Nihilistic

I jumped on my Giant OCR3 for my nightly fitness ride last night, and in the process of resetting the trip meter, trip time, and calorie & fat counters, I noticed my Bell wireless cycle computer had mysteriously gained over 200 miles overnight in my garage And with a maximum speed of 72 MPH! Either the Flash borrowed my bike last night to fight crime, or the wireless receiver is picking up a foreign signal.

I checked it about a half hour after my ride tonight, and the computer was running at 50-something miles an hour before my eyes I've owned this bike and cycle computer since April of last year, and it has never done this before. And I've been hanging the bike in the same spot in my garage since I got it. So I don't see why my TV, or my house wiring, or any other electronic equipment I have, would suddenly start influencing the bike computer.

Could someone be beaming a signal to my computer as a practical joke??? Are they trying to make me think I'm sleep-cycling 200 miles at night?

Maybe the batteries are starting to run down...both the computer itself and the sensor/transmitter use a C2025 battery, and weak batteries cause weird behavior...

Anyone experience this sort of thing before?

Darth_Firebolt

https://www.stephenking.com/library/s...nary_bike.html

sound familiar?

mrvrsick

There is your problem: it's a x-mart special. $20 gets you an E3 from performance. Wireless too. And it won't pop off when you hit a bump.

Nihilistic

LOL... nice post, Darth_Firebolt. I'm gonna have to read that story now.

I'm pretty sure it's picking up a stray signal, or the batteries are depleted enough to cause weirdness...guess I'll have to swap out the batteries to eliminate the battery theory.

Nihilistic

mrvsick,

It's worked flawlessly (pretty accurate), has loads of functions, and has a backlight for late evening rides for over a year of 10-25 mile nightly rides (except in the winter months). This is the first sign I've had weird behavior with it.

Darth_Firebolt

the funny thing is, my girlfriend bought me this book right after i bought a trainer and she had no idea this story was in the book. guess what i read while i was on the trainer?

mrvrsick

I had it, Till while riding it measured my cruising speed at 7 instead of 20+ and my errand trip was only 2.7 miles instead of 12.6. And when I hit a bump it popped off. And it wouldn't register more than about 20 mph. The cheaper Schwinn one worked fine as a first computer, except it pops off too (is probably made in the same factory)

Nihilistic

OK, I enjoyed the spooky woo woo Stephen King factor for a bit, but I'm a die hard rationalist, folks
All possible natural causes would need to be satisfactorily eliminated first

I replaced both the computer and sensor batteries. Ghost rider still cranking away at 70+ MPH.

Hmmm...then I went to my breaker box, and flipped off all the lights and receptacle circuit breakers for the garage. Ghost rider still barreling down an unseen road.

Hmmm...I have some X10 stuff in my house for remotely operating lights and fans. Turned off all that stuff in the living room (which is adjacent to my garage). Spook cycler still cycling.

Hmmm...I unclipped the computer from the bike mount and moved it around the garage, and noticed that it stopped registering speed when I got several feet away from the bike in any direction. Then I clipped the computer back on the mount, and moved the entire bike several feet away from the hanging mount where it normally awaits my next ride. No ghost cycler!

Hmmm...so I put the bike back on it's rack, and unclipped the computer, and took it into my living room, and moved around the room to see if it would pick up the ghost rider. Found him near my 50" Panasonic plasma TV! Turned off the TV...ghost rider disappeared! Turned back on the TV...ghost rider is back cranking away at 70+ MPH! My bike rack is hung on the opposite side of the wall my plasma TV is located.

Funny thing is, it has never done that before the last couple of nights. Both the TV and the bike rack have been in the same place the entire life of the bike, and I park it on the rack the same way every time. So I hope that's not a sign that my plasma TV is going on the fritz!

Nihilistic

Oh, BTW...the batteries are CR2032 actually...

Darth_Firebolt

nope. it's the camera inside the screen that broadcasts to Big Brother that is on the fritz.
think about that while you're watching tv tonight. it will make you want to read even more!

giantcfr1

I had a similar problem with a very old cateye of mine.
I realized that when it sat close to my mobile phone, the max km/h would go crazy.

patentcad

Wireless interference of some sort. On my wireless bike computer there's a gas station I cycle by that always makes it read 70 mph for about 20 seconds, must be some satellite or wireless connection they have with the mother ship.

Bob Dopolina 

I remember, many moons ago, talking to a friend that worked at Paramount. He told me of a customer who had had his bike hanging in his closet when a tornado leveled his home. The closet with the bike in it was still standing and the computer on the bike measured a max speed of over 200mph!

Not quite the same but still pretty funny.