The Wahoo ELEMNT ACE: Big, Bold and (Mostly) Worth It

Wahoo ELEMNT ACE Review: Big, Bold, and (Mostly) Worth It

The first thing anyone notices about the ELEMNT ACE is that it’s BIG. Like, almost phone sized.

In fact, it’s quite a bit thicker than a phone.

So if it’s big, it must be heavy, right? Well…yes. In cycling terms. In pay-dollars-to-shave-grams terms. Lying in your palm it’s noticeably heavy. Our kitchen scale showed a whopping 208 grams.

Note: “Whopping” is intended to be sarcastic. Because when it comes to weight-paring, even post-aero revolution, many of us cyclists need to get a grip. The ACE weighs 208 grams, while my ELMNT BOLT tickles the scale at 61 grams, for a difference of 147g — aka 5 ounces, or .31 lbs.

Here are some things that weigh about 147 grams:

• A SIS gel-and-a-half
• A banana
• A tube
• One-fourth of a full, large water bottle

Or…⅓ of one of those pounds you’ve been meaning to lose so you can cut the denominator on your power-to-weight ratio.

You get my point: For a bike computer, the ACE is big and heavy, but in the grand scheme, in the value-to-weight sphere, I found the ACE to be worth the tradeoff — because a big computer means ease of use, ease of reading on the road, and a range of features. (Note: I’ll still use my BOLT in races.)

Setup: About As Painless As It Gets

I’ve set up enough head units over the years to have a baseline level of dread walking into it, and the ACE mostly erased that. Pairing phone, and then with with my power meter and radar light took a few minutes total, and the app walked me through profile setup, screen customization, and firmware updates without much fuss. If you’ve used any prior ELEMNT unit, the menu logic will feel familiar; if you haven’t, it’s intuitive enough that you won’t need the manual.

Redundant Controls: Buttons AND Touch

One thing I appreciated right away is that Wahoo didn’t force an either/or choice between physical buttons and a touchscreen. The ACE gives you both. The textured buttons at the bottom of the face and along the side are easy to find by feel, which matters when you’re descending in the cold with thick gloves and don’t want to be poking at glass. But the touchscreen itself is responsive and quick, and for scrolling through maps or menus at a stoplight, it’s just faster. Having the redundancy means you’re never stuck; if one input method isn’t working for the conditions, the other one is right there.

Finding Cousin Daryl’s House

The map-to function got its real test on a 117-mile ride to a family reunion at Cousin Daryl’s a house I have never managed to find without at least one wrong turn. I synced the route before leaving, and the ACE steered me there with turn-by-turn cues on that big, easy-to-read screen. I understand that turn-by-turn directions aren’t exactly cutting edge, but these involved no squinting, no guessing at a tiny arrow, and thanks to redundant information (map and turn-soon alerts), even I couldn’t miss a turn. Even when I turned off course to find a bike shop where I might recharge my di2 (long story…), it easily re-routed me back on course.

Throughout my wide, even when the wind blew and sweat stained my glasses, I could see the screen easily. Color isn’t necessary on a bike computer, but it sure is nice, and WAHOO deploys the color screen in clever ways, such as color-coding the power mode depending on your effort; in zone 1 the watts portion of the screen is green; in zone 6 it’s red.. (Note: the zones are easy to change in the WAHOO app; once I personalize my FTP, I’ll no longer see orange when I hit just 220 watts.)

The Hill Function

The hill screen is one of those features you don’t know you need until you’re grinding up something long and demoralizing. It shows exactly where you are on the climb and how many vertical feet remain, which turns “how much more of this is there” from a guessing game into a data point. It’s a small thing, but it changes how you pace a climb, and more than once it talked me out of easing up too early.

The Wind Screen: Fun, If Not Essential

The wind screen shows you where the wind is coming from and how strong it is, and I’ll admit I found myself checking it more than I probably needed to. It’s more gratifying than informative, honestly, since you can already feel the wind on your face, and the ACE can’t tell you when it’s going to die down (like it can tell you when the hill will end). Still, there’s something satisfying about seeing it confirmed on screen, especially when you can point to the display and say “see, it’s not just me.”

The Mount: A Missing Piece (for Some)

Here’s the catch with a unit this size: it comes with its own extended mounting arm, and that extended arm did not fit around my elliptical bars. I would need to buy a different, bar-specific mount to do it properly. In the meantime, I made do by detaching my integrated mount, mounting the ACE onto it, and then reattaching the whole assembly to the bars. It worked, but it was a bit of a hassle, and it’s worth knowing going in that the stock mount may not just click onto whatever bars you’re already running.

Mostly, this is just a reminder that the ACE is a highly functional bike computer…but weight-weenie admonishments notwithstanding, it’s just not really at home on a race machine.

The Bottom Line

At $499, the ELEMNT ACE is not a casual purchase, and the size and weight are real trade-offs that some riders won’t want to make. But the payoff is a computer that’s genuinely easier to use on the road: readable at a glance, backed up by two solid ways to control it, smart with navigation, and packed with small touches like the hill function that make hard rides a little more manageable. The wind screen is more novelty than necessity, and you may need to budget for a mount upgrade depending on your bars. Even so, I came away thinking the trade was worth it.

More info and purchase details at wahoofitness.com.

The post The Wahoo ELEMNT ACE: Big, Bold and (Mostly) Worth It appeared first on PezCycling News.