<Back to News Home |
Lezyne Super GPS: Getting Rolling – by Guitar Ted
The GPS based cycling computer market is being shaken up a bit by newcomers. Companies like Wahoo Fitness and Lezyne now offer solid choices which are alternatives to the ubiquitous Garmin device many know about. Here is the next installment of my experiences with the new Lezyne Super GPS. You can catch up with this series by going back to this link. That will give you the lowdown on features and more. Here now is the first impressions and experiences using the Lezyne Super GPS.
Set Up:
the Super GPS was pretty easy to get set up. I had no issues entering in the data necessary using the four multi-function buttons on the computer head. There is more to setting up a GPS based computer though. Especially so with regard to the app feature which allows the Lezyne unit to drop information into your computer and can connect to your smart phone. To get the system up and running it is necessary to download the Lezyne Ally App to your smart phone which is available in iOS or Android formats and is free to obtain. With that done the Super GPS synced up to my phone easily. The Ally features are also accessible on your PC or Mac computer. The Super GPS can access that via the supplied USB cable which connects the Super GPS to whatever computer you may have.
Getting this device set up was less intimidating and easier than past devices I have tried and that was a bit of a relief. You can also sync up a power meter to the Super GPS, but alas! That is something I do not have access to. Judging from how easy it was to do what I could do, I think it is safe to assume that setting up your Bluetooth enabled or ANT+ enabled device should be a breeze.
The provided mounts with the Option 1 package were easy to use. The traditional band clamp style GPS mount type option is hinged for easy removal, and I also noted that the fastener for the band clamp was designed to face up, making installation easier. Someone at Lezyne is paying attention to details, which I find refreshing. The optional “O” ring type mount was also easy to use and both are solid, secure mounts. I prefer the “O” ring mount as it seems a bit less obtrusive and resists the pressure exerted on it when mounting the computer since it is solidly backed by your handle bar or stem. That’s just my personal preference, not that there is anything wrong with the band clamp mount.
There is a speed and cadence sensor which comes with Option 1, but I have not made use of that yet. This phase of the review focused on the features which are more GPS based, and I wanted to experiment with swapping the device from bike to bike first. I will try out that speed and cadence sensor before this review finishes up, so stay tuned on that bit.
First Ride Impressions:
The first rides I used the Super GPS on were side by side comparisons with my wired Cat Eye computer to see how accurately the Super GPS tracked the satellite signals. The Cat Eye was set to a customized roll out number but otherwise is a basic function cycling computer that most of us are familiar with. Turning on the Super GPS with a sustained push of the upper left button, you will find that it takes a moment or two for the device to acquire the available GPS/Glosnast satellites. Obviously, the Cat Eye turns on automatically. After the unit was ready to track my ride, I found some discrepancies in the information I was getting. Overall, the Super GPS is a bit more accurate. I was getting consistently different readings for speed and time which indicated to me that the Super GPS is a bit more accurate except for one situation. I did notice that the speed read out was compromised under tree cover with the Super GPS. This oddly did not affect the bread crumb tracking of my course, nor did it seem to interfere with time based functions. By the way, it didn’t take what I would call “heavy tree cover” for this to occur either. It is my understanding from other GPS cycling computer users that this is not unusual, so take that with a grain of salt here.
Other than that quibble with speed read out, I was pleased with the Super GPS out of the box. It was easy to set up, the app worked well, and ride tracking was spot on. The screen on the Super GPS is customizable, and I set mine up to reflect what I wanted to see prominently displayed on the first “page” of the screen. To tab through to other screen “pages”, as Lezyne calls them, you simply depress the upper right hand button on the side which takes you to a screen with up to four lines of user defined information, and then on to the next screen with another push of a button. There are five customizable “pages”, or screens, available.
Read out of the pages is easy to see while riding and the screen resolution is user settable to aid you in being able to read the screen in varying conditions. Note: I left the piece of clear protective plastic on the screen that the unit shipped with as a way to help protect the screen from the grit of gravel road use. No doubt the screen would be sharper and clearer without that on there.
After The Ride Impressions:
Post ride data sharing has become a necessity for many of you. Well, the Super GPS has you covered there. It syncs up with Strava, if you roll that way, and it also will share ride data to your phone and computer. If you remember to pause the Super GPS recording function at ride stops, you can get total elapsed time versus ride time, elevation data, speed data, and temperature range during the duration of the ride. (Editor’s Note: A reader of our Facebook page kindly suggested that the Super GPS can be configured to pause when stopped automatically. Indeed, this is the case, so there will be a comment on that in the next post in this series.) Obviously, if you have a power meter, that data can be seen as well.
I can see this as being useful for historical ride data, training, and for sharing routes. One thing I should mention and that is turn by turn navigation. That is a function that the Super GPS can handle, but Lezyne is still working behind the scenes to bring that function to life, so I can not comment on that at this time. If that gets sorted before the review ends, I will comment on how that works as well. The new GPS line of Lezyne computers is also still being rolled out, so this is still a pretty new to the market device.
I did manage to get the device to “lock up” once. I inadvertently depressed two buttons at once as I was powering the unit down after a ride. The screen froze and I could not get anything to change. It was as if the buttons were suddenly disabled. I checked on-line for any trouble shooting advice, but I did not find any sources of wisdom to fix my issue. Finally, in a bit of silly desperation, I depressed all four buttons at once. That actually did the trick! The ride was even saved, so that was nice.
So Far…….
The Lezyne Super GPS has a lot of features and is a pretty powerful tool, if you have the other devices that connect with it. As a stand alone GPS based computer, it is still very impressive so far. The accuracy and ease of set up and use is attractive. The unit’s ability to be swapped easily from bike to bike is also a great feature. However; even with all of this computing power and feature rich connectivity, we still have to manually turn the device on and manually pause it (See Editor’s Note Above) during ride stops. While that seems a bit of a step backward from traditional cycling computers, the rest of what the Super GPS can do is pretty outstanding and overshadows those deficiencies.
Stay tuned for the Checkpoint update in the near future.
NOTE: The Lezyne Super GPS was purchased by Guitar Ted and is being reviewed/tested by RidingGravel.com. RidingGravel.com is not being paid nor bribed for this review and we will strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.
Discuss and share your questions or thoughts about gravel bikes, gear, events and anything else on the Riding Gravel Forum.