Rear mount a Cyclocomputer?
 

Hi all,

First time post here, hope this forum is the right one.
My Question> Can a Cyclocomputer be mounted on the rear for trainer use?

Just getting into riding and a buddy kind of laughed at my vintage Puegoet that i was riding at a "Coffe ride" (almost killed me) and offered his Cinelli to try. So i thought i would put mine on a trainer and was wondering if i can rear mount it.

thanks,
DD

Yeah you just have to get longer cables. I know Sigma makes a specific Rear wheel mount.

Long cable as mentioned or wireless that has the range, I use VDO CD3 DS on our tandem rear wheel running 2 computers with no problems the VDO wireless has a 15' range so no problem from any rear wheel.

Cat Eye's Astrale is a wired cyclometer with a rear wheel pickup and cadence so it is particularly suited for trainer use.

I've been using the Astrale for several years and it's always been mounted to the rear tire. Back when I first got it I had read somewhere that cyclometers were supposed to be mounted to the rear wheel. I've learned since then that this is not as important as I once thought.

One low cost possibility is to use a regular "front wheel pickup" cyclometer and mount the handlebar bracket on the top tube a few inches ahead of the saddle. That way, a regular length wire will reach the rear wheel and the pickup switch can be mounted on the chainstay or seatstay.

Yes, you will have to read it sideways and, yes, you will have to look straight down to see it but, on a trainer, so what?

Um...just for the record, I spliced in some extra wire, soldered connections with heat shrink over them, to reach the rear wheel for my wife's recumbent. No problems.

If your "friend" laughs at your bike again, push his Cinelli in front of a moving SUV.

This can be done but the splices have to be carefully made and very well sealed against dirt and moisture. The pickup "signal" is very weak and any additional resistance will cause faulty or erratic readings.

Most wireless do not have the range to mount on the rear wheel. Cayeye and Blackburn have models that rear mount with cadence which is nice for indoor work.

Thanks everyone! i'll give it a shot this weekend, I put a wireless on the Cinelli and my buddy gave me another computer that has a long enough wire so i can mount it in the rear.
:beer:

So, if you aren't using your bike in a trainer, what are the advantages to mounting the pickup on the rear wheel? Just curious.

Caruso

I am putting it on a trainer.....read the first post:D

Wireless > Cinelli
rear wired > Puegoet

DD

I read the first post and each one that followed. Read my question: If you ARE NOT using a trainer, what would be the advantage, if any, to a rear mount. I asked the question out of curiosity . . . that's all.

Caruso

If you want cadence, rear pickup cyclometers are more common since the wires are going there anyway. Other than that, you are right, there is no advantage and it makes the wires more vulnerable.

Last winter I mounted a $9.99 Target bike computer on the rear wheel of my trainer-bike. I cut the wire between the pickup and the computer, spliced in a 4 foot section and installed the 'puter on the bars. The hardest part was getting the correct spacing from the chainstay to the spoke-mounted magnet. I put a section of hose over the chainstay and zip-tied my pickup to that. Super easy to do and everything worked just great first time.

:roflmao:

I just put a Cateye Astrale on my road bike, mainly because my olde Sigma 500 was showing some anomalies, and partly because it was time to spend some money on cycling :). The Astrale has the wheel pickup on the rear, the SIgma on the front.

Today I rode with both computers. For the most part the speeds were identical, occasionally + or - 1 kph. What I found interesting was that the distance was off by .50 km: 30.36km from the front/Sigma and 29.86km from the rear/Astrale. Both computers are set to values published in their respective manuals for my tire size (same front and rear). I can see where, when turning, particularly when turning tight, the rear wheel would track a shorter distance than the front, but I don't know that it would amount to 0.5km over that distance on this course.

Could it be just a calibration issue? Or maybe it's the way my front wheel spins when I come off the ground at the top of the hills :).

You'd really have to measure your rollout to get a more accurate setting for each computer.

I have a 1985 Schwinn Sprint on my trainer. No trick at all to mount the pickup for a cheap Schwinn cyclocomputer on the chain stay. Wires were long enough.
Incidentally, if you do have to lengthen the wire, don't worry about signal strenght. It is not some magical, mysterious electronic signal, it is simply an on/off switch on the sensor.

The rear wheel carries more weight, the effective radius is less than for the front wheel.

Al

Yes, people who laugh at vintage Peugeots usually come to a sticky end. :p

Unless the Peugeot is an automobile. Then everyone laughs. :)

Wouldn't that tend to make the rear computer OVER estimate distance, since the rear wheel, being smaller, would have to go round and round more times to cover the same distance? That would be just the opposite of what I observed.

I know I am replying late to this thread, but I too have a front mount sensor that i want to mount to the rear wheel so that i can get a speed readout while on my wind trainer. I followed the advice above, but to no avail...splicing the wires did not work. After a few hours a swearing and cursing I went to the local Cyclepath shop for help. Apparently, for some cyclecomputers, there is an invisible coating on the copper wires that must be burned off prior to splicing. If you peel away the protective plastic casing, then hit the wires with a cirgarette lighter you will be able to splice in an extension wire no problemo. They also said that old headphone wire works the best. Hope this helps you and saves you some aggrivation. I wish this solution had been posted somewhere before I wasted a few hours "discovering" it the hard way. To think, I almost went out and spent $100 on a new rear mount speedo...
Cheers.