Why you shouldn't leave your wireless bike computer on the cardash.

  • Thread starter Chris Zacho The Wheelman
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Chris Zacho The Wheelman

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This may belong in r.b.tech, you can repost it there if you think so..

Last weekend I went up to Leroy Springs in Fort Mill to do a little
mountain biking. Well, about halfway through the course it started to
rain, so I headed back. I only got 6 miles instead of the 9 I was hoping
for.

To protect it from the rain (I carry the bike in the bed of my truck), I
removed my bike comp. and placed it on the dash.

By the time I got home, my 6 miles had graduated to 28, my average speed
showed 19 mph, and I had a max speed reading of 98 miles per hour.

Either it was picking up radio noise from the engine, or I'm a better
trail rider than I thought!!

- -

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

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner
 
OK, I finally need help on something. Does anyone know of
a computer that records speed, mileage, (GPS data?) and
has an interface to download this all to my computer?
An integrated Heart rate monitor would be nice too, but
that may be asking to much. A wireless system could be
used for all the bike things, speed and all and also
with wireless an HRM would not be that much to build in.
The GPS was so I could measure mostly altitude gain on
climbs and measure that against both my speed and heart
rate. Does anybody know if such a thing even exist?
I have tried all the bicycle shop links I can find but
not all of the manufacturers sites, some of which are
very cryptic anyway. I have tried,
Campagnolo, Cat eye, Ciclosport, Cinelli, Issimo, Mavic,
Minoura, Performance, Panet bike (seems like that should
be Planet bike), Polar, Profile, Pyramid, Sette, Shimano,
Sigma, Sportsintruments, Timex, Topeak, VDO, and Vetta.
I can't find the web sites on some of them since I keep
getting pointed to a bicycle shop that sells them.
The plan for getting this all in sync is that I would
be able to make a serious log of my journeys, and maybe
share the GPS of some of the places I have been, but I
seriously do want to keep a record. Any and all (most)
input would be appreciated.
And not I don't want someone else to do my homework for me
I just have a dial up and it is painful. I live in a
non-DSL part of town and the cable modem stuff out here
sucks anyway.
Thanks in advance,
Bill (not gonna over post anymore) Baka
 
Bill Baka <[email protected]> wrote in news:eek:[email protected]:
> OK, I finally need help on something. Does anyone know of
> a computer that records speed, mileage, (GPS data?) and
> has an interface to download this all to my computer?
> An integrated Heart rate monitor would be nice too


Some Ciclo and Polar models have all those features (including HRM).
Instead of GPS, they have a built in altimeter.
 
Thu, 25 Nov 2004 16:42:49 -0500,
<[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Chris Zacho "The Wheelman") wrote, in part:
>
>To protect it from the rain (I carry the bike in the bed of my truck), I
>removed my bike comp. and placed it on the dash.
>
>By the time I got home, my 6 miles had graduated to 28, my average speed
>showed 19 mph, and I had a max speed reading of 98 miles per hour.
>
>Either it was picking up radio noise from the engine, or I'm a better
>trail rider than I thought!!


Providing the wheels weren't free to spin in the breeze, I'd guess the
fan or wiper motors being a closer source for the signal.

That ninety-eight mph should be good for a few dropped jaws though.
--
zk
 
On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 00:15:38 +0000, Ken <[email protected]> wrote:

> Bill Baka <[email protected]> wrote in news:eek:[email protected]:
>> OK, I finally need help on something. Does anyone know of
>> a computer that records speed, mileage, (GPS data?) and
>> has an interface to download this all to my computer?
>> An integrated Heart rate monitor would be nice too

>
> Some Ciclo and Polar models have all those features (including HRM).
> Instead of GPS, they have a built in altimeter.


Thanks. I just found the Polar but is still looks lacking in a few things.
I would like to record speed, Heart rate, angle, distance, peak speed,
and a bunch of other things in a second by second mode and be able to
dump that all into a spreadsheet when I got home. What I really want is
a whole trip datalogger, and the heart rate seems to be a stumbling block
since the wave form would have to be sampled at about 20 time per second
to catch things like skipped beats and what not. Coffee does that to me,
otherwise it looks like a 30 year olds waveform. My main criteria is that
it is all synchronized so maybe I could just get a speedometer that can
be made to run with the HRM.
Anyway thanks for the quick reply. I was only halfway down the list so far.
There are a lot of oddball companies with the URL I would expect.

--
Bill (?) Baka
 
Bill Baka wrote:

> Thanks. I just found the Polar but is still looks lacking in a few things.
> I would like to record speed, Heart rate, angle, distance, peak speed,
> and a bunch of other things in a second by second mode and be able to
> dump that all into a spreadsheet when I got home.


The Polar 720i records speed, altitude, heart rate, and (optionally)
cadence & power. The shortest sample interval is 5 seconds. That's
the best you're going to find in an off-the-shelf computer. Grade
must be calculated from the data. Once you have downloaded its data
to a PC, you can find the roadway grade of any section of the data
simply by selecting the data range with a mouse.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/
 
"Bill Baka" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:eek:[email protected]...
> OK, I finally need help on something. Does anyone know of
> a computer that records speed, mileage, (GPS data?) and
> has an interface to download this all to my computer?
> An integrated Heart rate monitor would be nice too, but
> that may be asking to much. A wireless system could be
> used for all the bike things, speed and all and also
> with wireless an HRM would not be that much to build in.


Specialized used to have something called a "P-Brain" that did all this.
 
Bill Baka said:
OK, I finally need help on something. Does anyone know of
a computer that records speed, mileage, (GPS data?) and
has an interface to download this all to my computer?
An integrated Heart rate monitor would be nice too, but
that may be asking to much. A wireless system could be
used for all the bike things, speed and all and also
with wireless an HRM would not be that much to build in.
The GPS was so I could measure mostly altitude gain on
climbs and measure that against both my speed and heart
rate. Does anybody know if such a thing even exist?
Bill,

Polar 720i will do it all:
Speed, Mileage, HRM, Altitude, Ascend, Calories burned, Cadence. D/L to your computer via IR. www.polar.fi. Bught mine at "SuperGo" for $260. Cadence transmitter and IR dongle (if your computer does not yet have an IrDA interface) are additional $40 each.
 
and you should not depend on your wireless computer with a bike headlight. My
Cat-Eye Cordless 7 does not work when my headlight is turned on.
 
Bill Baka <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Thanks. I just found the Polar but is still looks lacking in a few things.
> I would like to record speed, Heart rate, angle, distance, peak speed,
> and a bunch of other things in a second by second mode and be able to
> dump that all into a spreadsheet when I got home. What I really want is
> a whole trip datalogger, and the heart rate seems to be a stumbling block
> since the wave form would have to be sampled at about 20 time per second
> to catch things like skipped beats and what not.


I've never seen a heart monitor that would record anything beyond the average
interval between heart beats outside of the big boxes with wired electrodes that
they use in hospitals. The devices you wear on your wrist, with a wireless
strap, are really, really simple.

As was pointed out, the Polar S720i will do the rest of what you want, though
with 5 second samples, as will the Ciclomaster HAC4. I'm now using an
Oregon Scientific RP109, whose chief merit is that it is cheap (after negotiating
I got mine for under $200, and it includes a cadence sensor), which records about
the same information as the 720i at the same 5 second interval, so that seems
to be the state of the art.

Dennis Ferguson
 
On 26 Nov 2004 16:37:53 -0800, Dennis Ferguson <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Bill Baka <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
>> Thanks. I just found the Polar but is still looks lacking in a few
>> things.
>> I would like to record speed, Heart rate, angle, distance, peak speed,
>> and a bunch of other things in a second by second mode and be able to
>> dump that all into a spreadsheet when I got home. What I really want is
>> a whole trip datalogger, and the heart rate seems to be a stumbling
>> block
>> since the wave form would have to be sampled at about 20 time per second
>> to catch things like skipped beats and what not.

>
> I've never seen a heart monitor that would record anything beyond the
> average
> interval between heart beats outside of the big boxes with wired
> electrodes that
> they use in hospitals. The devices you wear on your wrist, with a
> wireless
> strap, are really, really simple.
>
> As was pointed out, the Polar S720i will do the rest of what you want,
> though
> with 5 second samples, as will the Ciclomaster HAC4. I'm now using an
> Oregon Scientific RP109, whose chief merit is that it is cheap (after
> negotiating
> I got mine for under $200, and it includes a cadence sensor), which
> records about
> the same information as the 720i at the same 5 second interval, so that
> seems
> to be the state of the art.
>
> Dennis Ferguson


Yeah, I found some of these combo units at over $300.00 and they still
did not appear to be logging all the stuff I wanted for a good .xls
spreadsheet study. They are expensive enough I may have to get past
christmas and all the kids toys and find out how much is left for me.
1 daughter, 25, no kids.
1 stepdaughter, 38, 5 grandkids.
The toy store guys love me. <sigh>
Bill Baka
 

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