Long-Term Review: Wahoo ELEMNT RIVAL

Multisport watches have increasingly become more prevalent in cyclocross racing over the past several years. This was first evident in pro cyclocross racing, where athletes are afforded 3 to 4 cyclocross bikes with power meters and want the recording device to stay with them (and not on the bike) as they swapped between bikes during a race.

Now we are seeing a near majority of amateur cyclocross racers swap their head unit computer for a multisport watch when racing. And this makes a lot of sense, even if your cyclocross bikes don’t have power meters.

First, a head unit computer gets in the way, no matter if it extends in front of the stem or is strapped to the stem. Because of the motions related to shouldering the bike and the general mayhem that can ensue during a cyclocross race, the head unit is vulnerable to getting knocked around or having the mount snapped off.

Second, getting away from using a heart rate monitor strap can feel kind of liberating. When using a multisport watch instead, you only need to remember to bring one device instead of two. Also, you don’t have to worry about the strap slipping down with all of the movement and potential contact with other riders or obstacles that takes place during a cyclocross race.

Third, you do not really need to see any data during a cyclocross race. Whether your focus is on mastering the course, racing your competitors, or both, there’s enough going on in the race that numbers from a device are not going to be of much help. Perhaps an exception is those of us with heart conditions who need to keep an eye on max heart rate during a race. In this case, a heart rate max notification or alarm would be a handy add on.

In this context of cyclocross training and racing, I’m offering two features I think the Wahoo ELEMNT RIVAL multisport watch does particularly well. Also, I highlight below an additional two features that will be of particular interest outside the context of cyclocross for multisport athletes.

Auto-Lap

Some but not all cyclocross races are being scored with lap times. Because you are racing multiple laps of the same course, lap times can be revealing in terms of how well you are handling the course (sometimes with changing conditions) as well as how well you are regulating your race effort. Lap times reveal where in your race you may need to improve, such as fitness late in the race or handling while fatigued which can be a challenge if you are not prepared for it.

The ELEMNT RIVAL watch has an auto-lap feature that can be set within individual Workout Profiles by time or distance. What this means for cyclocross is that you can pre-ride the course and determine its distance. Then you can use the ELMENT app to edit the Cycling workout profile to capture lap times automatically. These lap times will not be perfect because of the variability of GPS, and they may not match the official timing if lap times are recorded. However, in the case of a race that is not recording lap times (many grassroots events), you will have a fairly accurate detail of your race laps without having to press the lap button each time across the start/finish line.

This is also handy for doing a race post-mortem before official results are posted online. If you forget to take a picture of the printout of the results with lap times and/or you don’t want to wait until lap times are posted to USAC or crossresults, then you will have your own lap times for reference.

Saved Sensors

If you are running both an A and a B bike each with power meters, you can save both of the power meters to your Saved Sensors within the ELEMNT app. Doing so means that the ELEMNT RIVAL watch is on the lookout for these power meters and will synch to them when in proximity.

You can then go to the pit and swap between your A and B bikes and have a continuous measure of power on the bike in one power file. I have tested this out a few times in practice and it works well. There seems to be a few seconds delay in making the swap between the two power meters on the watch, but it’s a pretty insignificant amount of time.

A decade ago this would have seemed outlandish to have both your A and B cyclocross bike with power meters. Afterall, having two cyclocross race bikes seems outlandish to many getting started in the sport.

However, the price of crank-based power meters have steadily dropped to where this has become feasible. I have a few friends who have purchased a dual sided crank-based power meter and installed each of the arms on their A and B cyclocross bike.

Touchless Transition

Outside the context of cyclocross, the ELEMNT RIVAL watch has another auto-detect feature that can distinguish among activities such as swimming, cycling, running, and transitions. Eliminating the need for separate devices, the RIVAL uses the watch’s accelerometer and barometer, as well as any paired sensors, to input data into an algorithm that auto-detects which activity you are performing. Not only for racing, this could also be used in any multisport brick workout.

There’s no setup for this feature, all you have to do is make sure Touchless Transition is turned on within the Multisport workout profile. This feature is already turned on by default. Then, you only have to use start and stop. Once the multisport workout or race is uploaded to Wahoo SYSTM, you can adjust the start and stop times of the different activities if needed for accuracy.

Multisport Handover

This feature pairs the RIVAL multisport watch with an ELEMNT bike computer, so that you have dual display of your workout or race. This is handy when you are tucked in an aero position on your bike and would prefer to see the larger display of your bike computer rather than turning your wrist to look at the smaller display on your watch.

The two devices need to be paired within the ELEMNT app. Once they are both recognized by the app, they will be aware of each other. Before beginning a workout or race, you place the ELEMNT bike computer in Multisport Mode and leave it on the bike. The ELEMNT bike computer will then stay awake waiting for the RIVAL watch to show up for pairing. The RIVAL watch remains the primary recording device, and the ELEMNT bike computer essentially becomes a secondary display (like an external monitor to a laptop).

Even More Features

I’ve only scratched the surface of what the RIVAL watch is capable of, and I’ve primarily been using it this fall in the context of cyclocross training and racing. As the weather turns and I start training more indoors, I’ll be interested to try out features like controlling the Wahoo Headwind fan and controlling music playing on a phone or tablet. I wasn’t thinking of the watch as an indoor training remote control, so I’ll have to give that a shot this winter.

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