This guide will show you how to load a Ride with GPS or Strava route onto your Wahoo ELEMNT bike computer.

1. Pin the route

Pinning a route on Ride with GPS

Mobile app:

  • Sign into your Ride with GPS account
  • Open route
  • Click on the “Save” button at the bottom of the screen Save route
  • Click on “Save to Pinned” Save to pinned

Desktop web:

  • Sign into your Ride with GPS account
  • Open route
  • Click on “Pin” on the upper left hand corner Desktop pin route

There is also an option to “Send to Device”. Send to Device requires a couple more clicks and for a Wahoo ELEMNT, it simply pins the route for you. Therefore, it’s easier if you just click on “Pin”.

Desktop send to device

Pinning a route on Strava

  • Sign into your Strava account
  • Open route
  • Click on the star icon next to the name of the ride
  • Make sure your ELEMNT app is open, the bike computer is turned on and connected to your phone.
  • On the Workout tab, select “Choose a route”
  • Select “Sync from web” ELEMNT app route page sync from web
  • Authorize Ride with GPS and/or Strava

3. Load the route

There are two options to load a route onto your bike computer:

Load a route onto your bike computer from the ELEMNT mobile app

  • Go to the Routes page (Workout tab > Choose a route) ELEMNT Choose a route
  • You should see all the routes you bookmarked from Ride with GPS and Strava. You might have to swipe down on the page to manually sync.
  • Click on the route you want to ride.
  • Select “Select” on the upper right hand corner ELEMNT Select route
  • The route will sync to your bike computer and you’re ready to go! Don’t forget to press Start on your bike computer to record your ride!

Load a route from the ELEMNT bike computer

(These instructions are for the ELEMNT Bolt, I’m not sure if it’s the same for other ELEMNT bike computers, but they should be similar)

  • Click on “Route” on the bike computer. If you do not see “Route”, click on “Page” to cycle through the data pages until you see the Route tab.
  • Use the up and down buttons to find the route you want to ride
  • If you don’t see the route, try pressing the “Sync” button to sync your routes. ELEMNT Sync routes
  • Click “Select”. Don’t forget to press Start to record your ride! ELEMNT Select route

Useful ELEMNT settings

Here are some settings I find useful in the ELEMNT bike computer. Everything for the bike computer is configured through the ELEMNT companion app.

Customize your ELEMNT

  • Make sure your bike computer is on and connected to your phone

  • In the ELEMENT app, select the Settings tab, then select your bike computer

  • Select “Pages”

    ELEMNT pages

  • Enable Workout data page to see all your ride data. Click into the Workout data option to customize the data fields you want to see. ELEMENT Bolt allows up to 9 data fields per page. You can enable Workout Data 2 page if you need more data fields.

    ELEMNT workout data

    Put the important data fields towards the top of the list. Those are the ones you can zoom in and out on by pressing the up and down buttons on the bike computer:

    ELEMNT show data fields

  • I like to enable the climbing page. When there is a route loaded onto the bike computer, it shows a little elevation chart at the bottom. It’s really helpful to know how long a climb is! You can also add custom data fields to this page.

    ELEMNT climbing page

  • Enable the Map page. This is the reason we’re loading a route, right? I usually leave the bike computer on this page when I’m riding a route I don’t know well.

Live tracking

Scroll down a bit on the Settings page. Wahoo gives you live tracking for free!

  • Enable “Live Track”

  • Select “Share Live Track Link” to manually or automatically share your live track link. Your friends and family will be able to see your location, distance, elapsed time, speed, elevation climbed, and even your heart rate, cadence, and power if you have a those sensor connected.

  • Note: for live tracking link to work, the Bluetooth on your phone needs to remain connected to your bike computer during the entire ride. Live tracking will stop if your phone and bike computer get far enough away from each other and lose Bluetooth connection during a ride. This usually happens during a rest stop if you park your bike and walk far enough away from it for the devices to lose connection. I usually keep the live tracking active by taking the bike computer with me during a rest stop.

    In my experience, live tracking doesn’t drain a lot of phone battery.

    ELEMNT live tracking

    What the live tracking page looks like:

    ELEMNT live tracking page

Show my location to nearby riders

  • Enable “Show other riders my location”. I find this feature really helpful during group rides. This only works with other ELEMNT computers.

Automatic upload

  • Enable “Automatic upload”. Click into the option to authorize apps you want your ride to upload to.

    ELEMNT automatic upload