Originally Posted by
njkayaker
GPS is overkill for the OP.
You don’t know that. He already bought one GPS. I assume waxcrazy knows what is needed and wanted.
Regular cycle computers are cheap enough that you can get one for each bike.
That depends on the computer. Wireless ones are still rather expensive. The computer CAT7RDR suggested is $5 more than the GPS unit I suggested. A spare sensor is about $40. Wired bicycle computers are cheaper but having multiple computers on multiple bikes starts to add up in cost. And, if you want to track mileage, it becomes a data management problem.
Mounts come with the computers not with GPS units (so, you have that backwards).
Huh? I’ve purchased a couple of GPS units. They come with mounts. Spare mounts for most of them are dirt cheap because they are simple.
It's generally good enough to use the list of circumferences (so, you are exaggerating the calibration issue). GPS-only distance tends to be a bit shorter than the actual distance (so, even that has issues).
You are misunderstanding what I said about recalibrations. I have bikes with significantly different wheel sizes. I had to change the wheel circumference often as I switch the computer from one bike to another. Sigma Sport used to have a clever mount that worked for 2 different wheel sizes but if you have a 3rd wheel size, you were back to physically changing wheel size on the computer for multiple bikes.
The GPS unit I use now just clips onto the mount and I start riding. With 8 bikes, it’s a whole lot simpler.
30 hours is also still much shorter than the battery life of a regular cycle computer (which can easily be much as a year).
I’ll agree that bicycle computer batteries last a long time (usually more than a year), but they aren’t recording much data. It’s kind of nice to have a trace of your route, especially if you want to share the route with someone. I don’t use the navigation on my GPS to tell me where to go but I do a lot of route sharing. Having that ability is worth the hassle of charging the GPS.
The significant benefit of a less expensive GPS unit is to record your track.
If one has no interest in that, a GPS is not the best choice.
waxcrazy hsn’t said what GPS unit is going to be used for. Perhaps you should ask before assuming that waxcrazy doesn’t know the difference between a GPS and a bicycle computer