New Wahoo bike computer leaked that appears to have a built-in wind sensor

A new Wahoo bike computer, which looks like it will be called the Elemnt Ace if the photos are to be believed, has been leaked online, with some blurry details giving away a few clues over what the new unit might offer. 

Appearing on the r/wahoofitness thread on Reddit and first reported in the media by Cyclingnews, the poster claims to have ordered the mysterious new computer from eBay international, although we cannot verify this claim at the time of writing. 

The Wahoo Elemnt Ace - assuming this is the real deal - is described as the cycling tech brand's "most powerful bike computer", and seems to be a completely new device, rather than an update of the popular Elemnt Roam V2 or Elemnt Bolt V2 released in 2022 and 2021 respectively.

Based on the details we can make out from the packaging, the Elemnt Ace will feature a larger 3.8" touchscreen. That not only exceeds Wahoo's current offerings (the Bolt V2 has a 2.2" display and the Roam V2 is 2.7") but is also larger than the supersized 3.5-inch wrap-around liquid crystal display on the Garmin Edge 1050. 

To make room for the larger display, the bezels no longer appear to house any coloured LEDs that have been used to show metrics such as heart rate, power or speed on existing Wahoo units, like the Roam V2 shown above. Wahoo has, however, retained buttons on the side and upper face of the device.

This mystery computer does have an additional trick up its sleeve though; if the box is to be believed, then Wahoo will be combining touchscreen and button functionality on a cycle computer for the first time. This is by no means a first in the industry, as Garmin, Hammerhead and plenty of others are now several generations deep into using touchscreens on their flagship models.

Built-in wind sensor 

Potentially the most intriguing feature to be leaked from the blurry info we can make out on the box is the inclusion of a wind sensor on the Elemnt Ace, something that would be a first for a mainstream cycling computer brand. This is presumably going to be used alongside the accelerometer, altimeter and gyroscope to measure wind speed relative to the rider in order to calculate drag.

Could Wahoo be bringing DIY aero testing to bike computers? It certainly looks that way! If you haven't heard about DIY aero testing then we've written a couple pof articles on the topic that might interest you:

> The future of going fast? Why live drag sensors might be cycling's next big tech craze
> What we learnt using the "world's first real-time aerodynamic drag force measurement system for cyclists"

Given the expense of wind tunnel testing and the importance of aerodynamics on performance, DIY aero testing could be the next big frontier of amateur cycling performance; think of it as the sequel of power meters.

Despite this, its inclusion on a head unit does come as a bit of a surprise, if these pictures are to be believed. At-home aero testing is a notoriously hard nut to crack, especially in something the size of a bike computer head unit (albeit quite a big one!)

Battery life 

Bigger screens mean more power, but according to the leaked pictures of this box, the battery life of the Elemnt Ace could be considerably more than any of Wahoo's current bike computers. In fact, the claimed life of over 30 hours doubles that of the Elemnt Bolt V2 (15 hours) and it's also considerably more than that of the Elemnt Roam V2 (17 hours).

This is also more than the Garmin Edge 1050, which offers up to 20 hours of battery life in "demanding use" but less than the current king of endurance, the Coros Dura, which boasts a whopping claimed run time of 120 hours.

Bye bye bike bells?

One of the most talked about features of the latest Garmin Edge 1050 is the inclusion of a "bell function", which makes use of the device's built-in speaker. The Wahoo Ace box indicates that the Garmin rival will also feature a built-in speaker, which would suggest that a bell function is possible like on the new Garmin. 

What will it cost?

Wahoo's current flagship computer is the Elemnt Roam V2 with an RRP of £349.99. Plenty of consumers are clearly prepared to spend more though; the Garmin Edge 1050 and Hammerhead Karoo 3 are priced at £649.99 and £450 respectively.

Judging by the size increase and additional features, it's pretty safe to assume that the Elemnt Ace will command a price far higher than we've seen from previous Wahoo computers.

A roundup of what we know so far:

• 3.8" Touchscreen
• Wind, Accelerometer, Altimeter, Gyroscope sensors
• 30+ hours of battery life 
• 64 GB of memory
• USB-C charger 
• Premium Aluminium mount 
• Audio speaker

When will it be officially unveiled?

There was no official release date leaked, but given the pictures of the device and box, we'd say that this is a production-ready sample rather than an early prototype. We'd therefore expect this to be hitting the virtual shelves very soon, although we can't verify 100% that the pictures are genuine and Wahoo doesn't appear to stick to a hard and fast schedule for releasing new product. 

For reference, the first Elemnt computer was released in February 2016, the Roam V1 in April 2019 and the Roam V2 in October 2022, so there appears to be no pattern as to when Wahoo releases its latest flagship devices.

Intrigued by this supposed new Wahoo bike computer? Let us know what you think in the comments below.