Bike computer thing? (Clueless here)

My Makeup Perspective

Hi everyone

Jeepers this is an embarrassing post because I know practically nothing about cycling, but I don't have anyone else to ask!

My 18 year old brother's birthday is coming up and he has been looking around at them little bike computer things that you attach to your handle bar that shows distance, speed, etc etc. He has just joined some Irish Cycling Club and he has a racer bike (Don't know if that's any way relevant to my query!).

I know he can download apps to do this job but he really wants the attachable computer thing.

1) What is the official title of this item?
2) How much will it cost me to get a decent one? Recommend a brand?
3) Any recommendations for websites/shops to buy it from?

Sorry for the clueless-ness,

Thanks for reading!

Laura

flying11

Hi Laura,
What you are looking for is called a bike computer / bicycle computer.

There are various types of bike computer. I'll explain below

1) The most basic computers have a magnet (which attaches to the wheel) and a sensor (which is placed on the fork of the bike). Each time the magnet passes the sensor, the bike computer counts this as one revolution of the wheel and it is then able to calculate things like speed, distance travelled, averege speed, max speed etc. These computers can either be wired (i.e. a wire runs from the sensor to the computer) or wireless (no wires).
some good examples are THIS (wired)
or THIS (wireless)



2)The more expensive type of computers use satellites in order to determine speed, distance etc (like a sat nav for a car). These computers are also able to calculate things such as the number of meters climbed, the gradient (steepness) of the hill that you are cycling on and can also calculate things such as heart rate + power output. These computers can also be used to upload to a website called strava, which allows people to compare how fast they can ride up hills (really fun and addictive and its free too!)
The most popular brand is probobly Garmin who have several computers available to suit different budgets.
The Edge 200 is the cheapest option at approx €100
Next is the Edge 500 which has a few more features than the 200
They also have more expensive examples which i can link to later

3)A 3rd option is to use a smartphone. Most smart phones can download a Strava app (for free) which records all of the data and uploads it to the strava website where he can see loads of data. see this example. Note that you can see much more data on the strava website once you register (which is free)

I think thats all

Darkglasses

Welcome to the cycling forum Laura - no prior knowledge needed! All questions are good questions.

Flying11 has covered everything about bike computers pretty well there. Another option you could consider is to buy him a handlebar mount for his smartphone, so he can effectively use it as a bike computer. Whether there's one available for his phone depends on the make and model of his phone. Generally iPhones are fine, but anything else and they're a bit scarce. Bike computers from brands like Cateye, Kellys, Polar, Garmin, and BBB are all fairly reputable (there are loads of other brands available, feel free to post up anything else you find)

Any local bike shop should have a number for you to choose from. Online, Chainreactioncycles.com and Wiggle.com are the two most popular choices in Ireland. There's a decent chance they may have it delivered in time for Christmas, but at this stage it might be handier to buy one in-store.

My Makeup Perspective

Hi again

Thanks for both of your responses, this has thus far come across as a very friendly section of Boards!

His birthday isn't til 31st so delivery before Christmas isn't paramount.

Is that €100 Edge 200 a decent computer? It's top-end of my budget but I'll get it for him because I'm just *that* good of a sister!

His phone is a crappy 3 year old Sony smartphone, he has his beady eyes set on my iPhone, so he's hoping I get a new phone for Christmas. I figure getting him the proper machine is best.

Darkglasses

The Edge 200 would be a lovely present, Garmin is by far the most popular choice of GPS bike computer. Good quality product.

fran426ft

If you go the Edge 200 route this seems like a good price. €85

http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_844087_langId_-1_categoryId_212560

This was just from a 2 second Google so can't say it is the best price out there but should help keep you in budget.

My Makeup Perspective

Great, ye are only brilliant...

Thanks again!

spoke2cun

This is a very helpful post folks. I've been cycling now for a year and although I have a 'normal' speedometer, I would like to get a good Garmin one. I would also like to be able to link this up to some kind of training video i.e Sufferfest or similar whenever I get the right turbo trainer, and understand it! I know a lot more about it this week than I did last week that's for sure. That's all down to you guys. Cheers.

Darkglasses

spoke2cun wrote: »

This is a very helpful post folks. I've been cycling now for a year and although I have a 'normal' speedometer, I would like to get a good Garmin one. I would also like to be able to link this up to some kind of training video i.e Sufferfest or similar whenever I get the right turbo trainer, and understand it! I know a lot more about it this week than I did last week that's for sure. That's all down to you guys. Cheers.

It's a great thing about this forum yeah! I'm only the bike about 3 years and I've picked up a mad amount of stuff just from hanging around here. It's important to keep asking questions, there's such a huge amount of experience on here and everybody can benefit from it.

cdaly_

My Makeup Perspective wrote: »

Is that €100 Edge 200 a decent computer? It's top-end of my budget but I'll get it for him because I'm just *that* good of a sister!

Darkglasses wrote: »

The Edge 200 would be a lovely present, Garmin is by far the most popular choice of GPS bike computer. Good quality product.

Personally, I would go for a standard bike computer. It'll be always on so he gets to see what speed he's doing etc anytime he's on the bike. He can then use the gps phone to track a spin if desired. A bike computer with 'cadence' tells you how fast you are pedalling as well as how fast you are travelling. This is very helpful in training.

I would say the Edge 200 is something he'll end up wanting to upgrade fairly soon and that means chucking the 200 and buying a 500 or whatever. He'll get the same stats (and possibly a map background) from a smartphone with gps.

Darkglasses

Problem is it's hard to get a handlebar mount for most smartphones, so no display. I'd still get the 200 personally, I recently bought an Edge 305 s/h for basically this reason.

My Makeup Perspective

Just to update, I got the Edge 200 today in Halfords for my brother, €85, happy out.

Thanks a million to ye all again!