simply a matter of turning on the Roam, scanning the QR code that appears on its screen with your phone to connect the two devices, and entering your details to create an account. The procedure guides you through connecting the Roam to the internet via Wi-Fi, at which point the latest firmware and mapping updates will be applied. That’s about it.

Beyond the initial setup, the Wahoo app can be used to customise and personalise your experience with the Roam 3 further, but frankly, most of this can be achieved directly on the device. The app is only really required for customising data fields, editing pages, importing routes, downloading maps and linking the Roam to third-party apps, such as Strava, TrainingPeaks, Komoot, RideWithGPS and so on.

Adding sensors

On startup, a quick press of the left-hand physical button takes you to the Roam 3’s Ready to Ride dashboard page, where you can select a Workout Profile, choose a route from the Routes menu, explore Workouts, or pair a sensor. Wahoo displays connected sensors in a convenient visual grid at the lower part of the dashboard – a sensor garage, if you like. It’s a UI win as far as I’m concerned, and much easier than having to menu-dive into some obscure system settings hell. To add a new sensor, just tap the plus button in an empty slot, and the Roam 3 will start a connection. To manage settings for an already connected sensor, simply tap its icon to add the relevant details – crank length for a power meter, perhaps.

The Roam 3 will pair over either Bluetooth or ANT+. For dual-band sensors, Wahoo claims it will select the preferred network automatically. I didn’t test this explicitly, but I did ride with a Wahoo Trackr Heart Rate Monitor, a Wahoo Trackr radar, a Core heat sensor, Favero Assioma Pro MX2 power pedals and a Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset connected throughout. In the main, I experienced no conflicts or dropouts, and sensor connections were always near instantaneous. The heat sensor was intermittently unreliable, but I believe this problem lies with Core, as I also experienced ongoing issues connecting it to my iPhone.

If a new sensor requires data fields not yet present on your pages, the Roam 3 will automatically add them, unless you specify otherwise. Unusually, you cannot pair a sensor via the Wahoo app; instead, you must pair it directly with the Roam 3.

Workout Profiles

Returning to the Ready to Ride dashboard, let’s take a look at the slightly confusingly named Workout Profiles menu. Workout Profiles have little to do with ‘workouts’ per se, they’re a way of customising the Roam 3, so that it best fits the type of ride you intend to do. For example, gravel riding requires different data screens and fields than road riding, and indoor rides demand something else altogether. By customising existing profiles and generating new ones, you can optimise the Roam 3 for your chosen activities.

In short, this is where you can customise data screens, add alerts, enable or disable GPS (for indoor cycling) and more. Garmin and Hammerhead both offer similar features, which they call ‘Profiles’.

The default data fields available are pretty exhaustive, but they can be augmented by the sensors you choose to connect. Default alerts include turn-by-turn navigation and planned workout prompts, but you can add custom alerts that will trigger when you hit a defined goal. For example, a certain number of laps, a distance met, the amount of calories burned and more.

Workout Profiles must be created and edited in the Wahoo app; you can only select the profile you intend to use for your forthcoming ride on the Roam 3, which is sensible. Creating and editing profiles, screens, and data fields is simple enough; essentially it’s little more than ticking your way through lists of options and metrics, but it would be a faff on the Roam 3’s comparatively small screen.

Strava Life Segments

Strava Live Segments can also be enabled in Workout Profiles, provided you have a paid-up Strava subscription. Once Strava is enabled and synced to the Roam 3, a Live Segments page will display all the segments associated with your account. During a ride, this list dynamically reduces to show only those segments within a mile (1.5 km) of your current location, with these nearby segments also appearing on the map.

As you approach a segment, the Live Segments page automatically switches to an active view, recording your progress with elapsed time, a graphic of the segment profile, and other customisable data fields.

Loading and managing Routes

Back on the dashboard, the Routes menu lets you select a route to ride from a list of existing routes or generate a new one. On the Roam 3, you can generate a new route based on a previously saved location, retrace your current ride back to its start point or choose a destination on the map to navigate to. This is where the touch screen really comes into its own. Wahoo lets you choose a surface preference for your new route based on one of three criteria – paved, mixed or unpaved.

The Wahoo app offers greater scope for creating and managing routes. You can build a route from a previously completed ride, share a destination from Apple or Google Maps or import a FIT, GPX or TCX file. Additionally, you can sync routes from third party platforms, such as Komoot, RideWithGPS, Strava, Trail Forks and so on. Integration with these providers is completed with the Wahoo app

I’m a Komoot subscriber, so most of my route creation was completed within the Komoot app, then synced to the Roam 3 over Wi-Fi. I found this process worked seamlessly.

If, like me, you eventually end up with a long list of routes on the Roam 3, it’s possible to search by route name, and/or filter the list by date, distance, and elevation, which is really handy.

Workouts

The functionality of the Workouts menu is similar to the Routes menu, in that it enables you to select and schedule training rides. However, it relies on a subscription to Wahoo Systm or third-party platforms such as TrainingPeaks, TrainerRoad and others.

Device settings

Swiping the touchscreen down brings up the device settings pages, which is another way to access many of the features and options in the Ready to Ride dashboard. However, from here you can also configure the screen – backlight, light or dark mode, touchscreen enabled/disabled – apply firmware updates and reset the Roam 3 to factory defaults.

Out on the road

Once I’d connected my sensors and tweaked the Workout Profile settings a little, it was time to hit the road. In use, the Roam 3 is pretty slick. In the dry, the touchscreen is consistently reactive when swiped, and there’s virtually no lag when scrolling the map around with a finger. Gloved hands, rain and large droplets of sweat all play havoc with the touchscreen to varying degrees, but this is to be expected - screens from Garmin, Hammerhead and Coros suffer from exactly the same issues.

This is why I love that Wahoo has retained the three buttons along the lower edge the unit. Used in combination with the touchscreen, there’s no faster way to work your way around a bike computer. They may make the Roam 3 look a little dated, but the functionality they bring is nothing short of beautiful. Their use is context dependent, but essentially the centre button is for starting, pausing, or resuming a ride; the left button is for starting a lap, stopping a ride, or toggling between pages; and the right button is for cycling through pages.

The two buttons on the right-hand side of the Roam 3 enable Wahoo’s Zoom feature, which refreshes the screen instantly, whether zooming in or out. Most bike computers will let you zoom their map pages, but the Roam 3’s data screens can be zoomed too. This feature, which is unique to Wahoo, is an absolute blessing if you’re a little long-sighted and need to temporarily focus in on a few key data fields.

Incidentally, the single on/off button on the left-hand side opens the device settings menu when briefly pressed. All five buttons – three on the front, two on the right side, and one on the left side – are large enough to find when wearing gloves, tactile enough to feel, and responsive enough to provide good feedback.

Navigation and mapping

Global mapping is included in the price of the Roam 3, and there’s enough memory to store every inch. So, there’s never a need to delete an installed set of maps to free up space for another country or entire continent. Which is nice.

We split our 13-day ride across France into thirteen separate routes, each ranging in length from approximately 154km to 80km. Loading each day’s route took perhaps one or two seconds, if that. The Roam 3 truly is remarkably quick.

My setup consisted of four screens: data, elevation, map, and waypoints. The data screen displayed current watts (3-second average), speed, elapsed distance, heart rate, cadence, and time. The elevation screen showed current watts (3-second average), speed, grade, ascent in metres, and descent in metres. Along the foot of the elevation page was the route profile, which could be zoomed in with a tap to focus on upcoming 2km and 20km sections. In addition to the map, the page also displayed my speed and distance to the next cue – essentially the next turn I would need to take. Lastly, the fourth screen, which I admittedly never used, presented a list of waypoints. Most days, I spent the ride watching the map screen, with occasional checks on metrics on the data screen.

Although the data on the elevation screen was of utmost importance to me, it was pretty much made redundant by Wahoo’s Summit feature, which works in a similar fashion to Garmin’s ClimbPro tool. Summit detects climbs on your route, or if no route is loaded, within two miles or kilometres of your current position in the direction in which you are travelling. Once detected, climbs are then logged on a climb list, complete with profile and colour-coded gradient – from bright green (4%) to very dark red (20%+).

Approaching a climb triggers an audible and visual alert, quickly followed by the appearance of the Summit Live Segment page. This page displays a colour-coded graphical profile of the climb, with your live position tracked on it. Additionally, up to seven customisable data fields can populate the Summit Live Segment page, with default metrics including time elapsed in the climb, vertical distance remaining, distance remaining, current grade, and estimated total time to complete the climb. These metrics can be customised or replaced using the Wahoo app.

I really rate this feature; it’s every bit as good as Garmin’s, but I appreciate that not everyone likes to see just how much further a brutal climb stretches on. If that’s you, don’t worry, the feature can be disabled. Similarly, to stop this feature from bugging riders every time they hit a minor slope, it will only trigger when climbs have an average gradient of more than 3 per cent or are longer than 250 metres.

Navigating a route simply involves following a trail of chevrons that indicate the direction of travel. These chevrons are colour-coded to display elevation, shifting from black (flat) through green and yellow to red (stupidly steep).

Turn-by-turn prompts include a standard visual prompt – a pop-up, with an arrow showing direction, live distance to turn and street name – plus, if enabled, an audible voice instruction. As your approach nears 25 metres from the turn, a strip of animated chevrons will appear at the top of the screen, a substitute for the row of LEDs found on the Roam 2. If you feel the need to zoom the map for junctions, a quick pinch of the fingers on the touchscreen will do the job.

Wahoo maps consist of separate layers that can be turned on or off as needed. A display packed with layers offers comprehensive information about a location, but this level of detail might be overwhelming when navigating through a busy urban environment.

Layers currently include POIs, street names, Strava live segments, Summit segments, bike lanes and custom waypoints. Custom waypoints support waypoints generated by Komoot, RideWithGPS and Strava, which is useful.

As you can probably imagine, the jump from 64 colours to 16 million, along with an increase in screen resolution, has greatly enhanced the clarity of the Roam’s mapping. In August, Wahoo also improved the colour variation and contrast of its maps with a firmware update, making it much easier to distinguish between routes, road types, and surrounding terrain features. It also eliminated ‘visual clutter'—their words, not mine—at certain zoom levels. With these updates, I now find it easier to navigate a complex road network using the Roam 3 than with a Garmin Edge 850 or 1050.

However, Garmin still reigns supreme when it comes to screen brightness, the Edge 850 is simply superb, whereas the Roam 3 is merely great.

That said, the matte finish on the Roam’s screen does attract fewer obtrusive reflections than the glossy Garmins, so it’s not all bad. Overall, I had few issues viewing the Roam 3’s screen, with mapping and data fields clearly visible both under cloudy skies in Brittany, and beneath the super-bright blue skies of Provence. The display is good, it’s just not class leading.

Speaking volumes

The inclusion of a full-range speaker is not just a neat practical upgrade; it lends the Roam 3 a more premium aura. Nothing says ‘cheap electronics’ more than a tinny 8-bit style speaker, and little sets me on edge more than a limited set of irritating chip-tune style tones, so kudos to Wahoo for including this upgrade on its mid-tier device.

I found the Roam 3’s voice prompts for navigation fell somewhere between exceedingly useful and annoyingly intrusive, depending on the context. On the plus side, they’re perfectly audible in heavy traffic, and it’s easy to enable or disable them.

The addition of an electronic bell, activated by giving the screen a sharp double tap, may sound like a gimmick – pun intended – but it’s now one of my favourite features. I hate the look of traditional bike bells on modern bikes, but I find them indispensable on shared paths. This solution works just as well and eliminates the need for handlebar clutter.

Group rides and Live Tracking

The Roam 3 supports group rides using Wahoo’s ‘Find a Friend’ and ‘Public Route Sharing’ features. Find a Friend allows you to see the locations of other Wahoo Elemnt users on your map in real time, while Public Route Sharing lets you share specific routes via the Wahoo app with other Elemnt, Bolt, or Roam users. A similar feature, ‘Live Track’, broadcasts your current location and ride data to anyone with an active web link – useful for family and friends wanting to follow your progress.

Battery life

Wahoo claims an impressive 25 hours of battery life for the Roam 3, a figure I didn't quite reach during my ride across France. For obvious reasons, I didn’t want to drain my Roam completely while navigating my coast-to-coast route, but I did make a rough note of how much juice it was consuming.

On a 153 km ride, which took 7.5 active hours (10.5 total elapsed time – a lengthy lunch is customary in France!) in 40°C heat, I finished the day with 42 percent charge remaining in the Roam. This may not sound impressive – extrapolated, that’s just over 18 hours of total achievable battery life – but I was running multiple sensors (as listed above), had the backlight set to auto, and had my phone connected.

I don’t think that’s too bad for the vast majority of users. Very few of us spend much more than 18 hours in the saddle, but if ultra events are your thing, then remember to pack a power bank.

Post ride reporting

The Roam 3 reports a comprehensive range of ride metrics and stats; the actual number will, of course, depend on the sensors you have connected to it. In my case, the basics are all there – distance, ascent, descent, active time, total time and so on – together with average power, normalised power, power left/right, body temperature – you get the picture.

The Roam 3 will also report and predict fitness metrics, using Wahoo’s proprietary Four-Dimensional Power (4DP) analysis mode. These include Dimensional Training Load, Short Term Load, Long Term Load, Cycling Trends, Training Capacity and Fitness Score. This is all very well, but you’ll need to subscribe to Wahoo’s paid-for SYSTM platform in order to see these stats, which seems a bit mean when you’ve just invested £399.99/$464.99 on a bike computer.

Reporting isn’t as comprehensive as Garmin’s either. Many desirable metrics, such as Power Phase, Platform Centre Offset (PCO), and Seated/Standing Time, aren’t immediately accessible in Roam 3 or the app, though they may be present in the underlying data.

Garmin also reports on a variety of proprietary riding dynamics – grit and flow – and utilises its ecosystem of training and wellness features, including sleep, body battery, training readiness, training status, HRV status, recovery, and more. You’ll need a Garmin wearable for many of these metrics to be considered, but at least the option is there. Garmin Connect, the brand’s online training and reporting platform, is still largely free too.

Value and conclusions

The £399.99/$464.99 Wahoo Elemnt Roam 3 represents a significant upgrade over its predecessor, the Roam V2. The screen alone, with its touch screen capability and increase in colours, is a massive step forward. Then there’s the full-range speaker, increased memory capacity, and improved battery life.

It worked flawlessly for me when navigating France, although my riding companions did experience some fleeting issues with the mapping. I found the device easy to use, and the screen legible under a wide variety of conditions.

For most of us, its closest competitor will be the more expensive Garmin Edge 850, at £469.99/$599.99. It also has a full-range speaker, a similarly sized screen, but reports on many more metrics.

If the simplicity of the Roam 3 appeals, then it’s also worth taking a look at the Hammerhead Karoo, which is extremely easy to use and offers perhaps the most legible screen on the market. The screen is bigger too, but so is the price at £449.99/$524.99.

Finally, if battery life is your primary consideration, the budget Coros Dura at £249/$249 is hard to beat.

Specs

• Physical Dimensions: 3.8in x 2.1in x .78in // 96mm x 53mm x 24mm
• Weight: 3.8 oz // 109g
• Display type: TFT, touchscreen
• Size: 2.8 in // 71 mm
• Resolution: 320 x 480px
• Colors: 16 million
• Water Protection Rating: IPX7
• World mapping included

Memory

• Storage: 64 GB
• RAM: 2 GB
• Battery type: USB rechargeable lithium-ion
• Life: Up to 25 hours
• Charger type: USB-C (24 in // 61 cm cable)

Hardware

• Dual Band GPS
• Satellites: GPS, GLONASS, BEIDOU, Galileo, and QZSS
• Barometric altimeter
• Ambient light sensor
• Compass
• Gyroscope
• Accelerometer
• Audio Speaker

Connectivity

• Bluetooth LE 5.0
• ANT+, ANT+ FE-C
• Wi-Fi, dual band 2.4 and 5 Ghz

Tech doesn’t have to be expensive. Last September I loaded my steel Wilier Jaroon gravel bike with bedding, spares and sweet treats, boarded a ferry from Southampton to Bilbao, then set off across the pre-Pyrenees to Barcelona. To find my way, I relied on nothing more than the navigation on my Garmin Edge 530’s 2.6inch (66mm) screen. No paper maps, no phone - I was concerned about battery life - and no fellow travellers who knew the way. Just me and my little Edge 530.

It performed flawlessly. Not only did I make it to Barcelona without once getting lost, I then caught a second ferry to Palma, Mallorca, crossed the island and spent a week touring the magnificent Serra de Tramuntana mountain range. Again, the little Edge 530 worked a treat.

The Edge is almost as feature-rich as its bigger, more expensive siblings, such as the Edge 1040 Solar and Edge 1050. I used it for navigation, tracking my heart rate and to display approaching cars located by my Garmin Varia RTL515 Radar. I didn’t use a power meter, but if you do, the Edge 530 will be able to relay figures from that too. In fact, it can crunch a seemingly endless amount of data, returning almost every kind of cycling metric you can imagine.

Why is it so cheap? Firstly, it’s equipped with big, chunky buttons rather than a touchscreen, but I don’t regard that as a disadvantage at all. In fact, it can be advantageous when wearing full-finger gloves.

Secondly, although it’s still being sold by Garmin and other retailers, strictly speaking, it has been superseded by Edge 540, which now has multiband GNSS, free-style ClimbPro mode and slightly improved battery life. All nice-to-have features, but none are critical and they add significantly to the price.

The Edge 530 was accurate enough to take me across Spain, it does have ClimbPro while navigating a course, and the battery life is already more than sufficient. The Edge 530 is also much lighter than the Edge 1040 and 1050, a fact not lost on climbers and weight weenies.

While the Edge 530 and 540 have quite small screens, many riders are fine with this. After all, who wants to ride with a computer the size of a small brick on their bars?

The Wahoo Trackr Heart Rate is Wahoo’s latest heart rate monitor and replaces the outgoing Wahoo Tickr and Tickr X models. The biggest change is the switch from replaceable coin batteries to now being a rechargeable unit. This changes the battery life from around 500 hours to 100 on a single charge. The charging cable is a magnetic head which clips to the Tracr pod, with a USB C connector at the other end. Other changes include the unit being slightly smaller in its footprint but it sits slightly prouder from the chest. The strap also features a wider section to detect changes in heart rate and improved accuracy. 

The strap is smaller than the previous generation, with a size of between 68.5cm to 87.6cm, but with the elasticity Wahoo claims it will fit chest sizes of up to 127cm. The strap also features a side closure now rather than the strap clipping into the heart rate pod. This is aimed at reducing the chance of damage to the connection points. Total weight for the pod is 11g while the strap is 40g, making this a particularly lightweight heart rate monitor.

In terms of connections, the Trackr Heart Rate can be connected up to three different Bluetooth connections simultaneously, while it can also connect via ANT+. Wahoo have updated their algorithms for detecting heart rate with a promise to improve accuracy. The Trackr Heart Rate is also IPX7 rated meaning it is not appropriate for swimming as it is only rated for 30 minutes being submerged in one metre of water, however this means it will work fine for cycling in rain or sweating.

The ride

To put the Trackr Heart Rate through its paces, I did a fairly intensive block of riding which included eRaces, longer rides in hotter weather, and also some rides where I got completely and utterly drenched. The eRaces were the perfect opportunity to see how quickly the Trackr Heart Rate responded to changes in heart rate as well as the more maximal levels. I simultaneously used a Wahoo Tickr at the same time to compare the heart rate data. Accuracy wise, they both gave pretty much exactly the same readings with the curves being as close as makes no difference. One thing that did occur during some rides was the odd spike in HR data, not in line with power or perceived effort/HR, but they were rare.

In the hotter rides, there were no issues with sweat affecting the battery life or leading to any sweat damage around the metal ports, same with the indoor rides as well. The design of the Trackr Heart Rate means that sweat is less likely to get to these metal components, very useful given that previously my Tickr heart rate monitors have generally stopped working because of damage from sweat over time. There were also no issues with performance during heavier rain. It is worth considering that temperatures were certainly not cold during these tests, and often rechargeable batteries have impaired performance in colder weather. Wahoo claims 100 hr battery life in ‘ideal’ conditions, and in warmer weather the Trackr Heart Rate appears to be on track to perform as claimed. But I would be interested to see how it performed in the winter months. 

I also put the Trackr Heart Rate to the test when it came to heart rate variability (HRV) using the Elite HRV app. This was slightly tough to compare to other devices, as the only comparison was a wrist based HR measurement using an Apple Watch Ultra. However, using both simultaneously I got similar results. Over a period of 60 seconds both read an average HR of 70 bpm and HRV of 67 for the TRACKR and 65 for the Apple Watch Ultra. Testing in the morning as well the HR was 45 and 46 respectively with a HRV of 68 for both. The TRACKR does appear to take more readings per second than the TICKR, as heart rate varies more in readings in track with what my actual pulse was breath-by-breath. 

One thing that was a slight issue was the strap. It’s comfortable to wear, but the side closure is a bit more of a faff, but you can at least sort that while it’s on your front, and then twist the strap around to get the sensor in the right place. I also think that long term this will again help with longevity as the connector points were a weak point in an older generation Tickr I had. 

The bigger issue is the length. I use a strap that is 87cm total length normally, so the 87.6cm max length of this is on the short side for me. Wahoo claims this fits up to 127 cm/50 inch chests thanks to the elasticity, but I think that would be quite tight on the chest of 127 cm! In terms of how it sits, it is a little prouder than the TICKR, but is also smaller in every dimensions but depth. Practicality wise I do prefer the rechargeable nature of it, although the magnetic port has a USB C at the other end, a connector standard that isn’t common on older hardware.

Value & conclusion

At £79.99, the Trackr Heart Rate is more expensive than the Tickr, which is £39.99 for the standard version and has a claimed 500 hour battery life on a coin cell battery. Garmin’s HRM-Dual for comparison is £59.99, this also provides HRV data but has a claimed 1277 hours battery life. The Garmin HRM-Pro is more expensive at £119.99 but that can store data and do more heart rate analytics, while the Polar H10 is £86.50 and is resistant to 30m of water. 

In terms of accuracy and performance, I can only compare it to the TICKR, which the TRACKR performs well against. Is it worth double the price for the ability to not change batteries and be rechargeable? That will be a personal preference. I would imagine, with the design, that longevity will be improved with less chance of sweat damage, while 100 hours of battery life is ideal for most people between charges. For those wanting to reduce battery waste, the fact is that the Trackr Heart Rate is the only one of its kind as a rechargeable chest strap HR monitor.

The Wahoo Trackr Heart Rate is a solid performance upgrade to the Wahoo TICKR and can now be used for taking HRV readings as well as having, on paper and by Wahoo’s claims, better accuracy for general HR data. The rechargeable battery is an upgrade that means less battery waste while the new connection system should aid longevity. However, it is more expensive, and the strap is not the widest for broader chests.

Product info

• 100hr claimed battery life
• 320 day standby
• Magnetic charger with USB C at the other end
• No more disposable batteries
• New advanced detection algorithm for more accurate data
• Adjustable side closure
• ANT+ and Multi-BLE connectivity
• IPX7 rating (water resistant in 1m of water for 30 min)
• £79.99/$89.99/€89.99
• 11g pod weight
• 40g strap weight
• 27in to 34.5in//68.5cm to 87.6cm. Fits up to 50in//127cm chest with stretching according to Wahoo
• Hand wash only

In the realm of best bike computers, Garmin's legacy dates back to 2005 when it released the Edge 205 and 305. While these early models primarily focused on tracking basic metrics like speed, distance and time, they laid the groundwork for Garmin's dominance in the market. Over the years, various brands entered the market with head units of their own, but only Wahoo, which came on the market with the ELEMNT computer in 2016, has managed to offer any competition of note.

Enter Hammerhead. Originally a software company focused on creating software applications and platforms aimed at enhancing navigation and route planning for cyclists, Hammerhead came to market with its first Karoo computer in 2017. The Karoo, and its subsequent Karoo 2 upgrade, gained a loyal following thanks to its superior display, advanced navigation capabilities and an Apple-like commitment to software updates. 

Cycling component powerhouse SRAM acquired Hammerhead at the end of 2021 and now, Hammerhead unveils its most promising offering yet: the simply named Karoo (yes, back to its original name). But does it have the ability to sway users and challenge Garmin or Wahoo? Let's explore.

Introducing: the new Karoo

Hammerhead's third unit has taken on a slightly new shape –less square– yet the real upgrades lie within. 

Representing the brand's "pinnacle of innovation, design and performance," the Karoo is meant to serve as a true head unit, or, as the brand describes it, an "unparalleled single-point union to experience and control every aspect of your ride." From ride data and navigation to guided workouts and controlling your electronic components, lights or even your e-bike, the Karoo is meant to be your one-stop-shop. For e-bike users, the Karoo could be used instead of a bike-specific display, allowing you to keep an eye on your e-bike's motor assist level, estimated range, E-Bike motor output and battery level.

As with its predecessors, the Karoo 2 features a smartphone-quality touch screen as well as textured side buttons so you can operate the device no matter the weather. The colorful visualizations help guide you through unknown terrain or workouts, and the multi-band technology promises pin-point accuracy on any road or faraway trail.

Its best-in-class maps and navigation includes free global maps, instant route syncing for connected accounts, and automatic climb detection with - or without - a route. There are also more customization options than this reviewer frankly knows what to do with.

And of course, Hammerhead, with its background in software, remains committed to regular software updates, promising to introduce new features and improvements to Karoo in an effort to keep the computer "at the forefront of the cycling ecosystem to make every ride better than the last." 

Brief Features Overview

The familiar:

• 3.2-inch, full-color touchscreen display that is rain and glove-friendly
• Exterior textured buttons for added usability
• Easy sync routes from the accompanying app, web-based dashboard, Strava, RideWithGPS, Komoot, and others
• Turn-by-turn directions on detailed maps anywhere in the world
• Re-routes on the fly if you go off-course without needing WiFi
• Automatically pushes completed rides to Strava, TrainingPeaks and other common apps
• Compatible with TrainingPeaks for structured, guided workouts
• Indoor smart trainer control
• ANT+ and Bluetooth sensor connectivity
• Satellite Connectivity Multi-band (L1+L5) GNSS GPS,
• Satellite constellations GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BEIDOU
• Water resistance IP67
• Comes with its own Karoo-specific mount but quarter-turn Garmin mount adapter is available

Some new feature highlights:

• All-new companion app offers new ways to upload routes and customize the ride experience
• Claimed battery life of 15+ hours
• Charge time 30% in 30 minutes, 100% in 2.5 hours
• Reduced unit weight from 132 grams to 118 grams
• Storage upgraded to 64GB, and paired with 4GB of RAM
• Faster map rendering
• USB-C charging port now with a dust cover
• E-bike connectivity

Price: $474.99 USD/  €499.99 /  £449.99 / $749.99 AUD

The new companion app: an integral part

Hammerhead introduces a new companion app alongside its head unit, offering seamless integration with the Hammerhead Dashboard. This addition completes the Hammerhead ecosystem, providing users with the convenience of adding or accessing routes, workouts and past rides on the go.

A highlight of the ecosystem is its easy and lightning quick way of uploading a route or workout. Once can simply add a URL of the route you'd like to do in the app and the route will appear on your head unit seconds later (as long as your Karoo is connected).

Hammerhead also supports a useful pin function. Using Google Maps or Apple Maps, you can drop a pin to any location you'd like to go to, then share the link with your Hammerhead Companion App and, assuming your Karoo is connected, the location will be sent to Karoo, giving you the option to route to it or save it.

Finally, using the app, users can also quickly access a Live Tracking link for friends and family to monitor the ride.

The Karoo in use

I received a Karoo testing unit in advance of the launch and promptly put it to the test in the desert landscape of Morocco, where its navigation and battery life were thoroughly challenged. 

Setup: 

One aspect in which Karoo outperforms its competitors is in user-friendliness. Whether navigating the dashboard or utilizing the device itself, the interaction with Hammerhead's hardware and software is seamless and enjoyable. While one can spend hours playing with the unit's extensive customization options, the initial setup process is a breeze.

Once you've created a Hammerhead account, the Karoo will walk new users through a series of prompts. You then conncets the dashboard and/or app and device with your favorite route libraries and off you go.

The Karoo device does take some time to power up and, during the pre-launch testing period, often asked to install updates.

Design and Build Quality:

The Karoo is a sizable unit yet sports a fairly sleek design. It's a tad lighter than its predecessor and features a slightly less square shape. The exterior buttons, too, have slimmed down and are now made of a harder material that's more pleasant to use. 

The real star is, of course, the 3.2-inch screen. With its high-resolution graphics and visualizations, it truly puts Garmin and Wahoo, with their gimmicky and pixelated warm-up graphics, to shame. Of course, function trumps visual, but it's certainly Hammerhead's wow factor and is remarkably responsive, even when wearing gloves. Much like a smartphone, you can swipe up, down, left and right, pinch zoom in or out and tap. Or, conversely, just use the exterior buttons if you're not a touchscreen fan.   

The computer also carries an IP67 water and dust resistance rating, making it sweat and rain-proof. Unlike a smartphone with its notoriously fragile screens, the Karoo feels quite robust and solidly made. I wasn't worried about taking it across the rugged Morocco desert or accidentally dropping it in the grainy dirt. 

Navigation and Mapping:

Where the Karoo truly shines is in its navigation capabilities. Powered by open-source maps  and equipped with detailed turn-by-turn navigation, the device offers a seamless riding experience – even in the absolute middle of nowhere Morocco, where one couldn't tell north from south, the Karoo knew exactly where we were and never led us astray.

Plus, with its upgraded 64 GB internal storage, the Karoo can house a large number of offline maps, ensuring you stay on course and offering rerouting capabilities in areas with limited connectivity or reception.

Performance Metrics and Workouts:

While Hammerhead has garnered acclaim for its top-tier navigation, the Karoo doesn't compromise on performance either. Designed with athletes in mind, the cycling computer is the embodiment of Hammerhead's mission to "inspire and empower all people to unlock their athletic potential through cycling."

Used by elite teams like Canyon-SRAM and Bora-Hansgrohe, the Karoo boasts ANT+ and Bluetooth connectivity alongside its own GPS capabilities, enabling it to track and display a wealth of performance metrics so one can dive into every nitty-gritty detail of a ride or workout. We're talking interval tracking, target power, cadence, or heart rate numbers, heart rate reserve (HRR) percentages, live TSS scores, pedal smoothness and torque effectiveness, and many, many more. Like its successor, the Karoo 2, the Karoo seamlessly integrates with TrainingPeaks, providing structured workout guidance whether you're riding outdoors or indoors on a trainer.

Battery life:

Battery life has long been the Achilles' heel of the Karoo units. The array of processor-intensive features drain the battery faster than desired, rendering it impractical for endurance events or bikepacking trips. Given its premium price tag, users understandably expected more than the initial 7-14-hour battery life. Heeding the critique, Hammerhead has increased the battery in this new unit, claiming a battery life of 15+ hours. 

For comparison, my go-to head unit is a Garmin Edge 540 Solar, which boasts a 26-hour battery life in heavy use without solar and up to 32 hours with solar. And in real-world usage, I found Hammerhead's battery life claim to fall short. I like nothing more than spending long weekend days in the saddle on mixed-terrain adventure rides. Here, the Karoo's excellent navigation is a wonderful asset yet 9 hours in, I start getting worried about the unit running out of juice. Despite employing various power-saving tactics, such as dimming the backlight and disabling ANT+ or Bluetooth functionalities, the unit's hunger for power is voracious.  If I'd been using this unit when I tackled the 350-mile Unbound XL race, I would have had to recharge the unit twice, which is a rather distracting inconvenience. To the Karoo's merit, however, the battery does charge quite fast. Just 30 minutes of charging will boost the device back up to 30% and the full battery can be recharged in 2.5 hours.

I can't help but wonder if the Karoo simply has too many bells and whistles, and that it's fallen prey to the desire to create one master product. The myriad features demand substantial processing power, which takes a toll on battery longevity. Frankly, I probably don't use even a third of the unit's capabilities and I wonder how many consumers actively use the majority of the computer's functionality.

Value & Conclusion

The Karoo is positioned as a premium product with a superior display, navigation and user-friendliness, and that comes at a premium price. At $474.99 USD/ £449.99 / $749.99 AUD the new Karoo comes in quite a bit higher than Wahoo's offerings and on Garmin's side, only the Edge 1040 models are more expensive. It's a serious investment for serious cyclists but given Hammerhead's commitment to ongoing support and software updates, consumers are promised long-term value from their investment.

So, is Hammerhead's new Karoo the Garmin or Wahoo competitor we've been waiting for? In many respects, the answer is yes. With its advanced navigation capabilities, stunning display, comprehensive performance metrics and user-friendly interface, the Karoo has all the makings of a top-tier cycling computer. It's just the battery life that continues to give me pause. With that said, for most, a 10-14 hour battery life is more than enough and the Karoo certainly poses a credible challenge to the top computers currently on the market. For cyclists in search of a feature-rich, premium companion for their rides, the Karoo is undoubtedly worth considering.

I find myself increasingly becoming an oxymoron; I'm a Tech Writer, who isn't massively a fan of tech.

While I appreciate that the best bike computers and cycling apps will give us the ability to monitor progress and provide us with accountability, I realised it was taking the joy away from my riding.

I've pretty much gone cold turkey on tracking data ever since I interviewed Dr. Rachael Kent. I've returned to a love of riding for riding's sake, but I've also become over-reliant on others for route planning and navigation.

Wouldn't it be good if there were a bike computer that honored the simple life of just sharing navigation, and possibly some basic data, like the time of day, speedo, and maybe even some visuals for what's ahead on the planned ride?

Enter the Beeline Velo 2

Construction

The Beeline Velo 2 is a navigation aid that relies on your smartphone for its primary functions. This means you need to pair it with an iOS 16 or above device or an Android 8.0 or newer phone with Google Play services to operate. If left unpaired, it will only display the time, functioning mainly as a bar-mounted clock rather than a navigation device.

There are four sensors: an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and an ambient light sensor, which enable automatic brightness adjustment. To minimize location errors in areas with unreliable phone signals, the Velo 2 utilizes sensor fusion by combining data from all sensors, thereby improving the accuracy and quality of ride data.

The waterproof USB-C port enables fast charging, providing approximately 30% charge in just 20 minutes, equivalent to roughly two hours of riding time. When fully charged, the lithium polymer battery claims to offer approximately 11 hours of use—a duration likely longer than most smartphones when paired with the unit, so it's worth considering the phone battery for long rides.

The entire unit, according to Beeline, is completely weatherproof, and it features four RockerTop buttons for navigation, similar to using a computer mouse.

The Beeline Velo 2 is compact, measuring 46.4 mm (1.82 inches) in diameter, with an active area diameter of 32.4 mm (1.28 inch), and it weighs just 25 grams/0.8 oz.

Its LCD IPS display features an LED backlight with a resolution of 240 x 240 pixels (266 PPI) and an anti-scratch coating (PMMA) to help maintain its appearance for longer.

In the box is a proprietary 'quarter-turn' mount that you can attach to handlebars using two stretchy bands (there are two sizes to choose from). You can also buy a top cap mount for an even cleaner mounting option. Frustratingly, it's not the same mount that most other bike computers use (i.e., a Garmin mount), which limits the use of many aftermarket mount options.

The Ride

This compact and lightweight device is barely wider than the stem top cap, yet despite its small size, it catches the eye of anyone near your bike.

I don't think I've ever had a bike computer described as cute before, but the Beeline Velo 2 is met with such an outpouring of affection that it's the bike equivalent of a puppy. Even people with all-singing, all-dancing Garmin units were taken by its simplicity and uncluttered looks.

It's incredibly easy to use; once you've taken the simple steps to pair it with your phone, on my first ride with the Velo 2, everyone asked me how it worked.

I was able, somewhat clumsily at first, to navigate through the displays and do a quick on-the-ride show and tell. Loading a GPX file couldn't be easier—just send a WhatsApp link to your phone, download the link, open the app, import the file, and you're ready to ride.

It's also compatible with Strava and Komoot, making it effortless to share and save routes. The Velo 2 uses Beeline's proprietary routing engine (with Mapbox providing the base map itself) and saves the route to your phone, so once set up, you don't need an internet connection to follow it

The navigation screen uses simple arrows to indicate directions. It notifies you when there are 30 meters to the next turn. It took a little time to get used to judging distances, but once I did, I found it quite simple, thanks to clear instructions to follow.
The addition of sound alerts might be helpful to some; for me, it was one of the first things I switched off, a simple toggle button via the app.

Navigating through the other display screen views on the unit is easy, with time, distance to your destination, speed (miles or kilometers per hour), a stopwatch, both devices' battery levels, hill/ climb stats and an End or Stop screen to end the route without needing to open your phone.

You can even tap the right or left on the screen to access a road rating (a green happy face, or red and sad face icon), to rate the section of road you're on. Beeline uses this feedback to help plan routes for other riders.

I also used the app's navigation feature, which is very similar to Google Maps. You simply enter your destination and select whether you want a fast, balanced, or quiet route. It worked remarkably well—I was able to navigate to a cafe in a town in the southern German Black Forest using only this tool, without taking a single wrong turn

The waterproof USB-C feature is a great advantage because the unit can be used in all weather conditions. When Paul tested the unit, he rode for an hour in torrential rain, with spray from puddles and no mudguards, and found that the Velo 2 didn't miss a beat, seeming unaffected by the conditions.

Our experience with the battery was similar; both Paul and I found that I was getting about 3.5 hours of runtime using 50% battery, or roughly seven hours total.

He suspected that lowering the screen brightness manually would extend the runtime, but I had auto-brightness on. I couldn't see how to extend the runtime otherwise. Paul discovered that when not showing a route, the unit will power the screen down automatically but remain active.

This results in long battery life, with approximately 10 percent of the battery used over four hours, and allows the unit to power up very quickly when needed. It also preserves battery life if you forget to turn the unit off fully. There is good screen visibility with auto-brightness, but experimenting with brightness may yield longer runtime if needed.

The proprietary mount is very secure in both the quarter-turn locking sense and when held onto the bars or stem. The bands are very stretchy and are some of the best I've used of this type.

However, could the bike industry please adopt a single standard for this type of fitting? GoPro seems to be a common standard, so why not 'Garmin bike computers'? I have noticed that Garmin, Bryton, Wahoo, and now Beeline all look very similar, but they don't integrate well with each other.

Value and Conclusion

Both Paul and I loved our time with the Beeline Velo 2 bike computer. Paul's experience was a little while ago, and mine was more recent, and we both found it dreamily easy to use.

I'm still amazed at my ability to navigate a 60-mile route in the Black Forest and then head into the city the next day without getting lost or feeling like I was glued to a screen for constant directions.

It's good value at $99.99 / £99.99; it also offers great value for money compared to its market peers, making me wonder why e-bikes (especially e-cargo bikes) don't feature Beeline Velo 2 on their displays - something I've long advocated for.

All in all, one of the best pieces of bike tech I've had the pleasure of reviewing in a long time.

TECHNICAL SPEC:

Battery

Type: Rechargeable Lithium Polymer
Capacity: 400 mAh
Battery life in use: 11 hours
Battery life in standby: 18 months
Charging: Waterproof USB-C

Display

Screen technology: LCD IPS circular display with LED backlight
Resolution: 240 x 240 px (266 PPI)
Active area diameter: 32.4 mm (1.28 inch)
Display lens material: PMMA with anti-scratch coating

Sensors

Accelerometer
Gyroscope
Magnetometer
Ambient light sensor for automatic brightness adjustment

Connectivity:

Bluetooth 4.0 low energy

Materials

ABS
PMMA
Polycarbonate
TPU

Interface

4x physical RockerTopTM buttons.

Water and particle resistance

Weather-sealed, water and dust resistant.

Size and weight

46.4 mm (1.82 inches) diameter, 17.3mm (0.68 inches) deep
25 grams (0.8 oz)

The Garmin Edge Explore 2 was launched last year, just a month after the new, solar-powered all-singing-all-dancing Edge 1040 was unveiled. It was almost as though Garmin worried that its flagship computer might now do a bit too much for the average cyclist as well as cost a bit too much, at a fairly eyewatering $749.99 / £629.99.

So the Edge Explore 2 is a kind of antidote. It costs less than half as much as the 1040 and it’s aimed at the rider who doesn’t need all the performance metrics or the outdoor structured workouts. There’s also no Strava Live Segments. That said, it will pair with Bluetooth and ANT+ sensors just like any of the best cycling computers, syncs everything with Garmin Connect (via Bluetooth; it doesn’t have WiFi), uploads to Strava and other training apps and gives you smart notifications, group ride messaging and incident detection - always handy.

If you've been using a heart rate monitor and power meter you'll get 'Highlights' after finishing your ride - a new V02max (if applicable) and recovery time - which feeds into Garmin Connect once synced and adds to your overall fitness data if you're tracking it.

So although navigation is the Edge Explore 2's primary function, training is by no means neglected.

Garmin Edge Explore 2: construction

The Edge Explore 2 has a crisp 3in touchscreen display that’s not quite as big as the 3.5in 1040’s, but bigger than the 2.6in displays of the 840 and 540. There’s the on/off button on the side and the two classic Garmin buttons at the bottom to start/stop and lap.

Since 2018, when the original Edge Explore arrived, e-bikes have taken off, and the Explore 2 reflects this with new specific functionality. So although it isn’t compatible with Di2, if you’re using an e-bike with Shimano Steps it will take the bike’s battery status and level of assist into account with its routing - though I didn't test this.

Its own battery life is up to a claimed 16 hours from its predecessor’s 12 and I found this to be pretty accurate. It doesn’t have its own pin connectors built into the back, unlike the more expensive Edges, so if you want to connect it to an external power pack - which you might do with an e-bike - you’ll need the power bundle version at $399.99 / £339.99.

The standard version comes with two Garmin quarter-turn mounts, rubber bands, a lanyard and a charging cable now updated to USB-C. It’s a shame there’s no outfront mount - Wahoo includes them with both its Elemnt computers. But it has to be said Garmin’s handlebar mounts with rubber bands are better than Wahoo’s zip-tied versions.

Setup

The latest Garmins are simple to set up. You can now configure everything from Garmin Connect and if you want to do it from the device you still can, and the touchscreen makes it quick and easy.

Garmin has standardised its user interfaces not only across the cycling computers, but if you use a Garmin watch you’ll recognise the layout and features.

There are the activity profiles and then the ‘glances’ widgets, which are shortcuts from the home screen into, for example, navigation, courses, location search and history. You can add more.

Compared to the higher end Garmin computers and watches, the Edge Explore 2’s options are a little limited. There are only three activity profiles - road, indoor and off-road and no option to edit or add more. Perhaps Garmin should have included ‘gravel’ to keep fans of the small stones happy. 

However, it’s broadly in keeping with the Explore 2’s back-to-basics remit.

The ride

To start, you simply select your activity profile out of the three, the Explore 2 acquires satellites very quickly and you’re ready to go. Pairing with and calibrating Wahoo Powrlink Zero power meter pedals and a Garmin HRM (actually a Garmin Epix 2 watch set to 'broadcast heart rate') was straightforward.

I’d set up my data screens with seven on my main screen, navigation on the second and elevation on the third for regular, non-navigational riding. The touchscreen is responsive, not far off a smartphone’s - and it was simple to swipe between them. Much better than buttons, and unaffected by sweaty fingers. I used it in Mallorca at the end of April, where it was very hot indeed.

Navigation

Navigation is the Edge Explore 2’s strength, as you’d expect. The display is sharp, easy to read and routing is easy to follow with Garmin’s purple line, familiar bleeps of encouragement or dismay if you take a wrong turn (and then it will reroute you).

You can create a course yourself on the device, upload one from Garmin Connect, steal one from someone else's Strava and import it into Garmin Connect then send it to the device, or take Garmin’s magical mystery tour with a ‘round-trip course’ where you pick the distance and it creates a circuit for you based on popularity routing.

The Explore 2 includes Garmin's excellent ClimbPro feature. As you approach a climb on your uploaded route, it counts you down to the start, flicks onto the ClimbPro screen and lets you view the climb profile with the gradients colour coded, a little locator showing you where you are and data about distance and ascent to go.

For a climb such as the notorious and relentless Sa Calobra in Mallorca, ClimbPro is literally the most useful thing in the world (apart from plenty of liquid in your bidon). This year I went over a minute faster than I did in 2015 despite being held up near the bottom by a procession of German coaches - and I put that down to being able to pace my effort with ClimbPro.

I also loved that the Explore 2 will list all the climbs on your route with the amount of ascent left, helping you decide whether you need to make a final cafe con leche pitstop. 

At the moment the Explore 2 doesn't support the new version of ClimbPro that detects climbs on any roads and not just in a pre-loaded route - that's just for the newest 1040, 840 and 540 units.

Overall I was impressed with the navigation. The GPS (GNSS) is accurate: zooming in on Strava the trace sticks determinedly  to the left-hand side of the road, even on a wooded section where devices often lose the signal. It's really quick to find GPS too - hugely improved from earlier Garmins - and it has a barometric altimeter for the most accurate elevation data.

Finishing and saving the ride, you’re given the highlights - new VO2max (if applicable) and recovery time. You can go in for a summary of all the data from the sensors - as you can with all the rides in ‘history’. 

It’s not just rides with the Explore 2 that are in the device's rides history - in my case my runs and rides with the Epix 2 watch are all there too, and of course the VO2max and recovery time displayed on the Explore 2 will be taking all of those into account too.

I've never had a problem syncing it with Garmin Connect, though for some reason my Epix 2 watch does it slightly faster.

Value and conclusion

In summary, I'd say the Garmin Edge Explore 2 is ideal for most cyclists. I don't know anybody who is interested in Strava Live Segments any more, and if I want a structured workout I do it on Zwift in ERG mode. 

For everything else, including riding with a power meter and heart rate monitor and syncing all the data with Strava, the Edge Explore 2 does it. 

It costs the same as the training-orientated Wahoo Elemnt Bolt yet is aimed more at mapping than training, like the more expensive Elemnt Roam. For me Garmin has got that the right way round.

Specs

• Size: 106.1x 55.7 x 20.6mm
• Display: 3in
• Resolution: 240x400 pixels
• Weight: 105g
• Waterproofing: IPX7
• Battery life: 16 hours
• Storage: 16GB
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, ANT+

Wahoo has launched the second generation of its flagship GPS bike computer, the Elemnt Roam. The US brand has boosted the Roam’s performance with a suite of new features that it hopes will bring it in line with the best cycling computers including dual band GPS, enhanced navigation, integration with Wahoo X training software, a higher contrast screen, and upgraded memory capacity.   

The signs have been there for a while that a new Roam was about to replace the original, which dates back to 2019, perhaps most obviously in the reduction in price of the ‘old’ Roam from £299.99 to £199.99

The new version is priced at £349.99, which seems like a fair increase given the extra power the new unit offers, not to mention roaring inflation…

The Roam’s little brother, the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt is already on its second generation - released last year - and was labelled by most reviewers a “mini-Roam”. Now the Roam is arguably a “big Bolt” in terms of its performance, though in its appearance it’s very similar to the outgoing Roam.

At a glance new and old Roam look virtually the same, the only visible difference being in the buttons. The new Roam has convex buttons that bulge outwards rather than concave ones that curve inwards. The criticism of the old ones was that the concave buttons collected water and weren’t very easy to push - which was fair.

Better buttons

The new buttons are easier to operate, there’s an audible and tangible click and you won’t get those three little pools at the bottom of your screen when it’s raining.

The screen is the same size at 2.7in, and it’s still not a touchscreen - Wahoo is sticking with buttons only.

The two buttons on the right side that operate the PerfectZoom feature - where you view more or fewer data screens that you’ve pre-chosen via the app - like the three at the bottom of the screen are also slightly bigger and clickier, as is the power/menu button on the left side.

The casing is slightly different to accommodate those different-shaped buttons, but the overall shape and weight of the new computer is exactly the same - with the new Roam at 99g weighing two more grams than the old one on our scales. Claimed weight is a little less at 93.5g.

Externally the other difference is the move to USB-C for charging - in line with the Bolt v2 and the majority of modern devices.

So what’s going on under the hood?

More accurate and easier navigation

The Roam is all about navigation, and Wahoo is saying the mapping and routefinding capabilities of the new one make it the most powerful and intuitive GPS bike computer in the Wahoo ecosystem. 

It now has dual-band GPS which Wahoo says delivers an enhanced and more accurate navigation experience especially when riding in areas where GPS reception can be limited - such as forests or urban areas.

Our friends over at Cyclingnews noticed a little bit of GPS drift when they tested the new Bolt against the old Roam, so this upgrade should see the new Roam exceed the Bolt in GPS accuracy.

Summit Segments Climb feature

Wahoo also flags up its updated Summit Segments climb feature, which has been improved with each software update. Like Garmin’s ClimbPro, this automatically detects climbs in a preloaded route (or ‘take me to…’), and shows the profile of the route with the gradients colour coded. 

It locates you on the route profile, showing any already completed climbs, and users can view more information about the current or upcoming climbs in their ride. 

It’s worth pointing out that this feature is not limited to the new Roam - if you have the old Roam or the latest Bolt you’ll still be able to use Summit Segments. We tested it with the old Roam and it works exactly the same.

New 64-colour screen

The new Roam has a 64-colour high-contrast screen, which is the same as the Bolt’s and this is the biggest visible difference compared to the old one. Whereas the previous Roam was black and white with just eight colours used sparingly, the new one has lost the slightly spidery cartographic look in its navigation screen and uses solid shading and colours rather than thin black outlines. 

Colours are also now applied to tabs, there are colour coded charts, graphs and data fields and, as with the Bolt, you can use colours for heart rate and power zones.

More memory, same battery life

An upgrade to the memory capacity of the Roam from 4GB to 32GB (the Bolt has 16GB) means you’re unlikely to run out of space for regional map packs and stored routes. 

Battery life stays at 17 hours - and perhaps this is an area where Wahoo needs to up its game compared to Garmin, which is now speccing solar charging on its top computers and watches. It’s not a bad battery life and it’s not exactly inconvenient to have to plug in your Roam after 17 hours, but comparatively it isn’t up there.

Wahoo X integration

This is something really cool: if you’re a Wahoo X subscriber (for a single subscription you get Wahoo Systm for training and RGT for virtual routes bundled) you can download structured workouts onto the new Roam.

If you’re following a training programme and want to ride outdoors rather than in, you can sync the workout that’s on your schedule with the Roam and then follow the target power on the Roam’s screen, as well as seeing where you are in the session.

Sadly it doesn’t work with the old Roam - we tried it.

As you’d expect it will also control all Kickr smart trainers and the Kickr Bike and it pairs with all of Wahoo’s other connected devices.

And finally - in the box you get the out-front mount, which is exactly the same as the old Roam's out front mount and is interchangeable. You also get a bar mount which is held in place with zip-ties (included). It's a pity Wahoo hasn't redesigned this to use rubber o-rings for easier transferral between bikes, as Garmin has always done. But Wahoo probably (rightly) assumes that most people have a 31.8 bar and will use the out-front.

The new Elemnt Roam is available for £349.99/$399.99. For more information visit: www.wahoofitness.com 

First impressions: Sam Gupta, CW video manager

There’s a lot to like about the new Roam. The dual-band GPS, I like that. I also like the upgrade to USB-C, which is arguably overdue.

Those raised buttons make a massive difference and everyone is going to be really relieved to have those.

More colour on the screen - it does make it a lot easier to read and the way Wahoo has integrated the colour makes it a lot more natural - it draws your eye to the metrics that are important to you. Also having the ability to choose what you want in colour makes it a whole lot more versatile. 

Summit Segments - I really like that because it allowed me to pace those efforts. I liked it on Garmin with ClimbPro, so having it in Wahoo again makes sure they’re competing at the top level with the functionality that we all want to see from a top end computer. 

The 32GB memory, again, is really nice. It essentially means you can take it anywhere in the world and you’ll have mapping.

And that really easy setup that hasn't changed - it’s so user friendly. For those people who just want to get their computer on and ride with it and have proper interaction with it throughout their product ownership, that’s where Wahoo is unmatched compared to any other computer.

So onto the things I’m not the biggest fan of. It’s going to be that battery life. I’m a bit disappointed that Wahoo stuck at 17 hours. It would have been nice to see an extra bit - or maybe even solar tech. Maybe that’s going to come in the future. I think Garmin are going to force Wahoo into needing to extend battery life. 

Screen size - 2.7 inches. I wish it was a bit bigger, especially when you’ve got such a fat bezel that runs around the edge. It leaves it feeling a bit clunky. And for a computer that’s made for big adventures and explorations, having a bigger map and a bigger screen would only be a useful thing. And it’s a shame they didn’t take the opportunity to expand it even if just into the corners. 

Lastly, while I do like the design, it’s not quite as refined or sleek as you might expect given how much it costs.

But for me, that’s all massively outweighed by the positives of this computer and I think it’s made a significant jump on from the original.

Specification

 Screen size 2.7”
Battery life 17 hours
Dimensions 59.5 mm X 90.5 mm X 20.5 mm
Weight 3.3oz/93.5g
Water rating IPX7

Hardware

• (NEW) Dual Band GPS
• (NEW) 64 Color Screen
• (NEW) Convex Buttons
• (NEW) USB-C Charging
• 17-Hour Battery
• Perfect View Zoom
• Quicklook LED’s
• Ambient Light Sensor
• Integrated Out-Front Mount

Software

• (NEW) Wahoo X
• (NEW) Summit Segments
• (NEW) Public Route Sharing
• (NEW) Supersapiens Integration
• (NEW) Back Up & Restore
• On Device Smart Navigation
• Multisport Handover
• KICKR Control
• ELEMNT Companion App

RRP

$399.99/£349.99

Whoop is a company that anyone who’s watched cycling over the last few months will be thoroughly aware of. They have an active publicity arm - with viewers regularly seeing riders' ‘strain’ score, one of Whoop’s own variables, mid race. 

Whoop is a device which is worn on the wrist which tracks your heart beating, measuring resting heart rate, respiratory rate and heart rate variability. On top of this, it tracks your heart rate throughout the day and auto-detects activities. Whoop’s device has no face, it’s not a smartwatch and you can’t see what it’s doing without logging into the app. 

The question of who Whoop is actually for is an interesting one: given that their device measures less than other wearables, isn’t GPS enabled and doesn’t have a screen, the selling point is in Whoop’s analytics platform. Analysis of bad data, however, is completely pointless which is why we tested Whoop’s sensor quality against the gold standard chest worn heart rate monitor while running and riding. 

Whoop sensor quality 

I didn’t hold out a great deal of hope for the wrist-based heart-rate sensor on the Whoop device. The reality is that putting a small flashing light on a sweaty wrist, causing changes in the impedance (how absorbent a substance is to electromagnetic radiation), is a bit like using a random number generator - for my wrist at least, though as many people have found the accuracy of wrist-based HRM does depend on the individual wrist.

I wouldn’t use Whoop as an activity tracker and if I want to measure your heart rate during exercise, I use a chest strap. The inability to pair a chest strap with Whoop is a missing trick and, if Whoop wants to move out of the ‘general wellness’ space and into rivalling Garmin or Polar for activity tracking, this is a feature they need to add. 

Outside of training, however, I was impressed at Whoop’s ability to measure resting heart rate values and the consistency seen in HRV values. I was able to see trends over time which broadly aligned to how I was feeling, so in that sense, the Whoop sensor served its main purpose.

Sleep tracking

I learned, quite quickly, that I am not a brilliant sleeper. Whoop detected a number of ‘wake events’ each night which I subsequently started to notice myself. This led to some changes in behaviour such as having my last cup of coffee earlier and trying (but not always succeeding) to stay off my phone, particularly Twitter, immediately before bed. My sleep did improve. 

These behavioural changes provoked by Whoop and watching how they affect other metrics and your overall sense of wellbeing are where its real value lies.

Strain and recovery scores

Each day, Whoop gives you a ‘strain score’. This is a value between 0 and 21 which is based on your heart rate. For example, on a day when I went out for a 98-mile ride in the heat, my Whoop strain score was 20.7. The following day, I decided to take it easy and didn’t train at all. Because I have a low stress job and can work from home, my strain was 4.7. This small score was accumulated by a walk to the cafe and a trip to the supermarket. 

My average heart rate on the high-strain day was 82 versus 59 on my rest day. I asked Whoop how their strain score is calculated and it’s essentially a logarithmic scaling factor multiplied by the amount of time you’re spending in each heart rate zone. This means your strain score could be high from either doing a large amount of volume at lower intensity or doing a smaller amount of high intensity work. 

On top of this, Whoop gives you a recovery score in the morning. This is a combination of sleep quality, HRV versus your personal baseline and resting heart rate versus your baseline. I asked Whoop how heavily each of these variables were weighted and they wouldn’t tell me, citing "proprietary algorithms" - it’s worth noting I asked for coefficients rather than access to their code (though the data scientist in me would have liked that). 

It seems to me, however, that the weighting of these variables in an individual’s recovery is just that - individual. As a result, using the same coefficient for each Whoop user makes the recovery score almost completely worthless.

The app and social platform

The Whoop app has more features than anyone could possibly need. Away from all the activity tracking, stress and strain scores and data reports Whoop also has a social platform within the app. I decided to join ‘Team Great Britain’ and soon found myself able to organise thousands of people by their various recovery scores and biological metrics. 

Generally speaking, I would say it’s not helpful to share this much bio-information about yourself online. For example, you are able to organise the ‘team’ by how recovered they are, from here you’re able to organise by HRV - such that those with a high HRV are at the top of the leaderboard and those with a low one are at the bottom. I was in 560th place. 

The issue with this leaderboard is a simple one, HRV is individual and the person with the highest value isn’t necessarily the most recovered… Biological metrics shouldn’t be compared with other people. It’s possible that this data is useful to analyse on a population level, but that’s not what Whoop is doing here. As I see it it's is a tool to drive engagement on their app, ‘building communities’ is tech speak for clickbait.

Battery and charging

The battery life of the Whoop is decent. I found myself charging it around twice a week while I was wearing it 24/7 (apart from swimming, when it sat patiently in my kit bag waiting for me). When it comes to charging, Whoop’s clever battery pack that allows you to charge it while you’re wearing the device. It clips onto the sensor and you charge the battery pack separately. I did have one die on me, but since then the replacement has been fine. 

Data reports

One of the unique features of Whoop, relative to other health tracking devices, is the monthly and weekly data reports that Whoop generates for you. These are essentially a summary of the metrics that Whoop has tracked over this time. 

The weekly report makes no reference to heart rate variability, but does include summaries of your ‘day strain’ and ‘activity strain’. One of the useful things about this data report is the sleep tracking aspect of it. For example, from my first weekly data report I found that my ‘bed and wake times varied by an average of 1:22 hours’. This is less consistent than I thought and has meant that I’m now paying much more attention to increasing the regularity of my wake and sleep times. This ability to provoke positive behaviour change is Whoop’s main selling point, rather than continuous day-time tracking, in my opinion. Quantifying my sleep habits, encouraging me to change them and then me feeling improvements based on this is valuable. 

The monthly data report also contains a slightly irritating lack of fundamental metrics, with Whoop preferring to present you with highly processed data. I’d have liked to see a trend in RHR and HRV plotted along a time axis such that it’s possible to spot chronic stress. Instead we are presented with metrics like 'hours of sleep vs. sleep needed' - where sleep needed is determined wholly by Whoop and is not an objective metric despite it being presented as such. Whoop’s preference for their own processed metrics rather than measurements clouds the picture they’re trying to paint and, on occasion, feels like they’re treating users as if they’re stupid.

The ride 

The actual device itself is essentially just a wrist band. Personally, I think it looks good. Most of the time, I forget about it, which is kind of the aim. The only time I didn’t forget about my Whoop was when I went swimming - it’s annoying in the water with the fastening strap coming loose, the device sliding up and down. It lasted about 150m before I took it off and popped it in my bag. 

This means that Whoop simply has no idea about six hours of ‘strain’ that I’m accumulating every week. As part of Whoop 4.0, they’ve released ‘Whoop body’ for those of you that can’t work with or wear a wristband for all hours of the day. This clothing has a pouch for the sensor to sit in and track the metrics that Whoop tracks while you’re out and about. Yes, you can even get Whoop pants. Annoyingly, Whoop does not produce a pair of ‘Whoop body’ Speedo-like trunks so my swims will go untracked for the foreseeable.  

Value and conclusions 

Whoop has three pricing options, biannual payments of £432, annual payments of £264 or monthly payments of £27. It’s not cheap. With every generation of smart watches, more and more of Whoop’s measurements are being made - with most now beginning to measure HRV. 

The USP of Whoop is their analytics and data reports. Whoop’s ‘social aspect’ is one I’ll leave up to you - with one’s attitude toward that probably being dictated by what they’re comfortable sharing. Ranking by biological metrics, however, is not a sensible idea and an app feature that’s potentially harmful to users.

With its small size, aerodynamic design, stripped back functionality and reliable, black-and-white, button-operated screen the original Wahoo Elemnt Bolt bike computer, launched in 2017, was the perfect antidote to the increasingly large, more complex devices that seemed to be heading in the wrong direction despite their sophisticated mapping capabilities.

The Bolt v2 is much more powerful than its predecessor, and indeed than the flagship Wahoo Elemnt Roam. It has four times the amount of memory of the original Bolt with its 16GB, a 64-colour screen, smart navigation, a bigger battery that has added a few grams (less than 10g) and a whole raft of extra features that have trickled down from the Roam including the ambient light sensor.

But has the new Bolt complicated things, perhaps lost the simplicity of the original?

Wahoo Elemnt Bolt v2: setup

Well, it hasn’t lost any of Wahoo’s fêted simplicity of setup. Basically, once you’ve downloaded the Wahoo companion app you power on the device, scan a QR code, follow the instructions on the app that ask you to input your WiFi password, authorise third-party apps and so on, and you’re ready to ride. Simplicity itself.

Later you can set up your data fields so that when you use the PerfectView zoom, which is still a feature of the new Bolt as it was the original one, the Roam and the Elemnt Rival watch, you’re zooming in on the ones you want to see. All the customisation is done in the app, as before.

There's a 31.8mm out-front mount in the box, which integrates very neatly with the device, but the stem mount uses zip-ties rather than rubber bands, which is a shame if you're using an older bike that doesn't suit the out-front, aero aesthetic and don't want the stem mount permanently fixed there.

Look and feel

The new Bolt feels more refined. The new screen is almost phone like - though to be clear it's not a touchscreen - whereas the old model had more of a Gameboy Advance look and feel.

The screen is 2.2in compared to the Roam’s 2.7in but everything else, including the black casing and the logo placement makes Wahoo’s range very unified-looking indeed.

Something that Wahoo has changed, however, is the three buttons below the screen. The old Bolt and the Roam’s buttons are concave, and not always easy to operate with long-finger gloves. The new Bolt has convex buttons that feel much more tactile, with the ‘switch’ feeling coming earlier and with less force required than before.

As for the colour screen, Wahoo hasn’t gone overboard. Although there are 64 colours compared to the Roam’s eight and the old Bolt’s zero, it’s still a muted rather than psychedelic display, just like that of the Roam.

Wahoo has also reworked the fonts. There are lower-case instructions in a very plain sans-serif font. It’s guiding you, not shouting at you.

I personally find the row of customisable LEDs not particularly useful but they are a Wahoo signature feature and are included here along the top of the screen for you to take or leave.

Navigation and mapping

The Bolt’s new mapping has new features - which are familiar to Roam users - such as rerouting, retracing, routing to a new location on device. It will also - as you’d expect with its new functionality - take you to the start of a route.

I rode with Strava routes that I ‘starred’ so that they would sync with the Bolt. I also created my own on Strava. And I’ve used the ‘take me to’ feature that works just like a car sat-nav - you can do this via the app (preferable) or on the Bolt itself.

You can ride with your main data in front of you and whenever a turn is approaching, the cue appears in a green band and there are audible alerts (bleeps) too. I found it very easy to follow - in fact much clearer than the Roam’s navigation of a Strava route.

Or following the black chevrons on the navigation page itself is incredibly easy. If you go wrong you know it pretty quickly with R2D2-like bleeps and red flashes from the LEDs to admonish you.

The only quirk I - and CW reviewer Tom Epton, who has also been using the Bolt - have discovered is that there appears to be a possibility of your being routing onto gravel even when you’ve selected ‘road’ as your preferred surface, especially if you’ve gone off route and the unit wants to reroute you as quickly as possible.

Both of us also found that your position on the screen can appear slightly behind your actual location, especially at speed. At normal cycling speeds this isn’t an issue but on a descent it’s more noticeable.

The Bolt’s mapping coverage is huge - thanks to its 16GB memory. I also used it in Majorca without having to download anything extra. Wahoo says millions of miles are covered. 

My test unit’s pre-loaded maps (a decent chunk of Europe and the USA) left 2.07GB of space for more, and you can delete and add maps as required.

Although the screen is pretty small I found it was still possible to identify and head for alternative and quieter roads on the fly - a little cami instead of the main drag in Majorca, for example - and then navigate without a pre-planned route. There’s just enough space on the screen to stay orientated but it does involve a bit of squinting once you've zoomed out to view a sizeable enough area.

I haven't experienced GPS drift with the Bolt - the red trace is so accurate that it's possible to see which side of the road you've ridden on even with a pretty narrow lane. There's been the very occasional quirk, where the trace inexplicably goes as the crow flies for a short distance, but I can't think of any GPS device I've used where this has never happened.

Sensors

As for sensors, I’ve used a Polar H10 heart rate monitor and Wahoo’s own Tickr when the Polar developed a battery drain. As you’d expect it can connect via ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart and also WiFi for syncing.

For my Colnago C68 v Colnago Master Olympic video that’s on our YouTube channel we used the Elemnt Bolt and a set of Wahoo Powrlink Zero power meter pedals, which it ‘saw’ every time they were used and which I've used with it regularly since. But, as I mentioned, it will pair with any ANT+ or Bluetooth device.

In short, I’ve had no problem at all pairing it with any sensors and syncing rides with Strava via WiFi happens in the background and is totally reliable.

Other features

The ambient light sensor works exactly like the Roam’s - it’s very sensitive to light changes and, as with the Roam, I am happy to keep it on ‘auto’ without worrying about battery drain.

There are many other ride features that the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt offers and I won’t go into them all here, but they include structured workouts, Multisport Handover (for triathletes using the Elemnt Rival watch), Strava Live Segments, smart notifications including from WhatsApp (very useful) and Specialized ANGI integration.

Wahoo has recently added the Elemnt Summit Climbing Feature, which is its version of Garmin’s ClimbPro. This adds colour coding to the various upcoming gradients (green for 0-3.9% and dark red for 20%+ and allows you to see how much climbing remains on your route that you've synced (or added via 'take me to'). If you zoom out, you can view the elevation profile of your whole route or zoom in and look at the climb you're on in detail.

Charging and battery life

Wahoo claims 15 hours of runtime and that seems pretty accurate. It’s not the greatest battery life and is a bit shorter than the Roam’s 17 hours, but charging is quick at under two hours with the USB-C, which can carry more power (plus the connector can go in either way up).

I do find myself plugging it in and charging it after every longish ride just to be safe, whereas the best smartwatches for cycling can go for days and of course Garmin's latest 1040 Solar claims 100 hours.

Value and conclusion

With its functionality and price increase from the £184.99 of the Bolt v1 to £249.99 at launch and now £264.99, Wahoo is positioning the Bolt to go up against the Garmin Edge 530 rather than the Garmin Edge 130 Plus. 

As for its position in the Wahoo range, it’s still cheaper than the Roam at the latter's full RRP of £299.99/$379.99 (though it's currently on sale from many retailers including direct from Wahoo) but it’s hard to see how it’s inferior, unless you consider a smaller screen to be a disadvantage and a battery life two hours shorter.

Although the navigation in our experience isn’t yet perfect, the new Bolt nails everything else. It’s more expensive but we’d say the new features and functionality justify the price increase while it keeps the Wahoo user-friendliness and intuitiveness that made the old Bolt so good.

Specifications

• Unit Dimensions 3.05" x 1.86" x .84"
• Display Size 2.2 in / (55.9 mm)
• Display Type 64 - Color
• Display Resolution 320x240
• Weight 2.4oz (68 grams)
• Battery Rechargable Lithium Ion
• Battery Life 15 Hours
• GPS Functionality Built-in
• Supported Satellites GPS, GLONASS, BEIDOU Galileo, and QZSS
• Water Rating IPX7 (Waterproof up to 5 ft)
• Mount Types Integrated out front and Stem
• Altimeter Yes
• LED Lights 1 row customizable
• Perfect View Zoom Buttons Yes
• Ambient Light Sensor Yes
• Operating Temperature -20°C to 50°C

Bryton is not a name that springs to mind when you think of the best cycling computers, so much so that this particular model was boxed up with a casquette, bidon, a pair of cycling socks and a waterproof case for your phone presumably with the purpose of increasing brand awareness. 

Plugging in into the USB-C charger it switched on quickly and then you’re prompted to download the Bryton Active app. This is where it went wrong… 

Bryton Rider S800: set-up

The Bryton Active app feels unfinished, the user interface is unattractive compared to those of the market leaders and it’s difficult to navigate. 

Pairing the head unit to the app was a difficult process in itself, taking a long time for the two to find each other. Navigating around the app was tricky, with a lot of ‘non-obvious’ menu names not making things easier. 

For example, when trying to change the data fields seen on the head unit for my interval session the menu title for this within the app was "Grid Setting". Once my ride was done, it took an age to sync - and this is something that has not improved with subsequent rides such that now I just plug it into my laptop to get the data.

Mapping and navigation

The mapping function was fine, though again somewhat ruined by the difficulties with the app. Getting routes from the app to the head unit is a lot of faff - any data sharing between the two seems to take multiple attempts and be very slow. Due to the huge screen, the maps functionality on the head unit is quite good - it’s clear what kind of roads are which and the turn by turn navigation is great. It includes features like auto-rerouting and route retracing too.

Screen

The main redeeming factor of the Bryton S800 is the touchscreen - it’s huge. It’s 8.6cm along the diagonal which did make it look a bit silly between my 36cm bars but these are admittedly on the narrow side. 

Once you’ve figured out how to change data fields, these are numerous. The colours are bright and clear - swiping between screen options is quick and easy. 

The screen makes use of, according to Bryton, Memory In Pixel technology (MIP). This is a battery saving bit of tech - the idea being that only pixels which need to be refreshed are updated each time the screen changes such that no power is diverted to refreshing pixels that remain the same. 

Battery life and charging

Bryton claims a 36-hour battery life for the Rider S800 which is impressive for a device with a bright screen and while I’ve not been on a 36-hour ride, it does seem to never lose power. This battery life is due to the MIP screen technology.

The ride

The out-front mount that comes with the bike computer is aluminium, which looks lovely. 

But unfortunately let's go back to the app - it is so bad that it ruins the entire product. It’s worse than any mobile app for a head unit or smartwatch I’ve ever used by some considerable margin. The really frustrating part about this is that the hardware is so good! 

The contrast between the execution of the hardware and software is scarcely believable. Data transfer between the app and the bike computer is so bad that I just plug it into my laptop when I get home from my ride, changing data fields is a faff. 

When you’re actually out on the bike, and you’ve finished getting annoyed with the app and have everything set up how you want it, the computer is really great. The screen is fantastic, fast, responsive and bright. 

The battery lasts for ages - it can be charged pretty much once a week, and that’s if you do quite a bit of riding. It has a number of really cool features, my favourite being the ‘Climb Challenge’, which allows you to see climb stats of individual climbs on your route - especially useful if you’re tackling a hilly sportive. 

On one ride, the Bryton also froze on me - see the pic below. This was fixed when I got back and put it on charge, but I lost two hours of training data because of it. It hasn’t happened since and it was unclear what caused the issue.

Value and conclusion

If you were to go and buy an S800 it would set you back £339.99/$399.95 and due to the huge shortcomings on the app side of this there is no way I would part with that much money for it.

 Sure, there are a few functional problems with the app that are annoying but the main issue is usability, it’s so tricky to navigate when compared to Polar, Garmin or Wahoo’s platforms. 

A huge UX redesign and some work on the Bluetooth connectivity then we will have a really solid product, but until that happens the Bryton is simply not worth its price tag.

Specification

• Dimensions: 105mm x 58mm x 14.2mm 
• Display size: 3.4in
• Screen resolution: 272 x 451 pixels
• Waterproof rating: IP7
• Satellites: GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, BEIDOU, Galileo
• Battery life: 36 hours
• Connectivity: ANT+/BLE
• Weight 106g

The Notio Aerometer is a device you attach to the front of your bicycle and it measures how aerodynamic you are. These kinds of devices are relatively new to the market, only coming about in the last couple of years and have opened up aerodynamic testing to more people. 

Getting your hands on this type of data in the past would’ve required a costly and time consuming trip to the wind tunnel. That is essentially what the Notio aims to do - strap a miniature wind tunnel to the front of your bicycle. 

The Notio measures an accurate and repeatable value for the product of our coefficient of drag and frontal aero - essentially trying to measure just how aero we are. This sounds relatively simple but aerodynamics are complicated and air passing over us behaves in a strange way so creating a device small enough that it can be strapped to a bicycle but good enough to get repeatable measurements is no mean feat. 

Notio Aerometer: construction

The device itself is a small black pod with a bike computer-sized mount. The Notio sits on a platform on this mount which can be rotated - this means there’s a little more flexibility as to where it can be mounted on the front of a bike. This can be useful in two circumstances - when looking to optimise the front end of a TT bike or when looking to strap it to a bike with non-standard bars, many time trial front ends aren’t particularly amenable to bolting devices on - especially high-end ones. 

Notio claims a battery life of up to 12 hours while recording. During the test sessions that we’ve done with this, it’s not run out of charge yet. I have seen data from some long time trials measured from this device, though I avoid doing long time trials myself at all costs. The battery is charged with a standard miniature USB cable. 

The only difficulty we had when testing with the Notio was finding ways to strap it to high-end time trial bikes. Non-standard and oddly shaped tubes are commonplace here and a few more mounting solutions from Notio would be welcome. 

The Notio connects to its own app and to Garmin head units. Currently, the device doesn’t connect to other brands of head unit. Upon speaking to Notio about this, it’s something they want to do but it’s not always simple when it comes to third-party apps with other brands. An Android friendly mobile app would also be helpful.

The ride 

It’s fair to say that this device is not the most user friendly thing on earth and it does take a bit of getting used to. With any scientific device, whether it’s an oscilloscope in an optics lab or an aeropod, the first step is always to try and measure the same thing twice. If you can’t repeat measurements, there’s no point. The thing I learned using the Notio, and this isn’t really a fault of the device, is that this is highly dependent on the rider. It takes an obscene amount of bodily awareness to complete two runs and get two CdA values close enough together to call ‘the same’. 

However, once you’ve got used to using the device, the wealth of information you’re able to obtain from it is unreal. If you’re a serious time triallist, perhaps looking to crack 20 for a 10-mile TT, or just looking to get as fast as possible, you need a Notio. It genuinely is like a pocket sized wind tunnel and Notio’s associated apps and data analysis is fantastic too. 

The device you use is part of the measurement and the important thing is consistency across runs rather than the actual number itself. With a power meter this is less of a problem as measuring power is a pretty simple cross product of force and angular velocity, but aero measurements require you to measure so many things that matching a CdA on the road, track and wind tunnel is very tricky, and not necessarily a goal worth aiming for in all cases.

In terms of usability, we achieved good measurements on a long out-and-back stretch and a loop on a calm day. With CdA measurements you tend to get estimates to three significant figures (something like 0.24 for example). The Notio has been independently verified by a publication in the European Journal of Sports Science as being able to detect changes of ±1.2%, this was done in a velodrome. On the open road, we were able to measure consistently to within 6.7%. 

Value and conclusion

The Notio comes in at $599 on their website but I can’t find one from a UK retailer for less than £700. Cyclepowermeters.com has it at £759. 

Given the fact that the market is quite small due to the cutting-edge nature of aero sensor tech it’s hard to judge what the ‘right’ price is. In the next few years these sensors will be more common, which might well lead to a decrease in prices across the board. If you want an aero sensor today, the Notio is a solid option. 

• Weight: 80g
• Mounting system: 360 degree mounting across two axes
• Sensors: pitot tube, barometer, 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, hygrometer, thermometer

Wearables, and that includes GPS watches like the Suunto 5, are becoming increasingly sophisticated, offering a whole raft of additional performance metrics using heart rate variability, sleep, stress and other data to track your condition – things that a computer, bolted to your bars rather than busily gathering data 24/7 via your wrist – is powerless to do.

>>> The best smartwatches for cycling: buyer's guide

If it’s mainly used for sports such as cycling and running, the Suunto 5 has everything you need. The main difference between it and its bigger, range-topping sibling the is the Suunto 9 Baro (£539) is that the latter has weather tracking functions (via the barometric altimeter), a compass, a slightly higher screen resolution (plus it's a touchscreen), it’s waterproof to 100 metres instead of 50 and it’s a bit bigger and heavier – which may not be ideal for cycling and running anyway.

Suunto 5: size and weight

At 66g the Suunto 5 is quite chunky already. The Coros Pace 2, claimed to be the world’s lightest smartwatch, weighs just under half that while the Wahoo Elemnt Rival weighs 53g – but the Suunto 5 is not the heaviest: the Garmin Fenix 6 Solar weighs 84g and the Suunto 9 just a little less at 81g. Obviously the extra grams don’t make much difference when you're cycling. It’s when it’s being used for running that weight becomes an issue, especially if the strap isn’t snug-fitting enough, because heart rate tracking via the optical HRM is more easily lost. Optical heart rate monitors are not as accurate as chest straps, but I found the Suunto 5 particularly prone to dropping out and spiking due to moving around on my wrist. The lighter Wahoo Elemnt Rival – which also has a more flexible strap for better wrist contact – for me has the most accurate wrist-based HRM, but even that's not 100 per cent immune to spikes and dropouts.

For the watch’s size, the screen is on the small side at 30mm. There’s a large stainless steel bezel around it that looks classy but serves no actual purpose – and then a black inner ring. This space might be put to better use by enlarging the screen. We found the Polar Vantage M screen at 46mm was bigger and brighter too – and it weighs 45g. The Polar shared the Suunto's optical HR unpredictability, however.

Screen and buttons

Operation is via five buttons – there’s no touchscreen. The menus are not as intuitive as Garmin’s or Wahoo's which is a little frustrating at first, but since it’s on your wrist day and night you do get used to it. Paul Norman found the Suunto 9's touchscreen more intuitive. That said, for a right-handed person wearing the watch on their left wrist, the start/stop button is where it should be at top right, and the buttons themselves have a positive, high-quality feel.

As I've mentioned, the screen could be a little bigger for the size of the casing, and is consequently not the easiest to read on the move, especially if you want to use the maximum seven data fields.

The watch face is customisable with various digital and analogue displays and colours to choose from.

Navigation

Like the 9 the 5 uses GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS and BeiDou for its tracking and navigation – which is super accurate. GPX routes are created or imported via the excellent Suunto phone app. Creating them is as easy as simply tapping the map, and if you need inspiration the heatmaps function lets you see frequently used tracks by other Suunto users – and you can sort them by sport.

Navigation is breadcrumb style rather than basemap and is not turn-by-turn, although it is still followable. A cycle computer such as the Garmin Edge 530, which costs a similar amount to the Suunto 5, obviously does this much better.

The Suunto 5 found the satellite signal really quickly – faster than many devices from rival GPS computer manufacturers that I’ve used.

Connectivity

Here it's just like a cycling computer, connecting to peripheral sensors very easily via Bluetooth (no ANT+). Syncing with the Suunto phone app happens automatically/in the background and is very neat, never asking to be manually paired again after the initial, very straightforward, setup. As you'd expect, the Suunto 5 is compatible with Strava, TrainingPeaks, Endomondo and more, and can be set to automatically share activities with them.

You can get your smartphone notifications and WhatsApp messages, which is a novelty at first but then bleeps and vibrations from both your wrist and your pocket can get annoying – especially for your partner – so fortunately you can turn them off too.

Sports modes

The Suunto 5 has pre-set default sport modes – there are up to 80 according to the spec – or you create your own. I created my own in order to get the metrics I wanted on the same screen, and these are customisable, whereas the default ones aren’t.

The watch remembers which sport mode you last used and that’s at the top of the menu for next time, along with the second one in second place and so on, so you don’t scroll through sports you never use.

Fitness tracking

The latest generation of smartwatches tracks everything you do in order to give you a summary of your overall recovery and readiness to train again in a percentage. Garmin has trademarked ‘Body Battery’, which is a good description of what it is; Suunto calls it ‘Resources'.

The Suunto 5 also gives you a rolling VO2max estimate, which I found tied in with the one Garmin had given me, and more or less the same as Strava's, but could fluctuate unrealistically due to poor heart rate data.

It will also tell you when you’re stressed and need to recover post-activity.

The sleep tracker counts the hours you got and gives you heart rate feedback – but I found this not particularly accurate, probably because the optical heart rate monitor could drop the signal and then the watch would conclude there was no available data.

As is standard for wearables, there’s a calorie calculator and a step counter – of limited usefulness if you’re a regular exerciser already, but if you’re the traditional type of cyclist who likes to save their legs and spend as little time on their feet as possible, you can always use it in reverse to keep your step count down.

Adaptive training

The Suunto 5 will set a seven-day training plan for you, and you can choose between 'maintain', 'improve' or 'boost'. For experienced cyclists – or runners – who do more targeted training for their sport it’s a little limited, especially as it doesn’t specify which sport you should be doing, but for general fitness – assuming accurate heart rate data – it’s a good way to stick to a programme. If you get ahead of the programme or if the watch detects that you’re not recovering sufficiently, it will adapt the programme. And during an activity – running, for example – if you’re going too hard or not hard enough for the prescribed intensity, it will send a bleeping, vibrating alert telling you to slow down or speed up.

Battery life

Suunto has paid a lot of attention to intelligent battery management and the battery life is good. Suunto claims 40 hours in training mode and 14 days in watch mode. I was charging it every five or six days, exercising daily. You can change battery modes to get a longer runtime, and the watch will send you reminders when the battery is low, anticipating a sports activity. The new Garmin Enduro claims an incredible 50 days in smartwatch mode or 65 using solar power, but also costs well over twice the price.

Suunto 5: the ride

The Suunto 5 has a digital ‘personality’ that’s easy to live with. I found it kept me focused on fitness even if I wasn’t necessarily following its training programmes (I set ‘boost’ just for this review but found I was exceeding that anyway). It comes across as very organised, intelligent and super keen on sport, which is just what you want if you’re trying to stay motivated through a pandemic with no racing calendar.

Yes, the heart rate monitor was a little disappointing, but it was much better for cycling than for running, and at Cycling Weekly that’s obviously the bit we’re most interested in. I would use a chest strap – any Bluetooth chest strap will work – for more accurate running data. Perhaps so that the Suunto 5 records HR data more accurately for a wider range of wrist sizes – it seems aimed a thicker male wrist – the tops of the strap on either side of the face could be a little more flexible so they wrap the wrist more securely to ensure better contact.

I don’t think I would replace a dedicated cycling computer with the Suunto 5, mostly because of the screen size, but would happily use both, which would then mean the cycling activities wouldn’t be part of the Suunto’s 24/7 fitness tracking and it would be more difficult to get an overall picture from the Suunto 5 of your actual fitness. This differs to the likes of Garmin where the entire ecosystem interacts, for example if you use a Garmin Fenix and Edge head unit. However, if you're syncing both devices to a third-party app you'll be able to analyse workouts and all will contribute towards a training load calculation.

Value and comparision

The Suunto 5 is in the middle of the Finnish brand’s range at its SRP of £299.99. Suunto’s flagship multisport smartwatch (ie suitable for cycling) is the Suunto 9 Baro (£539), then comes the Suunto 7 (£429). Below it is the Suunto 3 at £199.

The Suunto 5 is considered mid range in the general multisport watch market too, possibly now in the mid-to-lower bracket with the release of the new Garmin Enduro, which costs a penny under £800.

For purely cycling, if I had about £250 to spend (the Suunto 5 is currently discounted to £239.20) and had to choose between the Suunto 5 and a price-equivalent cycling computer like the Garmin Edge 530 (£259.99) I would go for the Garmin mainly because the screen is bigger and it's in a position on or in front of the stem where it's easier to read. But if you're wanting to track multiple sports rather than specialising in one, and like the extra data from wearables, then the Suunto 5 has it covered. There are just a few areas in which it doesn't excel – optical heart rate monitoring (for me at least) and screen readability being the main ones.

The Suunto 9 smartwatch is a chunky beast. It’s 50mm in diameter and 7mm deep, with a stainless steel bezel and a composite case and weighs 76 grams. It's not, however, heavy enough to feel ungainly or uncomfortable, unlike the Tag Heuer Connected Modular that we tested a couple of years ago. The case has smooth edges and I soon got used to wearing it day and night, although the strap buckle did occasionally dig into my wrist a little. 

>>> Best smartwatches for cyclists 

If you’re into exercise other than cycling, a smartwatch makes a lot of sense, as you’re not limited to a device with a large flat screen designed to fit on your bike. The Suunto 9 works just as well for running, swimming, hiking or mountaineering: in fact there are over 80 sport profiles available. It’s also useful for gravel riding, cyclocross or mountain biking, where the best bike computers are prone to end up covered in dirt.

The heart of the Suunto 9 is a 320x300 pixel resolution touchscreen with a shiny sapphire crystal glass. Its backlight can be turned on by pressing one of the three buttons on the right side of the watch; it can be set to go to sleep to conserve battery. Even when not backlit, the range of standard watch faces is easy to read.

>>> Best smartwatches for cycling

Once you wake the watch up, you can swipe down through a range of screens with details of heart rate, recovery status, steps, training, altitude, sleep and fitness level. Behind each of these screens, there’s more detail that you can swipe left to access, usually including history. 

Swipe up from the watch face and there are yet more screens, letting you start to log an exercise, navigate, see your exercise history, set timers or access your settings. Plus you can use the buttons as shortcuts to some of these screens. Swipe right and the Suunto 9 will return to the watch face.

It sounds complicated, but is actually very intuitive, assisted by the really sharp, sensitive touchscreen and prompts on the display.

Exercise logging

Logging an activity is really simple: activate the watch, swipe up one to the Exercise screen, swipe right to the activity list and select cycling (or indoor cycling, skiing, obstacle racing, or whatever floats your boat - including sailing and kayaking), wait for the start button to turn green showing that you’ve got a GPS fix and for your heart rate number to turn up and you’re away.

You get a series of easy to read screens which you can scroll through with different stats for your activity, including a breadcrumb trail of where you’ve been. By default you need to use the central button to swap screens, although you can activate the touchscreen to let you do this. You can also lock the watch so that you don’t stop your recording by mistake. 

Once you’ve finished, just hit the top button to bring up the menu, then the lower one to stop recording. You can then record how you felt while exercising and access a series of summary screens for the activity.

While you’re exercising, the Suunto 9 will give you a continuous reading of your heart rate. Wrist-based measurement isn’t very accurate. My recorded heart rate hit a reported 212bpm on one ride - when I was walking a bike with a flat tyre - and stuck at 101bpm for the entire ride on another.

Misreading of heart rate when using a wrist based optical sensor isn’t unique to the Suunto 9 though; we had the same problem when testing a Polar Vantage M last year, although competitor Garmin seems to have nailed this in its multisport watches. It’s down to the tendency for the watch to slip down your wrist when exercising, loosening the junction to the watch’s back and for sweat and movement to interfere with the light-based sensors.

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Fortunately, Suunto has a solution. You can pair up the Suunto 9 to one of the best heart rate monitors for cycling (a chest strap) using Bluetooth. Wear your strap and you’ll get a much more accurate reading. You can do this per exercise type, so if you don’t care about having a good HR reading when walking, for example, you can just revert to the wrist-based measurement. And if you don’t wear your strap for a ride, the watch will use the wrist sensor instead.

Once you’ve finished your ride, the Suunto 9 will calculate a whole load of stats, including the all-important recovery time and your training load. Background data synchronisation to the Suunto app happens seamlessly via Bluetooth from the Suunto 9 once it’s close to your smartphone or you can initiate a sync yourself.

Suunto app

Suunto has moved from its Movescount computer app to the Suunto app, which is available for both Android and iOS devices. 

It’s a decent user interface, giving you all your exercise history in a few screens, with the ability to drill down further, although it’s not as rich as Garmin Connect. There’s also social media connectivity and you can link to dozens of different apps, including the cyclist’s favourites, Strava, TrainingPeaks and Today’s Plan.

Among other data, you can see a history of your exercise, routes and sleep, which are also available in a slightly less detailed format on the Suunto 9 itself. 

There’s route planning functionality too. That potentially lets you map out a route and follow it, although I found it difficult to use on a smartphone screen due to the limited size of the map. It might be a bit easier on a tablet, but even this is a step down from the old Movescount interface, which made route planning easy on a PC. 

Fortunately, you can upload a gpx file of your route from other apps. It’s slightly fiddly to download the gpx file to your phone, then upload it to the Suunto app, but it’s doable. 

Navigation

You only get a breadcrumb trail of your planned route displayed on the Suunto 9, with no basemap, although you do get off-route notifications.

I found it easy enough to follow a route, despite the lack of turn-by-turn guidance. When you do stray off route, you can see your trace diverge from the planned direction and once you return, there’s an arrowed prompt to make sure that you don’t double back on yourself.

Alerts

You can set a ton of alerts on the Suunto 9. I particularly liked the alert for sunset, which you can set to occur a set number of minutes prior to the event, but you can also get moon phases and alerts when you’ve met your exercise targets.

Additionally, when paired to your smartphone, you’ll get alerts for incoming calls and texts, although you can turn these off should you wish. There’s no quick reply function, unlike many fitness trackers and smartwatches.

>>> Smartphone vs cycling computer: which should you use?

With the Baro version of the Suunto 9, you can also set a storm alert. That’s based on a rapid drop in air pressure. It might work better in the mountains, but in suburban Buckinghamshire, it failed to spot the thunderstorms that broke a summer heatwave and told me about another storm several hours after it had started. Accuracy, it seems, could be improved here. 

Sleep tracking

Another element of sports performance that is growing in significance is tracking your sleep patterns: the Suunto 9 does that, although not as precisely as specialists such as Fitbit. You have to tell the watch your usual bedtime, which it uses as a hint that you might be going to sleep.

After that, the watch periodically wakes up for a few minutes during the night to check your heart rate, casting a green glow on the walls. It seemed fairly consistent in identifying the length of deep sleep I had, but could be tricked into believing I was still asleep if I lay still in bed once I awoke. 

Battery life

Keeping a smartwatch running can be the fly in the ointment - there’s a lot of demand on its battery. But Suunto has impressive battery management tech; I consistently got the best part of a week’s use before the battery started to give up, when using the Suunto 9 for a mix of activity tracking, all day wear and sleep tracking. 

When you start recording an activity, you’re given an estimate of how long the battery will last; six hours of activity tracking depleted the battery around 50%, using the highest GPS resolution setting. If you were heading out for longer adventures, you could lower the GPS sensitivity at the start to ensure that you had the battery life to cover your expected exercise duration.

The Suunto 9 is designed to step down functionality gracefully if the battery does get depleted during an activity, using a combination of periodic GPS tracking and its accelerometers to work out where you’ve been and prompting you to reduce the recording accuracy.

When the watch needs recharging, the magnetic connector clips easily onto its back and charges it up quickly, in a couple of hours or less.

In conclusion

I really liked a lot about the Suunto 9 Baro. It’s very versatile, handling lots of different sports, and can be parameterised to meet your needs. Battery life is good and, although its wrist based heart rate measurement has its downsides, it’s an unobtrusive way to keep track of your health and performance when not exercising, and when you want to the Suunto 9 lets you get around its inaccuracy by using a strap.

There’s a ton of functionality in a package that’s easy to live with and will give you as much data as you want to track your exercise and fitness, as well as keeping track of your non-exercise activity during the day.

>>> Computer, GPS and watches reviews

If you aren’t interested in air pressure and accurate altitude measurement, there’s a non-baro version of the Suunto 9 available too which drops the price by around £90. 

Suunto also sells a £685 Titanium Ambassador Edition that comes with two straps if you want to get flashy with your smartwatch and there’s a custom design option that lets you choose your own watch components.

Having used the almost phone sized Garmin 1030 for a while, I was quite pleased to return to a more familiar size and shaped cycling computer with the Garmin Edge 520 Plus.

As a long-time user of the old 510 before it finally quit on me after years of faithful (but sometimes frustrating) service, the chance of testing a slim-lined update of this well proportioned Garmin Edge 520 Plus surely couldn’t disappoint.

The first satisfaction was the removal of a touch screen. One occasional problem with the 510 was the sporadic glitches of the touch screen and after the issues surrounding the 820 screen, I was happy to see the future (in this case) was button controlled.

Setup on the Garmin Edge 520 Plus will be familiar to Garmin users. It’s all done on the computer itself (not through an app like Wahoo or Lezyne) and is quite straightforward in guiding you through and getting you going.

Touch screens were somewhat useful when setting up training pages with multiple fields, with buttons taking a bit longer to organise these screens. Still, the seven-button setup on the 520 Plus just felt dependable and easier to use when out on the bike, particularly in the cold winter days with gloves on when you might want to switch between pages.

The 520 Plus is no different to other Garmin computers, and comes with more data fields than anyone could want for. Everything you could need to know about your speed, time, elevation and distance is available, and for those taking training more seriously with a heart rate monitor and power meter, again there are a wide variety of data fields for you to choose from. Moreover, the 520 Plus features V02 max, recovery and FTP monitoring should you want to track those.

This what we’ve come to expect from Garmin though, and plethora of data fields wasn’t what impressed me most about the 520 Plus.

>>> The best cycle computers: a buyer’s guide

What separates the Garmin Edge 520 Plus from the standard 520 is the navigation features, which are a real step-up for one of Garmin’s lower priced units. The 520 Plus features a great turn-by-turn navigation feature with preloaded routes, perfect for new training routes or for just getting from A to B.

If you’re looking for something to guide you through the wilderness or some touring, you’re better off looking at one of the more purpose built devices for navigation. But the 520 Plus comes loaded with Garmin Cycle Maps, which means while you can’t plot a route on the fly, it can reroute you back to your pre-loaded course if you go the wrong way.

The bright colour display also helps with mapping, and is much more user friendly than basemaps on a colourless display.

Battery life is claimed to be up to 15 hours on the 520 Plus. I definitely found I didn’t get that close to this and I needed to charge it a lot more often than the more basic computers, particularly when using mapping and connecting it to my phone via Bluetooth, but it could be the price you pay for having high-end features in a smaller unit.

Turning off connectivity features and lowering the screen brightness can see it cling on to life for a bit longer if you’re running low, but it generally required me to be more attentive to charging it regularly than compared to the 1030.

As well as automatic upload to Garmin Connect, the 520 Plus can also display messages and calls from your phone if you leave it connected via Bluetooth. I found this occasionally useful if I missed a phone call to see who’d rung, but if you’re a user of Whatsapp over text messages, you won’t get those displayed on screen.

At £199.99, the Garmin Edge 520 Plus is not cheap, but is like for like with its main rival, the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt.

It’s still a big investment, but at half the price of the 1030 it should satisfy those looking for a training tool with decent navigation in a compact package.

Years of heart-rate monitor use means that you get used to the mildly annoying strap around your chest and accept that it’s just part of the deal.

With Mio’s Link, you can wear the strap on your arm — where there’s no chance it can restrict your breathing.

Slightly chunkier than a sports watchstrap, the Mio sat most comfortably about a third of the way up my arm, where the LEDs and electro-optical cell measure the volume of blood and calculate pulse rate.