noglider 

The advertising for the Avocet saddles was very successful. We sold a ton of those saddles in 1979 and 1980. I wonder why the design doesn’t live on?

Another fun anecdote: in about 1982, a man walked into the shop where I worked. His hobby was building and selling tandems. He said he picked up women in Central Park. I guess a ride on a tandem looked attractive. He said that the most popular saddle among these women was the Avocet Racing W-II. I guess if anyone would know, he would, since he may have had a large sample size.

I forgot to mention that Brandt said that the computer would count the times the sine wave crossed zero. That was the unit of measurement.

JohnDThompson 

Some early Ofmega/Avocet cranks had a slightly narrower taper than is typical, but tthe vast majority of what was imported into North America was standard taper.

steelbikeguy

The early days of electronic bike computers/speedometers were pretty interesting, and it amazes me that some ever got to production! The Avocet 20, their first model, was pretty sleek and sophisticated compared to their competitors. The little magnet ring that attached at the hub was easily installed, and the sensor just attached at the dropout. Together, they were unobtrusive and fairly rugged. I'm not sure that magnet ring, with multiple poles per revolution, provided any better accuracy or response than the reed switch that provided one pulse per revolution. That would depend on whether the computer counted the time from pulse to pulse or counted the number of pulses per unit of time. There are advantages and disadvantages to each method.

As Tom notes, the magnet induced a sine wave into the sensor, which is just a wire coil. Not a bad design, since there are no moving parts. The downside was that the circuitry always used power, causing the battery life to be about one year. The competing sensor design was the magnet and reed switch, which seems to be a major factor in the long battery life of computers using them.

I have three Avocets on vintage bikes, and they pretty much do what I want. The main problems I've noticed, other than short battery life, the connectors can be an issue. I've had good results by cutting off the connector sockets at the sensor, and just soldering the wires to the sensor pins. The plating on the connectors at the computer mount is just a tin plating, which wears out quickly. It's best to not put the computer in and out of the mount unless necessary. Fortunately, the connectors appear to be standard Molex contacts, so replacements should be available.

a quick look at the Avocet 20 on my International....




and a look at the sensor and magnet ring at the hub....



Steve in Peoria

52telecaster

Nice ride!

Chombi1 

A tip for Avocet 20 Cyclometer fans:
if your fork blades have the typical holes at the top and bottoms that the manufacturer provided for letting out gasses during the brazing process, you can route the cable for the sensor through them so you do not have exposed wires going down your fork leg. I was able to do this by de-pinning the wires from the computer mount and fishing them through the fork leg holes with a legnth of fishing line.
I did this to the Avocet 20 I installed on my Peugeot PSV back in 84.
IIRC, I think I saw a pic of Greg Lemond's TDF Gitane having the same thing done shortly after I did mine.

thumpism 

I have one of those RH crankarms and my old Touring II saddle, one of the suede ones now worn smooth. I also used the Fasgrip 32C tires on my old Klein and liked them.