Wahoo ELEMNT ACE Review: A Bike Computer Nobody Asked For

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Over the past few years, I’ve tested most flagship bike computers, including the Garmin Edge 1040, Edge 1050, Hammerhead Karoo 3, and Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT 2, among others. Surprisingly, except for software updates, we haven’t seen a new head unit from Wahoo for several years. But it’s finally here. It’s called Wahoo ELEMNT ACE, and I was the first person to use it in Czechia. I bought it for my own money, and in this early review, I share my thoughts on it.

My ELEMNT Ace rating at a glance:
Battery Life 3/5 | Ease of Setup 5/5 | Display 4/5 | Ease of Use 4/5 | GPS Accuracy 4/5 | Maps & Navigation 4/5 | Price 1/5 | OVERALL 3.6/5
More about this bike computer scoring.

Wahoo ELEMNT ACE: Pros & Cons

These are the main pros and cons of the Wahoo ELEMNT ACE that I discovered during use.

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Unboxing and Initial Setup

The ELEMNT ACE’s initial setup is straightforward. You simply scan the QR code using the Wahoo app, connect it to WiFi, and it updates itself. What disappointed me was that I had to set up my data pages again. They were not synchronized with my previous Wahoo bike computers. Garmin is pretty good at this; they synchronize everything (including the sensors) from the cloud.

My Experience with Wahoo ELEMNT ACE

Below, I share my early experience with ELEMNT ACE in the most important areas.

Display

The 3.8-inch display is one of the largest of all bike computers. Only the Jespr bike computer is larger (4 inches). This has several benefits, such as improved readability and a larger battery, but also has some drawbacks, including higher weight. See the following chart, which shows the display sizes of the best bike computers.

The screen is a bit flashier than previous ELEMNT bike computers, but it remains decently readable in various scenarios (some of which are shown in the images below).

The screen resolution is 480×720px, which means it’s also one of the sharpest displays, similar to Hammerhead Karoo 3 or Garmin Edge 1050. See the following close-up picture.

The following picture shows multiple popular bike computers. Hammerhead Karoo 3 is the brightest, followed by Edge 1050 and the rest. ACE has roughly the same brightness as BOLT 2 and ROAM.

Thanks to the large screen, ACE can show up to 11 data fields, which are super easy to read. However, this is the same number of data fields that the ROAM 3 can show. Unfortunately, the way of displaying data fields is rather traditional and not very graphical. There are also no data field previews like on the Edge 1050 and Karoo 3.

On the other hand, some details, such as the background color of the gradient depending on the actual gradient or watt and HR zones, are pretty cool.

Also available at rei.com

By the way, I’ve added a few comparison pictures below with the Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT v2.

Battery Life

Wahoo ELEMNT ACE has a claimed battery life of 30 hours. The real battery life lags far behind the supposed one. Thanks to my friend who rides outside even in winter, we found out the real battery life is only around 16 hours. This makes it basically the same as the battery life of the ELEMNT BOLT 2 and ROAM 2. This is a great disappointment.

Of course, several sensors were connected to the bike computer, such as a bicycle radar, power meter, and heart rate monitor. ACE was used on auto brightness (yes, ACE has an ambient sensor to adjust the brightness).

Of course, ACE has a USB-C charging port. I think I will stop mentioning this feature in 2025, as it has become a standard. In the EU, it’s mandatory for electronic devices, effective from December 28, 2024.

Control & User Friendliness

If there was something I had high expectations of, it was the ease of use ELEMNT computers are known for. ACE’s system is more comprehensive but still not too complicated. You intuitively know where you find the things you are looking for. However, if you expect the same simplicity as with BOLT and ROAM 1st and 2nd generation, I will disappoint you. The touchscreen and the menus suited for it add an extra layer of complexity.

Many settings, including data pages and data fields, are set via the smartphone app. I like this solution, but if the head unit has a touchscreen, it should also offer the option to set it on-device. This is something ACE (and not even BOLT 3 and ROAM 3) doesn’t have. Maybe Wahoo wanted to keep things simple.

As always, I tested the display’s controllability with gloves and when wet. ACE’s display performed below expectations. Unlike Garmin bike computers, it struggled when wet and was not as accurate, especially when I wore gloves and the screen was wet. Without gloves, but when wet, its accuracy increases. Watch the following video for further reference.

You can control ACE with the touchscreen or buttons. Both approaches work pretty well. Buttons are helpful in winter or rain. You can use them instead of trying to hit the exact spot on the screen with gloves. However, I have to say that the side buttons are not as tactile. This is an issue when using gloves. The three front ones are fine, but the side ones could be better.

I have also encountered bugs with ACE. For example, sometimes, I can’t turn it on because it won’t load, so I have to perform a hard reset. This is very disappointing because I’ve never experienced similar issues with the previous generations of ELEMNT bike computers.

Maps & Navigation

ELEMNT ACE has great maps. They are not on the level of Karoo 3 (which has almost smartphone-like maps), but they are easy to follow. So, how good is the actual navigation? I tried a few routes, and the calculated routes were sometimes pretty weird. ACE tended to take me via side roads instead of the shortest roads.

Browsing maps on ACE is not as smooth as on Hammerhead Karoo 3. It’s a bit laggy, but it’s nothing super annoying. You can pinch to zoom in or out and swipe with two fingers to switch between 2D and 3D views. It’s pretty cool. Watch the following video.

Route calculation of uploaded routes works almost instantaneously, which is great.

Free Summit Feature

The Free Summit feature is slowly becoming one of my favorite things about ACE. It’s similar to Garmin’s ClimbPro and doesn’t require a planned route. It estimates the path you will take and shows the climb data (gradients, distance to the top, etc.) so you can pace yourself better.

You can achieve better accuracy for planned routes, but even the free rides are good enough. Where Summit wins is its customizability, though. You can use the smartphone app to change the data fields for the Summit page, which is absolutely awesome. But you can also change how the Summit behaves.

For example, it can only be turned on when you are also using navigation. This makes sense; I don’t need the Summit to be turned on in my area, where I know all the climbs. You can also set what climb difficulty it will appear for, or whether your data pages will automatically change to the Summit page.

Check out my comparison of Free Summit vs. ClimbPro for more details.

GPS Accuracy

The ELEMNT ACE supports multi-band GNSS. I compared its accuracy with other bike computers on my favorite forest segment. I expected better accuracy. You can see from the screenshots below that ACE didn’t nail my position. You can see when I started zig-zagging, but still, it’s not super accurate.

However, I consider a bigger problem to be the very slow search for satellites. It takes ACE up to several tens of seconds (much longer than on BOLT and ROAM 3rd gen.). Sure, they load during the ride, and we’re talking about minor inaccuracies, but I would expect a much faster load time for a flagship unit.

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Connectivity

The ELEMNT ACE features Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ANT+ connectivity, allowing it to be used with a wide range of sensors. It automatically syncs rides, as is standard on high-end head units.

Air Sensor

I expected the most from Air Sensor. Unfortunately, I am disappointed. I can see the wind speed while riding, but honestly, this metric is absolutely useless to me. The same can be said for the time breakdown in the various “zones” offered by the Wahoo app. The data is interesting but actually useless, or I just haven’t found a use case for it. So if this is the reason why you want to buy ACE, don’t.

Speaker, Electronic Bell, and Voice Commands

Many people (including me) laughed at Garmin when they introduced the electronic bell to their Edge 1050. A few months later, other manufacturers started to copy this idea. The bell is useful, and Wahoo’s implementation is much cleverer. You just double-tap the screen, and it honks. You don’t have to tap the screen and then press the bell icon like on Garmin. Some people (GP Lama) have already found a way to adjust the sound.

I also like the idea of having voice instructions on when to turn, so I don’t have to take my eyes off the road and stay aware of what’s happening around me. However, you first have to turn them on in settings. I think they should be turned on by default, but okay. They are also pretty loud, so it’s highly possible you will turn them off right away to avoid annoying your friends.

Wahoo ELEMNT ACE Alternatives

Wahoo ELEMNT ACE Technical Specifications

Below, I summarized the Wahoo ELEMNT ACE technical specifications.

Conclusion

Based on my first impressions, I appreciate that Wahoo tried to push their bike computer game forward. I’m sure the ACE took a lot of their time and resources. It’s a decent bike computer that targets a specific group of people. It’s not for me. I don’t like how bulky and heavy it is. It is so large that it won’t fit some third-party mounts. I prefer smaller head units.

I also hate the fact that it was released without some marketed features, such as the Strava Live segments, elevation profile, and more. These were added with the December 19, 2024, firmware update. But this shouldn’t happen, and features should be available at launch. Markus Brownlee summarized this perfectly: “Never. Ever. Buy a tech product based on the promise of future software updates.”

When compared to other flagships like the Edge 1050 and Karoo 3, ACE loses almost everywhere. The only areas I can think of are the better customizability of the Free Summit data page, larger display, and the integrated wind sensor, which provides interesting data, but for me and many others, they are just that. And that’s about it. Is it worth it, then? I don’t think so. There are better alternatives. I recommend reading my Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM 3 review.

Also available at rei.com

Wahoo ELEMNT ACE FAQ

1. Some were added on 19 December 2024. Check out the Wahoo ACE firmware update page for more details. ↩︎