Odometer for rear mount trainer?
 

Hi all! I have finally set up my bike trainer - a CycleOps Fluid trainer - and I'm excited. However, I'd like to have an odometer of some sort because I want to see how fast I'm not. I'm training for the Chicago Triathlon in August and I want to make sure I'm getting faster. I've looked around on Amazon but everything I've found seems to be front mounted, which won't work for me since the front wheel isn't moving.

Any advice?

Thanks!

Teresa

You can put most any wheel speed sensor on the back wheel instead of the front. The Wahoo Speed Sensor is a good choice, as it does both ANT+ and Bluetooth, so you can pair it to pretty much anything. I run mine on my rear wheel all the time, no issues.

Just about any magnetless sensor designed to be installed around the hub of your front wheel will work, *BUT* you do have to be wary of clearances. My Wahoo speed sensor, for example, will fit the front but not the rear of my White Industries T11 hubs.


The alternative is the magnet-based speed+cadence combo sensor that typically attaches to the rear chainstays such as this one: https://www.amazon.com/Wahoo-Cadence...cadence+sensor

Generally for wire long enough to reach a back wheel sensor, may require splicing. can you Solder? then any will do..

I've never understood tracking miles on a trainer. You don't go anywhere! Speed for the same reason.

Time, watts, cadence... those make sense to me.

Does the computer have to be mounted on the handlebars? I have an old 1980s bike on a trainer, the computer is mounted on the down tube but back in those days downtubes were smaller tubing.

On one of my bikes the computer and wireless sensor have a strong enough signal that I could have the sensor on the chainstays and still read the speed on my handlebars.

Any wireless computer should work. Mount the sensor on the non-driveside chainstay.

I am training for a triathlon in August and I want to make sure I'm getting faster. It's too cold and icy to ride outside right now.

Plus I need the speed to enter it into my Fitbit. :lol:

Teresa

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it! :)

I suppose your Fitbit would be disappointed if you spent on hour the trainer and then told it that you rode zero miles at zero miles per hour. Do what you must! :D

If you're going to use indoor trainer "speed" as a progress metric, it will be more reliable if you make sure that the rear tire is pumped to the same pressure and the drum is cranked down to the same resistance every time. And keep in mind that your indoor speed may not correlate to outdoor real world speed. That is, don't be discouraged if you can do 24 simulated mph on the trainer but only 20 real world mph outside.

Also, are you using a heart rate monitor?