Looking for a new simple, robust cycle computer which-
* Shows speed
* Shows distance travelled
And...
* Retains settings and doesn't need reprogrammed from scratch with every battery change.
Any recommendations?
Thanks!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Computers, GPS, 'Smart' 'Phones
Cycle computer recommendation?
(36 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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VDO M2? That was my choice after it seemed I'd cleaned out eBay's stock of the old Cateye Mity 3. The VDO is about £20 or thereabouts.
German engineering by beqi, on Flickr
Posted 9 years ago # -
Cool, thanks!
Posted 9 years ago # -
Strava on your phone for those sweet, sweet KOM's?
Also uploaded to the cloud so you'll never lose any ride data?Aldi/Lidl have bike computers for sale this week for approx £5 IIRC.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Anything smartphone based is too complicated...need a simple 'just works' solution, which doesn't require a million fiddly button presses and loss of mileage every year.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Aldi still have stock of the excellent Garmin Edge 200. Used to sell for £120 but they are selling them for £50 now. Bulletproof as well as easy to use.
Posted 9 years ago # -
You can get an Edge 200 for £75 delivered. Although it's GPS based the screen looks (and works) very similarly to a "normal" bike computer - you just get to upload and preserve the rides afterwards.
In fairness you will need to charge it every 12 or so hours' riding which could be annoying (although it will practically have charged up by the time you've plugged it in to sync with Strava etc).
My wife has been riding with one for a few years and likes it a lot as a pseudo-basic computer.
Posted 9 years ago # -
VDO M2 seems to fit the bill precisely!
Posted 9 years ago # -
@Dave not sure if it was missed but Edge 200 for £50 at Aldi (don't know if they deliver in fairness but for £25 I'll do it! ;) )
I usually just hook mine up to my pc/laptop every night so it's continually charged. I've had it for 3 years now and it's 'travelled' thousands of miles in all sorts of extreme conditions.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@deckard112 Hmm. Which particular Aldi have you seen them still in?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Another Edge 200 user here and for that Aldi price you cannot really beat it. I keep it on the bike all week and then plug it in at the weekend and upload data/charge.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@wingpig The one in Gorgy had them when I was in on Tuesday. They're in the glass cabinet at the swinging barriers as you enter from the carpark at the rear.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@wingpig Dunfermline, plenty left.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Just picked up a 200 for my new CX bike today in the Aldi in Gorgi. The guy said they've a few left. £50 - best price I could find online was £70 so I'm well chuffed!
Posted 9 years ago # -
Hmmm. What would Garmin Edge 200 users consider a reasonable time for one to Acquire Position? I'm thinking that for it to be still Acquiring by the time I've ridden a couple of miles is a bit much. It then seemed to Acquire straight away when I set back off after a quick shop but then spent the next three miles having Lost GPS. I though the point of dedicated GPS thingbies was that they were supposed to be good at catching GPS signals?
Posted 9 years ago # -
It's best to be still and outside when acquiring signal. If you're moving it just gets confused.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I was stationary, outside and away from any nearby tall buildings for two minutes waiting for it to connect before I gave up and went two miles.
As a convenient, portable-between-any-bike-without-requiring-a-sensor-on-the-wheel device it's off to a bad start and will be back in Aldi's stockroom on Monday unless it wakes up.Posted 9 years ago # -
I find it helps if you turn it on in the last place you turned it off. It seems to retain information of the satellites it last locked on to (I don't know if this is true or not?). By doing this it normally doesn't take more than 20 secs to get a lock.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I use the old "off and on again" technique to get it to lock usually. Most of the time it's failed to lock on has been because i've switched it on in the depth of the office.
Does anyone know the best format to upload a route onto the edge 200 ?
I've tried a couple but think I might be doing it wrong. Also cant remember where I put the instruction book.
Posted 9 years ago # -
The instruction book doesn't state a format, but just says to use Garmin Connect for uploading courses.
It managed 3.6 miles of continuous GPS lock over six miles of lunch-trundling, but only after losing acquisition a couple of hundred yards after sitting waiting for three minutes for it to establish its position.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I usually switch mine on as I take the bike out of the shed. By the time I've locked up and wheeled the bike to the gate it's locked on.
Occasionally it doesn't lock on, but switch off/on fixes it.
+1 for the route advice. The Garmin software isn't intuitive. A pdf of the instruction book is on the Garmin website.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Best format (at least for the Edge 500) is TCX. This format also allows you to add turn prompts (e.g. on bikehike).
Create a TCX file then connect the gps to the PC and copy the file to the NEW FILES (or similar) subfolder within the Garmin folder. This make take a short while. Once loaded turn the device on - it takes a while for GPS to make sense of the file. Then the course will be available under the training function.
Warning - very large files (e.g 10 MB) may cause problems!
Posted 9 years ago # -
I got a garmin forerunner over the summer. Usually picked up a fix within 30 sec or so while I was in canada. Definitely been struggling to get one here.
Posted 9 years ago # -
My 200 is temperamental and always has been. Most of the time it picks it up immediately but on occasion I've had to reboot it as other here have suggested. In all other aspects thought it's bullet proof given the treatment it's had dispensed from me!
Posted 9 years ago # -
I have the £6 one from halfords so I can leave it on my bike when parked.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I have a Forerunner 910xt which I use for triathlon or when I'm running. I switch it on as I'm getting ready and leave it outside while I get changed. It's locked on (usually) in the 5 minutes it takes to get outside, but I admit that it's not quick.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Ed1 does it do turn by turn directions and upload your training logs to strava for you?
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Ed1 does it do turn by turn directions and upload your training logs to strava for you?"
Oh yes does everything -)
Posted 9 years ago # -
Wingpig, if that was an out-of-the box start then it can take anything up to 15 minutes in theory, but I've not seen any stationary acquisitions over 5 mins in Edinburgh. (Even using a Forerunner 405 or 310 which are famously dreadful at acquisition.)
A new GPS device or one that's been off for a long time has to download an almanac of current satellite data from one of the satellites it can see. If it loses that connection (eg you moved behind a building) then it has to switch download to another satellite; this causes significant delays. If you are moving faster than walking speed in a city, it may never complete this process. Best to stand still.
It then downloads detailed temporary (ephemeris) data which lets it actually calculate your position. This happens fast, say 30 secs, and if you use the GPS every day this is often all you need to wait for.
If a GPS has a clear view of half the sky then it should never lose a lock.
Mobile phones ironically have the edge here (no pun intended) because essentially they cheat - they use wifi lookup and mobile cell info to speed up the location calculation while the GPS wakes up. However, shoving the phone in a pocket for the ride can harm GPS reception so your trace might look a bit odd. Oh, and they don't have the battery to track a long ride.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Traces from my phone in my pocket are as close to the actual routes taken as those sampled from the Edge 200. The cheating thing is known, as witnessed any time I've switched on phone-navigation in a moving car without particularly holding the phone up near a window. It's also acquired a position on a moving bike from a pocket without sitting still for five minutes first.
Posted 9 years ago #
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