Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Battery life in wireless Cateye bike computer

I have a used road bike and it came with a wireless cateye bike computer (can't remember the exact model number since I'm not at home). My question is about the battery life. It uses the 2032 watch-style battery, one of them in the computer part, but the battery goes dead in less than two months. The instruction manual I downloaded for the model doesn't mention any way to turn it off when it's not in use and I've taken the battery out and put it back in to rule out the possibility that the model is just in power saver mode and the buttons the manual says to push to awaken the computer just aren't working. The only way to get the thing working is a fresh battery.

Is this the normal battery life for a wireless bike computer? Is there something I can do to significantly improve the battery life of the unit? If not, I'm just going to stick to the GPS on my phone and Runkeeper/MapMyRide.

Jacob

I have a Cateye Strada Double WIreless and my wife uses a Cateye Wireless on her bike. The battery life in both of these computers has been much longer than 2 months. More like 12 months, but I don't really keep up with it.

You might want to call tech support at Cateye and ask them about the model you have.

I have a year, adding to 3,500 miles and 240 hours on my Garmin cadence and speed sensor, with the original battery.

Is it your wheel sensor or your computer that needs a new battery?

A good source of inexpensive 2032 batteries is batterybob.com's 2032 page. (http://www.batterybob.com/category.asp?cat=9024) They have 5 for $1.50 each, or 11 for $1.36 each, with free shipping.

I have a Cateye Strada Double WIreless and my wife uses a Cateye Wireless on her bike. The battery life in both of these computers has been much longer than 2 months. More like 12 months, but I don't really keep up with it.

You might want to call tech support at Cateye and ask them about the model you have.

I've had the Strada for years, and the previous 2 generations of Cateye wireless computers.

IIRC, the Strada goes into sleep mode after several days with no signal from sending unit. It stays this way until it gets a signal, then comes back on without any button pushing.

Batteries typically last a year or more.

I second Steve530's advice - call Cateye.

Different parts of the display will start blinking depending on which battery is low. I can't remember which exactly, but check the manual and you'll see it there. Mine lasted about a year.

is yours a CatEye Vectra Wireless Cyclocomputer?