![]() ![]() You must depend on a map, cue sheet or your knowledge of the area to chart your course. A cyclecomputer offers speed, distance and time information, but no location information. There is a way to improve even car odometer readings, and we'll describe it.īicycling entered the computer age with cyclecomputers in the late 1980s, and with the Global Positioning System (GPS), around 2010.Ĭyclecomputers and GPS have different advantages and disadvantages.Ĭyclecomputers are generally inexpensive, compact and light in weight. Some route listings still use that inaccurate information. ![]() A story still circulates in our bike club of a member with a Multito who rode repeatedly around the block, amusing finishers at the post-ride picnic, to assure himself that he had completed 100 miles.īefore the advent of GPS, many bicycle-club recreational routes were laid out by travel in motor vehicles, whose odometers could be off by 5% or more, depending on what tires happened to be installed. The Multito was driven by a silent, rubber O-ring belt whose ratio would vary with temperature and humidity. The Multito, as the name suggests, could record both total distance and trip distance. (Thanks to eBay member bicycleheaven for the photo.)Ī more recent development in odometers (1970s-1980s), the Huret Multito, took a step forward in user-friendliness, and a big leap backward in accuracy. The odometer was digital, though non-adjustable, like the star-wheel odometer. Electrical currents generated by a spinning magnet pushed the analog speedometer needle into position, same as in an automotive speedometer. There is a modern version, the Jones Counter, gear-driven for greater reliability.Ĭable-driven speedometers were common during the mid-20th-century imitation-motorcycle bicycling phase. A super-accurate version totaled up turns of the wheel one by one, and was used to measure racecourses. The star wheel would make an annoying click-click-click with every turn of the wheel, and paper calculation might be needed to correct distance readings. Long before the computer age, a mechanical cyclometer (odometer) with a star wheel driven by a striker attached to a spoke would give consistent readings - unless driven too fast so the star wheel overshot (invention patented by Albert Rockwell of Bristol, Connecticut, USA in 1900). For a wider selection and to see what you can get with a heftier spend, see our main cycling computer guide, or keep scrolling to see our top budget picks.Today's digital bicycle computers and GPS units are great stuff, but accurate measurement of distance on a bicycle is nothing new. 'Cheap' is obviously subjective, but there are options here from £33 up to £122, which arguably all fall into the budget computer category considering top-end units can cost £500+. If you also want fitness data, pick up a cheap GPS cycling computer that can read heart rate or even power from ANT+ or Bluetooth sensors. Many cheap GPS cycling computers also have a 'back to start' function that'll help get you home if you get lost. If you do go for a budget GPS computer, it means you probably won't get maps and full car satnav-style directions like on higher end units, but some have rudimentary breadcrumb navigation that can help you find new routes. If you literally only want to know your speed and distance then don't worry, we've got you covered in this guide too with basic computer recommendations starting from just 33 quid. If you do just want to know how far and how fast, budget GPS-equipped computers are now so affordable and accurate that for most of us, it's worth spending a little more for the extra features they often come with. The basic function of any good cycling computer is to track your effort level - whether that's simply using speed as a pointer or connecting up a power meter and/or heart rate monitor to truly gauge how hard you're working - and to measure how far you've ridden. Modern ride-recording GPS with a barometric altimeter: Sigma ROX 4.0 Cycling Computer
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