[Closed] Best device for calculating elevation gain?

Don't use strava? Just use Garmin's own website.

Lezyne GPS devices seem pretty accurate. Komoot?

An OS map, and count the contour lines.

A basic Garmin is unlikely to be doing a better job than the Strava churned data. My Edge 25 is shite for this. My 810 has a barometric altimeter so tends to do a lot better, but these can all be affected by temperature variation (and completely pumped if it wet enough for water to get involved)

Upload your gpx file to something like bikehike.co.uk. AFAIK it then plots your ride against the OS map elevation data and gives you a (hopefully!) accurate elevation profile. You can then check this against the data that Strava gives you.

I just tried it and according to Bikehike my total elevation gain was 2,309 ft, as opposed to Strava which gives me 2,252 ft. So only 57ft between them.

Starva corrected elevation does the plot against the map thing too but elevation is notoriously difficult to get right with GPS as when your in a hill you are missing satellites and your ground location is less precise. If your 10m left or right it's a different elevation

You need to plug a barometric GPS in to Strava to get the elevation correction button to appear, you can't just upload an edited file with the make/model of a barometric GPS included

You could include BikeHike and Garmin ascent figures in the ride comments on Strava, but these won't show in your Strava stats; for me Strava is always low, by about 600' over 3500', BikeHike and Garmin were within 75' for the same ride

Cheers guys. I'l look into these.

If you sync an activity to Garmin Connect, you get an 'elevation corrections enabled/disabled' option. From my Edge 500 they're disabled by default but it's a single click to enable it, which I'm assuming then locks the points to map elevation rather than barometric.

I don't think there's any that are particularly accurate. I'd like to get hold of some really good dem and calculate ascent for a route against stravas values but I don't have access to such data readily and I'm not sure the burning ambition to do it is either.

I’d like to get hold of some really good dem and calculate ascent for a route against stravas values but I don’t have access to such data readily and I’m not sure the burning ambition to do it is either.

no need something like memory map have already done it for you.

I'm not sure what data memory map is based on, I doubt it's particularly accurate

it matches up very well to the highest resolution stuff out there.

Anything without a barometer is best off correcting to topographical elevation data, but that itself has a resolution limit. It depends on your ride. A ride that's fairly much a continuous climb or descend for a period will be accurate, but if you're off road on rapidly undulating trails in a small area the data may just see it as little elevation change or a continuous change.

Barometers have their own problems. They can be more accurate but again for fine resolution of changes it depends on the sensitivity, but more importantly they need calibrating (for a Garmin, set fixed known elevation points it can adjust to) and are affected by pressure changes. I've been on many long rides loop out from a start point and end up returning 100ft or more below or above the start according to Garmin.

Really with GPS devices, I look for consistency in the device I'm using. If I get similar results for the same ride repeated, then I'm happy. Compared to others in the group, I know it will be way off, but I'm not bothered by that. Theirs isn't accurate either. Same goes for distances and times. Hence I'm not really interested in Strava comparisons with other people, just comparison with my own rides. Even then mainly I'm just interested in logging the route.

Devices with barometers, like my Lezyne Super GPS and Garmin's are often wildly out on road rides, I dread to think what they are like off-road for elevation gain. I let Strava correct every ride's elevation data.