Cyclometer trouble
I got distracted last night leaving from work, what with getting the raingear on while shooing the patrons out. When I got home I discovered I had the keys to the conference room and the boiler room in my pocket. Not really a problem since I had to go to the grocery store today anyway.
On the way to the library, I hit every light on green. I got there in no time. It was really pretty neat, not having to stop at all on the way.
When I mounted the cyclometer head unit when leaving the grocery store, it had a really weird display. One I’d never seen. In the absence of manual, no amount of fiddling with the buttons seemed to fix it. Whatever happened while it was in my pocket was going to stay that way until I got home.
The store is next to an old industrial park turned into trendy offices and studios. The parking lots ajoin and I can cut out a lot of a pretty big hill by using the access road within the park.
Pedaling up the access road I hit a pothole (kinda hard not to in these parts) and heard a sound I thought was groceries smacking into the street. All the groceries were still in the panniers, and the wheels were still round, so I kept going.
Up the road a piece I saw the cadence wasn’t registering on the cyclometer. I attributed it to whatever had happened while I was shopping. In a quiet stretch I heard a sound—not quite a ping but not quite a slap—in time with my cadence. I looked down. The cadence sensor arm was hanging by the wire and swinging into the frame. Apparently my foot or ankle or pants leg had caught it and snapped it off.
Oh great. Twenty-one days and it’s broken. It’s been a problem since day one, so I’m not really surprised. I am disappointed. And I can’t afford a new cyclometer. This one cost $140.
At home I messed around with it and found that it was still working. So I brought the bike in and inverted it on my coffee table and took off the back wheel. I cleaned everything up (I hadn’t washed it yet after yesterday’s rain) then used black electrician’s tape to tape the sensor to the frame and to seal up the holes in the housing as best I could.
With no wheel and the chain just hanging off, I moved the crank back and forth past the sensor. 221 rpm! Yippiee! It’s still in range and can feel the magnet go by.
I cleaned the chain and the cassette while I had the wheel off, put everything back together and gave the wheel a spin. Seven point three mph. So that was still working too.
I took the bike outside, re-oiled the chain then rummaged around for the cyclometer manual to see what I could do about the weird display.
As is usual for techology, the maunal is useful only as a fire starter. I wrote down the total miles, 199.81 in three weeks, found a pencil and pressed the reset button. I reprogrammed my preferences (cadence target range alarm off, 12-hour time, tire circumference 2180mm) and set off on a test ride. All seems well for now.
Expect more on the subject in Monday’s two-months-with-the-bike report.
It was a lovely night for a ride tonight—right about 70, sunny, and negligible wind. I almost cycled right past the meeting since riding was so nice. I stopped anyway. It was a good meeting.
On the way home through Cobbs Hill Park, I watched the sun set over the ball diamonds and Lake Riley. It was a nice, easy, relaxing ride both ways.
Round trip, includes stoplights and such:
30 minutes, 57 seconds riding time
7.12 miles
13.8 mph avg
19.7 mph max
65 rpm avg cadence
97 rpm max cadence
200×10 pedal rotations
