Wahoo Bolt: Part 3a, Getting Places

This is the first part of riding with GPS enabled on the Bolt. This part will discuss riding planned routes or those created from logged rides, and the second post will discuss riding to a destination on the fly.

There is nothing like walking out the front door and heading out on an adventure. I find that the more I do that, the more I like to try to conceive of the perfect day on the bike. Whether I get one or five hours, it's nice to have a plan. It's also nice to be able to replicate interesting rides that friends or clubs post. Enter the Bolt.

With the Bolt, I can take any route from my RidewithGPS account or one shared by a friend, and I can download it almost instantly onto the Bolt for turn by turn directions. The Bolt immediately syncs any routes that I pin in RidewithGPS. As long as the creator added waypoints, they will show up on the Bolt as turn by turn. I can also re-ride any workout on the device.

A look at the Routes screen on the Elemnt companion app shows lots of options. If I want to create a route from the on board history, I can easily do so. I can see my RidewithGPS pinned routes sorted at the bottom, and I can send them to the Bolt. This is especially useful when I am leading a Campus ride. I do not need a cue sheet, I can see the whole shebang from the Bolt as I ride. There are many pro's to this and very few con's,

PRO's:

Select the route from the head unit and go!

LED's show the direction of your next turn

Text displays on any page in time for the turn

Audible beeps let you know when you are off track

CON's:

Small text at times (like when approaching a traffic circle)

Turn by turn does not send you back on track when you are off track, you simply follow the bread crumbs.

Check out Shane Miller's vlog for a great look at Turn by Turn on the Elemnt and Elemnt Bolt.