Best Speedometer / mile-o-meter gadget for a bike

[Rags]

Morning all,

Been getting into my biking over the last few weeks and have been doing some great 20 mile runs in and around the Surrey area.

What I really need is decent indicator of my speed / mileage / av apeed etc.

There seem to be all sorts of options going from full on sat nav to pound shop speedometers.


What are your recommendations?

Thank you

[prand]

For just speed & distance you're no worse off with a £5 unit than a £40 wireless one with "calories", time, trip, lap, average speed, light, etc etc. I have a couple from Halfords on my commuter and wife's bikes, and they're perfect to see how fast you're going and how far you have been.

For the MTB/Road bike, I have a Garmin Edge 305 for about £120 because that has a gps speedo (no wheel sensor required - and you can swap bikes easily), trip meter, heart rate, altimeter, and you can download your rides onto your PC to map out loads of geeky stats and your route, and also track your fitness. The GPS mapping is a bit crappy for any purpose at all, but I didn't buy it for that. You can also use it for walking/running to check your distance & heart rates.

Beyond that you can get full GPS Sat Nave mapping & monitoring untis (like the Garmin Edge 705 - £250+) and ones with cadence sensors that can then work out your power output. As Mentioned, Garmin, and also Polar, Suunto, Cateye have lots of models of varying prices & complexity. Halfords have a cheap-ish range too. You can get also an acceptable one form Tesco.

[pdV6]

For what you want it for, a cheapo one will be fine.

Personally I prefer wireless ones as they're easier to install (and there's no wire to snap after snagging it on a bush!) but then you do need to change 2 sets of batteries rather than one.

I've given up trying to keep even a wireless one on my off-road bike as I'm forever snapping the sensor off on the scenery. No such problem on the commuter bike though.

[a11y_m]

Not being funny, but this is actually fairly good:

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_6598.htm

Pretty plain looking but the one I bought in the past from Aldi was brilliant.

[CAB]

prand said:

For the MTB/Road bike, I have a Garmin Edge 305 for about £120 because that has a gps speedo (no wheel sensor required - and you can swap bikes easily), trip meter, heart rate, altimeter, and you can download your rides onto your PC to map out loads of geeky stats and your route, and also track your fitness. The GPS mapping is a bit crappy for any purpose at all, but I didn't buy it for that. You can also use it for walking/running to check your distance & heart rates.

Seconded - good piece of kit although you need to take it with you rather than simply leave it on the bike. Only really relevant if you have to leave your bike for any period of time locked up.

CAB

[a11y_m]

CAB said:

prand said:

For the MTB/Road bike, I have a Garmin Edge 305 for about £120 because that has a gps speedo (no wheel sensor required - and you can swap bikes easily), trip meter, heart rate, altimeter, and you can download your rides onto your PC to map out loads of geeky stats and your route, and also track your fitness. The GPS mapping is a bit crappy for any purpose at all, but I didn't buy it for that. You can also use it for walking/running to check your distance & heart rates.

Seconded - good piece of kit although you need to take it with you rather than simply leave it on the bike. Only really relevant if you have to leave your bike for any period of time locked up.

CAB

Thirded. I've got the Forerunner 305 which is essentially the same thing. A lot more £££ than a simple computer but such a great toy/gadget! I use it on the MTB, road bike and also indoors as a HRM on my spin bike. I want the cadence adaptor though but it's £40 or so...

[System-G]

Depends on how much you want to spend and what you want to use it for.

Whilst I agree with the others about little difference between the entry-level wired & wireless systems, they do what I need them to do - Current Speed, Average Speed, Highest Speed, Trip Distance, Overall Distance, and Trip Time.

I opted for a Cateye Micro Wireless as I use my MTB both on road and offroad. There's more chance of snagging a wire offroad. It's relatively cheap at around £30 although I paid a lot less in a sale.

I don't take cycling seriously (i.e racing or competition) so am not bothered about heart rate monitors, pace setters etc... and the geeky elliment just doesn't do it for me. I just want to get on the bike and have fun

[beanbag]

a11y_m said:

Not being funny, but this is actually fairly good:

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_6598.htm

Pretty plain looking but the one I bought in the past from Aldi was brilliant.

That looks top notch! If I lived in the UK, I'd snap one up right away for my hybrid!

I've got a wireless Specialized Turbo Elite for the stumpy which I use to measure the distance on the trails and try and keep my average kph up.

[mat205125]

CAB said:

prand said:

For the MTB/Road bike, I have a Garmin Edge 305 for about £120 because that has a gps speedo (no wheel sensor required - and you can swap bikes easily), trip meter, heart rate, altimeter, and you can download your rides onto your PC to map out loads of geeky stats and your route, and also track your fitness. The GPS mapping is a bit crappy for any purpose at all, but I didn't buy it for that. You can also use it for walking/running to check your distance & heart rates.

Seconded - good piece of kit although you need to take it with you rather than simply leave it on the bike. Only really relevant if you have to leave your bike for any period of time locked up.

CAB

If you put it on the dash of your car will it tell you how many calories you car is using to "pedal" at 100 leptons down the road?

[CAB]

mat205125 said:

CAB said:

prand said:

For the MTB/Road bike, I have a Garmin Edge 305 for about £120 because that has a gps speedo (no wheel sensor required - and you can swap bikes easily), trip meter, heart rate, altimeter, and you can download your rides onto your PC to map out loads of geeky stats and your route, and also track your fitness. The GPS mapping is a bit crappy for any purpose at all, but I didn't buy it for that. You can also use it for walking/running to check your distance & heart rates.

Seconded - good piece of kit although you need to take it with you rather than simply leave it on the bike. Only really relevant if you have to leave your bike for any period of time locked up.

CAB

If you put it on the dash of your car will it tell you how many calories you car is using to "pedal" at 100 leptons down the road?

Havent tried that one but it will tell you the elevation of your house ;-)

Also it is useful when you are trying to retrace your steps on the ride back home - the very basic mapping gives you a feel for where you should be...

Think mine was £120 from 'bay

[Hard-Drive]

I have a Garmin eTrex Vista HCX for full on adventurey stuff, moving maps, fluxgate compass, baromteric altimeter etc, with a handlebar clamp for the MTB, plus I have just bought a couple of bargain Bikemates from Aldi...

Don't laugh...but full functionality, temp gauge, wireless, 3 yr guarantee plus a heart rate monitor for £12.99 is a bargain!

[Rags]

a11y_m said:

Not being funny, but this is actually fairly good:

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_6598.htm

Pretty plain looking but the one I bought in the past from Aldi was brilliant.

Bought this yesterday! seems a bargain and 3 years guarantee!

Will report back

[prand]

[quote]

If you put it on the dash of your car will it tell you how many calories you car is using to "pedal" at 100 leptons down the road?
[/quote]

Teh 305 will measure the speed of the car, or any vehicle (would be interesting to see what it does on a plane journey!)- although the calories are worked out by your heartrate, not by the speed trvelled so that won't be anything special.

I've no idea how accurate teh calorie counter is, but when I did the 100 mile South Downs Way the unit said I had consumed 6500 calories (in about 13 hours)!

Edited by prand on Friday 18th July 09:26

[Rags]

Got the Aldi Device.

Can't seem to get it working.

You have the small grommit that fits to a spoke, then theres the small rectangular device which it says bolt to the fork, but i am getting no readings on the handlebar mounted device.

Any ideas?

[pdV6]

Is it wireless?

If so, check battery in the fork-mounted sender.

Also, what happens if you dismount the computer and move it much closer to the fork sensor, i.e. is it having trouble picking up the signal from the sensor?

In both wired and wireless applications, placement of the spoke magnet and fork sensor can be fairly critical - make sure you follow the instructions carefully.

[Rags]

Yep, I guess thats going to be the main issue.

Will try both those suggestions.

Can I just verify, the gromit measures rpm of the wheel and the fixed fork mounted receiver collects the data and then sends it back upto the handle bar mounted device?

Ta

[pdV6]

Kind of.

The grommet is just a magnet.
The fork sensor is just a magnetic reed switch and a transmitter.
As the magnet passes the reed switch, the circuit completes and a pulse is generated and transmitted.
The computer receives the pulses and calculates the road speed using time and distance (you program the wheel's circumference into the computer to enable it to do this).

Generally they average out the speed over a few revs which is why when you hammer downhill and then hit the brakes the speed readout continues to rise briefly before dropping off and only falls to zero shortly after you have stopped rather than instantaneously.