Early Experience

Tom reports that he is buried alive at work because of his ten days in London, and that people expecting his prompt reply to an email may have to wait a day or two. The initial rush of orders has left him short of all but a few 5 digit counters, and 50 more have been ordered from Veeder-Root. Delivery of them is expected to be three weeks. Six digit counter supply is OK.

Glad to hear the new design works as well as hoped.

But we expected no less.

As the Aussies say, good on yer, mate.

I will do the same as Hugh and keep the counter on my bike and record the miles. Let you know how it's holding up. So far so good, but only 30 miles.

I'm also keeping a log of how the JR does. Mounted it on my bike April 2 with my electronic odometer at 787 km. I have a pile of measurements coming up, so it should get some exercise.

It our hope that the data kept by those doing it will show a long, boring progression of not much happening except the accumulation of many miles.

While measuring today I noticed an intermittent squeak coming from the counter. A drop of oil made it stop. The units are shipped without lubrication, and will work that way, but will last longer if lubricated.

This is nothing new. Former models also exhibited grinding and squeaky noises if left unlubricated.

I've always wondered what the best lube is/was - oil, grease (lithium or good ole petrol-based), WD-40? Any experience from the field? My worry w/ some lubes is that they attract & hold dirt & grit.

I just use motor oil. It does tend to attract dirt and grit, but it eliminates the squeaking. I found that when the grit builds up to an objectional level, it can be removed by sloshing the chassis (counter removed) in gasoline. This is sloppy but removes grit. It takes a long time for the grit to build up, and this process does not have to be often done.

My view is that if it squeaks, oil it. If it gets to the point where the grit and sticky stuff starts to cause resistance to rotation, clean it.

I don't think much of WD-40 as a lubricant.

Howdy all!
Many thanks to all who have ordered the new counters. I've been shipping about a dozen or so a week, and paypal streamlines my shipping considerably. It is a hassle for a good number of customers who are using Paypal for the first time, and I appreciate your efforts. I could not begin to ship as many, as fast, without their automated shipping labels.

I've sold all of the first production run, and more are on order. I almost ran out of 5-digit counters, and the 6-week lead time for 6-digit counters has left me out of stock for a couple weeks. I should have more around May 20th.

I am relieved to hear that they are holding up well so far, and are fitting most of the bikes.

Tom Riegel

I made my Paypal payment at 2:31pm Friday, and was amazed to find my counter waiting for me when I got home from work on Monday. Tough to beat that!

I've now got 175 miles on my JR with no apparent wear nor problems.

I've been using my new counter for several rides, but only got around to lubricating it yesterday.

I went to my friendly auto mechanic and he advised using a "dry" lubricant that's designed for chains to minimize the problem of attracting grit. The stuff he gave me was molybdenum spray, came out wet but dried quickly, and seemed to work well. Not sure if I got every part that needed it, but I'll give it another dose today.

Letter from Hugh Jones to Tom Riegel

Dear Tom,

I have just got back from the Faeroe Islands (62degN, on the way to Iceland from here) having done my first overseas measurement with your counter (as you may remember, the counter didn't fit the spindle of the bike I had in India). I only needed to ride 20 miles to do this latest measurement (including calibrations) as it was a 10km loop and 16km out-back which only required measurement in one direction as the entire width of the road was available in both directions (given the unusual combination of a complete road closure and not that many runners).

That brought my total mileage (roughly calculated) up to about 530 miles with the counter attached. Relatively little of that has been actually measuring, although last week I did two half marathons, two 10km races, a 5km and a 2 mile race. I will be measuring another Marathon in Tromso this coming weekend.

After 850km/530miles the counter is in very good nick. Very slight imprints in the delrin from the steel teeth, and very little wearing away of the rotating disc at the centre,which is where all my JO counters and earlier models eventually failed. I suspect this might be where the wear eventually shows up on the JR, but at current rates of wear it could be 1200 miles before this becomes significant. I hope you haven't designed such a hard wearing product that your turnover suffers.

Best wishes,

Hugh

Longevity Update

Hugh Jones reports: I am now close to 1500 miles with the counter and expect it to last at least to 2000. Amazingly robust!

I've accumulated just over 400 miles on mine with no problems so far.

Any other longevity reports out there?

Hello.
I wonder if there is any model of counter that can be mounted on the fork of a mountain bike.
We thank you very much for the information.
Greetings,

I'm can't guarantee a fit to any particular make or model, but I can say that if your bike's axle is 9mm or smaller, and the front forks aren't too fat it stands a good chance of fitting.
Carbon fiber forks have encountered fit problems, some of which may still allow its use by shimming it with washers.
Some bicycles have larger axles, and I can manage axles up to 10mm by request.

If you send me a good close-up picture of your axle, I may be able to make a decent guess.

Tom

Longevity Update

I now have 702 miles on my JR counter. Still going.

I now have 1104 miles on the counter. I have not lubricated it since initial installation. I believe it's better to run it dry.

It's been off and on the bike several times, but I plan no more removals until I need to take the wheel off to fix a flat.

Longevity update

My mileage on my counter is now 1217.

Message from Hugh Jones

Dear Tom and Pete.

Born April 2008, died on 11 March 2013. The counter you gave me to wear-test to destruction nearly six years ago failed on a measurement two days ago. The mode of failure was the rotating disc being ground down over the years so that rotation became asymetric. The cogs started to catch and that generated resistance, which in turn deformed the tang. I had this on my bike almost all the time for those six years so it covered a lot of distance (thousands of miles).
I hope that the next one I use will be as hard-wearing, but I will now only mount it on the bike on those days when I am actually measuring.