Author Topic: bike computer suggestions  (Read 4518 times)

in4

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1709
bike computer suggestions
« on: May 06, 2018, 08:36:40 pm »
I need a new one. Primarily to keep tabs on my mileage for hub oil changes I'd like one that's wireless.  Readable screen would be good too. Suggestions?
Thanks all

Danneaux

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8229
  • reisen statt rasen
Re: bike computer suggestions
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2018, 08:46:07 pm »
Hi Ian!

I prefer wired computers over wireless ones as I have found them more reliable in my own use -- no interference issues with light and charging leads and only one battery to deal with (and seemingly longer battery life. To work well for very long, I find I need the ones with large diameter, robust leads.

I prefer the Planet Bike Protege 9.0 wired version except for one thing: It measures average speed over a 10-hour time base. Ride longer than 10 hours and the average speed reads as "Error". Notsogood if you are a 17hr/day rider as I am. I do like the wholly waterproof construction and the body =is= the button and four lines of data are always displayed. I have found the thermometer to be accurate also (keeping in mind it reads the temperature for where =it= is). It has a very robust lead wire.

A very close second -- neck and neck for me -- is the Sigma BC8.12 with the MTB lead wire (not the think road version unless you only intend to use it on the road). It is a simple computer with only a single button and is fully waterproof. If you get one, be sure to secure the head and pickup units with cable ties and not the included o-rings/rubber bands. I bought one of these in Aachen, Germany to replace the computer on the bike I was using and it came only with the o-rings...which were not secure "enough" and caused me to gain so much clearance it did not register the counts so I lost a lot of mileage. After I got home, I replaced the o-rings with cable ties (<2.54mm wide) and all is well. I have the road and MTB versions of the BC8.12 and remain happy with them.

Some computers don't register and display speed very promptly. I have a Specialized Speedzone Comp that does this and it is very disconcerting to find me speed increasing when I take a break from pedaling. Similarly, it can't keep up in displaying my speed when I am bombing downhill.

Your needs may differ, so keep that in mine. I don't need cadence, but do need:
• Current speed
• Average speed
• Trip time
• Trip distance
• Total distance
• Pacing arrows (to show if I am above/below average are nice)
• Maximum speed is nice to see how fast I managed to go downhill After :o

Best,

Dan.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2018, 08:49:13 pm by Danneaux »

energyman

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 603
Re: bike computer suggestions
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2018, 10:14:09 pm »
Cateye do a very reliable selection of wireless bike computers. 
Aldi (if available) do good ones too but you have to wait until they pop up in the special offers.

jags

  • Guest
Re: bike computer suggestions
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2018, 10:45:23 pm »
Cateye velo 7 does everything bar hang out the washing. ;)

anto.

Tiberius

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 158
Re: bike computer suggestions
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2018, 07:58:04 am »
Another call for the Cateye Velo range.....I have three bikes running Cateye Velo Plus wireless computers.

100% reliable, not effected by the SON28 dyno-hubs or anything else and the batteries last for ages..so long that I can't actually remember when I last changed one (100 miles/week average between the three bikes)

Funnily enough, the only cycle computer that has ever failed on me was a Cateye WIRED one on my single speeder. It started to seriously under read....Nothing that I tried would sort it.

Andre Jute

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4064
Re: bike computer suggestions
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2018, 11:49:15 pm »
I like the cheapest Sigma, the one on my bike being the wired Sigma 509 which replaced a lost Sigma 506 (replace the O-ring fasteners with tiewraps, as Dan says). The reason I don't have a wireless bike computer, even though now they're pretty cheap and even appear as specials at the supermarket, is the usual one: interference with and by other electronics, like my heart rate monitor. A wired bike computer is just more reliable.

The Sigma 509 offers the basics: Current speed reported without delay, trip distance, trip elapsed time, accumulated total distance over all rides, current time. The single accessible button, which runs the full width of the 509 and is easily operated with thick gloves, zeroes the trip distance and time, chooses whether to display one of the latter four functions permanently (current speed is always displayed) or to alternate them automatically. All numbers are instantly readable at a glance and you soon learn to glance down, up at the road, down again, until the number you want appears; you get the information you want much more quickly than it takes to read this phrase, and there is no possibility of confusion because each piece of information is differently centred on the bottom of the display. The Sigma 509 is water resistant to a pretty high degree (in about thirty years with Sigma bike computers and heart rate monitors, I've never lost one to water ingress) but there is a price for it: the buttons under the computer for setting it up are awkwardly rubber-covered; fortunately you access them only when you first set up the 509.

The 8FUN C965 information centre for the electric motor controller on my bike offers all the information the Sigma 509 displays, albeit less conveniently accessed and not nearly as readable at speed as on the 509, but it lacks one gravely important facility.

See, on the Sigma 509, which I remind you is the cheapest in the Sigma line, when you set it up initially, you tell it how far the bike, or the gearbox on the bike (say your Rohloff) has already run, so that the total accumulation of mileage starts where the previous bike computer left off. You therefore have no excuse for missing service intervals. This is such a useful facility that I kept the Sigma on my bike even after it became clear that the C965 is an acceptable substitute for the information the Sigma 509 offers. I should add that the ease of accessing the Sigma information -- it's automatic if you don't switch off the default scrolling mode -- and its clarity for reading at a glance are also factors in my decision now that I'm not likely ever to ride as much as the 3000m/5000km in a single year, which is the service interval parameters on the last service-requiring component on my bike.

With both the Sigma 509 and the 8FUN C965 installed on my bike to facilitate a choice (it is possible to run the motor without the C965 reporting facia), I found I was taking information offered in common almost 100% more from the 509 than the C965 despite the fact that the C965 is directly in my line of sight and the Sigma 509 has been repositioned to beside rotary gear control on the handlebar grip end. I've left them both on the bars because running the motor without the C965 is slightly inconvenient. BTW, the C965 confirms the Sigma 509's impressive accuracy previously measured between mileposts and against electronic watches; in fact, the 509 updates current speed a fraction of a second faster than the C965.

The Sigma 509 bike computer is a proven instrument. Highly recommended for its simplicity, clarity, longevity, pure use-friendliness, low cost, and outright value.

John Saxby

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2000
Re: bike computer suggestions
« Reply #6 on: May 08, 2018, 01:03:13 am »
Quote
The Sigma 509 bike computer is a proven instrument. Highly recommended for its simplicity, clarity, longevity, pure use-friendliness, low cost, and outright value.

Andre, that's a pretty good endorsement for a bike computer -- enough to make me think that maybe I should buy one, and the Sigma 509 in particular.

(Perhaps you should add a "PS" to your "Hero Member" status: "and Sigma 509-wallah". ;))

Cheers, John

[Additional note after online search:  "Currently unavailable" :(  Looks like you have a priceless antique, Andre.]
« Last Edit: May 08, 2018, 01:20:36 am by John Saxby »

Andre Jute

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4064
Re: bike computer suggestions
« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2018, 05:28:05 am »
Quote
The Sigma 509 bike computer is a proven instrument. Highly recommended for its simplicity, clarity, longevity, pure use-friendliness, low cost, and outright value.

Andre, that's a pretty good endorsement for a bike computer -- enough to make me think that maybe I should buy one, and the Sigma 509 in particular.

[Additional note after online search:  "Currently unavailable" :(  Looks like you have a priceless antique, Andre.]

Ha! What it actually demonstrates is a) how long my Sigma 509 has lasted and b) that Sigma continually develop their products because it is still there, under a new number:



The current Sigma series 5 model is BC 5.16, so seven major new models, though still all the same functions:
https://www.sigmasport.com/en/produkte/fahrrad-computer/wired/wired/bc516
And the same attractive price -- this is just the reliable dealer I got mine from in the year dot, so it may well be cheaper elsewhere:
https://www.bike-components.de/en/Sigma/BC-5-16-Tacho-p52289/

(Oddly, SJS seems to have Sigma spares but no Sigma bike computers that I could find.)
« Last Edit: May 08, 2018, 05:34:18 am by Andre Jute »

John Saxby

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2000
Re: bike computer suggestions
« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2018, 02:05:38 pm »
Thanks, Andre. Yes, I saw the 5.16--looked to be much the same as your 5.09, but I wondered if it was just badge engineering, the 5.16 looking like a decimalized 5/16ths, and somehow lacking the cachet of the Bond-ish .09 designation...

Not sure I'll go down that route, however--even the allure of simple & inexpensive functionality may not be enough to pass my test of "Electronics if necessary, but not necessarily electronics."  ;)


Andre Jute

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4064
Re: bike computer suggestions
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2018, 11:38:56 pm »
...even the allure of simple & inexpensive functionality may not be enough to pass my test of "Electronics if necessary, but not necessarily electronics."  ;)

So as not to go too far off-topic, I've replied to this interesting clean-handlebar formulation at http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=12915.msg96678#msg96678
« Last Edit: May 08, 2018, 11:40:49 pm by Andre Jute »