Digital Inclinometer
 

I would like to know if / where i can get a digital inclinometer?
just want to get an idea of the degree of the hills I ride.
I have seen the one with liquid & this is not what I want

Have you tried doing a inclinometer search on Amazon. There are several digital incline meter. Problem is that the readout might be facing the wrong way depending how they read and how you mount it.

A cheaper meter would be a surface bubble Apps if you have an Iphone or a phone that can download apps. I have a Clinometer app on my Iphone that I can recalibrate to zero after mounting my Iphone to my handlebar. It can read it degree or slope and cost less than a dollar for the app.

I have done a search already and can't find what I want, similiar to a liquid one that ACA sells.
I dont have the need for a phone that has apps

I have been thinking of a VDO cycle computer, as they have a model which reads incline, never used it though.
R

A digital level, or for that matter, any level, is not going to work as you would like if the bike is moving. A level is fine if the bike is stationary, but as soon as it begins to move the measurement of inclination will be effected by acceleration and a moving bike is ALWAYS accelerating.

Some of the cycle computers calculate grade (inclination) by measuring the elevation change over the distance change but they are not going to be accurate to any supper fine degree over a short distance.

There are some mapping programs, like Delorme TopoUSA that will tell you elevation anywhere along the route you plot. In 2004/2005 I travelled the western USA in an old motorhome that would overheat on long climbs so I used TopoUSA to plot routes with less climbing. I travelled south from Cheyenne Wyoming to Colorado Springs and wanted to head west towards Salt Lake City but TopoUSA showed that all routes west through Colorado had massive climbs to 10,000 feet or more so I wound up heading back towards Cheyenne and then heading west on I-80 because it had easier climbs.


Brian

Don't the Garmin GPS cyclo-computers show % slope?

Get an iSport powermeter from www.ibikesports.com-I use a iSport GT and save the data on an Garmin Edge 500. The iSport does what you want and is the most accurate way to measure instantaneous % grade. I use it all the time (have measured up to 19.0% grades, real-time). This is even more accurate than post processing barometric pressure altitude data from my experience, for finding the peak grades of a ride (and it measure the peak grade for a ride also).

The new Cateye Adventure cycle computer includes a slope readout. No idea how instantaneous it is as there is also an altimeter function.

http://www.cateye.com/en/product_detail/604

You exaggerate the problem.

Yes, acceleration and deceleration will affect the results. But not very much -- you get up to speed and while you'll speed up and slow down a bit with each pedal stroke, the meter will find an average value. (This might become a problem if you're standing on the pedals in a high gear and a low cadence powering up the hill, but it might not too.)

The meter will be inaccurate as you accelerate and brake, but most of the time you're trying to go a pretty average speed.

Yes, my Garmin Edge 705 does this. Its reasonably accurate as long as the hill is long and steady and I'm going reasonably fast, but there's a significant lag.

Something that actually measure the angle your bike is at is likely to be more accurate with less lag. Depending on how it's designed, it may require a few seconds of pretty constant speed to settle, but most hills that you'd really care about take more than a few seconds to climb anyways.

Yes, if you average over several pedal strokes and the average speed is more-or-less constant then measuring the angle many times over that interval will provide a reasonably accurate indication of the AVERAGE slope over that interval. However, it will NOT provide a true instantaneous slope reading for the reason I've already stated -- acceleration. If the software were smart enough to know when to start and stop the averaging you should get decent results but if it does it for a set time window, and that window is short, then the indication is likely to be much less accurate.

In practice, it isn't critical to know the angle over really short intervals as you and your bikes momentum will average out very short variation in slope. I am OK with the results my 705 gives me...


Brian

Averaging over one pedal revolution is sufficient -- and if your sensor is mechanical, its own inertia could do the averaging on it's own -- no software needed.

Still, I'm not aware of anybody actually selling such a device meant for use on a bike. They certainly do sell devices meant for finding the slope of something, and it's easy enough to do with a level and some rulers, but I've never seen anything meant for a bike. It could be done, however -- it mounts to your top tube (close to level already) then is calibrated somehow (ride in circles and it measures the angle constantly if it's electronic, or manually with a level) ... but I haven't seen it.

My 705's grade measurement is certainly adequate, but it could be done a lot more simply and cheaply. A spirit level would do it, once mounted on a bar level (with shims if needed) and with marks put on the glass to indicate the grade when the bubble is at various spots. Ideally, it would be long enough to give readings for angles between -20% and +20% or so accurate to within 1 or 2%.