This article is part of a series called ‘A love letter to…’, where Cycling Weekly writers pour praise - or criticism - on their favourite or least favourite aspects of cycling. The below content is unfiltered, authentic and has not been paid for.
I used to work in a branch of EE, selling people phones and dealing with upgrade issues. I wasn’t a very good salesman, as I was too honest and struggled to even try to get people to buy things they didn’t need.
The rage back then, in 2014/15, seemingly, was bigger and bigger phones. The iPhone 6 was the first to come in a “Plus” size, at a scarcely-holdable 16cm x 8cm, while the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 came in at 15cm x 8cm with a stylus, such was its size. Thankfully, for our wallets and our pocket sizes, the huge phone didn’t really catch on - while phones are still big, it was accepted that most of us wanted to be able to hold them in one hand, and put them in our pockets.
Ten years on, and it seems like the world of bike computers is similarly hooked on the idea that the bigger the better. It started, as it often does in the world of bike tech, with Garmin, who introduced the Edge 1000 about a decade ago, but in the intervening years, other brands have got in on the act. Hammerhead and its Karoo range are great examples of bike computers that are essentially phones, they even run Android, such is their high-tech nature. Garmin is now onto the 1050, which measures 12cm x 6cm, getting closer to a mobile.
The latest big computer is the Wahoo Elemnt Ace, which is 12.5cm x 7cm, over 200g, and is the brand’s largest device ever. It’s three times bigger than my Elemnt Bolt, which does everything I need in a bike computer, and more.
Simply, I don’t really understand why I need a huge bike computer. For routes, my Bolt - 5cm x 8 cm - is big enough to see where I’m going, and all the data fields are easily visible. The battery life is as good as it needs to be, and it’s also negligible in terms of weight added to my bike. If you were someone who needed a bigger screen - perhaps more of an off-road rider, with more exact plotted routes in confusing areas - the mid-sized Elemnt Roam is already there, ready to purchase. The Ace seems, to me anyway, to be a new device that I would never need, and I thought this of the 1050 and the Karoo 2, too.
I appreciate that for some, a bigger screen is needed, perhaps because of eyesight, but the line now feels blurred between big bike computers and small phones. What’s stopping people getting a second-hand phone to just use for mapping, rather than a potentially more expensive - and limited - computer? It’d almost certainly be cheaper than the Ace’s £549.99, and you could play Candy Crush on it, too.
The Ace has a touch screen, as does the Hammerhead Karoo and the Garmin 1050, which just doesn’t strike me as necessary, when the buttons do a fine job, especially when you’re wearing gloves. The wind sensor on the Ace might appeal to some, but I’m not sure an ordinary cyclist is ever going to really think about aerodynamics on the club run.
People like Wahoo’s Roam and Bolt because of their simplicity, and to switch tack to complicated and big feels like an odd move from the American company.
All I want from my computer is the standard metrics, from speed to distance travelled, a decent map, preferably in colour, but I really did cope ok without, and a solid battery life. Anything else feels superfluous. I like that my Bolt feels small, rugged, bombproof, and also doesn't feel like a target for thieves, unlike a mobile-sized one.
If I had to try and get customers to buy the Ace, the Karoo, or the 1050 back in my phone shop days, I think I probably would have failed.
