Rear mount computers/wireless

[Colorado Bicycler]

I would like to put a rear mount computer on my trainer bicycle. It is
a 700x25 roadie.

There seem to be just a few computers with wire long enough to be able
to place the head on my bars.

Does anyone know if a wireless rear-mounted pickup unit will broadcast
far enough from the rear mount to reliably transmit to a receiving head
mounted on the bars?

How about splicing in/soldering some wire to make the wire long enough
from the rear? I tried this once on a computer where the wire had
broken, and it didn't work, but that may have been simply that the
computer was broken also.

I already have a front mounted computer on the bike, and plan on
removing the rear-mounted when I take the roadie (this is my "backup"
roadie) off of the trainer and put it back in service come spring.

 

[Peter Cole]

Colorado Bicycler wrote:
> I would like to put a rear mount computer on my trainer bicycle. It is
> a 700x25 roadie.
>
> There seem to be just a few computers with wire long enough to be able
> to place the head on my bars.
>
> Does anyone know if a wireless rear-mounted pickup unit will broadcast
> far enough from the rear mount to reliably transmit to a receiving head
> mounted on the bars?
>
> How about splicing in/soldering some wire to make the wire long enough
> from the rear? I tried this once on a computer where the wire had
> broken, and it didn't work, but that may have been simply that the
> computer was broken also.
>
> I already have a front mounted computer on the bike, and plan on
> removing the rear-mounted when I take the roadie (this is my "backup"
> roadie) off of the trainer and put it back in service come spring.
>

I never had any problem splicing new wire to Cateye Mity models. I did
this a few times on my MTBs when cables got snagged. Although I never
purposely extended the length of the wire I'm sure that wouldn't be a
problem (within reasonable length).

 

[Jasper Janssen]

On 20 Oct 2005 09:15:57 -0700, "Colorado Bicycler" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>How about splicing in/soldering some wire to make the wire long enough
>from the rear? I tried this once on a computer where the wire had
>broken, and it didn't work, but that may have been simply that the
>computer was broken also.

Wired bike 'puters are almost invariably incredibly simple: the cable from
the head has two contacts and in the 'sensor' there's one (count 'em, one)
electromechanical item soldered between the leads, a reed switch (which is
a little glass case containing a switch that closes upon application of a
magnetic field, ie, the spoke magnet swinging by). I have, in fact,
soldered a few meters extra wire between the head holder and sensor of my
Cateye Mity 3 (this was a while ago), when the wire came loose from the
head, and that worked perfectly fine. You'd want to do it a bit more
neatly than I did, though.

Cadence computers presumably have three or four contacts between the head
and the sensors, and *two* whole reed switches.

Jasper

 

[Leo Lichtman]

"Jasper Janssen" wrote: (clip) You'd want to do it a bit more neatly than I
did, though.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That's actually the hardest part, since the cord is fairly thin, and
electrical tape can be bulky if not very carefully applied. Two
suggestions: 1.) Stagger the splices, so you end up with two thin splices
instead of one bulbous one. 2.) You can get shrink tubing that slips over
the splice. A little heat from a match or a lighter will cause it to pull
down into a very neat strong joint.

 

[Colorado Bicycler]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

Anyone know about wireless and transmitting from rear to bars?

 

[Steve knight]

On 20 Oct 2005 17:01:40 -0700, "Colorado Bicycler" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Thanks for all of the suggestions.
>
>Anyone know about wireless and transmitting from rear to bars?

the cateye double wireless is about the only one. get it off of ebay
for around 100.00
the cateye astrle 8 has a long wire harness so it fits as is.
Knight-Toolworks
http://www.knight-toolworks.com
affordable handmade wooden planes

 

[SMS]

Colorado Bicycler wrote:

> How about splicing in/soldering some wire to make the wire long enough
> from the rear? I tried this once on a computer where the wire had
> broken, and it didn't work, but that may have been simply that the
> computer was broken also.

I have often done just this. Look at

"http://nordicgroup.us/s78/soldering.html"

for how to do the job right. Stagger the connections for each conductor,
and use heat shrink tubing, not electrical tape.

If the cable has four conductors (two for cadence) then it's a bit more
work, but still do-able. However the models with cadence often are rear
mount anyway.

 

[POHB]

My YPK barely manages to transmit from front to bars, I had to mount the
sensor right near the top of the forks.

"Colorado Bicycler" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Thanks for all of the suggestions.
>
> Anyone know about wireless and transmitting from rear to bars?
>

 

[Colorado Bicycler]

Hey, THANKS all!

Great responses.

I spent a high school summer (that would be 1956!) soldering in
industry, so it was fun to read the excellent reference on technique.

Is there nothing you can't find on the internet?

Looks like wireless would not work too well.

 

[Rich]

Steve knight wrote:

> the cateye astrle 8 has a long wire harness so it fits as is.


I'll 2nd this. We have an astrale 8 on our tandem and it reaches from
front to the stoker's bars. (I put the sensor on the front because the
frame was too far from the rear spokes for good pickup)

Rich

 

[Andrew Price]

On 20 Oct 2005 17:01:40 -0700, "Colorado Bicycler" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Thanks for all of the suggestions.
>
>Anyone know about wireless and transmitting from rear to bars?

Choose carefully. Rear mounting was not recommended for the Ciclo I
had - not only did the mounting instructions specify the front fork,
they also recommended installing the computer on the same *side* as
the transmitter.

 

[Jasper Janssen]

On Thu, 20 Oct 2005 17:44:27 GMT, "Leo Lichtman"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>"Jasper Janssen" wrote: (clip) You'd want to do it a bit more neatly than I
>did, though.
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>That's actually the hardest part, since the cord is fairly thin, and
>electrical tape can be bulky if not very carefully applied. Two
>suggestions: 1.) Stagger the splices, so you end up with two thin splices
>instead of one bulbous one. 2.) You can get shrink tubing that slips over
>the splice. A little heat from a match or a lighter will cause it to pull
>down into a very neat strong joint.

In my case, I used 2 single-strand wires in red and red/black and
insulated the splices using blue electrical tape. I also had about 2
meters of excess wire that I cable-tied to my stem.

It's not that hard to be neater than *that*.

Jasper

 

[Chris Zacho The Wheelman]

To answer your original question, yes. The Cateye CC-CD300DW
Cyclo-Computer with Cadence.
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?...and=&sku=12147&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

It ain't cheap, though!

- -

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

"May you have the winds at your back,
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner