Atl_Gatr said:
Ive recently purchased a bike with flight deck compatible brake/shift levers. The bike has a cateye comp/cadence computer and I cannot seem to get the buttons on the hubs to change computer functions. Is the cateye flight-deck compatible or am I going to have to change computers? Thanks for all the info and help.
FYI. The FlightDeck computer is made by Cateye ...
Most of the FlightDeck harnesses are designed to be used with a specific shifter body ... that is both an advantage & disadvantage. There is also a Universal harness which subsequently fails to provide cadence + some other dubious features like indicating which cog or chainwheel the chain is on.
It's not clear to me that the recent (as of a couple of years ago) FlightDeck does anything more than the older FlightDecks other than include a 10th on-screen indicator & associated calculations.
Electronic technology has evolved since the FlightDeck was first introduced, and some of the OTHER Cateye + other brand computers have many more features which some people may find to be useful -- HR & altimeter are two functions (which may not be of interest to you) which I believe some computers are capable of indicating which I don't think the current FlightDeck includes, yet.
If you have more than one bike which uses Shimano shifters, then the advantage of the FlightDeck is that you will only need to buy as many additional harnesses as you have additional bikes (presuming they have the same tire size -- you can program the computer head for two different tire sizes).
If your current computer already provides all the features you want to use, then there probably isn't any reason to trouble yourself with changing to a FlightDeck unless you are currently toggling between the modes-or-functions to the extent that you feel having the control buttons integrated in the handles of the bike's shifters will be make the process easier OR if you find that strapping the control buttons on your handlebars OR wrapping the handlebars with the control buttons already strapped to the bars is tedious.
The price of a FlightDeck doesn't seem that different than it was about 10 years ago ... so, other than having integrated buttons (if you have the correct harness) & some dubious functions, its cost probably can't be considered competitive with the cost of a 'plain' Cateye computer.
BTW. I still use FlightDeck computer heads even though I no longer use Shimano shifters ... I found that I only used the minimal number of functions ... and so, I do not find using the Universal FlightDeck harnesses to be a handicap.