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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [dcrainmaker] [ In reply to ]
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Every now and then a great company or brand has a damaging product fail.
  • New Coke
  • Ford Edsel
  • Apple Lisa
  • Scosche Rhythm24
  • Garmin 820
  • Wahoo ROAM

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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [mknight84] [ In reply to ]
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Meh...just tell me when the watch is coming out
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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [Geek_fit] [ In reply to ]
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Does not bode well for their future watch release tbh...
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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [Arbylol] [ In reply to ]
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Arbylol wrote:
Does not bode well for their future watch release tbh...

I know :( Makes me said. My Forrunner 220 has about a 45 minute run in it before the battery dies.
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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [dcrainmaker] [ In reply to ]
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dcrainmaker wrote:
lanierb wrote:
I read DC Rainmaker's review of the Roam and was frankly shocked that he focused so much on the spec sheet and price. If all you're interested in is the spec sheet and price, you don't really need a review.


Except, in this case, where it fundamentally doesn't do what it says on the spec sheet. Want to use Strava routes? Oh, you don't get turn by turn navigation. Want to use the Wahoo companion app to send directions to the ROAM? Great, you don't get elevation data for those routes. Want to route back to start along a route? No turn by turn there either. See, that's what a technical review is there for. So yes, I focused on things on the spec sheet that Wahoo simply isn't doing.

It's funny how many folks keep going off on the USB-C item (literally, it's a single line mention in my review - I have countless single things I mention - this one hardly important).

Yet the thing people are forgetting is that it just doesn't do what people think it does. If it did everything it claimed to do, and did it for the asking $379 - then we can continue the debate on that - but that's frankly the least of the issues at this point. Watch GPLAMA's video, especially the last 5-7 minutes, where he goes effectively slide by slide on all the if/but statements around caveats for endless things. I'm not sure if people didn't make it that far in the video, or if people didn't understand the nuance/importance of what he's pointing out.

I have no doubt Wahoo's shifting directions internally in the last 24-48 hours to address these with software updates in the future, but today, that's not the device people are buying.

can i make a guess? and i'm saying this with zero knowledge. just a sense of how all this transpired.

i got my first reachout from wahoo's PR team on february the 20th, for the launch at sea otter. the launch itself was april 9/10, with an embargo of may 1. if the first reachout to me was feb 20, they had this planned many weeks prior to this, because they booked a lot of rooms in a particular hotel for this launch, and getting rooms and meeting space for sea otter isn't trivial.

it is my guess that, when wahoo planned this launch, many months before may 1, it intended to have all the functionality done by may 1. during the launch we were told that certain functions (integration with singletracks and mtb project; turn-by-turn navigation, full time elevation data) were going to be a few weeks out, or a month or two. i think they just missed the deadline on all their functionality, and they damned near missed the deadline on their companion app update.

so, if i'm wahoo, what do i do? if i sell the watch for $329, which might be a fair price, and then raise it to $379, a couple of months later, when all the functionality is in, how's that going to go over? i can't really delay the launch, because i've already booked everything, and the only time all the media is in one place is at sea otter. i can't delay the release of the watch because i already have the factory space booked and my specialty stores are expecting the product.

so, look, i agree, the missing functionality is worth $X. do you review the watch as is, and calibrate it to $379? or do you review it as it soon will be and calibrate it to the price? or a little of both? i think they made the best choice they could, which is to launch, and ship, and promise a firmware update in fairly short order that brings this watch up to full promised functionality.

is it ideal? (assuming my guess is correct?) no. what's ideal is for it all to have happened the way it was storyboarded 18 months ago. but i have some sympathy for manufacturers.

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [dcrainmaker] [ In reply to ]
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I didn't watch Shane's video yet...apparently the people didn't get to that point of the video...and I just accepted that you two had different opinions. Nothing Slowman writes on this has me hyped to want to go replace my 520+ with a ROAM. In fact it's loaded with features that are worthless to me. Don't care about emails, texts, phone calls on my damned head unit. I want it to do head unit shit, and head unit shit only. Same with my watch. Do those things well and I'll buy a new version.

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.
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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Unfortunately the guess on features was incorrect.

There were no plans to have Strava Turn by Turn or elevation. Before, during, or after launch.

It wasn’t until I pushed back pretty hard privately in late March after I started testing/realizing that they started looking at what the options were to get those in.

My challenge here is further twofold. I know exactly how difficult it will be to get Strava TBT working (elevation will in theory be easier). And I have low confidence they’ll hit their May timeframes. It’s not a knock on Wahoo, but rather, how tricky it is to do, compared to when they started working on it (a few weeks ago). Will they ultimately make it work? Sure, I suspect so. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned doing this, is to largely not judge products on features that companies haven’t yet implemented. Especially really hard features.


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My tiny little slice of the internets: dcrainmaker.com
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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [dcrainmaker] [ In reply to ]
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dcrainmaker wrote:
Unfortunately the guess on features was incorrect.

There were no plans to have Strava Turn by Turn or elevation. Before, during, or after launch.

It wasn’t until I pushed back pretty hard privately in late March after I started testing/realizing that they started looking at what the options were to get those in.

My challenge here is further twofold. I know exactly how difficult it will be to get Strava TBT working (elevation will in theory be easier). And I have low confidence they’ll hit their May timeframes. It’s not a knock on Wahoo, but rather, how tricky it is to do, compared to when they started working on it (a few weeks ago). Will they ultimately make it work? Sure, I suspect so. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned doing this, is to largely not judge products on features that companies haven’t yet implemented. Especially really hard features.

i defer to you on that. the first i saw the ROAM was on the 9th of april, as i recall, and i'm not privy to what happened before that. you obviously were ahead of me in your discussions with them on features and timelines.

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:

can i make a guess? and i'm saying this with zero knowledge. just a sense of how all this transpired.

i got my first reachout from wahoo's PR team on february the 20th, for the launch at sea otter. the launch itself was april 9/10, with an embargo of may 1. if the first reachout to me was feb 20, they had this planned many weeks prior to this, because they booked a lot of rooms in a particular hotel for this launch, and getting rooms and meeting space for sea otter isn't trivial.

it is my guess that, when wahoo planned this launch, many months before may 1, it intended to have all the functionality done by may 1. during the launch we were told that certain functions (integration with singletracks and mtb project; turn-by-turn navigation, full time elevation data) were going to be a few weeks out, or a month or two. i think they just missed the deadline on all their functionality, and they damned near missed the deadline on their companion app update.

so, if i'm wahoo, what do i do? if i sell the watch for $329, which might be a fair price, and then raise it to $379, a couple of months later, when all the functionality is in, how's that going to go over? i can't really delay the launch, because i've already booked everything, and the only time all the media is in one place is at sea otter. i can't delay the release of the watch because i already have the factory space booked and my specialty stores are expecting the product.

so, look, i agree, the missing functionality is worth $X. do you review the watch as is, and calibrate it to $379? or do you review it as it soon will be and calibrate it to the price? or a little of both? i think they made the best choice they could, which is to launch, and ship, and promise a firmware update in fairly short order that brings this watch up to full promised functionality.

is it ideal? (assuming my guess is correct?) no. what's ideal is for it all to have happened the way it was storyboarded 18 months ago. but i have some sympathy for manufacturers.

Talking about the watch is like talking about Afghanistan when you're in the Modernization Brigade...deployments aren't real, they don't exist. This watch...what watch? If anything from Wahoo tells what is going on as a consumer is that they really need to just focus on their wheelhouse of indoor training which had numerous issues in the 2018 kickr. I'm not an engineer, but I don't know how you go from a really great 2017 to product to one full of bugs. I'm guessing it's pretty easy to end up there...but if you're screwing up your wheelhouse why are you messing around with GPS stuff?

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.
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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:

okay. but this is kind of my beef. we've got people on this thread going ISIS over the fact that the ROAM is not USB-C. because i charge! and i must charge quickly! so, which is it?

the ROAM is too big. it's too small. and the fact that the ROAM is not precisely what you want means it's an epic fail because, of course, you are the center of the manufacturing universe, around which the entire industry revolves. and i don't mean you as in you, rather, the theme that pervades many of the quibbles in this thread.

I find this comical. There is a lot of "you, you, you" finger pointing here, but it seems like your praise for the Roam is centered around the "me, me, me" regarding your eyesight. I'm sure it is frustrating if the majority of cycling computers are illegible for you, but proclaiming the Roam as an excellent device just because you can read the screen does not make it so, nor does it make it a great value proposition at $379 for anybody but the blind. I come to slowtwitch for a lot of things, but a critical product review on the front page is not one of them.
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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [dcrainmaker] [ In reply to ]
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dcrainmaker wrote:


It's funny how many folks keep going off on the USB-C item (literally, it's a single line mention in my review - I have countless single things I mention - this one hardly important).


Maybe hardly important for you. But I don't think once in my life have I successfully picked the right direction for USB type A, mini, or micro on the first try. Or if I did, I still somehow still screwed it up and had to suffer the massive indignity of switching directions twice before successfully inserting the cable. After literal decades of USB insertion failure, it brings me just tiny bit of joy in my daily life to get it right on the first try every damn time. It matters to me. After coming home from a 6-hour ride and plugging in my head unit, lights, power meter, etc, it just freaking matters to not have to deal with the damn hassle of micro USB. The little things really matter. Like Steve Jobs insisting on the satisfying tactile click on iPod buttons. It matters.
Last edited by: trail: May 3, 19 21:46
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Re: NEW Wahoo Element Roam [commendatore] [ In reply to ]
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Perhaps it's time he saw the old eye doctor for a prescription?

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.
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