alanmcdonley

Until my butt gets used to the saddle, my testing distances are very limited.

Bike Computer: CatEye Padrone with fork mounted wireless speed sensor
Bike Tire: 700x30c
GPS: iSmoothrun on iPhone5
Conditions: Continuous riding on flat road, mostly straight with gentle turns.


4 Mile Test: The bike computer showed 4.15 miles and the GPS app read 4.17 miles - half of one percent difference. I'll take that any day.

The average speeds were 0.7% different - 14.2 mph vs 14.3 mph.

The max speed readings were 6% different 17.8mph vs 18.97 mph, but I believe the bike computer is probably closer to actual, with the GPS affected by a slower sample rate and position precision uncertainty.



2 Mile Test: The bike computer indicated 2.13 miles, and the GPS app reported 2.15 miles - 0.9 percent difference.

The average speeds were 13.0 mph vs. 12.08 GPS - a 7% difference.

The max speed readings were 18.6 mph vs 23.64 mph - a 21% difference.



The CatEye Padrone is set at 2146, which is the table value for the 700x30c tires. I measured one (slow riding) wheel revolution at 2135mm.


Evaluation: I am 56% confident my bike computer, with setting of 2146, is giving me distances which are within a one percent margin of error. (yeah right, based on two short tests...)

noglider 

Thank you. I look forward to updates.

alanmcdonley

Still not a long test, but this datum is from a biked birding expedition with my wife that included about five photo stops in five miles - The GPS app and bike computer distances matched exactly (both display hundredths of a mile). This datum is plus or minus 27 feet in 5.31 miles (one percent uncertainty).

The average speeds differed by 2% (both screamed "slow poke" 8 mph). Many people have panned average speed measurements. I have spent the last year training, (for jogging 5k slow by most folks standards), by varying my average pace around my personal best by as few as 15 seconds per kilometer (3.5%).

On this slow ride, I would love to feel good about the GPS reported max speed of 21 mph, but I am pretty sure the computer reported 17 mph is actual (I was only sweating around my hat band, from thinking too hard.)

I am really loving this CatEye Padrone bike computer. Again only one data point, but it hints that stopping to pick up some trash or sitting to enjoy a view is not going to ruin the accuracy of my ride statistics.

alanmcdonley

Didn’t matter which side of the road I passed this power box from, it killed the fork-mounted wireless sensor signal to my CatEye Padrone bike computer for 150 feet (0.03 miles) of my ride each time I passed it.



Since I passed it six times during today’s ride, that is a loss of 0.18 miles.

I had expected there would be places with high EMF fields that could potentially knock out the sensor reception, so I am neither disappointed with my bike computer, nor concerned about the mileage loss. I chose the clean lines of no wires knowing the risks.

I’m not sure how many of these “bike computer jammers” exist around my neighborhood, but now I know what to look for when my speed suddenly shows 00.0mph.