Bike computers

[Rod Tibbs]

My Bikehut computer from Halfords has performed well for a long time but it has always presented difficulties when setting to zero. It takes huge pressure on the button to get a result and frankly I am fed up with battling with it.

Can anyone suggest a reasonably priced, simple and reliable wirelss computer which carries just the basics please? I am not bothered about back lighting or how many calories I use.

I saw one German built computer which claims to show the angle of gradients and this would be useful on hills. Does this really work and has anyone had experience of it?

I am thinking of paying up to about £30 for the right thing.

Thanks

Rod

 

[tillson]

Lidl should be having some in on Thursday. They have 20 functions, the majority of which will probably be of no use, but they are only £3.90. I don't know how they will perform, but they may be worth a chance at the price.

 

[Rod Tibbs]

Thanks for that Tillson. Will give it a go. As you say you can't really go wrong at that money!

Rod

 

[flecc]

The most reliable ones are those stocked by most good bike shops, the Cateye Velo range. The Velo 5 has all the basic functions, to which the Velo 8 adds average speed as well.
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[Vikki]

I had a strange problem with my Velo 5 and, later, the Velo 8. When the speed dropped below 10 mph the display would insist on reading zero and would not come back up until the speed had climbed above 10 mph. It was really strange as the receive icon still pulsed showing it was getting a signal. It also worked from standstill and then walking it, it would quite happily show your walking speed. But coming down from above 10 mph (ish) it played up.

I've not had this problem with the Strada. Not sure if I paid £40 or £45 for it. Worth it though as it is so easy to use. No unusual features. The Trip Distance 2 is a nice thought and is separately zeroable.

Vikki.

 

[flecc]

I had a strange problem with my Velo 5 and, later, the Velo 8. When the speed dropped below 10 mph the display would insist on reading zero and would not come back up until the speed had climbed above 10 mph. It was really strange as the receive icon still pulsed showing it was getting a signal. It also worked from standstill and then walking it, it would quite happily show your walking speed. But coming down from above 10 mph (ish) it played up.

I've not had this problem with the Strada. Not sure if I paid £40 or £45 for it. Worth it though as it is so easy to use. No unusual features. The Trip Distance 2 is a nice thought and is separately zeroable.

Vikki.

As it happened on both it must have been something to do with the sensor placement or electrical interference Vikki. I've never known or heard of that trouble over the years and as usual I'm currently using both the Velo 5 and 8 models on my bikes. Bike dealers like stocking them because of their reliability record. That Strada was expensive by the way!
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[Vikki]

Hi, Flecc. Could have been the brushed front mounted hub motor I guess.

Please don't tell me how much I've been overcharged for the Strada 9 wireless, I will only end up crying and you don't want that, I'm not a pretty sight when I'm crying Ooo, it's £40 at Amazon so it can't have been by much then. Checking on Cycle World's webby I paid £39.95, pence dearer than Amazon. Phew! Had me sweating for nothing there.

Best regards.

Vikki.

 

[flecc]

Ah yes, that motor is very likely to be the source, arcing at the brushes can radiate loads of RF power.

No worry on the Strada price, I've no idea how much they are normally, and they sound sophisticated. I was only comparing to the stuff from ebay and Lidl/Aldi at £2 upwards and bike shop stuff at mostly under £20.
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[Vikki]

I don't mind the £40 area so long as I get what I want out of it. It has nothing I don't use so I'm happy and I love the way the whole body rocks to activate the different functions, makes it easy to flick through with gloves on

We have a cycling enthusiast here who paid well over £100 pounds for a computer that does cadence and heart rate but he's well into it as an exercise and pleasure thing so I guess to him it was worth it but he didn't half grumble about the price. Me? I would have feinted then crawled out of the shop on all fours whilst leaving the unit back on the counter and the loot in my purse.

Vikki.

 

[Mussels]

I paid £25 for a computer with cadence and a wire, if I got a heart rate monitor I would never bother putting the thing on.

 

[alsmith]

Lidl should be having some in on Thursday. They have 20 functions, the majority of which will probably be of no use, but they are only £3.90. I don't know how they will perform, but they may be worth a chance at the price.

I think the cheap Lidl Bikemate ones are probably built in the same factory as the Sigma ones. The mounts are interchangeable (twist and lock) for the wired units and the cheap 30 function Lidl Bikemate and dearer 11 function Sigma 1106 fit each others mounts and work. You can disable a number of functions on the Bikemate (temperature, calories, 2nd countdown or count up timer) if not needed. The Bikemate also has a 3 year warranty.

 

[UrbanPuma]

Is the wireless bike computer sold by Lidl any good?

 

[Ninelives]

I have been using mine (Lidl) for the last 3 years first on a non electric then moved it over to my Giant elec bike, i have not had any problems and still on original batteries.

 

[UrbanPuma]

Ninelives, thats good to hear....i'm looking forward to purchasing it and seeing the performance. I have a wireless cateye cycle computer which works great when ive used it during the summer. However, i have noticed it tends to stop working in the winter....dont know why but its a bit annoying.

 

[flecc]

Ninelives, thats good to hear....i'm looking forward to purchasing it and seeing the performance. I have a wireless cateye cycle computer which works great when ive used it during the summer. However, i have noticed it tends to stop working in the winter....dont know why but its a bit annoying.

Almost certainly the large drop in transmitter battery efficiency when the weather is cold, not enough energy to transmit reliably. It's probably extra cold down by the wheel with the fork leg and spokes eddying the cold air around there, adding extra wind chill.
.

 

[UrbanPuma]

Flecc, so, presumably the same thing will happen if i purchase the one from Lidl?

 

[Mussels]

I have had problems with a cheap wired computer where the battery can't cope with the cold and it kept resetting itself, I had given up on wireless computers by then.
I ended up with a wired Blackburn Delphis 3 in the end which seems to work well.

 

[flecc]

Flecc, so, presumably the same thing will happen if i purchase the one from Lidl?

If it's a wireless one with a battery at the forkleg it might also suffer, but much depends on the transmitter design. If it's a bit more efficient it could be ok, and at Lidl prices possibly worth trying.

Batteries hate the cold though. We had smoke alarms in our enclosed outer hallway but had to remove the batteries in winter since the alarms kept giving low voltage "battery exhausted" intermittent beeps even with new batteries, keeping people awake at night.
.

 

[stokepa31_mk2]

Cateye wireless strada worked faultlessly on my agattu and I really liked the distance 2 function which can be reset each trip whilst retaining overall milage.

 

[Michael of Gwynedd]

I’ve had an ECHO W1 for about three years, I have swapped it from bike to bike a few times, and you can change the time, wheel size, trip speedo without wiping the total mileage.

Total mileage can only be re-set by removing the battery.
Mine is a wireless system. I have never changed the battery on the fork sensor, and only twice on the speedo unit itself.

I have had no trouble in the cold weather.