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TECH NEWS

Touchless Transition technology unveiled in Wahoo’s new Elemnt Rival GPS multisport watch

For use from swimming to riding to running, Wahoo’s new GPS watch helps track metrics across all stages of multi-sport events

The Elemnt Rival (£349.99) performance watch features Wahoo’s innovative Touchless Transition technology, increasing functionality for triathletes, runners and cyclists.

2021 Wahoo Rival 3

Wahoo says the new technology that has been launched in the Elemnt Rival enables multisport athletes to “seamlessly switch from swim to ride to run without touching their watch - allowing them to focus solely on their performance”.

The technology looks for changes in the way you are moving between the different styles of workouts and applies those transitions—these can be edited afterwards if slightly out.

The Rival watch is said to track all standard run, bike and swim metrics, as well as advanced running dynamics when paired with the Wahoo’s TICKRx heart rate monitor.

2021 Wahoo Rival 2

Wahoo says has been the aim has been "user-centric design and unblinkered focus on functionality to triathletes, runners and cyclists".

With a battery life that is said to last 14 days in ‘watch mode’ or 24 hours in ‘GPS mode’, the Elemnt Rival should cover the length of all training sessions and competitions — except very long ultra-events.

Data from the watch can be transferred to Wahoo’s Elemnt GPS cycling computer thanks to the brand’s Multisport Handover mode. This setting allows the Rival watch to interact with other devices in Wahoo's ecosystem.

Post-workout, metrics are pushed to Wahoo’s companion app and this can be automatically uploaded to third-party platforms including Training Peaks and Strava.

Connectivity with ANT+ and Bluetooth sensors means the Elemnt Rival watch can control Wahoo’s KICKR smart trainers when the outdoors isn’t so inviting.

2021 Wahoo Rival 5

Complete with a backlight that is automatically adjusted by an ambient light sensor, a barometric altimeter, optical heart sensor and live tracking, this multisport watch ticks all the usual high-performance boxes.

Used by two-time Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee, he said: “The Elemnt Rival helps me track all my metrics during a training session without distracting me from performing to the best of my ability - be that in the water, on the bike or when running.”

2021 Wahoo Rival 4

Wahoo’s multisport watch has arrived here at road.cc, so a review will be landing soon.

Available today for £349.99. Get more info at www.wahoofitness.com

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9 comments

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OnYerBike | 3 years ago
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I wish my pain cave looked like that...

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mikepulsifer | 3 years ago
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I love the concept, but wouldn't it be a bit cumbersome keeping an eye on your power numbers while on the bike?

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dave atkinson replied to mikepulsifer | 3 years ago
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if you use the multisport handover functionality then you get all your data on your elemnt computer for the bike leg. assuming you have one  1

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mikepulsifer replied to dave atkinson | 3 years ago
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Will look into that, thanks.  I do have an ELEMNT.

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OnYerBike replied to mikepulsifer | 3 years ago
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"Data from the watch can be transferred to Wahoo’s Elemnt GPS cycling computer thanks to the brand’s Multisport Handover mode."

I presume whilst on the bike, power numbers would still be displayed on the GPS head unit, assuming you have one. 

I don't know if Wahoo plan to offer a handlebar/stem mount as available for certain Garmin watches (to use the watch in the place of a separate GPS head unit) although clearly such an approach doesn't fit with the multisport focus!

(Edit: I clearly spend far too long writing my replies, as Dave's wasn't here when I started!)

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dave atkinson replied to OnYerBike | 3 years ago
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Quote:

I presume whilst on the bike, power numbers would still be displayed on the GPS head unit, assuming you have one. 

yeah, my understanding is that the watch and the computer are paired, the watch remains the primary recording device, but is also takes the bike data and adds that to the recording. so you get your on-bike data when you're riding but also in the final watch file.

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Carior replied to mikepulsifer | 3 years ago
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I mean - this is really no different to any Garmin triathlon watch. This is a sensible play.  As a triathlete, going Wahoo for a bike computer wasn't practical with a Garmin tri watch as you really want/need everything within a single ecosystem.  This now opens up the triathlon market more effectively.

That said, the functionality still appears so narrow compared to Garmin where multi-sport watches cover so much more than just swim bike run!

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mikepulsifer replied to Carior | 3 years ago
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As an ELEMNT owner, I just hope at this point that it has a duathlon mode.  If it does, I'm game.  If it can, in addition to that, support interval workouts from TrainingPeaks the way the ELEMNT does, then "take my money, please!"

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OnYerBike replied to mikepulsifer | 3 years ago
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It looks like you can manually create a duathlon profile - although I think you would have to push a button to transition rather than it automatically detecting transitions as for Triathlon.

DC Rainmaker already has a detailed review out if you can't wait for Road.cc's...: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/11/wahoo-rival-multisport-gps-watch-rev...

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