General Cycling Discussion - Minoura Hyper-Brain vs Cateye Astrale

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA
trifona
08-17-03, 11:34 AM
I need some help please.

I just bought a Minoura Hyper-Mag Alum Trainer. I'd like to get a cyclocomputer to use on my MTB for the 1st time, and I'd like to be able to use the computer both outdoors as well as on the trainer.

The Hyper-Brain seems to be a re-branded Astrale but I don't know if it has anything to differentiate it from the Astrale.

On the Instruction for the Hyper-Brain (below) it shows a diagram where the sensor get attached to the trainer flywheel:

http://www.minoura.co.jp/HyperBrain-E.pdf

Should I not be able to do the same thing with the Astrale?

Is this any more accurate than attaching the sensor to the wheel itself instead of the trainer?

I can get the Astrale for $25 from Performance, the the Hyperbrain is 2x that amount, and then, if I want to use it outdoors I have to buy the Astrale Wiring Kit anyway. See about half-way down.

http://www.branfordbike.com/trainer/train6.html


I would rather get the Cateye Astrale, but just want to make sure that I will get decent & accurate results oon the trainer as well.

Any advice out there? I'm a total n00b on this stuff :(

khuon
08-17-03, 11:47 AM
I have been looking into this myself. My current computer is wireless and doesn't have the range to allow me to use the sensor with the rear wheel. I also have a Minoura Rim-Drive trainer. The magic in the Minoura Hyper-Brain is not the computer itself as you have already guessed but the mounting bracket that attaches the sensor to the trainer. The magnet and pickup is still done via the rear wheel. If it were up to me and I had to choose between the Astrale and the Hyper-Brain, I'd pick the Astrale and mount the sensor on the rear chainstay. This way I could use the computer with the bike wether or not it was on the trainer. To be honest, I was considering doing some tinkering to mount an additional sensor in a similar manner as the Hyper-Brain (on the flywheel assembly) and either boosting the signal or relaying the magnetic pulse via a wired relay to my front fork mounted wheel sensor.
trifona
08-17-03, 05:09 PM
khoun,

Thanks for helping me rationzalize this. Of course I knew thatthe Astrale was the way to go, but I was worried that once on the trainer, that I'd get different readings.

Sorry for being such a pansy ass ;)