Field notes 3 MIN READ
Wahoo to print: where the file lives
The ELEMNT app keeps a copy of every ride. Here is how to get it out, and why the Strava round trip is usually unnecessary.
Wahoo's ELEMNT units write FIT files, and there are two ways to get at them.
Through the app
Open the ride in the ELEMNT companion app and use the share or export option on the activity. It hands you the FIT file through the normal share sheet, so it can go straight to a file app, a cloud folder or your own inbox.
Straight off the unit
Plug the head unit into a computer with the USB cable and it appears as a drive. Inside is a folder of FIT files named by date and time. Copy the one you want.
This is worth knowing when the app is being slow to sync, or when the ride you want is old enough to have scrolled out of the app's recent list.
Why not just use Strava
You can, and if the account is already connected it is one click fewer.
The reason to prefer the Wahoo file is the same as with Garmin: it is the file the device wrote, with the barometric altitude it measured. Strava keeps its own elevation processing. On a flat ride the two are indistinguishable. On a day with real climbing they are not.
The indoor case
A KICKR session, or any trainer ride, produces a file with no GPS points. There is power, there is heart rate, there is a great deal of suffering, and there is no shape.
Nothing can be drawn from it. If the effort deserves a wall, it needs to be an outdoor one — or a heatmap of a season, where the indoor sessions simply do not appear.
Questions people actually ask
- Can I get the file off the head unit directly?
- Yes. Plug the ELEMNT into a computer by USB and it mounts as a drive. Rides live in a folder of FIT files named by date. It is the fastest route if the app is being slow to sync.
- My Wahoo file is .fit.gz — is that usable?
- Yes. That is a compressed FIT file and it is unzipped automatically when you bring it over. No need to expand it yourself.
- Does a KICKR session produce a printable file?
- No. An indoor trainer records power, cadence and heart rate but no position, so there is no line to draw. This is true of every indoor session regardless of device.
YOURS, FROM A FILE, IN 90 SECONDS
One effort. One sheet of paper.
Bring the file and every choice is yours: treatment, colour, which numbers come along. Museum-grade 250 gsm matte, printed in Denmark, shipped in a tube with a nail taped inside.
Print it. FROM 349 kr