Lezyne Micro GPS Review

[RyanH]

Lezyne MicroGPS Review

So I've this for a couple months now and have been meaning to post my thoughts on it.

Previous Devices
SRM PC8
Garmin 500

The Good
It's 29g and basically an upgraded Garmin 500. The screen is fairly easy to see, but keep in mind, it's a very small device so anything more than 3 data fields is pushing it. Based on the speed it acquires satellites, I believe it has Glonass too, but that's not exactly straightforward as some sources said the Micro doesn't. Data captured has been reliable and battery life has been good. Battery life is a lot better with a GSC-10 doing speed, keep that in mind. I did an 8 hour ride and battery life was at 40% remaining (device was on for 10 hours).


The Quirks
A lot of these quirks could be fixed with a software update, but as I see them:
-Backlight won't stay on, no option to set timeout or always on.
-No kJ data field
-Temperature reading is about -10% off
-No support for bike profiles so if you move this from bike to bike, you have to re-pair everything.
-Power averages are pedaling only. Meaning, if you coast, it won't go down. Can't alter.
-Mounting method is wonky and a little more difficult than the Garmin 1/4 turn. Requires a good bit of force.
-Syncing the ride via BTLE takes a very long time. My typical 4 hour ride takes probably a good 10-15 minutes to fully sync.
-Stem mount positions the device really high (sits tall) which looks silly.
-No prompt to start recording your activity and/or auto-record.

Now, my biggest gripe with it is that I bought this primarily because I ride in the morning and support East coast employees. I need to be able to see messages on my device and identify if I need to stop my ride to help them or if it can wait. It seems that Lezyne GPS Ally randomly stops working and the only way to get messages to display again, is to restart the phone.

Overall, the device is serviceable and if you read the above quirks and are fine with it, then it's a step up from a Garmin 500 just with a smaller screen. For me, I'm happy to go back to the SRM PC8. It's just a far superior training device. I bought a cheap smartwatch to get notifications on my wrist.



Out Front Mount Weight:


Size Comparison Between PC8 and Lezyne:



Lezyne out on the road:



PC8 for comparison:

[antonioiglesius]

Thanks for the review. I have a Lezyne pump which I like (and use) a lot, I'm a little sad that bugs such as the channel for smartphone notifications breaking and not recovering exist in production models.

The Micro GPS looks tiny, the width is comparable to the stem's. I'm thinking it'll be cool if someone can make a (slightly) curved, thin GPS computer that can be mounted onto the stem and looks like it's a part of the latter. It can be tall enough to cover the length of the stem.

[nemeseri]

I bought one for my wife and I was quite impressed with it for the price. It's hard to find anything comparable in this price range and she doesn't care about notifications and stuff, just very basic info and HR was a must. For that it's a really good bargain and has much more features than the Garmin 25 what I tried and sent back in no time.

[uraqt]

@antonioiglesius

minoura tried but couldn't deliver

viewtopic.php?p=221053


https://bikemagic.com/news/images/ib06_minoura_hi.jpg

[antonioiglesius]

Thanks for the link! I guess the tech was still quite out of reach in 2007, especially for a (relatively) niche application like cycling. I'm looking at the Samsung Gear Fit and it feels like all the necessary tech is readily (?) available today, driven by the general population's demand for wearables.

[mentok]

I've been using the catchingly named "enhanced super gps" on my commuter for a week now and have very similar experience. I've used a 500 in the past. the Lezyne is replacing my 510 and I have a 520 for all my other riding.

The Quirks
-Backlight won't stay on, no option to set timeout or always on.

Yep, you can temporarily turn it on and you can set how long it stays on for (in 10sec increments from 10s to 300s), but you can't make it stay on permanently. weird.

-No kJ data field

No real power metrics at all in fact. No normalized power, no tss, no IF. Major shortfall if you're a power junky.

-No support for bike profiles so if you move this from bike to bike, you have to re-pair everything.

Hadn't noticed this. this sounds really, really annoying.

-Power averages are pedaling only. Meaning, if you coast, it won't go down. Can't alter.

My super doesn't do this - i get zeroes in my in-ride average power.

-Mounting method is wonky and a little more difficult than the Garmin 1/4 turn. Requires a good bit of force.

I like the mount, like it's super secure, but it takes more force to remove the device from the mount than is provided by the elastics that hold the mount to the stem. You really need to push and twist to get it to move and in doing so the mount gets moved all over the place. I just got an out-in-front mount and i get the sense that it's going to take 2 hands to get the computer in and out of it or the mount will twist or get bent...

-Syncing the ride via BTLE takes a very long time. My typical 4 hour ride takes probably a good 10-15 minutes to fully sync.

yeah, I'm quite amazed at how long it takes compared to the garmin. maybe it's because the transfer is initiated manually and is done by the computer in the foreground meaning that you can actually see how long it's taking so it becomes frustrating? idk. Also worth mentioning at this point is that it doesn't sync with strava automatically. you need to go into the app and push the ride to the cloud manually.

Now, my biggest gripe with it is that I bought this primarily because I ride in the morning and support East coast employees. I need to be able to see messages on my device and identify if I need to stop my ride to help them or if it can wait. It seems that Lezyne GPS Ally randomly stops working and the only way to get messages to display again, is to restart the phone.

That said, when the notifications work they are really good. My android will send notifications from gmail, messenger, hangouts, etc, basically any communications that land on my phone also appear on my bike computer which is great.

Lastly, my 2 remaining gripes are
1) only 4 fields to a screen - like seriously, i understand 4 rows only, but let me split the rows in half so i can get 8 fields
2) there doesn't seem to be a notification system for software updates so you just need to check their webpage periodically. additionally, there's no history of change notes, though they have been providing change notes with each update individually. Lezyne probably need a forum or something so their users have somewhere to go to get community support and information.

bottom line, it's a good device but there are some garmin standard functions that are missing. It's a few firmware revisions and a decent app update away from being a really, really good, low budget garmin competitor.