Speedometer

blue chuzzle

im looking to get a new speedo. im looking for a reasonably good one that has all the basic functions. i got one there about 2 years ago it was a low end cateye and i assumed at the time that it would do all the very basics. it turned out not to do average speed even though it did time and distance! clearly it was the same hardware as the more expensive models with functions taken out to sell it cheaper.

should i bother with a wireless one? how long does the battery in the wheel sensor last? is there any issue with them not communicating properly and the speed jumping around the place?

thanks

irishmotorist

Aldi have one coming out next Thursday -
http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/58_8941.htm

If it's just basic, that should do the job. If you find it's not enough, then you've only wasted €8.

I have a Polar jobbie at the moment and my speed tends to go up to 99.9kmh when I'm alongside the DART line, but apart from that, I've personally had no problems with wireless. I can't remember exactly, but the documentation reckoned about 2 years for teh battery with a 1 hour training session a day. This will be different for different products though, of course.

blorg

Get the next Cateye up that does average speed. Obviously with time and distance you could manually calculate your average yourself. I presume you have the Velo 5.

The Mity 8 does just about anything you could ever need apart from the advanced stuff (cadence, altitude, heart rate, GPS, etc.) It's a bit nicer than the Velo 8 although that pretty much does everything too (I have both.)

I got an Aldi computer before and it never worked. YMMV.

Cateye are very reliable, I have around 5 or 6 of them (different bikes) and have never had a failure. The oldest (Mity 3) is well over ten years old at this stage.

I would not bother with wireless, it's another battery and another thing to go wrong.

Lumen

FWIW, I'm not sure that average speed is a particularly useful thing to measure.

zzzzzzzz

Lumen wrote: »

FWIW, I'm not sure that average speed is a particularly useful thing to measure.

How come? I would have thought it was more important than actual/current speed...

Or do you mean that you could just work it out yourself so there's no need for it?

Lumen

aidan.offbeat wrote: »

How come? I would have thought it was more important than actual/current speed...

The problem with average speed is that it doesn't relate to effort with any degree of precision. It's quite nice to know at the end of a ride that you did x km in y hours, but with an average speed display on the bike (in my own experience) you end up resenting any sort of headwind or climb because your stats are dropping, and this tends to demotivate rather than encourage.

You're better off focusing on average heartrate (preferably with lap function), or if you don't want to fork out for a HRM, just used perceived effort and time.

zzzzzzzz

Lumen wrote: »

The problem with average speed is that it doesn't relate to effort with any degree of precision. It's quite nice to know at the end of a ride that you did x km in y hours, but with an average speed display on the bike (in my own experience) you end up resenting any sort of headwind or climb because your stats are dropping, and this tends to demotivate rather than encourage.

You're better off focusing on average heartrate (preferably with lap function), or if you don't want to fork out for a HRM, just used perceived effort and time.

I see where you're coming from alright.

Time on the bike is what really matters, as you mention at the end of your post.

I find average speed to be a better motivator than distance, current speed, heart rate etc. It would never bother me doing a 99km spin, for example, which seems to annoy a lot of people. Different strokes and all that, I guess.

blue chuzzle

i always found average speed to be hugely motivational. i would hate to see it drop and would push to keep it where it was or to see it creep up (depending on if i was heading up or down at the time)

when i did have average speed years ago it was the setting i had it on most of the time.

lumen: why would you be de-motivated by slipping back? i would have thought most people upon seeing that they were beginning to lose touch would be motivated to put the extra effort in.

Lumen

blue chuzzle wrote: »

lumen: why would you be de-motivated by slipping back? i would have thought most people upon seeing that they were beginning to lose touch would be motivated to put the extra effort in.

Whatever works for you.

For me, motivation is more about carrot than stick. When I see a crappy average speed on a solo ride, I start having stupid conversations with myself about how much headwind or gradient there might be, to justify the poor performance. The only upside is that when you have a tailwind you see bigger numbers. But you don't need motivation with a tailwind - you get that from the sense of speed.

When I'm cycling based on effort, headwinds and hills don't bother me - I see the same sort of numbers uphill, downhill, with head and tailwind.

short circuit

@Lumen - I wish I had you on the spin today ... All was fine till Sally gap ...
Edmundstown Road - no worries
Devil's elbow - no worries
Sally gap to Laragh - OMG .. the wind & the cold .. my right ear is frozen and I still can't hear anything

I sadly assumed that if the wind was in the face leading into Laragh ... I would have a nice tail wind on the way home .. no such luck ...

It was 60kms of unrelenting in your face wind all the way back .. I would have given an arm for a power meter just to keep the motivation up as all average numbers dropped on a nearly flat stretch of road back to D15.

Wind sucks the life blood out of you ... never been this tired on any spin including much longer spins.