After years of waiting, we’ve finally got a new Wahoo cycling GPS – and it’s a beast. At least, in terms of size and weight. And in the future, Wahoo also hopes in terms of features and position in the market. The new unit sports a full color touchscreen display, roughly similar to that of cell phones, while also including a speaker, bike-bell, and wind sensor. Of course, like other high-end bike computers introduced this year, it also includes a much higher price tag – $599USD.
Unfortunately, to spoil this review – it’s half-baked. It’s missing a vast array of features that previously existed on every other Wahoo bike computer to date, it’s even missing features listed on the front of the box and marketing site, and the battery life falls far short of claims. I’d argue this is the perfect product to see which reviewers are actually riding with it, versus just taking pretty shots of it.
But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. I’ve been riding the crap out of it, everything from near-daily 3-4 hour rides, to mountain biking, structured workouts, gravel riding, and more. All with the goal of figuring out what actually works.
Finally, note that this unit is a media loaner, and once this review is complete, it will go back to Wahoo. As always, I don’t accept advertising from any company I review – so, if you found this review useful, consider becoming a DCR Supporter, which gets you an ad-free site, plus the behind-the-scenes video series between both myself (and my wife) on everything that happens in the DCR Sports Tech Cave/universe.
How it Differs:
In some ways, it’s hard to compare a watermelon to a kiwi, as that’s roughly what it’s like comparing the Wahoo ACE to a Wahoo ROAM. So yes, while both are fruit (bike computers), beyond that, they are actually quite a bit different – both good and bad. Still, assuming the standard Wahoo bike computer as a baseline (which is a massive assumption as you’ll see), here are the most notable differences:
– Increased size of unit a cargo-ship-sized boatload
– Increased screen size to 3.8” (2.7” on ROAM V2)
– Increased screen colors to 16 million (64 colors on ROAM V2)
– Added touchscreen capability
– Added a very loud bike bell (digital)
– Added voice navigation prompts
– Added wind sensor
– Added new sensor pairing dashboard
– Added map layers option
– Added street names on maps to (some) streets
– Added Activity Profiles (e.g., Road/MTB/etc…)
– Added time to upper edge, and always-on/seen
– Revamped ‘Ready to Ride’ dashboard
– Changed to Wahoo App (from Wahoo ELEMNT App)
– Changed a ton of the user interface
– No more lights/LEDs along upper edge
– No Live Tracking yet (firmware update in H1 2025)
– No Strava Live Segments yet (firmware update in H1 2025)
– No more full-route elevation view (coming in TBD update)
– No more filtering of routes on device (coming in TBD update)
– No more naming of saved locations (coming in TBD update)
– No more custom alerts (e.g., hydration/nutrition alerts, coming in update)
– No more choosing location on Wahoo App map to route to (only device)
– No more changing gear ratios (electronic shifting) in new Wahoo app
– No nacho cheese dispenser
– No TrainerRoad Outside Workouts at present (‘coming soon’)
– Increased battery life claim to 30 hours (Note: This isn’t even vaguely close to real, as I’ll show)
– Increased internal storage from 32GB to 64GB (for maps)
– Included new aluminum mount (versus plastic previously)
– Removed screw for bike computer to mount (allowed UCI Pro teams to count unit weight as bike weight)
– Price is $599USD/$849CAD/€599EUR/£549GBP/$999AUD/¥99,000JPY
Now, when it comes to features that are in the pipeline, Wahoo has confirmed some of them, per the table below, though, many of the ones listed above don’t have exact dates yet.
The first set is these updates not in the 2025 table:
“Planned December 2024 Updates. A post launch update will take place in December. This update will include the following features below:
– Strava Live Segments
– Offline configuration support (to supplement cloud based architecture)
– “Workout Profiles” rebrand to “Activity Profiles”
– Additional UI/UX Refinement and bug fixes”
And then the second category is this, for H1 2025 and H2 2025.
For example, language support includes focusing on French, German, Spanish, and then the remaining 14 languages Wahoo currently supports. Today, it’s only English on the ACE. For advanced route management, that’s allowing you to ride routes on a trainer, while showing the virtual route location on your map on the ACE.
In the case of the battery optimizations, they’re aiming to strike a better balance between the 5-second timeout mode, and the Auto mode, basically in hopes of getting the battery life better within Auto, versus the only way to get good battery life today is 5-second mode (more on that later).
For H2, they’re looking at additional map layers such as custom POIs from Strava or Komoot, as well as some functions around the wind sensor, including breaking out how much power is required to overcome the grade (on a climb, steep or otherwise) vs wind (which might help on positioning). These are all certainly interesting ideas. Though, I fear some of these aspirations could become derailed with trying to get all the existing features ported first, before they can focus on new items.
So with that, let’s get into the box.
In the Box:
First up we’ll quickly get the unit unboxed. Inside, you’ll find the ACE just chilling:
But here’s what’s inside the box once you get rid of all the paper. Kudos to Wahoo in that there’s no plastic in the box.
Inside you’ve got:
– The beefcake of a bike computer (ACE)
– The beefcake of a metal mount
– The lanyard to tether the ACE in case it snaps the mount
– The USB-C cable to charge it
– A warranty paper you’ll never read.
Here’s a few close-up shots of all those things.
Ok, let’s get into the size. Or, over the size. Or, wrap ourselves around the size.
The Size:
Like it or not, the size is going to be a polarizing aspect of the Wahoo ACE. And it’s near impossible to understand in photos. It’s not really due to any singular dimension, but rather, the complete girthiness of it. It’s a tank in all ways.
Officially it measures 208g on the scale, but it’s mostly the thickness and width you’ll notice. Here’s how it looks side-by-side:
The thing is, I’m a unique duck here. I’m used to all assortment of stupid-large things on my handlebars for testing, including drone remote controls and more. So frankly, the size actually doesn’t bother me. Neither does the weight.
However, it’s impossible not to notice it. It’s huge. Wahoo says much of the size is to account for the larger battery, which in turn provides it with a claimed 30 hours of battery life (a number I can’t get *anywhere near* in my testing).
When it comes to mounts, it has much the same problem as the Edge 1050 did at launch – it needs an XL mount of some sort. In Wahoo’s case though, that’s actually twofold. First, it needs a strong (realistically metal) mount to support the much heavier weight. Very heavy, so heavy in fact that Wahoo is specifically not designing a GoPro adapter for the bottom of their mount because the combined weight will likely snap it (after hitting a pothole or cobbles).
Here’s their stock mount on my mountain bike:
The second piece is the length. It needs to be long enough to handle that, which is longer than the Edge 1050, but because the mount is centered differently than the Edge 1050, it can squeeze into most Edge 1050 compatible mounts. But barely. In the case of my Canyon bike with the stock Canyon out-front mounts, it basically skids (physically touches) across the handlebar as I rotate inwards:
But it does get in there, after snuggling. And that particular mount is designed to support a light on the bottom, so it’s used to the weight. Though, I haven’t tried it with both Wahoo ACE + Light to see if it’ll snap. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t.
The point is, this will be frustrating for some users (actually, many users) who want to mount a GoPro or other action camera below. The combined weight is simply well beyond what any mount on the market today is going to safely handle (I’ve snapped metal mounts with far less weight on them). Hopefully we’ll see some viable Ace+GoPro mounts soon. After all, Wahoo does have GoPro action cam control on the unit.
Riding Basics:
Probably the first thing you’ll need to know is now you’ll be using Wahoo’s new bike computer app on your smartphone, simply called ‘Wahoo’. Previously with their bike computers, you used the Wahoo ELEMNT app. But over the last year or two, Wahoo’s been slowly moving devices under the consolidated Wahoo App instead. At a high level, this works. But if you’re a long-time Wahoo user, you’ll quickly find the gaps for which there are no solutions.
Within the Wahoo app, you’ll pair up the Wahoo ACE, as well as link any partner accounts you have, like Strava, TrainingPeaks, or Komoot. However, the list is a bit messy right now. A number of the existing Wahoo partners aren’t working in the new Wahoo app/platform, which is required for the ACE.
Further, one thing that’s rather silly, is that by default, it won’t automatically upload your completed activities to each of these platforms. You have to expand out the box and check ‘Auto-Share’. Why?!? So much why.
Within the Wahoo app, you can set up heart rate zone, and power zones (plus bits like metric/imperial/custom display of measurements).
Next, this is the first Wahoo cycling computer to support sport/bike profiles, such as creating a set of data pages for road cycling, and a different one for mountain biking. To do so, you’ll open the Wahoo app, and then select to ‘Add Workout Profile’. Here you’ll choose something within the ‘Cycling’ category, in order to get it to show up on the ACE:
Here I’ve created a Mountain Biking profile, where I can then configure workout pages, alerts, general settings (such as Auto Lap), as well as heart rate zones:
When it comes to workout data pages, there’s a boatload of options as before, both in terms of custom data fields, as well as dedicated pages like Music Control, GoPro Control, and Strava Live Segments (when that feature gets rolled out in a few months).
And, because someone in the comments section got really angry that I didn’t show how many data fields the map page can display, here ya go, all the data fields – including the elevation data field at the bottom, and wind on the side.
Once you’ve got all that configured, you can then select it at the top of your ACE:
After which, all of your data pages/settings/etc will be available for that ride.
But here’s the (extremely annoying) rub: This won’t correctly tag the ride type on Strava or other platforms upon upload. The *singular* feature that people have been asking for, for countless years, Wahoo hasn’t completed. Thus everything is listed on Strava as a generic ride, unless you go on Strava and manually toggle it to Mountain Bike, Gravel, etc…
Wahoo says that adding in the correct sub-type is on their near-term radar, but they don’t have a timeframe for it. Keeping in mind, this is literally just a single field in the .FIT file they have to set.
Now, one of the things you’ll notice is the new sensor pairing menu at the bottom. This shows your paired sensors, and whether or not they’re connected. It even has nifty-proper icons for each of them.
In fact, kudos to Wahoo here. Not only did they make picture-perfect icons for all their own devices (e.g. Wahoo POWRLINK Zero power meter pedals look like Wahoo speedplay pedals), but they also did it for at least some other power meters. For example, the Garmin Rally pedals look roughly like Garmin Rally pedals. Quarq cranksets and Favero power pedals just look like generic crank arms. Still, well done Wahoo.
When it comes to shifting, you can pair up both ANT+ Shifting (e.g. SRAM eTAP/AXS) as well as Shimano Di2. In the case of both, you can use the remote shifter buttons to change data pages or set a lap marker. However, at present the new Wahoo App doesn’t support customizing gear ratios like the Wahoo ELEMNT app did.
Now, that said, I will note that it seems to take a little longer than I’d like to find sensors sometimes. Not a huge deal, but it’s not quite as instant as Wahoo’s other devices or Garmin/Hammerhead. Sometimes it’s more like 20-30 seconds before it seems to notice its sensor friends are awake.
Still, once it finds it, I’ve had zero issues on all my rides across numerous bikes, including: SRAM AXS RED XPLR (and FORCE AXS), Shimano Di2, Quarq power meters, Favero Assioma MX power meter, Garmin Rally power meter, Wahoo TRACKR heart rate sensor, Garmin HRM-PRO Plus HR sensor, and Garmin Varia RTL-515 radar.
So with all that configured, let’s go and ride. Again, I’ll cover navigation later on. As you ride, you’ll see your data pages automatically displayed. You can swipe through them using your fingers, or press the page button:
You’ll notice above the coloring for my heart rate and wattage, this is based on my zones. It’s a nice touch that Wahoo has, and also appears in other fields, like gradient.
Wahoo also has the concept of increasing/decreasing data field quantities. Meaning, by simply pressing the up/down buttons (on the right side), it’ll change how many data fields are displayed on the page, per the priority you set on the app. As you do this, it’ll change how big each field is. Such as below:
Note that while Wahoo got rid of the LED bar seen on past Wahoo computers, it does retain much of that same concept through colorized data fields and a strip that updates at the top of the screen. Further, I appreciate always having the time displayed at the top of the screen, no matter what data page you’re on. They also use that area to display upcoming turns (albeit, kinda late usually).
Next, regardless of whether you have a route enabled or not, you’ll automatically get upcoming climb information. As you approach a climb, it’ll automatically trigger and show you details of that upcoming climb, such as this:
You’ll see details about the gradient displayed within the color of the chevrons on the map. You can tap through a few different data pages that show details about the climb.
Next, you can execute structured workouts from Wahoo’s own app, or TrainingPeaks. At present, TrainerRoad is not yet supported. As part of the migration to the Wahoo App, these connections haven’t been completed yet. And others are missing as well. TrainerRoad says that’s coming soon.
In any case, you can open up the structured workout on the workouts page to see a list of scheduled workouts. In my case, I manually created one in TrainingPeaks, since my TrainerRoad ones weren’t coming through anymore.
As you execute it, you’ll see details about each step automatically, and alerts accordingly…sometimes. You see, there’s a ton of bugs here.
– Skipped showing the progress bar during the warmup
– Didn’t show any interval alerts if I wasn’t on the interval page (so if I was on another data page, zero notification of the start of an interval)
– Didn’t adhere to TrainingPeaks ‘pause till lap’ option
– Didn’t show my current power line, as Wahoo’s own marketing site says it should
I do like the little pop-over at the bottom, but again, it only shows on the workout page, which kinda defeats the point of a popover.
And here’s Wahoo’s page (main Wahoo ACE site), indicating I should be seeing my actual power line shown, but it doesn’t work either:
Finally, with everything finished, you can end your ride. Here you’ll get a ride summary screen, with information as such:
That said, one super frustrating piece is that despite having the new activity profiles (e.g., Mountain Bike, Gravel, etc…), none of those carry into Strava. Wahoo isn’t setting that attribute like all of their competitors are, and thus, you’ll still need to update these in Strava after the fact.
Nonetheless, all of your data otherwise does appear correctly there.
The Bike Bell:
I was going to include the bike bell within the ‘Basics’ section above, but I figured I’d break it out. If for no other reason than to have one section that’s mostly positive.
Somewhat humorously, Wahoo seemed keen to hide its best feature. All of Wahoo’s initial PR efforts almost entirely ignored the bike bell. Thankfully, at the last minute, they changed their mind. The Wahoo digital bike bell allows you to double-tap the screen to instantly hear a very loud and audible bike bell sound. It’s virtually indistinguishable from the Garmin Edge 1050 bike bell/sound.
It’s hard to visually show you the bike bell, because there’s no menu item. It just exists audibly, and as noted, you can double-tap anywhere on the screen to make it sound instantly. Well, sorta.
As long as that screen isn’t the map screen. For some odd reason, it doesn’t work on the map screen. Or the workout screen. Or the elevation screens. Wahoo said that was because there were concerns about people using touch on that map screen and thus accidentally ding-donging. Except, by default, touch on the map screen is already disabled (it has that little lock icon at right). Thus, no amount of rubby-rubby would have moved the map anyway. Certainly, simply unlocking the screen would have disabled the bike bell? Or, using the accelerometer to detect a double-tap would have been possible, no?
In any event, that (moderate) annoyance aside, the bike bell is awesome. You can also tap just below the pause button in the center of the screen:
One other thing to note about the bike bell is that it’s *always* at full volume. Meaning, no matter what settings you configure the rest of your audio alerts for (e.g. a less imposing volume), the bike bell remains the same volume. I actually appreciate this.
However, I should also mention that unfortunately there is no method to configure the bike bell from the shifter buttons like on the Garmin Edge 1050 (or Hammerhead Karoo 3), which allows you to configure the extra shifter/bonus buttons to trigger the bike bell, which is super cool. Hopefully Wahoo will add that down the road.
Navigation:
When it comes to navigation, the ACE can route much the same as past Wahoo devices, though, there are some differences to be aware of that we’ll dive into.
First though, is getting routes to your device. For most people, those routes will come from platforms like Strava, Komoot or other 3rd party entities. That said, you can import GPX/FIT/TCX files directly into it, using the Files app on your phone, and opening it with the Wahoo app. Or selecting a previous route from history.
Once that’s done, it’ll show up on the ‘Routes’ listing on your device, such as this:
That said, at the moment, this Routes listing is a giant shaker bottle of routes, without any ability to order the routes. In my case, I had Strava routes from years ago imported in, which is fine. But what’s not fine is that I can’t sort them in any way. I can only search them by name, which then requires me to remember exactly what I named each route that someone else might have created. Most bike computers, including all of Wahoo’s existing ones, have a sorting option at the top (such as by Date, A-Z, Starred, Length, and Proximity – as is the case on the Wahoo ROAM V2).
Despite showing this on Wahoo’s marketing site, it’s not there today:
Wahoo says this will come at some point, hopefully soon. This is one of a number of examples of things being shown on the box, that are not on the unit in real-life.
In any case, once you’ve managed to find your route and select it, you’ll see an elevation profile and overview of the route.
I do appreciate the easy option to ‘Reverse’ the route though, something that despite all logic and years of requests, doesn’t exist on a Garmin Edge series device (but does exist on their wearables).
With the route loaded, we’ll head out riding. If we were to look at the map page first, you’ll see the route as a series of chevrons on the route line. Moreover, the color of those chevrons indicates the climb gradients as you ride along, which is clever/handy:
I do appreciate the coloring and map styles here. The way Wahoo has selected to colorize the different bits of info on the map screen (such as other streets/landscapes/etc…) makes this screen really easy to understand, and the thick chevrons make it easy to confirm your direction at a glance. That said, when dimmed (as effectively required to get half-decent battery life), it’s much harder to read.
If you tap the layers icon, you can adjust various map layers, including points of interest, custom waypoints, street names, wind, and Summit Segments. Note that in this context, ‘Wind’ doesn’t mean an overlay of the wind direction/forecast, but rather, just wind from the wind sensor.
Note that Wahoo does include street names now on some streets. I haven’t quite figured out the exact pattern to which streets it shows them on, and which zoom levels. While some people love street names on maps, I rarely use them either way – likely because I’m more interested in the actual route line itself, which Wahoo does a good job on. I think they’ve found a good balance between the coloring of the map and the clarity of the chevron line.
(Top: Wahoo ACE, left COROS Dura, right Hammerhead Karoo 3, bottom Garmin Edge 1050, right handlebar – badly in need of new bar tape.)
Likewise, you can tap to enable the cue sheet as well at any time, if you’d prefer to see that:
In the event you’re on another data page (not the map page), and you have an upcoming turn, it’ll show a turn written prompt and give you an audible alert, and even voice directions to turn.
But again, there are two problems here. First, by default, none of these occur. You need to enable these voice turn alerts in the settings. Why on earth navigation and voice prompts aren’t enabled by default is beyond my pay grade.
However, that gets to the second issue, the speaker volume. To be very clear: The speaker is loud AF (which is great for certain things). Seriously, it’s bone-jarringly loud. So loud your riding buddies will quickly try and body-check you into the nearest herd of cows they can find.
Fear not though, Wahoo has a solution for that, the volume slider. This slider has three levels: Loud AF, blah, and unbearable.
For navigation voice prompts, Loud AF is OK. I’d quibble that the voice should be slightly higher pitched, so it’s easier to hear in the wind, but that’s an easy change they could make. However, once you go down to the middle option, the voice is impossible to hear in the wind. And while the bike bell ignores the volume settings (as it should), there isn’t a way to separate voice prompt volume from the rest of the beeps your unit makes.
Again, their competitors have two sliders for a reason here: Voices are harder to hear in the wind than high-pitched beeps. Anyone who’s gone on a ride with friends knows this.
In any case, back to our ride. The next piece is your route profile that’s showing the elevation profile up ahead, seen at the bottom there. That elevation profile shows the next 2KM of your route….and only the next 2KM of your route:
While past Wahoo units allowed far greater lengths than that (cough…the entire route), the ACE is limited here to 2KM.
Once again, the Wahoo box (and everything on the Wahoo site) shows this enumerating the full route as an elevation profile (showing ’Total’). And again, I’m not trying to be nit-picky here, but rather illustrating that this unit simply isn’t ready. Hard stop.
I know this may come as a surprise to some: But stop shipping products that don’t do what it says on the box and your marketing site. Simply delay. The fastest way to get a reviewer angry is to literally not do the thing printed on the front of your box.
Next, when it comes to on-demand routing, you can save locations at any point and navigate back to them, as well as drag to a point on the map (on unit) and route to it. Both of these are under the ‘routes’ option, then ‘Route To’ option).
These worked perfectly fine, and instantly, for me. Except the ability to rename saved waypoints, that doesn’t work at all right now. Thus, it’s just named whatever random street name you tapped (not ‘Home’ or ‘Work’ or ‘Hot Dog Stand’). Wahoo says that’s on the way too, though that too is listed as being a current feature on their marketing site.
Likewise, the ability to select a point on the map from the Wahoo app doesn’t work either anymore (coming soonish). However, you can send a location from Google Maps or Apple Maps to the Wahoo app, and that worked intermittently for me.
Finally, it should be noted that there are existing navigation providers that Wahoo hasn’t yet ported to the new Wahoo app yet. There’s no timelines on these, other than the second half of next year. But exactly which ones are getting re-added isn’t clear.
The Wind Sensor:
Repeat after me: This is not an aero sensor, this is not an aero sensor, this is not an aero sensor.
It is however, a wind sensor capable of measuring wind speed coming into it. And while most aero sensors have that same starting point, that’s about where it ends. In fact, the jump from measuring aerodynamic drag is massive – but not so much hardware, rather, software and user education. It’s why almost every company that enters the cycling aero sensor landscape has failed. And almost all of those remaining that haven’t failed, have invariably pivoted towards coaching services instead. So get aero sensor out of your head, and let’s focus on what it actually is.
Instead, the Wahoo ACE has a wind sensor for measuring the wind speed, then combining it with your known ground speed, and calculating whether you’ve got a headwind, tailwind, or some sort of drafting boost. It calls this “Wahoo Wind Dynamics”, which admittedly makes me giggle a little bit like a 6-year-old boy and think about the “wind dynamics” after eating Taco Bell.
While riding, Wahoo gives you a single color-coded data field, titled Airspeed, which is shown in either Airspeed MPH or Airspeed KPH, just like the below (lower half is Airspeed, I’ve added ground speed to the upper half):
The coloring is basically the following groupings:
The idea being that you can quantify how much you’re saving when you tuck in behind someone to draft, because you’ll see those two numbers differ. If the AirSpeed is higher than the ground speed, you’ve got a headwind. If it’s lower, you’ve either got a tailwind or are drafting.
I could then take the ground speed number, compare it to the airspeed number, do some mental math, and figure out exactly what the wind speed is (tailwind or headwind). Which…is yes, as silly as it sounds. To me, I shouldn’t have to be doing mental math on a ride constantly. It should simply do this automatically, and instead show me the final number – as either a headwind or tailwind/draft.
At the end of the ride, you’ll see the numbers shown on the unit with percentages of time spent in the different color-coded zones (labeled as either AirBoost or AirDrag):
My complaint here isn’t adding a wind sensor to the Wahoo bike computer. Instead, it’s that it’s just not providing any value beyond what I already know. And the singular area it could have provided value (showing impacts of drafting), is far too cumbersome of a number to be constantly doing mental math on. Just give me a number that we’re all calculating in our heads anyway.
Long term, it remains to be seen how Wahoo can leverage this differently. I don’t see any viable path for Wahoo to use this for CdA calculations. Plenty of companies have tried, and given up there. Not because the tech wasn’t ready, but because 98% of riders don’t understand the *VAST* amounts of knowledge required to get proper aero testing done. Silly things like knowing the difference between your shoulders being firm or relaxed will hugely impact testing. Or that moving your fingers 1cm will impact testing. Or doing multiple test runs, etc…
It’s why virtually every aero sensor company on the market today that started life as a consumer aero sensor company/device, has shifted to being a coaching device, whereby the coach goes and does a seminar first to learn how to use the aero sensor, and then spends an absurd amount of time with athletes ensuring they execute tests correctly.
Point is, I feel like that weight could have been much better spent on an LED light (even as an emergency light because you’re running behind, or a built-in safety camera (akin to Cycliq Fly12), or…anything else.
Now, all that said, for those geeks in the crowd, I will give Wahoo credit for properly populating the .FIT File with this data. In fact, they populate it with much more data than they show you on the screen. This includes the raw wind speed values, the categorization value (which of those color coded categories above), as well as a power to grade ratio value that they’ve been playing with in Alpha testing (you just don’t see the data field on our units, as that’s not available yet).
If you load any ACE file into the DCR Analyzer, you can see all this data using the ‘Developer Field’ toggle (which simply shows .FIT file data fields). Here’s the windy ride I did in the Netherlands with the 50KPH winds that day:
Now, there’s a lot to look at. I’ve set my dot/curser at the highest wind point, where you can see the wind categorization is higher. The wind speed is shown in 1000 x m/s (meters/second), otherwise known as millimeters/second. The cool part is the data is there for people to use.
And most critically, they do separate out the wind speed component here. Thus, I’d love for them to allow/show me a data field with just the wind speed component too. Note, that if you want to play with that original .FIT file, it’s located under the download link on the DCR Analyzer set page.
Battery Burn:
Look, it’s not good. There’s no two ways to say it. It falls *FAR* short of their claims of 30 hours of battery life, and is roughly in line with the Hammerhead Karoo 3’s battery life when the Karoo 3 is at 50% brightness (which is far brighter than the ACE screen can go). It falls behind the Garmin Edge 1050’s battery burn, and is leagues behind the Edge 1040 or Edge 1040 Solar battery. Again, in real-life numbers.
So, let’s look at the official claim and then a crap-ton of testing I’ve done. Officially, the claim is simply “up to 30+ hours”, depending on which part of the site you look at. Here’s the quote from their press release:
But in subsequent conversations, Wahoo clarified the actual claim is ’30 hours of GPS battery life with the backlight in 5-second off setting’. This means that after 5 seconds of touching the unit, the backlight turns off, and is unreadable depending on your lighting conditions. When in direct sunlight – no problems. But in the winter shade? Problems, especially on screens with smaller fonts (more data fields), or zoomed out maps.
Even worse, the default configuration setting for the Wahoo ACE is the so-called “Auto” mode, which basically changes the backlight constantly, though short of summer sun on the beach, it seems to keep it at 100%. In that mode, I was burning roughly 8-12%/hour (across numerous 3-4 hour rides), depending on exactly which screen I was on. Yes, that puts it on target for 10-15 hours of battery life.
The ‘best’ battery scenario I could muster was 5.71%/hour (thus 17-hours) when I set it for 5-second off, on a mountain bike ride two days ago. Though, one couldn’t see the screen half the time, and given I was mountain biking, it wasn’t like I could just touch the screen easily to see it again.
Interestingly, after a bunch of rides and different configurations, I noticed:
– Plain data field pages obviously burned the least battery, though, if they had any color blocks in them (e.g. zone changing color blacks), they *destroyed* battery life, even more than the map page. This was true even with just two data fields, if one was color (e.g. the wind page),
– There was no meaningful difference in the number of sensors paired impacting battery life.
– There was no obvious difference between having navigation enabled or not, battery life seemed to burn equally.
– None of these figures include LiveTracking or Strava Live Segments, as both are unavailable at this time. Further, none of these figures included screen recording enabled.
– As noted, by far, the biggest impact was which backlight time setting was enabled.
Now, Wahoo says a secondary low-power saving backlight mode is coming in the first half of 2025. This mode will find a better balance between the backlight setting and battery burn. Though honestly, I’m not convinced that’s the issue. I think Wahoo needs to look more carefully at the rest of the code running and optimize there instead.
The reason I say that, is if we look at the Hammerhead Karoo 3 and Edge 1050, both of which have *FAR* more demanding screens (in terms of battery burn), both can outperform it, even in far brighter settings with far smaller batteries. And then if we look at similar screen technology types, like the Edge 1040, that too easily outperforms it on any setting you want.
Point is, I don’t really understand why the battery burn is as bad as it is, for as big a battery as Wahoo has. And while I say the term “bad” here despite the Hammerhead Karoo 3 being similar, keep in mind the Karoo is basically half the size, and far brighter.
GPS & Elevation Accuracy:
While this review hasn’t been packed with good news, fear not, this section delivers in that realm. The quick version is the GPS accuracy via the dual-frequency GPS chipset, as well as the elevation accuracy, is spot on.
Of course, let’s get into the data. In this case, most of my data sets have at least three other devices running, thus making the full set:
Wahoo ELEMNT ACE
Garmin Edge 1050
Hammerhead Karoo 3
COROS DURA
I also had an Apple Watch Ultra 2 and an AmazFit T-Rex 3 on most rides to cross-validate if I needed, but didn’t bother pulling them into these data sets, simply to keep things a little less jumbled.
First up, let’s look at a four-hour road ride into the mountains. Here’s the high-level overview, where things obviously look identical:
After zooming in on the entire track, it’s basically perfect. Nonetheless, let’s look at some of the mountain switchback sections, just to demonstrate it.
Above, you can see a descent. The way you can tell is how ‘tight’ the tracks are (or, by knowing my direction of travel…). In this case, the tracks are slightly looser (above), then below, which is a descent. Still, in both cases, the tracks are all within the roadway of the map, and nobody is doing anything funky.
Here’s another very tight switchback section, with complete 180* turns:
Of course, GPS accuracy is only one part of the picture. This route had plenty of climbing on it, and all four units were quite close. I’d quibble that the COROS DURA’s altimeter seems the least accurate of the four in my testing, sometimes being a bit offset, but hardly by much.
When it comes to sensor data, I had both a power meter and heart rate sensor connected to all computers, all to the same sensor. Thus, you’d want to see identical data across them. And sure enough, that’s the case. Below is the heart rate graph, merely because it’s a bit “prettier” (easier) data set to look at since heart rate is far more stable than power. Point is, I’m not seeing any data connectivity or capture issues.
Finally, I rarely include ‘totals’ stats in my accuracy sections, because they can be easily misleading. A device can undershoot and overshoot corners and still end up with the same distance as an accurate device. Nonetheless, for fun, here’s the total distance and ascent highlighted here. The COROS Dura is slightly further out on distance than the others, but is in the mix for ascent.
Ok, let’s quickly look at another data set, this one a three-hour ride, partially near the sea (some interesting tidbits there on elevation in a second), and partially up into the mountains.
Here on one of the tight switchback sections (ascending), you notice a little bit of variance from the Edge 1050. That makes sense, as I was trying to get some pretty shots of the ACE solo on the handlebars, so the Karoo 3 and Edge 1050 were on my top-tube, and the Edge 1050 was closest to my crotch (with my body blocking it). In case you’re curious, that very photo is the last photo in this review (for the summary section). In any case, despite that, all three were very close:
And even in the straightaways, all were fine too (you’d be surprised how often GPS units screw-up straightaways).
That said, the elevation is actually super interesting. To begin, it’s perfectly fine by most definitions. That said, we notice a few things. The first arrow is alongside the sea/water on the dock. Thus the Edge 1050 is clearly the most correct at 2.4 meters. Whereas the Karoo and Wahoo are a bit high there. However, as I ascend all the units seem to consolidate. The second arrow is where we stopped at a grocery store for about 20 minutes. Notice the very slight altimeter drift there on the ACE. Only about 1-2 meters, but I thought it was geeky interesting.
In any event, nobody likely cares about 1-2 meters of elevation drift (and frankly, neither do I).
So instead, let’s look at one more data set, a mountain bike set. This is a blend of trees, some riding near cliffs, and some open terrain. Here’s the overall view:
I wouldn’t say this is crazy challenging GPS terrain (my road rides were actually tougher), but nonetheless, MTB it is (though I have gravel biked this route, but it’s spicy rough).
In any case, let’s start off with this tree section at a high view. Things look good, right?
But here’s the kicker when you zoom in: This is actually a loop, with repeated passes (from different directions). Very solid.
Here’s some higher-speed descent stuff (doubled back up too), without any issues:
The elevation is again fodder for geeks. Those three arrows? It’s when I went down to the beach. I didn’t wheel dip, but was up on the shore at about 2m in altitude. You can see the ACE presents it as much higher at 5m in altitude. Not a huge deal there, though, the 15m offset on one of the climbs is surprising. Albeit, by the second climb, it is perfectly aligned.
In this case, my geekery aside, overall GPS and elevation on much longer/bigger/complex routes looks very solid. Zero issues there, and the same goes for data sensor connectivity, where I haven’t had any drops or connection issues once paired with sensors.
Final Thoughts:
Cyclists kept asking Wahoo to make a bike computer with a better and bigger display, and on that specific point, they checked the box. In fact, I’ll even agree that their new home screen/dashboard is better than before. And that their map styling pages are very solid. And yes, the bike bell is awesome. Seriously, that’s (by far) the best feature on this unit.
But in almost every other category, Wahoo simply launched this device too early, and at too high of a price relative to their competitors or the capabilities the ACE has today. It lacks significant features and integrations seen on the Wahoo ROAM V2 or BOLT V2 (their current bike computers), and falls far short of the claimed 30 hours of battery life in my testing. And that’s before we talk about the screen visibility, or the value of the aero sensor. I just don’t understand why Wahoo keeps launching bike computers too early each time, while they stick the landing perfectly on trainer launches most times. There was zero reason to launch this in early December, versus waiting till next March.
In fact, it seems to be an industry trend this year. We saw the COROS Dura launch far too early, so much so the company then had to repeatedly delay shipping for both hardware and software reasons. We’ve seen startups JESPR and Absolute One also launch at both crazy-high prices and with the feature sets of a 2012 bike computer. Still, Hammerhead did launch their Karoo 3 this past spring to appropriate pricing, finished features with most of the polish required, and solid accuracy. And Garmin also launched their Edge 1050 this past summer at the same price as their previous top-end device, with virtually no complaints from reviewers or consumers alike.
The problem is, launching unbaked early gets you reviews like this. Reviews that live for *years* on the internet. Sure, perhaps I’ll update it as Wahoo improves in future firmware, but that won’t change the YouTube video, which can’t be updated. And sure, I could publish another YouTube video down the road each month they restore new features, but reviews months later rarely top the charts in consumer searches.
I want companies like Wahoo or COROS to challenge the growing bike computer monopoly. I think both have significant unique things to offer there. In the case of COROS, it’s crazy battery life and extremely good pricing. In the case of Wahoo it tends to be simplicity and ease of use. But launching half-baked products like this only damages their reputation, furthering their competitors’ position.
Sigh.
With that, thanks for reading (or supporting independent reviews like this)!
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Hopefully you found this review/post useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.
If you're shopping for the Wahoo ELEMNT ACE or any other accessory items, please consider using the affiliate links below! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot.
And finally, here’s a handy list of accessories that work well with this unit (and some that I showed in the review). Given the unit pairs with ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart sensors, you can use just about anything though.
I love out-front mounts. Both Barfly and K-Edge make good ones. I primarily use the aluminum ones though, because this mount comes with a GoPro (and light/Di2) adapter on the bottom. So I can mount a GoPro up front and have the footage be rock solid.
The Garmin Varia radar alerts you to cars coming up behind you, well before you see them. It's awesome for quieter roads (country roads/mountains), especially on longer rides. It's less useful for city riding. The RVR315 skips the light.
The Varia radar has become incredibly popular in the last year, with most bike GPS companies supporting it (Wahoo, Stages, Hammerhead, Garmin, and more soon). It notifies you of overtaking traffic. While useless for cities, it's amazing for quieter country roads.
This dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart sensor will transmit cadence not only to your bike computer/watch, but also 3rd party apps like Zwift, TrainerRoad, and more.
Speed sensors are primarily useful for offroad usage. I don't find much of a need for one while road-cycling, but for mountain bike trails they can help alleviate speed/distance issues with poor GPS reception in dense trees.
The Wahoo TICKR is their baseline dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart chest strap that includes basic broadcasting of heart rate data to apps. If you don't care about all the fancy features of the TICKR X, this is one of the best straps out there. The 'just works' factor is high.
The TICKR FIT is Wahoo's optical HR sensor band, and overall it's a pretty solid no-frills offering. It broadcasts dual ANT+/BLE with a claimed 30 hours of battery life. It doesn't have any other features beyond that. Simple and straightforward.
The TICKR X is Wahoo's top-end chest strap that not only does dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart (with two Bluetooth Smart channels), but also Running Dynamics, running pace, storage of workouts when you don't have a watch/phone, and even music control and laps.
And of course – you can always sign-up to be a DCR Supporter! That gets you an ad-free DCR, access to the DCR Quarantine Corner video series packed with behind the scenes tidbits...and it also makes you awesome. And being awesome is what it’s all about!
Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!
Thanks for the honest review.
So it looks like one can put off the Christmas present for a while.
My birthday would be in February and there will certainly be one or two updates until then. Maybe I’d better wait until then.
Are there any sample fit files? I assume that the wind parameters will be embedded in the fit files as developer fields. I would like to include that in my ‘apps’ if that makes sense.
Ray, thank you very much for sharing the example files.
Wahoo added a few special wind developer fields.
I’ll look into this. It might be interesting, but we’ll see if it really has any practical relevance. But it’s always fun to explore new parameters like this and look for a way to visualize them, at least for me :-)
This is a great comment actually. At what point does it just make sense to run an app on a phone. If this thing is approaching the same size and weight as a phone, what do you really need a standalone bike computer for?
That is a big bummer. I feel for the developers trying to get this in a decent enough state to ship even though it isn’t ready. Moving to a new code base is a ton of work. It is too bad they are so far behind. I was planning on getting the ACE but will probably just get a ROAM V2. 😔
I know you didn’t mean your review video to be a comedy video but I couldn’t stop laughing when you shrugged your shoulders in disappointment or didn’t have anything to say – your reaction to the box showing a feature that doesn’t actually work was comedic gold.
Very disappointing release. I’ve been a long time Wahoo user and have eagerly been awaiting this release and now I’m torn – I guess I’ll probably really consider switching to Garmin after all this time but it sounds like generally speaking everything (expect the weight) can be fixed or tweaked by firmware updates. However, the fact that Wahoo chose to rush this out without fully baking it doesn’t give me a lot of confidence that they will fix everything quickly – I think they have been working on this for a long time based upon the rumors about this device from about a year ago.
Thank you for the review. I could not agree with you more regarding bike GPS manufacturers launching half-baked products. For the prices, they should be PERFECT. I’ve been through these scenarios with previous Garmin units and it frustrated me enough I moved to a Wahoo GPS. After owning a Wahoo original ELEMNT, then a Roam V1 (both actually pretty bug-free for me), I bought a Karoo3 this year and suffered with a number of firmware bugs and hardware bugs (ie – sticky power button). I finally ‘had it’ with the K3 and bought a Garmin 1050 a few weeks ago. The 1050 feels ‘finished’ although it has been out for 6 months-ish. Maybe part of that point is it took me YEARS to feel like returning to the Garmin ecosystem after negative experiences years ago.
Am really a bit disappointed in Wahoo here. The unit shows immense potential, I mean that UI looks amazing and almost something that Hammerhead tries to do but does not achieve yet. I really want to like it, however, I almost feel like Wahoo has a habit of releasing product before they are actually ready. There are more products where they launched with quite some comments that could have been, or are fixed 12 months later. It really eats in the trust that a company like Wahoo has. Anyhow, I hope that Wahoo changes this, and this is not a trend they are continuing with their future products.
Also, on the video it seems that the unit is quite shaky on your canyon mount and much more stable on the provided mount. Is that true or is that just a perspective thing?
Also….I have to wonder about the robustness of the wind sensor. I do mostly MTB and gravel riding. It’s common after a ride to have a good coating of dust on the front of my GPS and sometimes little chunks of mud (particularly if it was a group ride). So makes me wonder if the wind sensor can be cleaned in any way. 🤷♂️
One some of your YouTube shots of riding with the ACE, it appeared to be bouncing, almost like it was loose.
Wahoo says you can wash out the wind sensor, just don’t stick anything in it. But, when washing it out, you’ll basically have to wait till the next day to use it (also notable for rainy conditions). Still, I agree on concerns about dirt/etc…
It’s been fairly dry for all my rides (rain comes tomorrow), so we’ll have to see how it rolls.
As for the bounce, yup, it was bouncing, but the mount is locked solid. It’s just *SO* heavy compared to what that mount is likely made for.
Thanks for your consistently great and entertaining reviews!
There is a small typo in the “Final Thoughts” Section:
“In the case of Wahoo it tends to be simplicity and use of ease.” should be “ease of use”.
In your video for this device you eluded to the exit of most companies from consumer-oriented CdA sensors. You mentioned one is still in the market, who is it?
I appreciated your mentioning how significant the testing protocol has to be; consistency, monitoring etc. I’ve tried to use a Notio device with little actionable results. Mostly just convincing myself I’m a data dork.
Essentially just Velocomp still targetting end-consumers. Everyone else has switched to targeting coaches and such. Some companies might still sell you a device if you sound smart enough, but virtually all efforts are on coaching these days.
Noticed Notio hasn’t posted to any of their socials or blog in 3 years now (3 years this weekend to be precise!).
“Essentially just Velocomp still targetting end-consumers.”
Tactful way to word it, Ray. Based on years of data I conclude that its capabilities don’t measure up as either an air sensor or a power estimator in general outdoor conditions compared to a power meter (otherwise it’d be featured in your reviews).
In the days when power meters were inaccessible to most I think it found a niche in the market. But with the wide availability of even dual-sided power meters at ever lower prices today, I think its value doesn’t compare well. (Email if you’re curious about the details, but I know you’ve got far more important things to do.)
Same question for me. I run, cycle and want to track sleep. Something newer than the Rival would be great – I like your thoughts about a potential Polar and Wahoo partnership!
Thanks for writing your comment. The same as you. Rival badly deserved a sucessor. Roam 2 was fucntioning well enough. Here there is a mater of coherence with Wahoo communication on Ironman and UTMB. The make a lot about it. Rival is on the box but the unit is about 4 years old….
One thing that I have missed since moving from a ROAM V2 to a Karoo 3 is the ability to control my music/podcast from the unit. Knowing that there are advertised features not working, I’m guessing that this isn’t available either?
(Though, somewhat annoyingly, every time you end a climb, it’ll default back to the music controls page, regardless of where you actually were pre-climb…sigh.)
Not too surprised that the overall product is a let down given Wahoo’s track record. However I am pretty dissapointed that they’re not providing an aero data. Given the leaks around this device, I was pretty excited for a revival on aero sensors targetting the mainstream cyclist.
I’d be pretty interested to see you do a roundup on the state of the aero sensor industry.
I presume they’ll eventually get most of the features working, but it’s just way too big for me. Previous to the Edge1050, Garmin has had two sizes and I always favored the small one.The 840 got bigger than the previous small units and is already pushing the limit as far as I’m concerned.
Watching you move in and out of the draft with the Ace showing the drafting effect is very compelling. It is like Sauce for Zwift for the real world. I trust that they’ll work out the other UI bugs in short order. Getting it out before Xmas means that it will be on many Santa lists – despite some fixable shortcomings.
Will Wahoo at least commit to a reasonable cadence of updating? Hammerhead is aggressive trying to maintain the biweekly cadence and mostly staying with it give or take. But I have never seen Wahoo operate on any defined schedule. It might make a purchase difference if they were to commit to adding features as well as bug fixing on a structured timeline.
I was a beta tester for a bike computer from an unnamed cmpny (NDA limits what I can say). A 6 week beta period was started and during the first few weeks we found many, many things that didn’t work. For example, Bluetooth sensors didn’t work at all. Many other key features had huge problems. After only 3 weeks the beta was stopped and the product was released. WITH all the problems and missing features. Many forums, including this one, were filled with complaints from early adopters complaining about the exact same things that we beta testers had found. One customer went into detail about all the things they had done to get Bluetooth sensors to work. Finally, I was fed up and posted that Bluetooth sensors didn’t work and to contact support. I didn’t release any confidential information nor mention that I was a beta tester or related to the company in any way. Within a day I got an email from the company throwing me off the beta program. I replied that I hadn’t violated the NDA in any way. Also, replied that I was as disappointed that they released the product before the beta period was over and before any of the bugs were fixed. They threatened legal action and required that I send the test unit back. I sent it back and have since had nothing to do with the company.
Just dropped in (off topic, but is it really?) to say, got a shipment notification from a cycling-related unknown UK corp (according to a “bikebiz” article…) today… is my JetBlack Victory getting delivered tomorrow? Only time will tell.
Many in my club bought Wahoo for battery life and reliability. Circa 2010 Garmin was delivering a beta product with poor battery life. Members could not make it on the club ride from Plymouth to Provincetown. The garmins would not last 5 hours. Some would turn off a feature or two to supposedly length battery life. Bit of a preposterous notion for a 500$ computer in 2010.
Many liked the buttons and simplicity of the wahoo. The battery life was 13 hours. It could work for a ride. Some would take batteries to extend their solo ultra rides.
They seem to miss this. Folks in the club are riding with Bryton and Lenzyne. Others bought Garmin. At this point the fellows wanting a good watch are trapped with Garmin. Those looking for reasonable pricing are trying Bryton, Lenzyne, and other competitors. Those folks can produce battery life at a good price point.
If bike GPS makers keep pushing out these monsters, one day that whole “only people not serious about cycling put a smartphone on the bars” thing will collapse.
Bike GPS’s still have the built-in mounting system, buttons, battery life, more rugged build with presumably a screen that won’t crack as easily as a phone. That should be enough. There’s also the fact that if I damage my Edge 1040 so it’s unusable it’s no big deal, while if I damage my phone so it’s unusable it definitely is.
Has Wahoo finally included an “AutoLap by GPS Position” feature yet? Clearly this device isn’t targeting crit racers, but this has been a glaring omission on Wahoo devices forever and it would be great to see them get around to adding it.
Funny, I had to read your comment to realise that my Garmin Edge had autolap by position!
I am not sure I would use this much on my bike, but I remember this was something that used to be present on some Garmin running watches and that Garmin has omitted for the last 10-15 years on any of its watches. It frustrated me no end as I used to run cross country races back then and liked to monitor my lap times.
I don’t know why, but AutoLap by position has always been mentally satisfying for me. Perhaps because the only times I’ve ever used it have been on small training loops doing absolutely stupid numbers of those loops.
(For those that want some legacy DCR fun, there’s a post from 13 years ago showing some of that stupidity: link to dcrainmaker.com)
I like your reviews. They seem to be brutally honest. I think this is the best review I have ever read. I appreciate it. Hard to find honest reviews these days. Keep up the good work. As far as the new Wahoo computer goes, I am glad I did not wait until after the Black Friday sales and take a chance that the new(rumored at the time) computer would do the things I needed that my current Roam would not. I retired my Roam and purchased the Garmin 1040. Aside from the confusing settings system I am very happy with it. Thank you again for your honest reviews.
“… and is leagues behind the Edge 1040 or Edge 1040 battery” – I think there is a “Solar” missing. Wasn’t there some sort of financial trouble for Wahoo lately? To hope for future updates for features everyone else has today, is very optimistic under these circumstances.
There was financial issues for Wahoo previously, but a year or so ago they got themselves out of that messy debt situation.
They got a new CEO last spring/summer, though, it remains to be seen who exactly pushed for this early launch (CEO, product teams, external PR/marketing teams, etc…). Someone had to push for it, as engineers by themselves almost never push a product like this out the door they know is far behind.
Thank You for the honest review. It’s great that someone is willing to point out the good AND bad aspects of a product.
I think it is criminal how some companies put out products that don’t do what they say on the box or in their marketing materials. It doesn’t matter if you plan to provide those features someday or not. It’s false advertising and it’s criminal.
I will respond to Wahoo’s criminal marketing practices by skipping this product completely, and any other Wahoo product for 2 years. If my Wahoo trainer needs to be replaced in that time, it will be from another brand. I hope others will vote against this egregious marketing practice also, by voting with their dollars. It’s the only thing companies seem to respond to these days.
If a given feature is not implemented – if it’s “coming in a future update” – it doesn’t exist until that update is released to the public. So if I want something like, say, hydration or nutrition alerts – that, right now, rules this one out for me. Meaning: if I were buying a new bike computer, I’d rule the ACE out of the running for the simple fact that it doesn’t do what I need it to do.
And the problem for Wahoo then becomes one of: how do you tell the general public that feature X, promised at launch but not available until update Y, is now available? I’m not going to go digging through months of release notes to try to find the specific feature (or worse, features) that I want. The deficiency is out there. It’s public. And once information is published, even allowing for the electronic nature of communications these days, it’s bloody difficult to update/correct it in the general case.
Wahoo are shooting themselves in the foot by doing it this way. They’d be far better placed if they held off the release until all the features (or at least the “most important” features) are ready to go. But Christmas is just around the corner, so they’re rushing it out to meet the deadline, and they’ll pay the price with long term sales, I suspect.
As a former Wahoo user I like the idea that activity sharing isn’t enabled by default, as it was one of those things that annoyed me on ELEMNT app (where activity sharing WAS enabled by default and I had to manually disable it so my Komoot – my main route source – isn’t polluted by all the training rides).
But surely adding an extra question “Sync activities?” when configuring an external connection wouldn’t be such a big thing to ask.
I agree that it’s weird to see Wahoo announcing the unit in December, but maybe that’s their strategy – announce it off-season (at least above the equator), get feedback from the first adopters (and reviewers) and use that feedback to essentially prioritise the features that have to be fixed first and the features that could be done
Big Thanks Ray!
I was very excited for the new wahoo to replace my karoo2 which i was frustrated with due to bad battery life and screen thats not great in the sun. Literally was about to check out and buy the Ace when I thought…well let’s see what DC Rainmaker has to say.
You prevented me from wasting 600 euros on a unit that does not improve anything i want from a new GPS. Wahoo has claimed 30 hours so based on the spec sheet this was the perfect head unit for me but just like when hammerhead launched the Karoo 2 this unit isn’t yet what the spec sheet from the manufacturer advertises.
Ended up picking up a Karoo 3 now for 250 Euros. If the ace gets better in 2025 perhaps i will still switch but for now gonna stay loyal to hammerhead…
you never show me the most important fiction how many data fields on the map. I saw on another YouTube. For me, this look and as many as 3 data in a row on the map wahoo has already charmed ACE.
It’s impossible for me to predict everything that every single person wants to see. I try and cover as much as possible.
That said, I’m curious how one could come to the conclusion this is great for bike-packing. Last I checked, the two most important things for bike packing are: Weight & Battery life. This has neither. Once again, I refer people to my intro statement…
This is not a racing computer, but for long drives. Usability is important to me. The amount of data on the map. Map visibility. What I see ACE is perfect for me. In garmin, the appearance of the map and data fields is terrible.
Just as an update, I’ve added a few more sections/bits into the written review. They include:
A) Full GPS & Elevation accuracy section
B) Extended wind sensor section to show data written to .FIT file and enumeration in DCR Analyzer
C) Extended ‘Riding Basics’ section to show the new sensor pairing bits, including shifter details
D) A few more random photos here and there to illustrate some points
You mentioned the FIT file units for the wind sensor, it’s 1000 x m/s.
You could say it’s mm/s, but the field is obviously just to store m/s with some precision as an integer.
On the one hand, I think it’s very good that such reviews show the weaknesses and put pressure on the manufacturers to bring out finished products. However, the basic tenor of the review is far too negative for me. I am not aware of any product launch from the market leader Garmin in recent years where the software has not been released with numerous bugs (sometimes even complete crashes) (see most recently Fenix 8). In the reviews of the Ace, I haven’t noticed any major mentions of software bugs from any of the reviewers. I find it much more appealing that the device is released with software that is as error-free as possible and features that are still unfinished or not yet sufficiently tested are delivered in an upcoming software update. Apple also started doing this a few years ago and delivers some software features later, which are already advertised at the product launch. In any case, I am pleased that despite the financial turbulence, Wahoo is not just delivering a simple update of the Roam but a completely new product with improvements in all areas and will hopefully remain a serious alternative to Garmin. In any case, I ordered it straight away. :-)
Yeah, I guess I don’t understand why the bar should be ‘does it have any major bugs?’. That’s just one element, the other is: “Does it do what’s on the front of the box?”. Heck, I didn’t even mention that if you look at the front of the box it also shows the Strava Live Segments in there, which it doesn’t yet do.
In terms of Garmin releases, I don’t know, just not seeing that in recent releases. The Edge 1050 was widely regarded as very strong. And despite how much I dislike the Fenix 8 new UI, in terms of stability, it was quite good – at least until about two updates later when they decided to push out a beta update too early to production. As far as the crashes go, I actually had no crahes in all my testing. The only one I’m aware of people having is the ice water while scuba one…which, I’m smarter than to scuba dive in ice water.
Point is, Hammerhead and Garmin managed to release solid units this year that did what the box said, did what all their past units did, and added new features. I don’t know when we transitioned to bike magazine/etc reviewers reviewing tech and saying it’s OK to not do what the box says it does. Had these products been reviewed by more mainstream tech journalists, they’d be slaughtered. An Apple, Samsung, or GoPro of the world never would have gotten away with that.
I was very interested in this one until I read this review and also the one from escape collective (also very good). I own a Roam V1 and was pretty sure I would buy this one. But this price is insane given that it’s also without sensors (speed, heart etc). I will wait at least one year and will wait for improvements. The aero sensor clearly could do with some extra info.
It seems to me that all of us with integrated bars and mounts [Specialized] for example are ruled out of this due its size & weight?
It’s too big for my taste regardless, and I’d want a smaller product like Garmin offer [maybe next year?] but I can’t believe consumer demand wants a product with these dimensions?
A odd replay of wahoo bike computer history. On the box pictures of their first computer it showed maps with street names. That was never implemented. Although I used the computer for many years until the buttons failed I was always annoyed by the missing information.
Not sure if I missed it, but watching the whole video all I could notice was two items.
1. that screen really does look like crap compared to the garmins and karoo’s
2. did anyone else notice how laggy it was when he would press on the screen to do anything. It’s 2025, no bike computer should be that laggy.
Thanks for the honest and always most detailed review possible.
The screen quality is not awesome. It’s really as simple as that. It’s OK if you have full brightness on, else, it lags behind.
In terms of lag, that too is often very laggy when it comes to the menus (normal data fields are largely fine). At some point in the review I probably gave up on trying to highlight every single issue, and instead focused on the biggest ticket items missing/etc…
Why did they add an air sensor? 🤷♂️🤦♂️ Definitely didn’t expect that on head unit…, or ask for it.
There’s no credible prospect of anything CdA-related from this in general outdoor riding conditions (same goes for that “one other” product mentioned).
Any air sensor is of very limited value if it can’t measure the actual relative wind speed and angle, which no simple forward-only sensor can do. (I can recall only one that was in development to do this, I forget it’s name now.)
The simple net headwind/tailwind indicator might be of casual interest to some users / data geeks (kinda like pedal dynamics). But even that’s not very telling in many cases… For example a ride with a gusty tailwind can feel just as hard/tiring as a steady headwind, because of the power oscillations (“micro intervals”). And everyone already knows what crosswinds are like…
Time/resources that could have been spent elsewhere.
No future fixes from Wahoo should be expected. As a V5 kickr owner I’m quite annoyed by a commitment to the feature coming to my unit only to have that walked back.
I’m in the same boat. That was handled so poorly. I’m unlikely to buy anything from Wahoo again as a result. I wonder if we’re seeing the beginning of the end for these guys.
Even Wahoo doesn’t believe that. On the media call they basically talked about how they priced it below the 1050 to compensate for the gap in features.
Can you elaborate on the difference (if any) in screen technology between this and, say, the Bolt V2?
One of the things I love most about earlier Wahoo computers is how their displays are crystal clear, with excellent contrast in pretty much all lighting conditions (although perhaps that’s in part due to a small, well-chosen colour palette). Either way, I only need the backlight when it’s actually dark.
But it sounds like this one *requires* the backlight even during the day?
It’d say this requires the backlight on overcast conditions (at least in the winter), or in the trees/etc… Basically anywhere with shade. I can’t speak to the summer, despite Mallorca being more sunny, it’s still a lower sun on the horizon.
Of course, that also somewhat depends on what data page you’re on. For example, a data page with just two fields you can still pretty easily see, because given the size of the tablet, a two-data-field page screen could be seen from a 747 at altitude. But, more seriously, if you’ve got a bunch of data fields on there at once, in the shade, it can be very challenging to see without the backlight on full brightness.
Thanks! Having tested them all, would you say that makes it a regression from the earlier Wahoo computers in terms of readability? Is the screen actually different, or are they just using a lower contrast palette of colours/shades?
Reminds me on Polar last year releasing an unfinished Vantage V3. As a result, Polar lost a lot of reputation and earned a lot of negative comments and reviews. Why are companys doing that? I cannot imagine that there eventually is a benefit in doing so.
Surely they are aiming for chrismas sales… but they will get unsatisfied customers.
Your last sentence has the answer. They’ve been working on it for years and at some point management decided this product is going to be released in time for the 2024 Holiday season.
Since the first week of December is already very late to do that, I’d assume they had pushed it back from a prior release date because it was even less ready for sale than it is now.
Wahoo Ace mount on integrated aero bar is a huge issue i wonder an intuitive company could not give buyers a choice of what mount to get with the premium bike computer.
And Wahoo is a well-funded US company. Just saying, because people tend to accuse Asian companies to cut corners, releasing unfinished product, treating early adopters as beta testers and yada yada yada…
Good review, couple of points though, the reason they put it out 99% baked is that they’ve a sales target. In other words they need to hit Christmas, there will be plenty of buyers happy enough with what is on offer. The Bolt that I have received a ton of updates.
Battery… yes this is my 21st Century bug bear .. everything needs a charger these days.. less charging I’m happy enough. Whatever the size of the battery it’s always to small or manufacturers fudge numbers to please people. (Looking at cars and laptops, smart watches). .. it’s progress I’ll be saving for it 😜
While I understand that concept, I’d strongly disagree on 99% baked. That’d imply it’s got a few tiny polish things left. Instead, it’s missing features listed on the singular image on the front of the box (Strava Live Segments, zoomable election profile). And seemingly also custom POI (the water droplet).
Nonetheless, when it comes to battery life, actually, most other companies these days are pretty good at it. Almost every product I’ve tested, save the COROS Dura, hits their battery life numbers according to spec. Most, including Garmin, Fitbit, Apple, and even Samsung, exceed it.
On my ACE, shining my most powerful flashlight of 1000 lumens straight at the sensor did not turn on the backlight, when set to auto. So I don’t know why in your case in the sun it turns on the backlight makes no sense to me.
What annoys me is the PAUSE text. It covers up my map screen. In roam it was similar, but you could press the +/- button and the inscription would disappear to see the map at a standstill. In ACE, I can’t erase this PAUSE inscription while standing.
“1000 lumens straight at the sensor did not turn on the backlight, when set to auto”
Is there where I get to sarcastically reply “That’s cause the backlight is already on and you didn’t notice it because it’s not that bright”?
As for the UI bits, that’s mostly a line of issues I decided against going into much detail on to avoid adding more fuel to the fire. There’s many cases of button UI elements overlapping things or covering up things. Again, half-baked. Same goes for if you’re in a settings menu, the Varia radar alerts don’t appear.
What an absolute crock of shite this new unit is!!
I’m sick to the back teeth seeing software and hardware, across various products, shipped too early just because some cnut in marketing wants to make a quick buck. Games companies do it all the time, they release a game half-baked then patch it to death for years afterwards, by which time, people have stopped playing the game and moved on to better ones.
After waiting to replace my original Elemnt, which is still doing OK, this review has convinced me to go and buy a Garmin or Karoo 3. Well done Wahoo, see what happens when you rush things and try and cash grab?
They’ve lost my money, simple as.
What a disappointing cycling computer the Ace is. In fact it makes a mockery of the name. Should be called Joker.
If I remember correctly, when you sat with wahoo’s CEO, he mentioned that the users wanted a bike computer that is simple and just works without spending too much time configuring it. That’s the reason why I use the bolt over Garmin edge or Karoo. It is small, simple, and just does what I need. I hope the Ace is not the future of wahoo’s products. I am afraid that my personal needs do not match the market needs.
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You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
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Finally, I rarely include ‘totals’ stats in my accuracy sections, because they can be easily misleading. A device can undershoot and overshoot corners and still end up with the same distance as an accurate device. Nonetheless, for fun, here’s the total distance and ascent highlighted here. The COROS Dura is slightly further out on distance than the others, but is in the mix for ascent.
Thanks for the honest review.
So it looks like one can put off the Christmas present for a while.
My birthday would be in February and there will certainly be one or two updates until then. Maybe I’d better wait until then.
Are there any sample fit files? I assume that the wind parameters will be embedded in the fit files as developer fields. I would like to include that in my ‘apps’ if that makes sense.
Yup! Fit files do actually include the wind data, it’s kinda neat!
I’m working on adding up accuracy section (it’s all good on GPS & Elevation), but here’s a data set to check out: link to analyze.dcrainmaker.com
you can download the .FIT file there, and on the Analyzer in ‘Developer fields’, you can see the wind fields.
Ray, thank you very much for sharing the example files.
Wahoo added a few special wind developer fields.
I’ll look into this. It might be interesting, but we’ll see if it really has any practical relevance. But it’s always fun to explore new parameters like this and look for a way to visualize them, at least for me :-)
first!
jk. Is this an android device on the back end Ray?
always has been
Correct.
Thanks for the review Ray. Just out of curiosity, could you get an adb shell up and see which Android version it’s running?
Any kickr bike (or kickr) specific features?
Compatible with the Rival? Touchless transitions?
That feature/option is included, though I no longer have a Rival and was unable to test it.
sorry for offtopic, but: very nice profile picture ;-)
So the new Ace is basicaly the same size as iPhone Mini 😱
This is a great comment actually. At what point does it just make sense to run an app on a phone. If this thing is approaching the same size and weight as a phone, what do you really need a standalone bike computer for?
Air flow measuring … 🙈
That is a big bummer. I feel for the developers trying to get this in a decent enough state to ship even though it isn’t ready. Moving to a new code base is a ton of work. It is too bad they are so far behind. I was planning on getting the ACE but will probably just get a ROAM V2. 😔
I know you didn’t mean your review video to be a comedy video but I couldn’t stop laughing when you shrugged your shoulders in disappointment or didn’t have anything to say – your reaction to the box showing a feature that doesn’t actually work was comedic gold.
Very disappointing release. I’ve been a long time Wahoo user and have eagerly been awaiting this release and now I’m torn – I guess I’ll probably really consider switching to Garmin after all this time but it sounds like generally speaking everything (expect the weight) can be fixed or tweaked by firmware updates. However, the fact that Wahoo chose to rush this out without fully baking it doesn’t give me a lot of confidence that they will fix everything quickly – I think they have been working on this for a long time based upon the rumors about this device from about a year ago.
Thank you for the review. I could not agree with you more regarding bike GPS manufacturers launching half-baked products. For the prices, they should be PERFECT. I’ve been through these scenarios with previous Garmin units and it frustrated me enough I moved to a Wahoo GPS. After owning a Wahoo original ELEMNT, then a Roam V1 (both actually pretty bug-free for me), I bought a Karoo3 this year and suffered with a number of firmware bugs and hardware bugs (ie – sticky power button). I finally ‘had it’ with the K3 and bought a Garmin 1050 a few weeks ago. The 1050 feels ‘finished’ although it has been out for 6 months-ish. Maybe part of that point is it took me YEARS to feel like returning to the Garmin ecosystem after negative experiences years ago.
I’ll just add…dayum that ACE is BIG!!!
Riding the Backside…..hehehehehehe!
Am really a bit disappointed in Wahoo here. The unit shows immense potential, I mean that UI looks amazing and almost something that Hammerhead tries to do but does not achieve yet. I really want to like it, however, I almost feel like Wahoo has a habit of releasing product before they are actually ready. There are more products where they launched with quite some comments that could have been, or are fixed 12 months later. It really eats in the trust that a company like Wahoo has. Anyhow, I hope that Wahoo changes this, and this is not a trend they are continuing with their future products.
Also, on the video it seems that the unit is quite shaky on your canyon mount and much more stable on the provided mount. Is that true or is that just a perspective thing?
It’s funny, I didn’t notice the shake at all on my Canyon mount, till I looked at the footage. Never even caught my eye out on the road.
Then I shot some of that close-up and slow-mo footage and was like “holy moly it moves!”
Also….I have to wonder about the robustness of the wind sensor. I do mostly MTB and gravel riding. It’s common after a ride to have a good coating of dust on the front of my GPS and sometimes little chunks of mud (particularly if it was a group ride). So makes me wonder if the wind sensor can be cleaned in any way. 🤷♂️
One some of your YouTube shots of riding with the ACE, it appeared to be bouncing, almost like it was loose.
Wahoo says you can wash out the wind sensor, just don’t stick anything in it. But, when washing it out, you’ll basically have to wait till the next day to use it (also notable for rainy conditions). Still, I agree on concerns about dirt/etc…
It’s been fairly dry for all my rides (rain comes tomorrow), so we’ll have to see how it rolls.
As for the bounce, yup, it was bouncing, but the mount is locked solid. It’s just *SO* heavy compared to what that mount is likely made for.
Thanks for your consistently great and entertaining reviews!
There is a small typo in the “Final Thoughts” Section:
“In the case of Wahoo it tends to be simplicity and use of ease.” should be “ease of use”.
It’s funny to read this review immediately after the Velo news review. This part is so true:
“I’d argue this is the perfect product to see which reviewers are actually riding with it, versus just taking pretty shots of it.”
This is exactly why we need to all be supporting DCR.
I kinda forgot I had left that in there…wrote that part on an earlier snarkier (or wine-driven) night. Though, still true.
In your video for this device you eluded to the exit of most companies from consumer-oriented CdA sensors. You mentioned one is still in the market, who is it?
I appreciated your mentioning how significant the testing protocol has to be; consistency, monitoring etc. I’ve tried to use a Notio device with little actionable results. Mostly just convincing myself I’m a data dork.
Essentially just Velocomp still targetting end-consumers. Everyone else has switched to targeting coaches and such. Some companies might still sell you a device if you sound smart enough, but virtually all efforts are on coaching these days.
Noticed Notio hasn’t posted to any of their socials or blog in 3 years now (3 years this weekend to be precise!).
Thanks for the reply.
My most recent email to Notio this past November, “Helloooo? Are you there?”
*crickets*
“Essentially just Velocomp still targetting end-consumers.”
Tactful way to word it, Ray. Based on years of data I conclude that its capabilities don’t measure up as either an air sensor or a power estimator in general outdoor conditions compared to a power meter (otherwise it’d be featured in your reviews).
In the days when power meters were inaccessible to most I think it found a niche in the market. But with the wide availability of even dual-sided power meters at ever lower prices today, I think its value doesn’t compare well. (Email if you’re curious about the details, but I know you’ve got far more important things to do.)
Does Wahoo have any plans on integration with a watch?
This is obviously helpful for triathletes but also for everybody who wants to track sleep, training load and recovery etc.
Garmin and Coros: have watches and bike computers
Suunto and Hammerhead: work like one together
Polar and Wahoo maybe?
I mean I know that Wahoo can write to apple health and one can give a training load rating there. So I guess that is good enough. Just curious.
Same question for me. I run, cycle and want to track sleep. Something newer than the Rival would be great – I like your thoughts about a potential Polar and Wahoo partnership!
Hello Jason,
Thanks for writing your comment. The same as you. Rival badly deserved a sucessor. Roam 2 was fucntioning well enough. Here there is a mater of coherence with Wahoo communication on Ironman and UTMB. The make a lot about it. Rival is on the box but the unit is about 4 years old….
One thing that I have missed since moving from a ROAM V2 to a Karoo 3 is the ability to control my music/podcast from the unit. Knowing that there are advertised features not working, I’m guessing that this isn’t available either?
That piece does actually work.
(Though, somewhat annoyingly, every time you end a climb, it’ll default back to the music controls page, regardless of where you actually were pre-climb…sigh.)
Not too surprised that the overall product is a let down given Wahoo’s track record. However I am pretty dissapointed that they’re not providing an aero data. Given the leaks around this device, I was pretty excited for a revival on aero sensors targetting the mainstream cyclist.
I’d be pretty interested to see you do a roundup on the state of the aero sensor industry.
I presume they’ll eventually get most of the features working, but it’s just way too big for me. Previous to the Edge1050, Garmin has had two sizes and I always favored the small one.The 840 got bigger than the previous small units and is already pushing the limit as far as I’m concerned.
Did Wahoo allude to having different sizes of the Ace (like the Garmin 10×0, 8×0, 5×0)? I would prefer an “840” size unit without the wind sensor.
Again you didn’t show me the most important thing – the number of maximum data fields on the map screen.
Man. What a strange company this has become.
Practically I’m struggling for an explanation here that isn’t “tight on cash so can’t afford to not participate in Holiday revenue.”
Physically the product looks Kickstarter-ish.
Watching you move in and out of the draft with the Ace showing the drafting effect is very compelling. It is like Sauce for Zwift for the real world. I trust that they’ll work out the other UI bugs in short order. Getting it out before Xmas means that it will be on many Santa lists – despite some fixable shortcomings.
“they changed their mine.” Possible typo?
(Cheers for the review)
Does it work with the Garmin radar unit?
The Roam does and does it well.
You can buy a nice bike bell; real mechanical one for about 5 £ $ € – whatever!
Works well (better, even) with the Garmin 715 radar unit. Volume on alerts is also adjustable.
$600.00 and no one yet knows which mounts may or may not work the way we ride currently and all I keep thinking is….
Where is the tether?
Will Wahoo at least commit to a reasonable cadence of updating? Hammerhead is aggressive trying to maintain the biweekly cadence and mostly staying with it give or take. But I have never seen Wahoo operate on any defined schedule. It might make a purchase difference if they were to commit to adding features as well as bug fixing on a structured timeline.
I was a beta tester for a bike computer from an unnamed cmpny (NDA limits what I can say). A 6 week beta period was started and during the first few weeks we found many, many things that didn’t work. For example, Bluetooth sensors didn’t work at all. Many other key features had huge problems. After only 3 weeks the beta was stopped and the product was released. WITH all the problems and missing features. Many forums, including this one, were filled with complaints from early adopters complaining about the exact same things that we beta testers had found. One customer went into detail about all the things they had done to get Bluetooth sensors to work. Finally, I was fed up and posted that Bluetooth sensors didn’t work and to contact support. I didn’t release any confidential information nor mention that I was a beta tester or related to the company in any way. Within a day I got an email from the company throwing me off the beta program. I replied that I hadn’t violated the NDA in any way. Also, replied that I was as disappointed that they released the product before the beta period was over and before any of the bugs were fixed. They threatened legal action and required that I send the test unit back. I sent it back and have since had nothing to do with the company.
Does “Bluey” still live? (I still have one too, FWIW).
Totally! Even took him for a ride back a few months ago. Gonna head out again…
Can it be paired with tyre pressure sensors like TyreWiz?
Just dropped in (off topic, but is it really?) to say, got a shipment notification from a cycling-related unknown UK corp (according to a “bikebiz” article…) today… is my JetBlack Victory getting delivered tomorrow? Only time will tell.
Adaptive DCS Ltd, via DHL?
Correct!
Turns out it’s an “Your trainer’s on the way” card and some kind of sweat fabric which I didn’t bother to examine.
Many in my club bought Wahoo for battery life and reliability. Circa 2010 Garmin was delivering a beta product with poor battery life. Members could not make it on the club ride from Plymouth to Provincetown. The garmins would not last 5 hours. Some would turn off a feature or two to supposedly length battery life. Bit of a preposterous notion for a 500$ computer in 2010.
Many liked the buttons and simplicity of the wahoo. The battery life was 13 hours. It could work for a ride. Some would take batteries to extend their solo ultra rides.
They seem to miss this. Folks in the club are riding with Bryton and Lenzyne. Others bought Garmin. At this point the fellows wanting a good watch are trapped with Garmin. Those looking for reasonable pricing are trying Bryton, Lenzyne, and other competitors. Those folks can produce battery life at a good price point.
Quintessential technology criticism. Chapeau.
If bike GPS makers keep pushing out these monsters, one day that whole “only people not serious about cycling put a smartphone on the bars” thing will collapse.
Bike GPS’s still have the built-in mounting system, buttons, battery life, more rugged build with presumably a screen that won’t crack as easily as a phone. That should be enough. There’s also the fact that if I damage my Edge 1040 so it’s unusable it’s no big deal, while if I damage my phone so it’s unusable it definitely is.
Wow. Brutal. Very expensive and unfinished.
Would be interested in a frank response from Wahoo.
Wait…what about the nacho cheese dispenser???!!!
I’m going to have to ask my Elemnt friends for some mid-ride refreshments!
Has Wahoo finally included an “AutoLap by GPS Position” feature yet? Clearly this device isn’t targeting crit racers, but this has been a glaring omission on Wahoo devices forever and it would be great to see them get around to adding it.
Funny, I had to read your comment to realise that my Garmin Edge had autolap by position!
I am not sure I would use this much on my bike, but I remember this was something that used to be present on some Garmin running watches and that Garmin has omitted for the last 10-15 years on any of its watches. It frustrated me no end as I used to run cross country races back then and liked to monitor my lap times.
No auto lap by position.
I don’t know why, but AutoLap by position has always been mentally satisfying for me. Perhaps because the only times I’ve ever used it have been on small training loops doing absolutely stupid numbers of those loops.
(For those that want some legacy DCR fun, there’s a post from 13 years ago showing some of that stupidity: link to dcrainmaker.com)
Phenomenal, detailed review. As always. ☝️
I like your reviews. They seem to be brutally honest. I think this is the best review I have ever read. I appreciate it. Hard to find honest reviews these days. Keep up the good work. As far as the new Wahoo computer goes, I am glad I did not wait until after the Black Friday sales and take a chance that the new(rumored at the time) computer would do the things I needed that my current Roam would not. I retired my Roam and purchased the Garmin 1040. Aside from the confusing settings system I am very happy with it. Thank you again for your honest reviews.
Thanks!
“… and is leagues behind the Edge 1040 or Edge 1040 battery” – I think there is a “Solar” missing. Wasn’t there some sort of financial trouble for Wahoo lately? To hope for future updates for features everyone else has today, is very optimistic under these circumstances.
Good catch, indeed, meant Solar in there.
There was financial issues for Wahoo previously, but a year or so ago they got themselves out of that messy debt situation.
They got a new CEO last spring/summer, though, it remains to be seen who exactly pushed for this early launch (CEO, product teams, external PR/marketing teams, etc…). Someone had to push for it, as engineers by themselves almost never push a product like this out the door they know is far behind.
Thank You for the honest review. It’s great that someone is willing to point out the good AND bad aspects of a product.
I think it is criminal how some companies put out products that don’t do what they say on the box or in their marketing materials. It doesn’t matter if you plan to provide those features someday or not. It’s false advertising and it’s criminal.
I will respond to Wahoo’s criminal marketing practices by skipping this product completely, and any other Wahoo product for 2 years. If my Wahoo trainer needs to be replaced in that time, it will be from another brand. I hope others will vote against this egregious marketing practice also, by voting with their dollars. It’s the only thing companies seem to respond to these days.
Great, now just shrink the thing and get rid of the bezels so there is acutally a moder gps with a good screen and DI2 compatibility.
My attitude is simple.
If a given feature is not implemented – if it’s “coming in a future update” – it doesn’t exist until that update is released to the public. So if I want something like, say, hydration or nutrition alerts – that, right now, rules this one out for me. Meaning: if I were buying a new bike computer, I’d rule the ACE out of the running for the simple fact that it doesn’t do what I need it to do.
And the problem for Wahoo then becomes one of: how do you tell the general public that feature X, promised at launch but not available until update Y, is now available? I’m not going to go digging through months of release notes to try to find the specific feature (or worse, features) that I want. The deficiency is out there. It’s public. And once information is published, even allowing for the electronic nature of communications these days, it’s bloody difficult to update/correct it in the general case.
Wahoo are shooting themselves in the foot by doing it this way. They’d be far better placed if they held off the release until all the features (or at least the “most important” features) are ready to go. But Christmas is just around the corner, so they’re rushing it out to meet the deadline, and they’ll pay the price with long term sales, I suspect.
Great review once again
As a former Wahoo user I like the idea that activity sharing isn’t enabled by default, as it was one of those things that annoyed me on ELEMNT app (where activity sharing WAS enabled by default and I had to manually disable it so my Komoot – my main route source – isn’t polluted by all the training rides).
But surely adding an extra question “Sync activities?” when configuring an external connection wouldn’t be such a big thing to ask.
I agree that it’s weird to see Wahoo announcing the unit in December, but maybe that’s their strategy – announce it off-season (at least above the equator), get feedback from the first adopters (and reviewers) and use that feedback to essentially prioritise the features that have to be fixed first and the features that could be done
Big Thanks Ray!
I was very excited for the new wahoo to replace my karoo2 which i was frustrated with due to bad battery life and screen thats not great in the sun. Literally was about to check out and buy the Ace when I thought…well let’s see what DC Rainmaker has to say.
You prevented me from wasting 600 euros on a unit that does not improve anything i want from a new GPS. Wahoo has claimed 30 hours so based on the spec sheet this was the perfect head unit for me but just like when hammerhead launched the Karoo 2 this unit isn’t yet what the spec sheet from the manufacturer advertises.
Ended up picking up a Karoo 3 now for 250 Euros. If the ace gets better in 2025 perhaps i will still switch but for now gonna stay loyal to hammerhead…
you never show me the most important fiction how many data fields on the map. I saw on another YouTube. For me, this look and as many as 3 data in a row on the map wahoo has already charmed ACE.
link to youtu.be
much better presented wahoo capabilities for garmin
(Consolidated your two comments into one…)
It’s impossible for me to predict everything that every single person wants to see. I try and cover as much as possible.
That said, I’m curious how one could come to the conclusion this is great for bike-packing. Last I checked, the two most important things for bike packing are: Weight & Battery life. This has neither. Once again, I refer people to my intro statement…
This is not a racing computer, but for long drives. Usability is important to me. The amount of data on the map. Map visibility. What I see ACE is perfect for me. In garmin, the appearance of the map and data fields is terrible.
Just as an update, I’ve added a few more sections/bits into the written review. They include:
A) Full GPS & Elevation accuracy section
B) Extended wind sensor section to show data written to .FIT file and enumeration in DCR Analyzer
C) Extended ‘Riding Basics’ section to show the new sensor pairing bits, including shifter details
D) A few more random photos here and there to illustrate some points
Cheers!
You mentioned the FIT file units for the wind sensor, it’s 1000 x m/s.
You could say it’s mm/s, but the field is obviously just to store m/s with some precision as an integer.
Awesome, thanks! Yeah, mm/s (or 1000 x m/s) made the most sense in my brain, but didn’t have data to validate it against. Cheers!
On the one hand, I think it’s very good that such reviews show the weaknesses and put pressure on the manufacturers to bring out finished products. However, the basic tenor of the review is far too negative for me. I am not aware of any product launch from the market leader Garmin in recent years where the software has not been released with numerous bugs (sometimes even complete crashes) (see most recently Fenix 8). In the reviews of the Ace, I haven’t noticed any major mentions of software bugs from any of the reviewers. I find it much more appealing that the device is released with software that is as error-free as possible and features that are still unfinished or not yet sufficiently tested are delivered in an upcoming software update. Apple also started doing this a few years ago and delivers some software features later, which are already advertised at the product launch. In any case, I am pleased that despite the financial turbulence, Wahoo is not just delivering a simple update of the Roam but a completely new product with improvements in all areas and will hopefully remain a serious alternative to Garmin. In any case, I ordered it straight away. :-)
Yeah, I guess I don’t understand why the bar should be ‘does it have any major bugs?’. That’s just one element, the other is: “Does it do what’s on the front of the box?”. Heck, I didn’t even mention that if you look at the front of the box it also shows the Strava Live Segments in there, which it doesn’t yet do.
In terms of Garmin releases, I don’t know, just not seeing that in recent releases. The Edge 1050 was widely regarded as very strong. And despite how much I dislike the Fenix 8 new UI, in terms of stability, it was quite good – at least until about two updates later when they decided to push out a beta update too early to production. As far as the crashes go, I actually had no crahes in all my testing. The only one I’m aware of people having is the ice water while scuba one…which, I’m smarter than to scuba dive in ice water.
Point is, Hammerhead and Garmin managed to release solid units this year that did what the box said, did what all their past units did, and added new features. I don’t know when we transitioned to bike magazine/etc reviewers reviewing tech and saying it’s OK to not do what the box says it does. Had these products been reviewed by more mainstream tech journalists, they’d be slaughtered. An Apple, Samsung, or GoPro of the world never would have gotten away with that.
I was very interested in this one until I read this review and also the one from escape collective (also very good). I own a Roam V1 and was pretty sure I would buy this one. But this price is insane given that it’s also without sensors (speed, heart etc). I will wait at least one year and will wait for improvements. The aero sensor clearly could do with some extra info.
It seems to me that all of us with integrated bars and mounts [Specialized] for example are ruled out of this due its size & weight?
It’s too big for my taste regardless, and I’d want a smaller product like Garmin offer [maybe next year?] but I can’t believe consumer demand wants a product with these dimensions?
A odd replay of wahoo bike computer history. On the box pictures of their first computer it showed maps with street names. That was never implemented. Although I used the computer for many years until the buttons failed I was always annoyed by the missing information.
Not sure if I missed it, but watching the whole video all I could notice was two items.
1. that screen really does look like crap compared to the garmins and karoo’s
2. did anyone else notice how laggy it was when he would press on the screen to do anything. It’s 2025, no bike computer should be that laggy.
Thanks for the honest and always most detailed review possible.
The screen quality is not awesome. It’s really as simple as that. It’s OK if you have full brightness on, else, it lags behind.
In terms of lag, that too is often very laggy when it comes to the menus (normal data fields are largely fine). At some point in the review I probably gave up on trying to highlight every single issue, and instead focused on the biggest ticket items missing/etc…
Why did they add an air sensor? 🤷♂️🤦♂️ Definitely didn’t expect that on head unit…, or ask for it.
There’s no credible prospect of anything CdA-related from this in general outdoor riding conditions (same goes for that “one other” product mentioned).
Any air sensor is of very limited value if it can’t measure the actual relative wind speed and angle, which no simple forward-only sensor can do. (I can recall only one that was in development to do this, I forget it’s name now.)
The simple net headwind/tailwind indicator might be of casual interest to some users / data geeks (kinda like pedal dynamics). But even that’s not very telling in many cases… For example a ride with a gusty tailwind can feel just as hard/tiring as a steady headwind, because of the power oscillations (“micro intervals”). And everyone already knows what crosswinds are like…
Time/resources that could have been spent elsewhere.
That screen size tho! Can it stream Netflix? 😅
No future fixes from Wahoo should be expected. As a V5 kickr owner I’m quite annoyed by a commitment to the feature coming to my unit only to have that walked back.
I’m in the same boat. That was handled so poorly. I’m unlikely to buy anything from Wahoo again as a result. I wonder if we’re seeing the beginning of the end for these guys.
According to Bike Radar it’s better than the 1050
Even Wahoo doesn’t believe that. On the media call they basically talked about how they priced it below the 1050 to compensate for the gap in features.
Thanks for the review Ray!
Can you elaborate on the difference (if any) in screen technology between this and, say, the Bolt V2?
One of the things I love most about earlier Wahoo computers is how their displays are crystal clear, with excellent contrast in pretty much all lighting conditions (although perhaps that’s in part due to a small, well-chosen colour palette). Either way, I only need the backlight when it’s actually dark.
But it sounds like this one *requires* the backlight even during the day?
It’d say this requires the backlight on overcast conditions (at least in the winter), or in the trees/etc… Basically anywhere with shade. I can’t speak to the summer, despite Mallorca being more sunny, it’s still a lower sun on the horizon.
Of course, that also somewhat depends on what data page you’re on. For example, a data page with just two fields you can still pretty easily see, because given the size of the tablet, a two-data-field page screen could be seen from a 747 at altitude. But, more seriously, if you’ve got a bunch of data fields on there at once, in the shade, it can be very challenging to see without the backlight on full brightness.
Thanks! Having tested them all, would you say that makes it a regression from the earlier Wahoo computers in terms of readability? Is the screen actually different, or are they just using a lower contrast palette of colours/shades?
Reminds me on Polar last year releasing an unfinished Vantage V3. As a result, Polar lost a lot of reputation and earned a lot of negative comments and reviews. Why are companys doing that? I cannot imagine that there eventually is a benefit in doing so.
Surely they are aiming for chrismas sales… but they will get unsatisfied customers.
Your last sentence has the answer. They’ve been working on it for years and at some point management decided this product is going to be released in time for the 2024 Holiday season.
Since the first week of December is already very late to do that, I’d assume they had pushed it back from a prior release date because it was even less ready for sale than it is now.
Wahoo Ace mount on integrated aero bar is a huge issue i wonder an intuitive company could not give buyers a choice of what mount to get with the premium bike computer.
And Wahoo is a well-funded US company. Just saying, because people tend to accuse Asian companies to cut corners, releasing unfinished product, treating early adopters as beta testers and yada yada yada…
Great to see ol’ bluey (Edge 500) in the comparison photos. Mine still gets a regular workout.
The best Edge made in terms of features / value-for-money / durability.
I think Paul Hollywood would say this bake had a soggy bottom.
Good review, couple of points though, the reason they put it out 99% baked is that they’ve a sales target. In other words they need to hit Christmas, there will be plenty of buyers happy enough with what is on offer. The Bolt that I have received a ton of updates.
Battery… yes this is my 21st Century bug bear .. everything needs a charger these days.. less charging I’m happy enough. Whatever the size of the battery it’s always to small or manufacturers fudge numbers to please people. (Looking at cars and laptops, smart watches). .. it’s progress I’ll be saving for it 😜
While I understand that concept, I’d strongly disagree on 99% baked. That’d imply it’s got a few tiny polish things left. Instead, it’s missing features listed on the singular image on the front of the box (Strava Live Segments, zoomable election profile). And seemingly also custom POI (the water droplet).
Nonetheless, when it comes to battery life, actually, most other companies these days are pretty good at it. Almost every product I’ve tested, save the COROS Dura, hits their battery life numbers according to spec. Most, including Garmin, Fitbit, Apple, and even Samsung, exceed it.
Good to know, instead of wasting $599.
On my ACE, shining my most powerful flashlight of 1000 lumens straight at the sensor did not turn on the backlight, when set to auto. So I don’t know why in your case in the sun it turns on the backlight makes no sense to me.
What annoys me is the PAUSE text. It covers up my map screen. In roam it was similar, but you could press the +/- button and the inscription would disappear to see the map at a standstill. In ACE, I can’t erase this PAUSE inscription while standing.
“1000 lumens straight at the sensor did not turn on the backlight, when set to auto”
Is there where I get to sarcastically reply “That’s cause the backlight is already on and you didn’t notice it because it’s not that bright”?
As for the UI bits, that’s mostly a line of issues I decided against going into much detail on to avoid adding more fuel to the fire. There’s many cases of button UI elements overlapping things or covering up things. Again, half-baked. Same goes for if you’re in a settings menu, the Varia radar alerts don’t appear.
What an absolute crock of shite this new unit is!!
I’m sick to the back teeth seeing software and hardware, across various products, shipped too early just because some cnut in marketing wants to make a quick buck. Games companies do it all the time, they release a game half-baked then patch it to death for years afterwards, by which time, people have stopped playing the game and moved on to better ones.
After waiting to replace my original Elemnt, which is still doing OK, this review has convinced me to go and buy a Garmin or Karoo 3. Well done Wahoo, see what happens when you rush things and try and cash grab?
They’ve lost my money, simple as.
What a disappointing cycling computer the Ace is. In fact it makes a mockery of the name. Should be called Joker.
If I remember correctly, when you sat with wahoo’s CEO, he mentioned that the users wanted a bike computer that is simple and just works without spending too much time configuring it. That’s the reason why I use the bolt over Garmin edge or Karoo. It is small, simple, and just does what I need. I hope the Ace is not the future of wahoo’s products. I am afraid that my personal needs do not match the market needs.