Review: 3 of the Best Entry Level GPS Cycling Computers for 2021

Whether you’re attempting to climb a million feet in a year, have one heck of a long weekend, or riding so much elevation in a day that you need to fuel with enough potatoes to give yourself radiation poisoning, measuring your riding by total ascent seems to be a popular way to go. Whether you pronounce it dayta or dahta, there’s definitely an increasing appetite among mountain bikers for recording rides.

I’m something of a data fiend myself, although I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed with it. I don’t interpret it in the same way as those VO2-hitting, FTP-knowing athletes in the upper echelons of our sport, but I do like to know what’s going on and, without sounding a dab pathetic, I always record my rides, with an emphasis on the total ascent. Like many of us, I both depend upon and decry all kinds of technology. For that, I am something of a walking contradiction. I know social media and apps aren't my cup of tea, but at the same time, I can’t stay away from them. However, the true extent of my technophilic tendencies is betrayed by how much I really do enjoy keeping tabs on my riding and the regularity at which I find myself poring over my accumulative ride time on Strava.

My main concern is that my device be accurate. If you’ve ever gone up for an extra lap just to roll over a certain distance or total elevation gain, then I’m sure you'll understand. I don’t want some arbitrary yardstick - I want it to be able to consistently and accurately compare my riding. I also like to be able to confirm that my heart is beating, and so, yes, I enjoy wearing a heart rate monitor. Speed and power don’t really concern me and aren't metrics I use to measure my rides. In the past, I have ridden with a power meter but I now just embrace the fact that there isn’t much difference between an “incredibly small amount of power” and merely a “very small amount of power” and so I have pushed it beyond my concern.




For this group test, I chose to review products that are all around the €200 mark ($240 US). This isn’t a small amount of cash, but in GPS terms it isn’t bouncing off the rev limiter either. The units that fit the bill are the Garmin Edge 130 Plus ($200), the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt ($230) and the Lezyne Mega XL ($200). I tested them over a period of a month and all the riding was done on the same climb. Also, to qualify my statements, when I say things ‘aren’t accurate’ this is related to OS maps and also how they correlate to one another, and whether indeed the information they provide is something of an outlier.

Essentially, I wanted a device to be consistent and easy to use. I have considered navigation, although it isn't of primary importance to me.

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Garmin Edge 130 Plus


The device is clean looking and almost minimalist. It's small and light and its 1.8” (45.7mm) screen displays well in a mixture of light conditions. Setting it up was relatively easy thanks to the somewhat sleek Garmin Connect App. While the walkthrough process did indeed help set up the device to near completion, it would be nice if data fields could be set via the phone, as opposed to the buttons on the unit itself. The 5 button setup is fine, and if you want to make changes without your phone you will be relying on them soon enough, but it’s not with the same ease as the Wahoo system, where you drag and drop your data fields to the place of your choosing via the app. It’s particularly annoying when you’re hunting through setup pages. It could be the small device, the software itself, or my hamfistedness, but either way it wasn’t as easy as I would have liked.


I opted to run 7 data fields on all these devices. Even though the Edge had the smallest screen on test it displayed the data clearly, even if it wasn’t as quick to jump out at you should you be glancing down at the unit. I appreciate though, that many people wouldn’t run this many fields. The device also used a breadcrumb-trail style of navigation. Using a Strava account to make routes and sync them with your device was remarkably easy. It was perfectly adequate for my purposes but if you require heavily detailed navigation it might be a little lightweight.

The unit looked clean and, it is worth noting, is the only device to come with a tether. I was sent the ‘mountain bike set’ which included a mount that could be used to place the device behind the bar and over the steerer, although this wouldn’t be included for the $200 model. The problem, in my mind, is that a 40mm stem and high rise bars don’t often play that well with GPS mounts. Of the three, Garmin does have the most aftermarket options though, should the elastic band setup not be adequate for you.

Upon running the GPS for the first time it seemed, in terms of elevation, wildly inaccurate. It’s at that point I realised the default setting was going solely off GPS, as opposed to GPS/Glonass. This second setting proved to be more accurate, although I don’t know why it wasn’t the default.

Even though it was more accurate in this setting, at least in my experience, it did seem to pluck numbers out of thin air. I would always give some time for the GPS to load before riding but it measured my home at an elevation of anywhere between 150m to 350m above sea level, where in actuality it stands at 192m. This might all seem trivial but if you buy a device to measure elevation it’s important. My ride data was probably, on average, 20% out. I know this makes me sound like a bit of an idiot, but all those aforementioned climbing challenges demand some parity between devices. If you found yourself doing 20% extra on an Everest then you'd probably find yourself caring too.

There were some rides where on the usual climb, the device would not be adding any height whatsoever, and on one occasion the current elevation was decreasing as I was going up what I was almost certain was a climb. I mean, I was in the 50T, my feet were stamping on the pedals and it felt like my legs were flailing like Micheal Flatley on a sugar high but maybe I was mistaken.... Sarcasm aside, the unit really disappointed me in this regard. I think it was more of a source of frustration than gratification on most rides. I don’t really want much of a GPS, I just want consistency, which brings me on to my next point.

The Edge 130 Plus is packed with features. I think Garmin have been very ambitious. There’s Climbpro, auto-lap, drink reminders, food reminders, grit scores, jump scores and incident detection. For me, this was just too much and I turned them all off. The jump feature was a particular frustration as it would just never be quiet. If I turned off the noise alerts, I lost the sound for my messages too. On my days off I tend to ride with my phone on aeroplane mode, but when I'm nipping out for a lunchtime lap I like to be able to be contactable. With the 130 Plus it does have the sensible feature of disabling the incident detection for off-road riding though, to save any false readings.

One of the elements of the unit I really liked was how it connected to your phone. You wouldn't have to boot up the Garmin Connect app for it to offer seamless uploads and text notifications. This was the only device on test to do this, the other devices required you to start up the app to establish a connection between the phone and device. The Garmin can also make benefit from custom fields through the Connect IQ extension. This will really be to some people's liking. Its 12 hour claimed battery life also checked out.

I think, and it may sound a little bit self-satisfied, but we’re in a world where any piece of technology becomes as much about validating its user as it does about its original purpose. Phones, for instance, are more about dopamine hits than ringing mother dearest. The drawback of having a mobile is fast becoming that you’re at risk of somebody ringing you on the bloody thing. I’m kind of loathed that the device seems to willingly go into this. Personally, I want a training tool and not a training partner. The jumping feature feels more "Napoleon Dynamite" than it does "Red Bull Rampage". To test the feature, I did a bunny hop rolling down a fire road. It congratulated me on doing a 4.5 meter jump. If anyone has seen my bow-legged bunny hops in full flight they’ll understand that this is a gross exaggeration and, without getting slightly facetious, I wonder what this will mean for the slightly over-confident beginner, the local double and a somewhat irresistible pull towards appearing in Friday Fails. Eventually, I could take no more and I turned off the noise-alert for good, if only so the beeping would abate. I don't need to be told that a computer thinks I've done a "great jump!".

It’s a nice device, it looks tidy and is very small and lightweight. I’m sure it will offer a lot to a lot of people. However, my only regret is that I should have included the older, and now price-reduced, Edge 520. It’s a far superior device, in my opinion. I imagine that over the next few years Garmin will refine and enhance their features to become something like industry standards, I just feel that it all asks too much for something that struggles to do the basics correctly. If you don’t care about elevation but do enjoy a feature-laden device then this isn’t a bad option, but I would struggle to call it the best.

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Wahoo Elemnt Bolt


Firstly, setting up this device was by far the easiest. Wahoo have done a great job at making their app a genuinely easy experience. It’s intuitive, gratifyingly concise and, as a friend of mine put it, “Garmin or Wahoo is like Android or iPhone” and it kind of gets it in one. The data fields can be changed on the fly and everything is where you would expect it to be. Once using the device, you can also use the two side buttons to zoom in and out your chosen data page to increase or reduce the number of data fields. This is a good feature but, to be truthful, the app did such a good job of setting up the device I initially hardly realised that there were side buttons at all. There is also the option of scrolling separate data pages.

The unit comes with an "out front" mount in the box. This is a nice touch for XC or road riders but for mountain bikers, it’s not particularly useful and, if anything, highlights one of my gripes with the device. On the front edge of the device, it’s shaped so it cradles the mount to allow air to "slip past". I don’t know how fast you have to go to reap this benefit but, I’ve got to tell you, I don’t think I'm in danger of getting there.


The problem is, due to this cuff you can’t run the mount backwards and have it over your steerer. It’s also annoying that they do sell a tether but it’s not included in the box. I would rather have a small and useful tether, rather than a large mount that can only be used on a road bike. Not only does it look, to me at least, kind of absurd to have a device sticking out the front of your bike much like an underbite on a jack russell, but I also have concerns that having a device there is asking for trouble in terms of impact. There is a small bolt offered the secure the device to the mount but for the aforementioned reasons, I didn’t feel this was useful if even relevant to the needs of mountain bikers. That all being said, the second and more typical mount included is secured by cable ties. It works well and seems very secure.

Unlike the Garmin, the app doesn’t seem to work in the background and to enable auto-upload and text notifications you will need to have it running. It’s not the end of the world but it would be an added bonus.

The device seems to navigate well. While it doesn’t benefit from the large screen of the Lezyne, the way the Elemnt uses the 2.2" (56mm) screen is quite efficient to give turn by turn directions. It comes with road maps already loaded and has ample room area to convey the information. Yet again, it’s the sheer functionality of the software and integration with the app that makes the Wahoo so enjoyable to use. Loading a route was so easy and done with minimal fuss. The middle-of-the-road 15 hour claimed battery life proved to be justified, too.

As for using the unit itself, I think it was the strongest on review. The data was always very accurate and never left me second-guessing. I even went high into the mountains in a heavy downpour when it was particularly cloudy and it never skipped a beat. This is normally a condition that GPSs that use barometers struggle with but the Wahoo held its nerve.

Another really nice feature of the Wahoo is the end of ride summary. It will tell you running weekly totals and I found it to be quite useful. To be honest, I have little interested in the projected fatigue that a unit might throw out after seeing a mere snapshot of your life, but running totals are useful as it helps me make up my own mind.

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Lezyne Mega XL


Unsurprisingly, the Lezyne Mega XL is by far the biggest unit on test. This is something that is going to be down to the individual but I really liked the size of it. It also has the distinction of being able to run in landscape or portrait mode. It was one of those lightbulb moments and I thought "Why doesn’t everyone do this?". It’s a vastly superior orientation in my mind. I think it allows for a high number of data fields, again 7, to be shown particularly efficiently. I think it also lends itself to the needs of mountain biking very well. I wonder if we tend to see less landscape GPS displays due to the adverse aerodynamics it would offer a road cyclist.

The device was relatively easy to set up although its app is probably the least sophisticated of the three. The app feels far removed from the iPhone or Android debate and feels more like Windows 95. It works, and you can change data fields using your phone. Like the Wahoo though, it requires the app to be booted up to send your phone notifications and uploads. Also, even though I selected the Auto Upload setting, and double-checked numerous times, the device would only upload the rides by manual selection.

The device seemed accurate, except for one ride where it went completely off the rails. It only did this once though and didn’t seem to make a habit of it. When I turn on the device it tends to over-estimate my elevation by consistently 40m. This then seems to level out as I commute to the trails. This isn’t a problem for me as I have a relatively flat 3km commute to the trailhead but for those that do climb straight out the door, this might be irritating.


The Lezyne is a big unit, with a screen size of 2.7" (68.6mm), and is the heaviest of the three at 83g. Mounting it wasn’t all that easy. As I mentioned earlier, a short stem and bar didn’t really mate that well with GPS units. I eventually went for a slightly adventurous mounting over my stem. That ride, coming through a particularly fast and rough section the unit was jettisoned off the side of the trail due to a band snapping. Was this the unit's fault? Well, of course not, but it did highlight the use of a tether and this unit's incompatibility with one. It’s a really big drawback for a device, in my opinion. It’s not that I don’t think it’s secure to the mount but rather it ensures that even if the mount works loose your unit won’t go anywhere.

I managed to find the device in the undergrowth by using the signal strength indication in the app to triangulate its location. It wasn’t a big deal but it was a half an hour faff that could have been avoided. The placement I eventually settled on was using some cable ties to overlap the mount. It was a little fiddly to set up but it’s at least secure.

The Lezyne, with its large screen and full mapping, work well with one another to aid navigation. Yet again, the app seemed to be the largest obstacle and it required a thorough googling. You have to download a route from your PC to then upload it to your Lezyne Roots account, which will subsequently sync with the GPS. Easy, once you know how. Then, once it’s on the app you click start on the phone app to start the route, and it will work on the unit. This was all somewhat bewildering and made me feel a bit of a neanderthal but I got there in the end. For comparison, the Wahoo took me around 15 seconds.

It also doesn’t come with maps pre-downloaded. You actually take a screenshot of the area that you would like to use in the app and then it syncs. Yet again, it didn’t strike me as particularly intuitive.

I never quite clicked with the four-button operation and I always found myself second-guessing what I actually wanted to do. This would probably lessen, should I spend more time on the device, but it was the least intuitive of the three to use. Also, rather curiously, the time of the day display seemed to have a will of its own and I tended not to trust it. When paired to the phone it worked well but on one occasion, when left to its own devices, it just decided that it was going to run 20 minutes out.

I actually quite like the Lezyne and it’s a device that I would not be disappointed with if I were to use it long-term. It offers excellent battery life, seems robust, well made and the sheer size of it lends to being very good at relaying data. For me, the biggest hurdle was the app and the buttons. I never quite found it to be anywhere near intuitive, even though I gave each device a week of solid use whilst riding every day. That said, if you demand something that is reasonable, if not irrefutably accurate, you can navigate the app and get used to the button operation, this could be a very good device indeed.

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Pinkbike's Take

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Reviews and Tech Reviews Computers Garmin Lezyne Wahoo Garmin Edge Wahoo Elemnt Lezyne Mega Xl