Tandem Cycling - Cyclo-computer for the stoker?

Or by it traditional name, speedo/odo-meter. I'm thinking of just a simple one with odometer, speedometer, avg speed, elapsed time, etc. Don't care about cadence or heart rate.

Would you mount the display for the stoker to see? I should probably keep my eyes on the road. It would give her something to think about, something we could talk about. Or it could be something for her to worry about if we get going too fast. :eek:

What does the stoker want? Mine has a Garmin Edge 800, mounted on the top tube. On the rare occasions that I've changed the fields being displayed, I'm in big trouble, so I'd find out what yours wants to see, and choose accordingly.

The Cateye Strada Double Wireless works well for the stoker. It has cadence and is made to mount on the chainstay. Since it mounts on the chainstay it has a strong enough signal to reach the handlebar. It is easy to mount, easy to operate and simple to use. My stoker likes the Cateye Strada better than any of the 4 or 5 computers she has tried on the back of our tande.

Thank you all for your responses so far. I have a Cateye of some sort on my commuter and a Cateye wireless of a different sort on my fast bike. I like both. The wireless has fewer features, but that's okay. Both were inexpensive. As I said, I am NOT interested in cadence or heart rate.

What I was really thinking about with this thread was the psychology of the stoker and the effect of giving her the display. She doesn't want anything per se because she has no experience with either. Considering that getting her back on a bike at all has been a major accomplishment I don't want to jeopardize it. So it may bother her to know, for example, that we are zipping along at 20mph. Or it may distract her into staring at the screen instead of looking around and enjoying the ride, sort of like when you eat dinner with the TV on you pay more attention to the TV than to your meal.

As you say, it's hard to know how your stoker will react to having the information available. No-one on this forum is going to be able to predict that any more accurately than you. To find out for sure, you'll just have to install the computer and see whether she likes it.

The Cateye Strada Double (wired version) has also worked well for us as a stoker computer - the chainstay mounting of the sensor makes it ideal for tandem stokers. Operation is pretty straightforward, so that should be another advantage for you.

I upgraded my Garmin 305 to an 800 and installed the 305 for my Stoker. At first she kept saying she didn't need a computer back there, but once she had it, she loved having it! Plus having it back there helps her navigate better when we have to rely on a clue sheet for a ride we are not familiar with.

I upgraded my Garmin 305 to an 800 and installed the 305 for my Stoker. At first she kept saying she didn't need a computer back there, but once she had it, she loved having it! Plus having it back there helps her navigate better when we have to rely on a clue sheet for a ride we are not familiar with.

My stokers computer is way overkill in many ways, but when searching for a computer with the ability to accomplish moving fast resets to zero this is the route I chose.

http://www.icoracing.com/xl1.htm

No doubt way more than many teams need in a computer. For us, the ability of the computer to be able to accomplish instant resets to zero, with a single button push, while maintaining the trip mileage (total odometer is another separate function) has been one of the best items we have bought, specifically for riding from a route sheet.

In summary, a reset is accomplished at known points on the route sheet (a turn, sag, or intersection), the stoker is able to reset to zero while keeping total miles ridden that trip. She will either accomplish the math for point to point distance prior to starting the ride or will calculate while rolling.

The coolest feature though I was unaware of when I purchased the computer is the autocal ability. This allows the stoker to scroll the mileage ridden to match the route sheet. Basically calibrating the computer to the route sheet mileage. After two resets it typically does not require any additional autocal scroll inputs. Autocal has been a huge asset when a route sheet is incorrect, or when leaving a sag. The mileage is scrolled forward or back to rematch the route sheet, adjusting for the possible route sheet error, a wrong turn, or added distance from a sag.

She will typically use the remote switch and scrolling buttons located next to her left hand grip. This allows her to accomplish the task without the need to release her grip on the handlebars. Sometimes though, I know she does use the control buttons on the units front face.

The display digits are sized so my stoker is able to see them with no eyeglasses. For us we pretty much only use it for rallies with a route sheet. Overall though, for the abuse my stoker gets about it being a video game or satellite TV, she enjoys it and knows it lets her truly navigate while I deal with keeping the bike moving.

We still run a Garmin Etrex Vista Cx, it now is mounted on the diagonal tube acting as a route recorder...basically maps amount of climbing, plus other distance features, and is helpful when in new areas as means to know where you are or if needed a fast route out.

PK

Stoker Kay has never wanted/needed acomputer.
After 33+ years of tandeming, she can pretty well guesstimate how fast we are going.
Pilot uses a PlanetBike Protoge 9 wired computer with 9 functions. It displays 5 simultaneous readouts, so there is not a lot of switching around to see numbers.
There are other, more basic, 'puter models available.
As for 'keeping eyes on the road', you will do so automatically. If interested, a quick glance down at that' puter will tell you what you need to know with 5 simultaneous displays.
Just out x-perience/input.
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

@PMK - The "reset to zero" function that you're talking about sounds like a simple lap function, that many higher-end computers have, often with a dedicated lap switch, including the Garmin GPS units. The auto-calibration function sounds like something that a GPS computer can also do, but I'm not too clear on what you're talking about here. The customizable screens of the Garmin computers also achieve your goal of having the size of certain data fields customizable.

Overall, I can't see anything that the computer you linked to can do that a Garmin 500 couldn't do, and the Garmin has many other features.

@Chris_W, after reading the Garmin manual, it does have the ability to do a single button lap reset. However, and I am not certain, but wouldn't lap reset be a time reset and not a distance reset.

The computer we use, can do time resets, but we use it for the ability of it to accomplish a single button push for resetting distance without losing the overall trip distance or total odometer distance.

The auto calibration is a means to allow the computer to be calibrated to the actual route sheet distances listed. So if the route sheet was tabulated in a car, any error between the cars mileage, a typo on the route sheet and what the bicycle records can be adjusted up or down while moving. I have never seen a cycling computer or GPS, have this ability.

The computer we use is made for motorcycle enduro racing. In simple terms, a ride through the woods at a very controlled pace based on time. The autocal is to allow a rider to match his motorcycle distance to the master vehicles distance. This way he does not arrive early or late at checkpoints and be penalized.

If there is a large display cycling computer that can accomplish on the go distance resets with large displayed numbers, please let me know.

Thanks
PK

Interesting discussion about computer capabilities. In the old days I used to do sports car rallies ("rally" spelled several different ways) so I am familiar with computer features. But I'm not interested in most of them. I'd just like to know trip distance, accumulated distance, current speed. Even the cheap wired Cateye also shows avg speed, trip time, calories (yeah, right!). So the choice of which computer isn't a concern.

Psychology is a curious thing. I mentioned the idea to my sweetie/stoker yesterday and she said she didn't want it where she could see it. I had figured it would get her more involved in the ride. She said she was already involved. I figured it would be something we'd talk about while riding. She wasn't interested. Then I mentioned that there were other factors, such as me keeping my eyes on the road. (Yeah, I know, ZT implied that wouldn't be an issue, but I mentioned it to influence my sweetie.) Almost immediately she started talking about how neat it would be for her to read the computer, tell me how fast we were going, etc. I think she likes the idea!

[sorry to everyone else that this is drifting slightly off of the OP's questions]
@PMK - Yes, the lap reset button on the Garmins does reset lap distance as well as lap time, and you can have lap distance take up as much as half of the display space if you choose, which is pretty big. There is no way to calibrate it to match another bike's / car's mis-calibrated odometer though, but the solution would be to tell the other bike to get a more accurate odometer and get everyone to calibrate to reality.

[sorry to everyone else that this is drifting slightly off of the OP's questions]

but the solution would be to tell the other bike to get a more accurate odometer and get everyone to calibrate to reality.

I suspect that telling an event promoter, or telling the volunteer that does a route sheet, to make their car match the route on our computer exactly or never have a discrepancy on a sheet would not be welcomed conversation. We can follow a route sheet without the Checkmate computer, this unit just makes it very easy and each autocal makes ensure an exact accuracy.

I'm sure that the Garmin 500 is a very nice unit, and probably fine for many people. Prior to Garmin offering cycling specific computers, this house used and still does use an Etrex Vista HCx or Cx depending upon if we ride road or off-road. These GPS do not offer the fitness functions, but are very capable of logging data, routing or mapping.

Thanks for clarification on the lap reset function. When time permits I'll test a Garmin 500 and see if it would be a good swap and also see how well the stoker can read it without glasses.

PK

Just get a sticker made that says "KEEP PEDALING - PEDAL HARDER" and your stoker will have all the information that's needed. :D

Just get a sticker made that says "KEEP PEDALING - PEDAL HARDER" and your stoker will have all the information that's needed. :D

Let's not forget the rest of the decal set...

Blow up, Try to recover, Suck it up and finish...faster

Truth be told, a computer on the front, rear or at all is in no way mandatory. As in so many things in life, small percentage gains can sometimes show visible results, assuming results are of value to the people being monitored.

Night riding a tandem off-road or even on-road can remove all electronic input with the displays not backlit. Similar to removing the electronics altogether. In the dark, following just a light beam, your probably gain 10 beats per minute minimum from the added awareness, your speed may or may not be less, but in the end you still arrive at the same feeling of accomplishment to that of watching a computer for hours on end.

The stokers work to propel the team forward, there is no reason, unless cost prohibits it, to let them have their own "radio" to play with if they want to.

Jim Muller, the OP of this topic, buy the girl whatever she thinks would be cool to have back their with her being able to see it, this assumes she wants to see and deal with it, which it now sounds viable. Wired or wireless, more data than an engineer can understand or the basics like you said speed, distance, maybe average and max. Go for it. It may take their mind off the long miles of just sitting and pedaling, sitting and pedaling.

PK

My stoker said she didn't want a computer when we started tandeming last year. I put on one for her anyway. Now she loves it. I find myself asking her for info when I am to busy watching other bikes, traffic, poor road surfaces, etc....

We originally used two VDO C2DS computers linked to a sensor on the front wheel. It provided just the basic info (no HR or Cadence). Recently we upgraded to the Garmin Edge 500 computers. The stoker loves being able to configure her displays to show the information she wants to see. I like the ability to collect data about our rides.

I must admit, we forgot the computers on a recent ride and it was nice to just focus on riding and not the data.

It is totally a personal choice. One computer, 2 computers, or no computers; what is important is to get out and ride together and enjoy it. There is no right or wrong answer.

Thanks for clarification on the lap reset function. When time permits I'll test a Garmin 500 and see if it would be a good swap and also see how well the stoker can read it without glasses.

All of the Garmin cycling devices I've seen have a start/stop button, and a lap/reset button. When you begin your ride, hit start/stop. When you end your ride, hit start/stop. (Idea being you don't want a GPS record of the car ride to/from the bike ride; non-GPS computers don't have this problem since the bike wheels hopefully aren't turning on the drive.) If you do another ride before downloading your data, hold the lap/reset button in for a countdown-to-zero, and it'll save the previous ride and start a new one.

If you want to break a given ride into smaller chunks, just hit the lap button at the desired point of separation. I tend to hit the lap button each time we stop for more than just a stop sign/red light/which-way-moment. Stoker-wife is diligent at looking at her lap numbers upon coming to said stop, then hitting the lap button. If I were more diligent, I'd habit to hit the lap button upon resuming the ride, so we could track the total time stopped per point.

As far as reading without glasses, every unit I've used (205/305/705/800) can display from 1 to N data fields (where N=8 on the x05 and N=10 on the 800, I'd guess N=8 on the 500) on each of (2, for x05; 3, for x00) "pages". If you display fewer than N fields on a given page, at least one of the top-most fields is shown in some sort of larger manner. I, being a numbers addict, use 8 fields on each of my 2 pages on my 705, but stoker-wife has I think 5-7 fields per page on each of her 3 pages on her 800.

And of course, now I'm lusting over the 800 again...time to check the piggy bank.

I have two on the front bars and, if we ever row I shall make one "hers"! Seriously do use both as one is miles and the other k, and it gives a lazy trip setting and multiple options...

IF stoker wanted one (I DOUBT IT HIGHLY) we would have severe issues - she is partially sighted and it would need to be accessible (IE TALK, have touch access by buttons) and do so as a bluetooth.... we use intercom that works off that.... Added to that hearing can be an issue so volume is going to go through the roof without bluetooth. In my daydreams I imagine all and sundry hearing stuff as she presses buttons. I also suspect we would never improve on our current top speed of 42mph since I know if I read out speed we would not go Aero, bless her, she TELLS me when to stop calling the speed if it is a "max-speed setting opportunity"... HMMMmmm what kinda volume would you need one one of those (imaginary babies) for access at 40mph?! Extreme is my guess....