While lazily scrolling through my YouTube subscriptions this morning I caught GPLAMA’s latest (and quick) video, which in turn caught a Wahoo firmware update that came out this week, claiming: “Performance Improvements and Optimizations”. Of course, that wording is found on just about every firmware update by just about every company. So most of us tend to ignore it, since it’s almost always there. For the original ELEMNT series unit, that wording is listed in some 13 firmware updates over the years.
But, turns out this time they actually mean it. It’s legit faster. Like, waaaaay faster. Fast enough that after watching Lama’s video I decided to update not just one, not two, not three, but all four of my ELEMNT units to see if it held true.
To be clear, this firmware update specifically speeds up the page presses, which, in general on Wahoo bike computers are pretty slow. In fact, in my Wahoo ROAM review I noted: “And the speed of the basic user interface bits (how fast it reacts) is far slower than competitors. Way slower”, followed later in the summary saying “But now – it just feels out of date. The display and slowness of the unit simply doesn’t match 2019…”
Good news, the ROAM is far faster now than pre-update.
This update is applicable for *ALL* Wahoo ELEMNT series cycling devices:
– Wahoo ELEMNT (original)
– Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT (V1)
– Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM
– Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT (V2)
The update took perhaps 5-10 minutes in total for each of them to download, update, and reboot:
The amount each one improved seemed to vary. I’d say the ROAM got by far the biggest improvement in speeds. Whereas the BOLT V2 didn’t seem too much faster on my unit (or to my eyes). If you want to see the differences, Shane’s quick video does it well enough, and matches the simple phone footage I shot before/after to compare.
As Shane points out, this will also help accidental extra button presses when you thought it didn’t register because it didn’t respond fast enough.
Of course, at this point, someone’s gonna ask when my Wahoo BOLT V2 final-final review is going to come out. A fair question. Soon? Though, I suppose it’s always soon (I actually detailed a much longer answer in the comments section of that not-yet-review post recently). But hey, I’ve got some solid riding in a non-flat place coming up this week. So either it’ll succeed, or it’ll fail. No matter the case, a final-final review will follow very shortly.
With that – go forth and update your units, you’ve now got a faster bike computer.
Thanks for reading!
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