iPhone or Garmin on Levo?

[Sherman]

Does anyone use Garmin Edge 130 on Levo? Battery life? What information of Levo it shows?


Wahoo's battery life? Shows anything else from Levo than battery level? Can you compare it with Garmin's devices?

Battery is life is good enough, 10+ hrs. Wahoo claims 15 hours, but back light, leds etc affect it. I don't know if it shows anything else than battery status, doubt it.

I forgot to mention that one of the reason I got the Bolt are the hard buttons. I ride gloves on, so touch screens are pain to use. The new Garmin 520 Plus seems interesting though. I've only had Garmin Edge 20 which sucked. Map & GPX route loading seem to be bit complicated on the Garmins, but I really don't have hands on experience. Wahoo on the other hand works beautifully with your smart phone.

One negative point for the Elemnt is that you can't scroll around the map, just zoom in and out. Don't know how it would work without a touchscreen anyway..

 

[Kernow]

Did a fairly complicated ride on and off road my mate had planned using ViewRanger , I took my garmin edge touring gps to compare . The info on the iPhone from viewranger was far better than garmin map , when we were having trouble finding the way on confusing paths you could actually just the viewranger map to navigate as you would a paper map .
The garmin is neater and more robust , waterproof etc on the handlebars , and more glove friendly , but I think the phone with viewranger was better . Both required external battery back up when navigating all day , but the phone was also there to take pictures as we rode .
Would have been good to have planned the same route and compared that on the garmin , however I find planning and loading a route to my new garmins very difficult ,

 

[Highflyer]

Hi,

I run the Edge 130. Perfect for the job and comes with MTB mount over the stem for crash protection. Yes it displays Levo battery life and also senses your cadence together with a 15 hr battery life spot on !

 

[Theolegit]

And the 130 is a super compact size

 

[OldBean]

Any geeks in East Anglia prepared to show an old fart how to set up an iphone 5 just for navigation??
I love real mapreading but a bit of a faff on the trails .

 

[Churchill]

I am using a Fenix 5 with handlebar mount. It is nice to know the power level and battery percentage and being able to switch to a topographic map. And I find that I am extra motivated to not crash.

 

[Kimmoi]

Okay, i have three options here:

-iPhone8 with QuadLock (works well, and QuadLock is nice phonecase for everyday use too. IF QuadLock fails, it's expensive damage). I use this now. Like it a lot. Only thing what bothers me is that if it drops...
-Garmin Edge 130 (nice size, information from Levo? Battery life?) Does not support Apple Watch?(heartrate)
-Wahoo Elemnt bolt(as above) Does not support Apple Watch?(heartrate)

Bolt has better integration to phone?

I have short stem, 40mm. Does Element or Garmin has stem cap integration?

 

[Sherman]

I was able to attach Bolt mount directly to Turbo Levo stem cap with zip ties. There are some adapters available.

I had a quick look at Edge 130, seems expensive for what it is (no mapping). For the same money I would get the Bolt or pay extra for the Garmin 520 (Plus). But this of course depends of your needs for sensors, mapping etc.

 

[npatrix]

I use an Edge 1030 on the bike and an iPhone with BLEvo on my pocket (with active voice, so I know always mode and battery).
To be honest The Edge 1030 is too much for my needs, but as I do some road too, I take advantage of the GPS and the Garmin Eco system.

Hard to say what is better, all 3 options, Garmin, Wahoo ELMNT and iPhone will do the job (probably more than most of us will need), though I believe the iPhone is not made to face though conditions, heavy rain, mud, crashes...

 

[Kimmoi]

though I believe the iPhone is not made to face though conditions, heavy rain, mud, crashes...

iPhone8 has IP67, heavy rain is tested allready. Mud is no problem, i think. But crashes, that worries.

 

[Kimmoi]

How about using iPhone without internet with Mission Control, is that possible? I have two iPhone 4S and one SE collecting dust in my closet.

 

[Stumpy]

How about using iPhone without internet with Mission Control, is that possible? I have two iPhone 4S and one SE collecting dust in my closet.

Don't know for sure but don't think it would work as the first thing Mission Control does is it logs in...

 

[wildsau2]

Phones don‘t have ANT+.
GPS accuracy of Phones is bad.

The cheapest Garmin that supports the Levo IQ App is the Edge 520. Miles better than any Smartphone app or Apple watch etc.

With Maps look at the 520 plus.
With big Screen an Touch look at the 1030.

if you prefer the phone, look at the BLevo App

 

[Kimmoi]

BLevo does not void warranty unless you touch the "limited speed"?

 

[davegixer]

BLevo does not void warranty unless you touch the "limited speed"?

I spoke to a Specialized dealer about derestricting last week, he'd just returned from a two week Spesh course and said they really don't care a hoot - the motor is only restricted for law not for any potential quality or reliability issues. In fact I didn't even bring the topic up - he offered the information without prompting.

If there were any issues that required warranty work he said just reset it back to factory settings (using mission control) before returning to the shop - even though the shop or Specialized wouldn't even question it.

I haven't bothered all the same.

 

[Stumpy]

I spoke to a Specialised dealer about derestricting last week, he'd just returned from a two week Spesh course and said they really don't care a hoot - the motor is only restricted for law not for any potential quality or reliability issues. In fact I didn't even bring the topic up - he offered the information without prompting.

If there were any issues that required warranty work he said just reset it back to factory settings (using mission control) before returning to the shop - even though the shop or Specoilized wouldn't even question it.

I haven't bothered all the same.

Tempting....

 

[davegixer]

Tempting....

Yeh, I might have play with it one day, on private land of course.

 

[Kernow]

My spesh dealer told me the same when I was looking at a Levo , they aren’t bothered , they even told me how it was done ?

 

[Kimmoi]

Damn...

 

[davegixer]

My spesh dealer told me the same when I was looking at a Levo , they aren’t bothered , they even told me how it was done ?

Mine did too, walked me through the process without using BLevo.

 

[Stu-k]

My dealer told me the opposite, as soon as limiter removed so is warranty

 

[TonyBalony]

And how is that process done without BLevo or even with BLevo?

 

[Swissrider]

I have a Garmin Edge 520, with the ebike field AppI prefer this to the Specialized Levo app. I like the way you can customise the display and I find it very useful to have the support mode showing and battery percentage. My 2018 Kenevo only has display lights on battery and this doesn’t work when riding. My main use is to record rides, but Garmin Connect gives all sorts of other data, such as maximum and minimum temperature, averages and through bike field support levels used. One’s rides are automatically uploaded to Garmin connect and then automatically uploaded to Strava. Battery life is good, easily outlasting a phone and being small with a good mount, chances of damage in a crash are minimal. However, with a small screen, navigating with it is pretty hopeless, especially off road and it will do strange things like insisting you start again if you deviate from the route. For following a route, my phone is much better. I use a mount called igrip which is very solid, no modification to the phone and can be mounted on stem or bars (see photos). I bought mine from a supermarket for about £25. In Switzerland we have an app called Swissmobility, which has all the Swiss topo maps and its free! For chf30 per year you can plot your own routes on a computer, save them as GPX files and upload them to your account. All your routes can be accessed through the app. You get a line (which can be customise) and a red dot which shows your position. I guess that there is a similar thing with the O.S map. If not, the Pocket Earth app has good maps (I’ve used these in Italy) which also allows you to download the maps so it works even if you have no phone signal. So, Garmin great for info on ride and recording data, iPhone for following a route.