I have an iPhone 8s and a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt. Both are kept up to date.
Every second ride or so, my Wahoo takes a few minutes before it starts recording speed and distance travelled. I know it's on, because both the clock and the time elapsed on the bike are accurate; but when I get to my destination, I can see that it's missed recording anywhere up to the first 2 kms of a ride.
The other thing it does is not share with Strava. Again, this doesn't happen every ride, but often enough that it's really aggravating. Indeed, it completely failed to upload my commute from Monday afternoon. Now, it's just sitting here refusing to push through this morning's commute.
I have tried encouraging it by fiddling around with both the Wahoo app and the Strava app; I have tried turning both devices on and off. To no avail. My guess is that it will pair with no problem at some point later today - say, when I get home.
But what's going on with it? Where's the actual problem? The software? The hardware? Me?
Every second ride or so, my Wahoo takes a few minutes before it starts recording speed and distance travelled. I know it’s on, because both the clock and the time elapsed on the bike are accurate; but when I get to my destination, I can see that it’s missed recording anywhere up to the first 2 kms of a ride.
Probably GPS lock, or lack of it. If it shows n/a for speed it means it hasn't got sufficient GPS signal and won't be recording your speed or distance. Saying that, my bolt gets this within a few seconds of it being turned on normally.
The other thing it does is not share with Strava. Again, this doesn’t happen every ride, but often enough that it’s really aggravating. Indeed, it completely failed to upload my commute from Monday afternoon. Now, it’s just sitting here refusing to push through this morning’s commute.
How are you uploading your rides? By syncing the wahoo with the phone app which then uses the app to upload, or by allowing the wahoo to connect to WiFi and automatically sync?I've had some failed uploads (never to strava, but to Google fit) but never had any issues with the WiFi auto upload
My Wahoo is haunted
Oh, not a euphemism then.
by allowing the wahoo to connect to WiFi and automatically sync?
I'm sure I had set it to do this, but I will check.
Mine syncs automatically at home (over Wifi) but occasionally needs a prod at work where it syncs using the app due to radius authentication being used so the Elemnt can't connect to wifi directly. Never had it miss the start of a ride though it gets a lock within moments every time.
I thought only Garmins had these wee quirks. Seems not.
I think there are 2 separate issues here:
Missing the start of the ride as already said is due to it not having GPS lock - I always turn mine on and put it outside whilst I'm putting my lid on / locking the door etc to allow the GPS lock to finalise and the barometer to calibrate - you can check this has completed by going to the maps screen. Doesn't normally take more than a minute, usually a lot less.
The only time I've had failed uploads to Strava or Google is when my phone has had signal issues (as a lot of mtb car parks seem to have poor signal!) the ride will appear in the Wahoo app, but not Strava - this can be re-synced by opening the ride in the Wahoo app, clicking the three dots (top right) and choosing "upload ride" - it will show which services you have setup for the ride to upload to, and whether it has uploaded or not. Just click the service to retry the upload.
I've had the GPS lock problem with my Elemnt Bolt a couple of times. Both occasions have been when I've ridden from a location significantly away from when the unit was turned off, i.e. not riding straight from home.
I guess it takes longer to get a lock if you've moved location since turning off?
I know my old Garmin car sat nav used to ask if it had been moved a significant distance if it didn't aquire a GPS lock within a minute or so.
I find the best way to speed this up is to connect the device to the phone app. I then just kill the connection once the GPS has sorted itself out.
Regarding uploads, again I think the only time I've had issues is when I'm not on my home network.
I can't remember exactly how, but I think you just need to pair it with the phone app & find the sync option.
the ride will appear in the Wahoo app, but not Strava – this can be re-synced by opening the ride in the Wahoo app, clicking the three dots (top right) and choosing “upload ride” – it will show which services you have setup for the ride to upload to, and whether it has uploaded or not. Just click the service to retry the upload.
So I have fiddling with it all night now, and see what you’re saying. That worked with two of the rides that had not previously uploaded, but when I do the above with Monday morning’s commute, the Wahoo upload just says it is “processing” and then stays there. It seems the one ride just won’t upload. I’ll try plugging in directly to my laptop to check, but the uploader is definitely doing something weird!
