Shimano FD Wireless transmitter on a bladed fork?

[Windbreaker]

Hi! I did a quick search of the forums but couldn't find an answer to this question.

I've moved up from an entry-level road bike w/ an alloy fork to a more aggresive road bike with a bladed carbon-fiber fork. My bike is hung with Shimano Tiagra (hey, it's cheap and I'm slow & broke), but I splurged on the wireless Shimano Flight Deck. It fit great on the old cro-mo fork, but not so well on the bladed carbon-fiber fork. In fact...I can't see how to attach it. The two or three-year old FD transmitter unit is mounted on a thing that is, basically, a removable zip-tie. It won't bend around the trailing edge of the fork.

Does anyone know if Shimano or a third-party makes an adapter or something so that I can mount this transmitter on the bladed fork?

 

[camit34]

I have a similar issue. I just bought a LeMond with that has a blade style carbon fork also and cannot figure out the best way to mount the transmitter for my cycle computer. I put a couple of zip ties on but did not feel comfortable about tightening them against the carbon fiber.

I was thinking somekind of double stick tape...

Tell us how you mounted your tramsmitter on your blade style carbon fork...Please...

 

[fish156]

I put a couple of zip ties on but did not feel comfortable about tightening them against the carbon fiber.

I just took a defunct inner tube and cut a strip out of it. I wrapped that around the CF fork blade and then tie-wrapped the sensor over it. Works fine. Old tubes are great for lots of things. You can make some really nice rubber bands with them, too ;-)

 

[camit34]

I just took a defunct inner tube and cut a strip out of it. I wrapped that around the CF fork blade and then tie-wrapped the sensor over it. Works fine. Old tubes are great for lots of things. You can make some really nice rubber bands with them, too ;-)

Stink'n good advice...Thanks!!!

 

[Windbreaker]

I finally got the transmitter mounted. How many months did I go w/o it?

No matter. I decided against Fish156's advice because there was no way I'd be able to get enough rubber around the fork to sufficiently protect the (fairly sharp) trailing edge of the fork.

However, at work (I work on the computer help desk) I found myself with a rather thick & dense piece of foam in my hands. Even better, it had glue on one side. I realized it might be thick enough to protect the trailing edge of the fork while being able to grip the mounting band of the transmitter.

(NOTE: The foam came from a monitor glare screen. It was intended to be stuck to the screen to keep it from sliding off the monitor, if it was needed, and in this case it wasn't.)

Obviously, I didn't want to stick something gluey onto the carbon fiber, so I did use a piece of inner tube around the fork. I had an old, wide tube from my beater hybrid and I rolled that piece waaaay up the fork (I also have bladed spokes and the magnet is mounted on the 1cm rounded bit of the fork next to the nipple). I cut the foam in half lengthwise and stuck it to the tube around the trailing edge. I then mounted the transmitter on the fork, and tightened it up with no problem. I used a narrow zip tie to hold down the slack part of the strap (I hesitate to cut it off in case I should ever need to dismount/remount the transmitter).

It's actually quite tidy, and I should figure out a way to post some pictures of it.

 

[friedmikey]

Man you guys think about this stuff too much! Just zip-tie the damn thing on there... it's not going to harm your fork. Use some scraps of tube, if you must.

 

[gclark8]

Run it off the rear wheel, use the seat stay.