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What about Gradient Lag?

Can anyone report if Garmin have fixed the issue that the 1030+ has with ridiculously long responses to changes in gradient?

  • I have a 500, 800, 1000 and 830. Returned a 1030+ because of grade delay. That was just too expensive to live with. The 530, 830 and 1030+ all exhibit the same grade delay. Previous models do not. I was hoping the 1040 would offer a return to quite acceptable. I'm assuming there is a new barometer sensor whose firmware they are unable to tweak.

  • I was about to throw in the towel with my 1030+ and make a warranty claim because of the same course elevation errors reported here. The gradient lag is something I can live with, even though it's extremely frustrating that it doesn't work as you'd expect for the price paid.  Anyhow, based on info above from  about how the climb pro and course elevation data are dependant on the source map or file used to create couse, I decided to put things to the test. A weekend ride using a strava generated course had me around 0.3 miles behind the elevation profile. This was very nearly the last straw. On my regular commute today, I generated a course from an activity and created another through GC. Both were spot on, although the VP on the activity generated course was giving some bizarre results (2mins time behind for a gap of 25ft). Tested again on way home with an activity based course and the VP was ok. Bizarre. Clim Pro profile was also spot on on all three tests.

    In future I will use GC to generate courses for new routes  and transfer to edge. I find for new routes it's handy to see an accurate position relative to elevation profile. I won't bother converting previous activities to courses as that seems a bit pointless given I know route.

    Thanks to  for the info. It seems so obvious now it's been explained to me.

  • I was wondering what all the fuss is about, but then I’ve always use GC to create courses and in general climbpro has been very accurate.

    That all being said I’m am struggling why some people are finding this such a critical issue they feel they need to return the device or go back to another.  It’s nice to have and see approximately what the gradient is (and for any device using barometric pressure it’s appropriate), but I don’t need some computer to tell me if I’m going up hill or not.  I just need to look where I’m going.

    Sorry if it creates such a big deal for people, but for me it’s hardly going to ruin my day!

  • It probably wouldn't be an issue if it were not for the fact that Garmin's Edge devices have previously handled current grade state reliably within a few seconds until the introduction of the 530, 830 and 1030+. With this still being an unresolved issue for those devices there were hopes that a new series would restore that capability. 

  • That all being said I’m am struggling why some people are finding this such a critical issue they feel they need to return the device or go back to another

    It's not a deal-killer but if you make a video and one of the data fields is grade, and if the video is showing the rider going downhill but the data on the screen says 3% grade uphill, it's a little silly. But it's not a big deal to me and if they fix it so that it's not a long rolling average, that would be nice.

  • @iheatthcock

    Whatever works for you then.

    If you know precisely or imprecisely, (or - even if you just don’t care) the grade you're riding on is a 2 or 5 or 7 or 12% etc… then awesome!

    There are many riders that don’t use a powermeter or HR monitor bc they feel they know (precisely or imprecisely, or just don’t care) their power output or HR. Awesome for them too.

    Others, don’t use a speedometer bc they feel they already know their speed, well enough.

    For me - otoh - I’m not as gifted as you, (and a relatively quick and accurate grade display is very important to me) - AND, I really would prefer a product works as it’s advertised and marketed features claim to. Especially a flagship product.

  • Yup, when I pay a premium price for something I expect it to work, not to have to deal with workarounds or worse it just not working as advertised.

    Some of us use the gradient feature a lot, alongside power etc.  That's why we bought a high end, top of the range device. 

    Why would you settle for less? Or want to make excuses for garmin

    Garmin need to fix it.  To date they've said "it's normal".  It's not.

    I'd be stupid enough to pay for the 1040 if I thought it fixed it, and I'm glad I've read the forums before making the same mistake.

    If it doesn't matter to you, great.  To quite a few of us it does, and we expect more from garmin

  • I had previous Edge 1030 and before that Edge 810

    Gradient on 810 was instant, on 1030 was okeys , I remember when Garmin removed gradient decimal

    With 1040, I did not manage to test enough gradient 

    for me more anoying was previously position on the map /climb pro, Garmin always was told me that I finish the chimb while I had 50 m more

    my feeling that elevation data from barometric sensor is colected every X seconds , and because of battery optimization, data is not capured at miliseconds

  • I agree with the sentiment of wanting it to work.  However, I think it is more complicated than just that.  There is nothing in the specification that said anything at all about gradient or many, many of the other features.  All it said was that it has a gradient data field.  No spec on how accurate it was , how responsive, or anything else.  The problem is that your expectations are different than what Garmin has delivered and there is no spec or anything to back you up.  Just how you think that it ought to work.  So, when Garmin say's "it's" normal you are unable to say "it doesn't meet spec" because there IS NO spec.  Plus, from Garmin's perspective, there are a lot of customers that are way more concerned about other things for Garmin to put much effort into improving gradient.  For example, I don't care about gradient at all.  I never look at it.  I DO care about total elevation gain which matches well with other computers that I have.  The same goes for many other features.  They are super important to someone and someone else doesn't care at all.  So Garmin works on what they believe, hopefully based on customer feedback, is important.  The problem is that there is no computer out there that does better than Garmin on everything so you have to pick the unit that does best for you overall and buy that.

  • Well, I guess that lets garmin off the hook then.  

    I won't expect a fix anytime soon then.