Trouble Mounting a Jones Counter

The flange on the counter is only about a millimeter thick. You should not have to bend your fork to increase its width that little. There is plenty of spring in the fork width. I have used these devices on road bikes for many years. Currently I'm riding at Trek carbon fiber 5500. No problem there.

If there still seems to be a problem, call me at 805/964-2591.

It is a tight on my road bike, but with a little persuasion it always fits. The outside must sit tight against the fork so that the counter does not try to spin with the wheel. Only the perforated disk spins, the rest should be locked in place with the wheel hub.

I mount the counter on the left side with the numbers pointing forwards and the unit cocked up about 20% from horizontal. This makes it easy to read.

My front wheel has two lumps that stick out about ½ an inch beyond the spokes of the wheel. While this gives a large clearance between the fork and wheel it electively held the counter too far away from the spokes. The fingers were not engaging with the spokes correctly. Modified the fingers basically bent them in some more. I was very careful not to bend the perforated disk that engages with the sprocket.

I have a "Look" carbon fiber frame and a HSC4 fork which is a rather large fork in size and my Campy wheels will not allow enough room between the fork and hub for the counter to rotate. I had to resort to an older style wheel in order to use the counter. The older wheels seem to have less of a "dish" in them and they seem to work better.
Rick Melanson
Birmingham, AL

It depends on the construction of the fork. My TREK 200 bike will not accept the counter. The fork is tubular and has welded in flats to accept the axle. The counter will not fit because it hits the end of the tube and will not set flat against the hub.
The fork on my Giant OCR1 road bike is basically flat all the way down. The counter fits it without problem.

More replies to this post from MNForum:

MNF #1197 15Nov2004

JONES/OERTH COUNTER INSTALLATION

I had to have a bike shop add some spacers so a Jones counter would fit on
my quick release wheel. I recommend you try a bike shop and see what they
can do. It's possible they won't be able to do it but hope for the best.

I'm close to replacing my 20 year old measuring bike w/a hybrid one. I'll
probably be asking the guys (seems like only guys work on bikes) to affix
the counter.

Scott Hubbard
runningshorts@aol.com

I've never found installing the Jones/Oerth Counter to be as easy as it
apparently is for other people. I've almost always had to somehow lessen
the width of the hub (including lock nuts, spacers) on the left side of the
wheel in order to allow for the width of the counter. On one of my bikes,
there was an aluminum spacer I took off when I put on the counter; I had to
add a washer along with the counter because the spacer was wider than the
counter. My most recent installation required going to the Newington Bike
Shop and buying a lock nut that is narrower than the one that came with the
bike; I use the narrower lock nut when I put on the counter and put the
original lock nut back on when I take the counter off.

If someone responds with information that makes installation predictably
easy, I'd love to see it.

David Reik
davidreik@comcast.net

Mounting a Jones/Oerth counter
I have mounted counters on several quick release wheels. The trick is to
remove the washer between the inner cone nut and the outer locking nut. This
narrows up the width and allows the counter to rest on the axle rather than
float up against the fork.

Mike Wickiser
mikewickiser@neo.rr.com

Wow, thanks for all the replies to my question about installing the
Jones/Oerth counter.

I'm a little emabarassed, because after I posted the question I tried
installing it on my wife's bike. In her case, there is actually a little
room between the fork and hub when the quick release is open. Installation
was no problem. Since I can ride her bike for short distances to do
measuring, this will work for me.

Based on other responses, it seems that installing the counter will be
either really easy, or will require a trip to the bike shop for some parts.
In one case a new wheel was necessary.

I appreciate all the replies!

Now I just need to find somone to help lay out a calibration course.

-Rick
rschumeyer@ieee.org

Rick-

When spacers and adjustments don't work, I have always found brute force and
some well-timed curse words to be effective.

Jim Gerweck
zgerweck@optonline.net