Author Topic: Does this often happen? • Bike computers

Does this often happen? • Bike computers
« on: February 20, 2013 »
Doubleheader from BikeRadar.

Mikey41 writes:

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Went for a ride today, plotted out a 30 miler with plenty of hills to prepare for a Sportive next week. Glorious sunshine, warm, a little windy but great riding conditions.

Loads of others out on their bikes, a couple of family groups which was good to see, a horse and cart, and 4 other horse riders were seen along the way, seems the world and his dog were taking advantage of a sunny weekend!

So, towards the end I spot two riders way off down the road and seemed to be catching them fairly quickly. I must have got to 50metres back and they (one MTB, one hybrid with a bag hanging on the bars) look over their shoulder and then speed up. Well, OK I'll just keep plodding on at my pace and see how we go. At this point the hybrid rider is pulling away from his mate, and on the next uphill, I pass the MTB while the hybrid rider is sprinting away up the hill for all he's worth.

Hmm, he'll need a rest now and sure enough I'm gaining on him again and past I go as he puts another spurt on. He's pulled onto my wheel. OK, I don't particularly want you to stay there, but now it's flat and there's a nice downhill coming up. Onto the big ring, into the drops and start to wind it up. Down the hill, through the chicane at the bottom and he's now a good 50 metres back. After the next part of the downhill I never saw him again.

Anyone else get this??

Put a hare in front of a dog and he will chase it. Some days you're the hare, some days the dog, some days the mate on the MTB wondering at man's inhumanity to man. In this relatively cushy era of hunting for horse meat at Tesco and mostly bloodless mating rituals, our hardwired competitive instinct must be aroused by other means. Enter the bicycle. Your "plodding" was perceived as a challenge. Either he clocked you as easy prey, or you are being modest about what constitutes plodding. Whatever the case, once you appeared on his radar something needed to be done about it.



The gauntlet you had unwittingly thrown down was picked up. You further taunted him by taking advantage of a downhill – becoming, as it were, a human chicane: something he needed to pass through. You report that he failed, no doubt to lick his wounds. Have pity. We've all been there.

Nick1972 writes:

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This may seem like a silly question but do bike computers work in the dark? I ride to work in the daylight and it works fine. I ride on the weekends again in daylight and its fine but when I ride home from work in the dark and it doesn't work..

Any thoughts?

The speed of light at night is 0mph. According to Einstein nothing can travel faster than light. Ergo, your computer could not register your velocity lest it break a fundamental law of nature. But let's say you paid a lot for it and bought one of those premium models that gets around that. Remember Schrödinger's Cateye: the act of observing disturbs the observed.

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Quote from: crankycrank
If you're using a light at night mounted close to a wireless computer it can cause interference.

I adjusted the position of my light on ride home last night and it started registering. Hopefully thats the problem solved.

This could be explained by an oblique reading of the Copenhagen interpretation. Further study is needed. Meanwhile, it's good you got it sorted.