Cycle Computers - help me find one
 

I am about to buy a new bike. All my current bikes are low end mountain bikes. The bike I want is a 52cm Fuji Cross. I ordered it but am waiting to ride the frame I need. I am still debating over the bike but I am interested in cycle computers.

I want to get the computer at the same time as the bike or before as I want to have a total milage count of the new bike. Silly I know but I just want to track the miles.

The features I want in a cycle computer is sub $100 price, altitude, and the basic milage, etc. Wireless would be nice but...

Any ideas? It seems all the models of cyclecomputers with altitude and a sub $100 price have been discontinued.
-Duncan

I use a Shimano Flight Deck. Its good. Real good.

I've used a VDO wireless for 2.5 years and have been happy. Some reviews say they aren't durable. My model is the same one Performance sold. The new models look a lot different than the one I have. BikeWorld has them sub $100. http://www.bikeworld.com/vdo.htm

I'm very happy so far with my Specialized Speed Zone Pro Classic computer.

http://www.specialized.com/SBCEqProd...rowselevel=top

It's wireless with altimeter, thermometer, and cadence (wired).

I have a basic low end cat eye and it does all i want it to do. For $19-29 its in everyones price range :)

cateye astrale.
for wireless, its cateye enduro2

Ah..but he wants alti, too. Cateye AT100 is listed at $90, should do the trick. In genral, though, you're looking at the pricey computers to get altitude - are you sure you really want that? For about $25-30 you could get a full feature computer without altitude.

Everyone - thanks for all the replies.

All the cyclocomputers look good but I do want altitude. I have a GPS from my hiking/climbing hobbies that I have been using as a cycle computer. It suffers from wet tree related problems, i.e it doesn't work in certain conditions. But I got addicted to altitude and climb profiles from it.

I will take a close look at the Speed Zone Pro Classic Computer. It also has cadence which is a very nice benefit.

-Duncan

All of the bike computers use barometric pressure altimeters, which won't be nearly as accurate as your GPS. (Maybe there are some really pricy computers that don't use barometric pressure...) Barometric pressure changes with altitude, but it also changes a lot based on the current weather. You basically have to set the altitude before every ride if you want an accurate reading. I only use it for the altitude gained figure, which generally seems fairly accurate, but is ocassionally way off. If you only care about alt. gained, you don't need to set it before each ride.

One of the cool features of the Speed Zone Pro Classic Computer is the inclinometer; it estimates the gradient of the road based on how your altitude has changed over the past minute or so. It generally seems fairly accurate on longer steady climbs.

Cateye. Mity8, or Astrale. If its for an Mountain Bike then get a wireless for sure. Cateye has a good one for 50 bucks no cadence though.

GPS altitiude is not all that accurate, depends on your satellite acquisition. It is the least accurate of the stats measured in a GPS. But in any case I am mostly interested in Altitude gain/loss. As you said it the cyclocomputer should be fine with that. I am debating on whether I should use the GPS for altitude and the cyclocomputer for distance, etc. Theoretically I only want the altitude info once, the first time I ride a route. decisions, decisions...

As you say, that is one excellent feature and one I don't have on my GPS or in the software that I use to produce elevations profiles. Just like toy^H^H^H gear mana****urers to make this a hard choice.
-Duncan

If, as I think you mentioned elsewhere, you only need the info once, why not just take the GPS on one trip to a given place and leave it home the rest of the time?

Maybe you have a lot more new places to deal with than I do. If I could even borrow a GPS for a few days, I could get the values for every major hill I deal with.

You also mentioned that the altitude on a GPS is the "least accurate" measurement. I ran into a guy who had one and who showed me some things on it. As it happened, he picked up a bunch of satellites and the unit said (I think) that it was accurate at that time to 11 feet. The guy said this meant 11 feet in every direction, including up and down. At another point he picked up fewer satellites and the accuracy was 33 feet.

Are you saying that he was wrong about how he described this?

Also, even if it is the least accurate part, how would it compare to getting altitude from barometric pressure? I know some GPS units have that, though I don't know if those ALSO have the other altitude measurement to compare to.

Bob

Go to ebay and place a bid on this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=34289

Shimano wireless Flight Deck from Licktons for $102 delivered.
Pretty straight forward installation. It took about 7 minutes the first time to program and about 3 the second time.
I love the virtual cadence and gear indicator. I never look back now and my cassette.
It has all the features that I find important.
I'm not interested in a altimeter or inclinometer.
I do wear a Polar S210 HRM.
Good computer and a pretty decent price.