THE END OF THE ELECTRONIC ERA?

The weakness in using electronic counters is that they are not generic. There are lots of electronic cyclocomputers out there, but any measurer who wants to use one cannot determine whether the one he has in mind is useful until he buys one and tries it. Until now Neville has been our guide in this, trying various models and letting us know the characteristics of each. I myself purchased a cyclocomputer and found it to work just fine, although I still prefer to use my JO counter.

The same potential situation lurks in the future of the Jones/Oerth counter. The world’s course measurement system is dependent on a continuing supply of these devices. How solid is our source of supply? Should we be squirreling away a few extras against the day of unavailability?

I’m reminded of early times when I ran. I’d get used to a favorite pair of shoes, but when they wore out I’d invariably find that the manufacturer no longer made my preferred shoe, so I had to find something else that would work.

Fortunately it is not rocket science to rig a revolution counter, and one way or another we will get by.

I was measuring a 5km course today, and was going to use the cyclometer, since I'd be riding in heavy traffic and didn't want to take my eyes off the road more than I had to.

On the way to the cal. course, I noticed the cyclometer wasn't getting impulses. I'd had problems lining up the magnet and sensor when I originally installed it last summer - I have a wide clearance fork and it required several shims to get it close enough to get impulses. Now it seems to have moved off again, and I didn't have the time to finagle with it to get it working.

I worry that something similar might happen in the middle of a ride, and I'd lose a bunch of data, or worse, it might happen intermittently and I wouldn't notice.

I'm sad to say I don't have enough confidence in the setup to use it on this bike. I may switch to my road bike, which has more normal fork clearance, although I don't use that for measuring as much.

Jim:
I think all your problems result from attempting to install the sensor too high on the inside of the forks and using the Protégé magnet.
On Sunday I installed a Protégé on Paul Hronjak’s hybrid bike in about three minutes. The large clearance between the spokes and the upper inside of the forks made this favorite location impractical for installation. However all I did was to move down the inside of the forks until I found a point where the clearance was optimal, and set the sensor here with electrical tape. (I find this tape makes a very permanent installation.) I used the Sigma Sport magnet which clips onto the spoke and allows an instant adjustment of clearance. I know you have a Sigma Sport magnet and think you may be able to make a similar installation.
I have used the Protégé magnet successfully, but find it disadvantageous because it is nonadjustable for clearance and is heavy. However it is very much less prone to being knocked out of alignment.
Like I have said many times before you should have not the slightest worries about intermittent lose of impulses. If you remember, Alan Jones raised this possibility in the early days, and I did my very best to elicit such a response by micro-adjustment of magnet clearance in the critical region. However, I was not successful: either 100% of the impulses were detected or none at all.
Although probably rare, with the Jones counter it is possible to unsuspectingly lose counts. Pete Riegel reported the case of a measurer who went to Hawaii to measure a course and got inexplicable weird results. Much later it was found that his counter was so worn that it was occasionally skipping counts.

I've installed the Protegé (w/ Sigma magnet) on my road bike, where the fork clearance is much closer. Seems to work well - I'm giving it a try on a measurement Friday. I like the fact that I can switch to another wheel circumference for regular riding.

Doing a measurement today, I decided to use the Protegé, and I realized another advantage of cyclometers.

After I did my cal rides, I came back home, figured out my constants, and then worked out all the splits and printed them out. That's possible since you can reset a cyclometer to zero, whereas w/ a J/O counter, you have to do your calculations on site, basing them on the reading at the beginning of your ride.

Jim:
Its nice you appear to have a stable mount with your road bike, but I am much more interested in knowing if you were able to also get one with your mountain bike.Was I right in assuming your difficulties were a result of trying to mount the sensor too high up on the forks and using the non-adjustable Protege magnet?

The reason I had to mount the sensor up high, and thus too far from the spokes/magnet (which was not the Protegé magnet, but the clip-on Sigmas) was that my wheel has double-butted spokes, and the Sigma magnet will only stay in place near the rim or hub.

Jim
Once you have used a Sigma Sport magnet on a spoke the plastic flows and you cannot susequently use it on a thinner spoke. A new magnet will work on the thinner section of your double-butted spokes.

Jim:
Instead of using a new Sigma magnet, you can probably tightly fit your used magnet to a thinner part of the spoke by using the metal sleeve that comes with the magnet.

Thanks for the tips, Neville. I have some extra magnets and will try one on the thin part of the spoke.

I am very close to being completely in the electronic era. Nev mounted a Protege for me and I numbered my spokes and tried it out today on my home calibration course. I really like this system now that I have such limited exposure. I can't wait to use it on my next measurement (in tandem with the Jones/Oerth counter, of course) and look forward to switching over completely. Since my wheels have 36 spokes it easier to just number the spokes rather than trying to divide the wheel into tenths and to do the simple math of converting spokes into a fraction of a revolution.

Neville is re-doing his report and I suggested sticking to the recommendation the Protege counter with one magnet.

I'm completely sold and still see the only drawback to the system being the lack of ability to back up. However, since this is usally only an issue for mile marks I can live with it. It sure is nice to have big numbers on the handle bars!

If you haven't tried it ... do so. You'll love it.

Paul:
There are quite a number of easy methods that I will describe in the near future for correcting "overshoot". I am sure you will find some to your liking.

Steve Collins recently used an Omron electronic counter rather than a cyclocomputer in an electronic method, and since I have found that a wealth of moderately priced such commercial counters are available. Obviously these will always be available and the future of electronic measurement is assured.