Comments on: (Most) Bike Computers Are Evil, Stupid, and Stupidly Evil

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By: trust but verify

trust but verify — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:26:57 +0000

I too had adopted Fatty’s ‘buy a cheap one because it’ll break anyway’ philosophy. Then that bastard Landis convinced me I really had to know how bad I was by getting a powertap 2.4.

Sweet.

I am not looking back. (a) it works (b) no wires (c) it stays on even when descending bumpy stuff. I expect it to last long enough to need to change batteries, but no need yet after about 2000 miles.

I am not totally sold on the free Poweragent software, but I’m a professional geek and picky.

TBV

By: amy

amy — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 17:05:53 +0000

I picked up an edge 305 with cadence last week (don’t b slap me I got it at Walmart.com – but now see the same price at amazon).
Its really cool and fun to download to motionbased. I’m a mac user so waited until the software was available – also trailrunner.x is another cool gps program to download it to if your a mac user.

By: Sprocketboy

Sprocketboy — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:23:50 +0000

This is an interesting discussion as I have been looking for a fancy new computer for my new bike. I wanted cadence and altitude for training purposes and was thinking how nice it would be to have power indications as well. You can’t really get everything together but I thought that the Garmin Edge might be the ticket. Having read the comments here and on amazon.com I am not so sure and just might wait until at least the battery life is improved. I have also been watching the iBike website as new features are added but there seem to e some other issues with this computer as well. Cadence is now available but no HR. I have used Cateye computers and a separate HRM for years on my various bikes with great success. I presently have a wired Mity 3 on the bike I keep at the office for lunchtime rides, a wireless Mity 8 on my touring bike, and a CC-HR200DW, which has a HRM built in, for my time trial bike. They all work very well and no problem changing batteries.

On my new go-fast bike I have for the time being taken the Ciclo434M that was on my old go-fast bike. This is a nice unit that includes an altimeter. It is German and therefore has 55 functions, meaning it is not so user-friendly. It is supposed to be downloadable but in five years I have yet to figure out how to do this since the instructions are so vague and unhelpful. It has three batteries which last exactly one year and are easy to change. It has been discontinued but I have just found a cadence attachment for it on E-bay and will try this out.

Although I am quite happy to just go and ride my bike it is fun to see how the training is going and use the Internet sites that let you track your activities. I think Garmin should give Fatty a 305 so he can give us a graphic report. I would like to read about the iBike even more but I don’t think it is suitable for mountain biking.

By: Dopey

Dopey — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:45:06 +0000

Your problem is you have a Polar. Polar thinks you are an incompetent boob (well, maybe their right) and can’t change a battery or O-ring yourself, plus they think their crap don’t stink. John was pretty much correct with his comments. I have changed batteries in my Sigma, Cateye, and Mavic (wireless cadence and speed) with zero problems. I do envy your Garmin.

By: Rekkert

Rekkert — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:48:25 +0000

My wife has a CS200cad on her bike, functionally it’s a great computer, but I share your annoyance with the battery arrangements. I have changed the battery in the main unit but the sensors are sealed and have to be returned to Polar. My other issue is that the data can only be downloaded to the Polar web site.

As for the Edge 305, I have one of those – the GPS tracking along with the MotionBased site is very good, and there a quite a few features which though entertaining are of questionable real value. There are also a lot of bugs.

If you believe in value for money, you will expect that an expensive unit like the Edge should do what it claims to do – accurately and reliably. This is not the case, and you only need to go the MotionBased forum to get an idea about this.

There are those on the forum who are willing to forgive the many problems, but a perfectionist such as you Fatty, will be really pissed.

By: Debamundo

Debamundo — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:21:38 +0000

I have a Cateye Astrale 8. It has cadence, you can change the battery yourself, it is simple to use but has everything you need, and it rocks! It is not wireless. A skilled installer can make the wires nearly invisible. My bike shop guy does it for me. My husband had some fancy schmancy wireless computer, an expensive one that would do everything, and it was more trouble than it was worth. He ditched it for the Astrale 8 and loves it.

Polar sucks. I have two Polar HR monitors that are dead because they need sent in for batteries. I’ve sent them in many times. They seem to last a year or less and it’s a huge pain in the butt. I agree that a boycott of Polar is in order.

By: IndoorRolyPoly

IndoorRolyPoly — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 02:55:29 +0000

and by the way you can get a new speed senor for about 30 bucks. (it’ll save you 15 bucks just on shipping, or 45 bucks on service charges)
The battery on the back of the head unit can be accessed by using a coin.
and I have never needed to turn my CS200 off. it has always turned off on its own. I wonder if you got a unit that was sitting on the shelf at the store for a while.

By: IndoorRolyPoly

IndoorRolyPoly — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 02:40:49 +0000

Funny you should write about this today. I was just looking at the forerunner and the edge tonight. I’m starting to take my roadie outdoors a bit more and figured it might be a nice upgrade to my CS200cad that I have been using for the past year. Granted I havenâ€™t had the problems with my SC200 batters and I absolutely dig that polar unit. I still figured it would be cool to have the GPS.
after weighting the pros and cons I figured I would probably destroy the Garmin with my MTB skills or lack there of. I also still like and ride my rollers far more then â€œrealâ€ road work.(It’s hard to get the GPS speed option to work in a static state.)

By: Al Maviva

Al Maviva — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:31:55 +0000

MTB, I’m sure you’re not the only dork with a Polar S150. I bet all the dorks have them. (PS – one of my collection of HR monitors is an S150. I don’t even try to do the bike functions with it.)

DeeperSouth – thanks. I think Dostoyevsky may have been a stage racer. The phrase that paragraph puts me in mind of is “prisoners of the road,” the Londres essay on the 1924 Tour, when the doped up Pellisier brothers and their friend Ville abandoned due to a capricious rules change / enforcement choice by promoter / madman Henri Desgrange. They later denied the doping and said Ville was just joking, and they made up with Desgrange. That pretty much sums up racing – goofy promoter / official decisions, doping allegations, denial of doping, and the riders are prisoners of the road. I like that phrase, it sums up the compulsion to ride.