Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
Thu, 29 Dec 2011
I'm pondering getting a new bike in the near future, which means I'm also looking around at new accessories. Recently, that's been bike computers.
My two current bikes have Sigma Sport computers on them, largely because I had good success with the Sigma Sport I installed on my motorcycles many moons ago. The Sigmas are pretty basic, with two lines of information and one of "title," telling you what the second line is showing.
As far as display goes, this is great. No information overload, just your current speed and something else. Unfortunately, the "something else" I want to see 99% of the time is the clock. This is unfortunate because with the BC800 (pictured above) or the BC905 (which works about the same way), in order to see the clock, you have to hit the mode button 4 or 5 times, depending on the model. So every time I get on the bike, I have to cycle through a bunch of crap I don't want to see. This gets old.
In addition, the 24h vs 12h format for the clock is tied to whether the speed is displayed in metric or US units. Whuh? I guess they... saved a menu item there? So I set the speed units to metric and use my math powers to have the speed displayed in US units (despite the little KPH icon), because I'm a nerd, and prefer my time in 24h format.
So, I started looking around at other computers. Approximately one million and one years ago, I had a CatEyeMate computer, which was the size of a charcoal briquette, and might have shown current speed and maybe an odometer. I was terribly proud of it, but I was also 12, and would have been proud of damn near anything electronic and cool I could strap to my handlebars. But I decided now, 1,000,001 years later, to check back with Cateye.
Over the Christmas break, I found myself in an REI store, and perusing the bike section. I spotted this little number, and was actually kind of excited. Wireless! Small! Calorie count! CO2 offset! Neat! It's a Cateye Urban, and it's very nearly the right thing. The reason I say it's nearly right, is I found this shortly afterward:
This is the Cateye Commuter. Even better than the Urban, it always shows the time, and even shows temperature! Cool! Then I read the reviews: to do a bunch of basic things with it (which you'd normally do with the computer on the bike), you have to dismount it to get to the four switches recessed into the back of the thing. There's one switch you can hit while the device is mounted to the bike, and it only covers about half the functions you want to do. Not so cool. A bold and worthy concept, but poorly executed.
And that kind of left me scratching my head. The ideas shown in the Commuter (clock always displayed, temperature readout) are compelling, and now I don't want to go without them, but the Commuter is clearly not the right thing (and anyway, it's $70, vs. the $15-30 range I'd previously been looking at -- I'm not honestly sure why it costs so much).
There are other computers out there, but they all have weird weaknesses, like buttons that can't be operated with gloves on (WTF, yo?), wireless systems that aren't very reliable, etc. I really don't need anything fancy, but I really want it to work well for me.
So, I have been formulating Ian's Manifesto of Bike Computer Goodness:
- Can be configured to always display clock and speed
- Uncluttered display
- Light weight
- Good value for money
- Easy to operate
- Includes trip odometer, full odometer, and average speed
- Reliable
- Stores wheel size and odometer to non-volatile memory
Honestly, about half of these things are complete and total no-brainers. Non-volatile memory, for instance. This seems to be complete anathema to bike computer makers, but it would not materially change the cost of their devices to include a dozen bytes of EEPROM memory. Get with the 1970s, guys. Instead, I get to lose my odometer every time the battery goes south (often without any warning, despite the "weak battery warning systems" theoretically in place).
And the wake-up mode thing. Do bikers really want to always see their trip odometer every time they start rolling? Is that really the most important thing, or is it the most convenient thing for the programmers? Feels like lazy programming to me -- you're already maintaining memory registers for a bunch of stuff, use up another byte to store the current display mode.
Of course, I haven't had much experience with non-Sigma brands, so perhaps I've just been using the wrong brand all this time. Further research will see. It's fun to research stuff like this, although it's frustrating as I realize the extent to which these manufacturers are not interested in the commuter market. Apparently all bikers (or at least those who buy computers) are training for the Olympics. Kudos to Cateye for the nod to utility riders, but maybe hire a new UI guy next time.
Posted at 01:01 permanent link category: /bicycle
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater