I'm in search of a basic wireless cycling computer (at least able to compute speed and distance) for my bike. The main problem is that most wireless computers I see have a little magnet and wireless piece that attach to your spoke and fork, respectively.

I am unable to do this since I have a carbon trispoke as my front wheel, so I'm wondering if there are any wireless computers out there that I can attach the wireless piece onto my chainstay or seatstay, and the magnet onto a spoke on my rear wheel.

I've been eying a basic Bell computer since it's cheap and gets the job done, but I'm not sure whether or not it'll work on the rear wheel.

Does anyone know any basic wireless computers that will work perfectly for my situation?

get a small but powerful neodymium magnet and tack it to your tri-spoke wheel with some silicone sealant/adhesive. That will allow you to install a front wheel mounted wireless computer and will also help with the issue of the sensor picking up th magnet as your spokes may be a little further away from the sesonsor when compared with a spoked wheel.

-j

I have not ever been able to get a rear wheel-mounted magnet and chainstay- or seatstay-mounted sensor to register a signal on a handlebar-mounted wireless receiver. I have tried many times on my simple indoor training stand. Just too far and too much interference by my body in between. If you could do this, it would be common to intercept signals from other riders you were with, so the sensitivity of the receiver is purposely limited.

I also suggest gluing (epoxy?) the magnet onto on of the tri-spokes up front. You can look for a small magnetic chip or modify the magnet that comes with the computer to work.

Call me crazy, but I almost wonder whether you could safely drill a small hole in the spoke to accept the back of the OEM magnet and glue it in nearly flush to the spoke surface. Or drill two holes parallel to each other on both faces of the spoke and run a longer screw through the spoke to grab the magnet and pull it up tight to the spoke surface. Unfortunately the screw would have to be long, very fine, and precisely sized to just grab the manget and pull it tight. Food for thought.

There are a few wireless computers that mount the sensor on the rear wheel.

Some examples: Cateye Strada Duo (uses their own system) and the Bontrager Nodes (uses ANT+). They work reliably.

You want a digitial wireless computer.

Some of the wireless computers do need to be mounted on the front wheel but not all of them.

I have a Sigma computer that supposedly requires the sensor to be mounted on the front wheel. A few months ago, I tried putting the sensor at the rear wheel instead. Works perfectly. YMMV.

This. Do it with my VDO from Nashbar, works like a charm.

Didn't work on my CatEye Strada

used Garmin500 w/ speed/cadence sensor?? i know it doesn't fit the 'basic' requirement and probably blows your budget badly. hell, maybe a Garmin 200? seems like those are available for close to $120, the cateye strada double wireless is ~$90, a garmin 200 might be a great alternative to that (though it does not have cadence available on it).

You can get this for $60-ish.

It's harder to find probably because your body is likely to block the signals. The VDO that I use only lets me get away with a chainstay cadence meter, so you might be able to rig one that works for you...

I've never used a cycling computer before, so I'm a bit inexperienced in this subject. The magnet sensor is only used to measure cadence? If I'm only interested in speed in distance, wouldn't I also need it? I thought that it calculates it all based on the wheel's rotations and rotation speed.

I really don't want to drill a hole or glue a magnet onto my trispoke in case if I want to resell it.

As of now, I'm interested in hearing of some specific models that would work with the magnet on the rear.

At least with the VDO, it made all the difference mounting the sensor correctly. Battery side had to be facing out in my case. Hope it might help you.

I think it will vary based on where you can mount the sending unit and the head unit. It is a low powered transmitter, so has to be pretty close. If you used silicone to attach magnet to one of the spokes, should be fine. Do your wheels have stickers on them? If so, can you get new stickers from the supplier? If yes to both, glue the magnet to the sticker and then replace the sticker if you ever have to sell the wheels / bike.

ya, I just did a quick amazon search for the double wireless, on ebay it can certainly be had cheaper, as can almost anything. a quick ebay scan for the double wireless says they are still around $80+ for a new in box one (the single wireless is about $60). makes a compelling argument for the Garmin200, no magnets to deal with, just strap it on and go.

The cateye strada double WIRED has wires but it's rear-wheel.

With the Garmin GSC-10 there are actually two sensors in one body, and two magnets. One magnet is attached to the left side crank to measure cadence, the other to the wheel to measure speed.