I have an ancient Astrale on one of my road bikes and a wireless Strada on the other. The Astrale is more dependable, easier to read, uses fewer batteries, and is cheaper.

For "Astrale" substitute the name of nearly ANY wired cyclometer for it's wireless equivalent. :) A wiring harness isn't nearly as difficult to install or unsightly as many posters here seem to think.

[QUOTE=HillRider;16741464]For "Astrale" substitute the name of nearly ANY wired cyclometer for it's wireless equivalent. :) A wiring harness isn't nearly as difficult to install or unsightly as many posters here seem to think.[/QUOTE

For the most part I agree with you. But I think many riders, including me, would rather not have the wires in the way when cleaning the frame tubes. At least that is why I switched to wireless on one bike.

Plus I think the Astrale is more dependable and more "precise" than many other wired computers. The circumference calibration is a 4 digit (mm) number whereas some of the others are 3 digit (cm).

Well for a typical 700-23 tire the calibration number is 210 cm or 2095 mm for a difference of 0.24%. I believe you are confusing "accuracy" with "precision". The Astrale is more "precise" but I expect the accuracy difference is nil.

Good call on the Cateye. I have a Cateye MITY 3 that I got NOS/NIB for $5 off CL a few years ago, and it has been great. It's chunky and solid, simple operation, A/B bike settings, crystal clear LCD, I've read on the web how the MITYs can survive anything. In fact, I just watched the odo roll over to 6000.0mi yesterday afternoon on my way home from work.

You can buy replacement/2nd-bike mount/harness kits for $10-15. It's not super obvious from the way it gets written up, but the same mount works with all those old Cateye models; MITY, Velo, a few other series I think. Also, if there's any concern about fragility of wires, they have a "MTB" model with a thicker wire.

I bought a Bell wired computer from Walmart for $10 once, thinking it's so simple, it should be fine. It was for my son's bike. A couple crashes it got knocked hard enough it stopped working. Never again. Cateyes from now on for all my family's bikes. And if you watch CL you should be able to find older models used on eBay for cheap; plenty of people ditch them when they move "up" to wireless models.

Another tip; it's better to position the magnet (and sensor) nearer the center of the wheel than the rim. At the smaller radius the magnet is moving slower and it's less likely that the sensor will fail to pick up any revolutions.

More testimony about Cat-Eye durability. I have Enduro 8 (a minor upgrade to the Mity 3 and with the heavier "MTB" wiring harnesses.) on two bikes. One was installed over 4 years ago and has accumulated over 14,000 miles and the other has been in place for almost 8 years and has over 24,000 miles. Both just had their original batteries replaced earlier this year.

Fixed. The Astrale is more "precise" and you are more "accurate".