Pete Marshall | Mon 8th Mar 2021 09:00
New from Wahoo is their Elemnt RIVAL GPS sports watch based off their proven Elemnt bike computers. The RIVAL comes with added features unique to Multisport and Triathlon to create a seamless racing experience allowing you to focus on your race and not how your equipment is performing.
We were lucky at Evo to get a test unit to put it through its paces, I have had the watch for the last week and have got a good feel for it and how it works and performs. Being a Garmin convert and having owned many of their cycle computers and GPS watches over the years I was initially skeptical about this new GPS watch from Wahoo.
To test this watch I was going to throw everything at it I would normally throw at my Garmin 935 which lives permanently on my wrist. This was in the form of 24/7 tracking, Cycling, an Open Water swim, Indoor Training with a Kickr4, Running and a Triathlon race in the weekend – sounds like a busy week!
I will add the Wahoo Elemnt RIVAL to my other wrist and see how it compares and performs to my Garmin GPS watch.
Upon receiving the watch, I can see it is nicely packaged, inside with the watch is a small quick start guide and USB charger. There is no plug to connect the charger to, the watch would need to be plugged into a Laptop/PC or other existing USB power source.
After downloading the Elemnt app to my android phone, I connect it to the watch with Bluetooth. Initial impressions of the app are good, the app looks clean and well presented and much nicer than the Garmin app that looks old and dated. Once I have connected the watch to the app, I scroll though the features and I can fully customize and setup the watch through the app. This is a breath of fresh air as it can be a pain going through the multiple menus on my Garmin watch changing settings for various things. Wahoo make the watch setup very easy with its app!
There are many things that can be changed in the app, from my profile setup through to how the watch looks and performs. Changes happen live, if I change the watch face on the app it changes instantly on the watch.
The Watch looks solidly built and feels like quality, it looks like it could take some abuse. Button layout is slightly different but much the same as my Garmin watch, there are 3 buttons on the right side and 2 on the left. Functionality is very similar but set to different buttons, you can customize this in the app to your preferences. The strap feels better quality than my Garmin and it comes with 2 band loops instead of 1 like the Garmin, it also feels more solid. I think almost everyone that has owned a Garmin watch has had their band loop break on them.
The watch has an integrated wrist heart rate sensor on the underside of the watch, this is what many of the Garmin watches have now. The watch is also compatible with a separately purchased chest heart rate sensor, these have been proven to be more accurate over wrist sensors, but wrist sensors are still very good. The underside also has the pins the charger connects to.
Putting the watch on my right-hand wrist I set the option in the app to tell it what wrist it is on. Unfortunately the watch does not feel comfortable, I have had the same problem with the Garmin Fenix watches too due to my puny wrists. The RIVAL watch is about the same size and has the same feel as the base model Fenix watch. The RIVAL looks quite a bit bigger than my Garmin 935, but this is due to the low profile of the Garmin. The RIVAL weighs more but this is not noticeable.
After a week of activities and tracking on the RIVAL I can confirm is it does what it was designed to do. I found it did not quite match the activity tracking results my Garmin 935 gives me, but I do find between different watches there are always some variances.
The Elemnt RIVAL impressed me with was how simple the watch was to use and setup through the App and how great the App looked and functioned. I was impressed with the heart rate tracking in the Open Water swim, my Garmin 935 does not allow this.
Elevation data was much better on the Elemnt RIVAL, I have had no end of troubles with the barometric altimeter on the Garmin watches constantly giving me crazy elevation data. The watch connected very nicely with my Kickr4 indoor trainer, it was a great way to display and record information about my workout.
The biggest feature I was impressed with was the Triathlon Touchless Transitions. I was not sure how this was going to work or even work. The watch can detect when you have finished your swim and gone into transition to get ready for the bike. Then once finished the bike and transitioning to the run, and it does this automatically! The transition is recorded as a separate activity as are the Swim, Bike and Run disciplines all using their own unique profiles. With Garmin and other watches, you need to hit the lap button to go into transition to tell the watch and then hit the button again leaving to start the next discipline. It's easy to forget to do this as you are focusing on the race or press it at the wrong time giving incorrect data. With touchless transitions there is no button pushing so this is a great advantage and just lets you focus on the race.
Another great feature that I did not get to try was the watch can detect in a Triathlon when your near your bike that has an Elemnt bike computer mounted, it then switches to using that device automatically for the bike leg, then switches back to the watch when your out of range and starting your run
I was always impressed with the wealth of information the watch gave me on screen and then in the app after I had finished my activity, I found this easier to read than on my Garmin.
I believe the Wahoo Elemnt RIVAL is a great watch and will appeal to many. The RIVAL has many great features no other GPS watches have. It is a great price and much cheaper to a Garmin equivalent for the features you get. Wahoo also seem to be more interested in user experience and updates than Garmin are. While there are some accuracy issues with the RIVAL, Wahoo are invested in fixing these and have already provided many updates to the watch. The watch I tested was a test unit so I can only imagine this great watch is much better now.
Pete has been riding bikes for over 20 years as well as being passionate about all things outdoors. Pete loves a good adventure especially if it is challenging, this started with 24 hour solo bike racing, he has done Ironman, multiple ultra marathons and Tour Aotearoa. Pete works in the Web Team
@Our Backyard Adventures NZ
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