Strava on phone or Garmin - what's more accurate?
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Absinthe Minded
Guest
What phone has your brother got?
Crandoggler
Senior Member
Probably the phone. 200 doesn't use a barometric altimeter.
Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
Probably neither. For accurate elevation you really need to use a device with a barometric altimeter
JtB
Prepare a way for the Lord
- Location
- North Hampshire
Were you ascending the hills so fast that you were taking off at the summits by any chance?
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
Neither, use a elevation correction on a site like RidewithGPS to get a more accurate answer. But I believe that a phone only reads satellites every 5s to save battery but I'm unsure if Strava will do an autocorrect for that. A garmin records more frequently but the 200 relies on satellites as said which the raw data on the phone would too but if Strava does autocorrect the phone would be slightly more accurate for elevation but it relies on Strava which IME seems pessimisticly low.
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
Barometric altimeter set properly at start of ride, and assuming no rapidly moving weather systems during a long ride.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
The one with the highest reading, of course
If you want a really consistent reading, use a website that has an option to replace your elevations with ones derived from mapping data. Ride With GPS does this, I don't know if Strava does.
If you want a more accurate reading then use a device with a barometric barometer and read the instructions about how to calibrate it. (And bear in mind what @GrumpyGregry says about weather systems).
In general, only compare like-with-like. Which is why mapping-derived data is good as it's so consistent. But you can't necessarily compare it with data from your devices.
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Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
I saw a program on TV some time ago that discussed measurement of the length of the coastline. Starting off with a general map they got one figure. Then using a more detailed map, with more wiggles and inlets they got another, higher figure. Then using a more detailed map, a still higher figure. Due to the fractal nature of the coastline they carried on doing this, getting a higher figure each time, until they were considering inlets and wiggles at the molecular level in sand grains. I think they concluded that the coastline was infinitely long.
Perhaps you can apply the same arguments to elevation gains when cycling. If you account for every upward bounce resulting from a tiny pebble in the road you may get a more impressive figure.
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Perhaps you can apply the same arguments to elevation gains when cycling. If you account for every upward bounce resulting from a tiny pebble in the road you may get a more impressive figure.
Edited to add:
It looks like someone even has written a paper on this subject
Evaluating cumulative ascent: Mountain biking meets Mandelbrot
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1011.4778.pdf
The problem of determining total distance ascended during a mountain bike trip is addressed. Altitude measurements are obtained from GPS receivers utilizing both GPS-based and barometric altitude data, with data averaging used to reduce fluctuations. The estimation process is sensitive to the degree of averaging and is related to the well-known question of determining coastline length.
Evaluating cumulative ascent: Mountain biking meets Mandelbrot
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1011.4778.pdf
The problem of determining total distance ascended during a mountain bike trip is addressed. Altitude measurements are obtained from GPS receivers utilizing both GPS-based and barometric altitude data, with data averaging used to reduce fluctuations. The estimation process is sensitive to the degree of averaging and is related to the well-known question of determining coastline length.
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Was in Kippen myself yesterday, Who put that hill there? my mate and i had a similair issue he has a Garmin 1000 i have a Edge Touring on the Garmins i had almost 200m more ascent than he had and we had both done the same ride, when we uploaded to Strava it gave us the same elevation
We were there about 12. There was a lot of cyclists there at the same time - some very nice bikes on display! We came in from Fintry so got to fly down that hill!!
