A lot of us love to watch that elevation number climb when we're out riding. Between climbing challenges on Strava and personal/interpersonal challenges like "Everesting," elevation gained during a ride can sometimes be the most important metric for many riders.

All of our GPS devices, display elevation gained as a field called Ascent. Y9 devices, Y10 Macro and Mini devices, and both of our watches base this calculation on GPS data - which is a close estimate. Since satellite data isn't always the best way to measure elevation changes, our Y10 Super, Micro C, and Micro GPS and Y12 Mega XL and Mega C devices are all equipped with barometric altimeters (or barometer).

Important note: Currently, the default setting on our devices is for the barometer to calibrate by satellite data, so it is very important that, before you begin recording your ride, you give the device several minutes after it acquires a GPS signal to calibrate.

Everything said until now has referred to the data displayed while riding. Once you upload your ride file to the Lezyne Root site, a correction algorithm is run which corrects any discrepancies in the recorded elevation. This algorithm is based on geodetic survey data and is similar to what Strava offers on their site.

When you initially load your ride file to Strava, their site displays the summary number from our barometer, but you can manually run their correction algorithm from their browser interface by clicking the blue link below the displayed elevation number.

Strava's correction and our correction are two different algorithms, so they aren't always going to come up with the same number. Unfortunately, elevation gained is a bit more intangible than most other ride metrics. If you'd like to have your mind blown a little, but learn a lot more about elevation, this is a great video: