You spent an hour planning the perfect ride in Komoot. Pinned the café at kilometre 45, marked the tricky descent, added a note about the water fountain that's easy to miss. You exported the GPX, sent it to your Wahoo ELEMNT — and on the day of the ride, every single waypoint looks exactly the same: a small, generic purple pin. No icons. No labels. No notes.
If that sounds familiar, you are not alone. It's one of the most common frustrations for cyclists who use Komoot for planning and Wahoo for navigation, and the reason is a straightforward technical mismatch between the two platforms.
What Komoot does when you export a route
When you export a route from Komoot, your waypoints come along — but labelled with Komoot's own internal categories (food, water, viewpoint, danger, and so on).
The trouble is that every GPS brand uses its own icon vocabulary, and they don't line up. The label that means "café" to Komoot means nothing to a Wahoo, and vice versa — so when the route lands on the head unit, Wahoo can't tell what each waypoint is and shows them all the same.
The result: Wahoo sees valid waypoints, renders them on the map, but has no idea what icon to assign — so it falls back to the default purple pin for everything.
The core problem in one sentence: Komoot and Wahoo speak different dialects of GPX, and neither one translates automatically for the other.
Why notes don't appear either
Your waypoint notes have the same problem. Wahoo can show them, but only when a waypoint is recognised as a point of interest in the first place — so if the icon doesn't come through, the note usually doesn't either.
If the waypoint type isn't mapped correctly, Wahoo often skips the note entirely. So that warning about the wet cobbles into the descent just disappears.
Can you fix it manually?
Technically, yes — you could open the file and relabel every waypoint by hand. In practice it's tedious enough that most people don't bother: a typical route has 10–20 waypoints, each needs the right Wahoo label, one slip can break the whole file, and it all has to be redone every export.
The quicker fix
This is exactly what VeloPin was built for. Drag your Komoot GPX onto the page and it maps each Komoot category to the right Wahoo-compatible icon — food stops get a fork-and-knife, water points get a drop, danger spots get a warning triangle. You can also edit names, change notes, and rename the route to keep your Wahoo library tidy.
The whole thing takes about two minutes and runs entirely in your browser — your route is never uploaded to a server.
Step by step: from Komoot to Wahoo with proper icons
- Plan your route in Komoot as usual, with the correct waypoint categories (food, water, viewpoint…).
- Export it as a GPX file from Komoot's web or mobile app.
- Open VeloPin and drop the GPX onto the upload area.
- Review the waypoints — each shows its detected category and the Wahoo icon it'll use. Edit names or notes as needed.
- Optionally rename the route so it's easy to find on Wahoo (e.g. Gravel / Starnberg Loop).
- Export the new GPX and send it to your Wahoo via the companion app or USB.
Getting the file onto your ELEMNT
After exporting, the GPX needs to reach the Wahoo app on your phone, which syncs it to the head unit:
- Send to phone — VeloPin's built-in QR (Pro): scan it and the file downloads to your phone, ready to open in the Wahoo app. Any phone.
- AirDrop (Mac → iPhone) — send the GPX to your phone, then choose Open in → Wahoo app.
- Planning on your phone? Open the exported file in the Wahoo app directly — no transfer needed.
The route then appears in the Wahoo app and syncs to your ELEMNT over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
Which Wahoo devices show waypoints as cues?
One more thing worth knowing. Getting your stops to appear as cues in the turn-by-turn cue sheet — not just as pins on the map — only works on Wahoo's newer units:
- Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT V3
- Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM V3
- Wahoo ELEMNT ACE
On the older BOLT and ROAM units (V1 and V2), custom cues can't be embedded from a file at all.
Planning in VeloPin stays just as powerful — POI discovery, Ride Radar weather, resupply planning and the rest are all there while you build your ride. The limit is on the head unit itself: a BOLT V1 or V2 shows your route line, but not your custom waypoints. That's the gap we built a simple offline fix for.
The printable cue card (for BOLT & ROAM V1/V2)
Plan your route in VeloPin, open the device export sheet, and alongside the head-unit options you'll find Print a cue card (part of VeloPin Pro). It prints every stop with its distance and estimated arrival time on a small card sized for your stem — your café, water and resupply stops right in front of you, even when the head unit won't list them. Choose the size (it fits a 4 × 7 cm stem card), print, cut and ride.
The broader point
GPX was meant to be a universal exchange format, but waypoint styling was never fully standardised. Until Komoot and Wahoo agree on a common vocabulary, the gap has to be bridged in the middle. VeloPin is that bridge — small, fast, browser-based, nothing to install.
If you've been riding with a screen full of identical purple pins, give it a try. It takes less time than stopping to work out which pin is the café.
Frequently asked questions
Why do my Komoot waypoints show as identical purple pins on my Wahoo ELEMNT?
Komoot exports waypoints with its own category labels, and Wahoo uses a different icon vocabulary. When the labels do not match, the ELEMNT cannot tell what each waypoint is and falls back to a default purple pin for all of them, and the note usually drops as well.
Can I fix the waypoints manually?
You can open the GPX and relabel every waypoint by hand, but a typical route has 10 to 20 waypoints, each needs the right Wahoo label, one mistake can break the file, and it has to be redone on every export. Most riders find it too tedious to keep up.
How do I get Komoot waypoints onto a Wahoo with the right icons?
Open VeloPin in your browser, drop in the Komoot GPX, and it maps each category to the matching Wahoo icon for food, water, danger and so on. Review or edit the names and notes, export the new GPX, and send it to the Wahoo app. It takes about two minutes and nothing is uploaded to a server.
Which Wahoo devices show waypoints as turn-by-turn cues?
Custom cues in the cue sheet work on the newer Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT V3, ROAM V3 and ACE. On the BOLT and ROAM V1 and V2, custom cues cannot be embedded from a file at all; for those units VeloPin can print a cue card with each stop and its distance.