Shimano flightdeck?

[nath1]

Hi i have just fitted Shimano flightdech shifters to my training bike; when i xas routing the cables throught the levers i noticed that there is what looks like a a wire coated in plastic what does this do exactly. I recall that there is some kind of flightdeck that tell you what gear you are in and so on,i may be wrong. Does anyone one here know? Thanks in advance nath.

 

[serenaslu]

Hi i have just fitted Shimano flightdech shifters to my training bike; when i xas routing the cables throught the levers i noticed that there is what looks like a a wire coated in plastic what does this do exactly. I recall that there is some kind of flightdeck that tell you what gear you are in and so on,i may be wrong. Does anyone one here know? Thanks in advance nath.

see:
http://bike.shimano.com/catalog/cyc...>cnt_id=10134198673243915&bmUID=1145126661869
http://bike.shimano.com/media/cycli...I-SC-6502_6501_M500_v1_m56577569830537647.pdf

 

[nath1]

Thanks for those links it looks good, have you ever tried it ?

 

[free_rideman]

IMO it is kind of pointless. Getting a normal cycling computer is a lot better.

 

[serenaslu]

Thanks for those links it looks good, have you ever tried it ?

Just for short periods on friends' rides. I kind of agree with free-rideman. You get buttons on the shifters and synthetic cadence along with the gear indication as pluses, but for the money I think that there are other units with more features available.

 

[Retro Grouch]

I'm not really a bike computer guy, I'm not particularly interested in distance and how fast I'm going, but I do have Flight Deck computers on my two road bikes. I like them.

1. I like the virtual cadence function because it eliminates the second magnet, pickup and down the bike's frame.
2. I use a compact crankset on my road bike. The downside to a compact crankset is that you want to think ahead before making chainring shifts. The gear indicator function is great for that.
3. Flight Decks really come into their own on a tandem. The gear indicator is neat because I can't just look to see where the chain is and the virtual cadence is handy to know when to start pedaling again after coasting downhill.
4. Next to a bike that only weighs 18 pounds, nothing awes non-riders more than the little ovals to show what gear you are in.

The only downside (other than cost) that I can see is that it's easy to inadvertantly push the buttons. That's not so bad if you keep the two displays on speed and cadence so the computer won't shut itself off and stop accumulating your trip mileage.