I have seen some success with Mountain Bike Speedometers (they call them computers). You have to be creative to mount one. You can put the magnet on a rotating part such as the rim or CV Boot band. The wire is usually too short and has to be extended. I will be testing the "ASTRALE" by "CATEYE" seen at http://www.cateye.com/. It has the longest wire. It runs around $40.00 and "Bell" makes one that is available at WAL-MART for $20.00. Cateye makes a wireless but it will only transmit about 18 inches.
Here are some details and features of the Cateye unit.
In addition to the most common cycle computer functions, the Astrale offers one of the most useful measurements a cyclist can have - cadence. Cadence is the measure of your revolutions per minute - how fast you are pedaling. The Astrale will let everyone form the seasoned racer to the novice rider monitor their cadence, and excellent indicator for proper gear selection.
• Current Speed
• Maximum Speed
• Average Speed
• Total Distance
• Trip Distance
• Auto Start/Stop
• Elapsed Time
• Cadence
Weight : 25.5g
Batt. : (CR2032) x1
Batt. Life : Approx. 3yrs
Wheel Circumference : 0-2999mm
Fork Diameter : 11-36mm
Wire Length : 141cm
Approx. price : $39.95

 

I had one on a bike once. You had to calibrate the wheel size, and on mine you could only choose 5 different wheel sizes, and there all huge sizes (for a bike) Not too many bikes with 8" tall rims.

 

Hi, You don't calibrate it for the rims. You do it for overall tire size.
I just got finished installing a Bell unit. The wife noticed my interest and picked it up while at WAL-MART this AM. Well I really wanted a higher quality unit but I stuck it on any way.
Now I had to make some modifications to the bell unit. I cut off the mounting ring
of the sensor leaving it just a bullet on the end of a wire. I then Hose clamped it
to my front differential so it would be just over the CV hub that sticks out of it.
I then pulled the magnet out of the Spoke
mount and glued it to the hub. Bell has calibration settings that allow you to set
it for many tire sizes. It works good but the display is small and I worry about the
water resistance and overall quality. It is also is very slow to up
date the speed. I will get a better unit soon.
The Bell calibration chart has settings for 24 & 26 inch tires. But you can fine tune it easily. I set it up and drove beside my wifes blazer and I only had to tweak it once. Not Bad.

AC

[This message has been edited by therock (edited 01-23-2000).]

 

<a href="http://www.angelfire.com/ms/blasterville/speedometer.html">ATV Speedometers</a>
Thats a page I made telling about the speedometers I put on our quads. I've had good luck with the Trek brand, but they nolonger make the model I prefered. The Treks have all the features of yours, but without cadence, something unnessicary on a quad.

Its nice to be able to keep track of mileage for maintainence, and as a gas gauge. I know my Blaster will run about 55 miles on a tank, so I'm much less likely to run out of gas with the speedometer.

Its definately worth the $30.

[This message has been edited by EdSmith (edited 01-24-2000).]

 

Does anyone have any idea how I would put one of these on my 300EX?

------------------
Y2K300EX

'00 Honda 300EX

 

Now I had to make some modifications to the bell unit. I cut off the fork
mounting ring of the sensor leaving it just a bullet on the end of a wire. I
then Hose clamped it to my front differential housing so it would be just over the
rotating CV joint hub that sticks out of it. I then pulled the magnet out of the Spoke
mount and glued (JB WELD) it to the CV hub so that it just clears the sensor when
it spins by. Bell has calibration settings that allow you to set it for many tire sizes. It
has a setting for 24 inch and 26 inch tires. Do the math if you have 25 inchers. It's easy.
If you do not have 4X4 then find somthing that spins where you can mount the unit. You
may have to leingthen the wire. I did not.

 

I got the link fixed.

Y2K300EX: Check out the link in my above post. It mounts the same way on most any chain driven, or disk brake quads.

 

I've mounted two of them on Blasters. One was a Schwin and the other was a Bell (Wal-mart). I had to lengthen the wire in both cases to get it treaded down to the rim. I straped the sensor (a magnetic reed switch) to the brake cable and stuck a high-strength magnet to the steel rim. I could move the sensor farther away with the rare-earth magnet (very strong). The bell has more features like a clock and max speed. You calibrate best by rolling the tire one complete revolution and measuring the distance. But I recommend rolling the tire on the surface you ride on if it's soft the tires don't measure the same. I also tested it against a GPS and the disagreed by quite abit. I haven't gotten to the bottom of that yet.

 

Why don't you hust buy a wireless unit? There are several out there, and they shouldn't be hard to find at any bike shop.

 

I bought a wireless unit for my mountain bike a few months ago, and ended up taking it back because of the way the pick-up sensor mounted on my bike--I couldn't get the pick-up close enough to the magnet mounted on the spokes. The point I'm trying to make here though, is that the two had to be real close--like no more than a 1/8" of an inch--or else the pick-up didn't send any info to the computer as it didn't see the magnet. From what I was told at the bike shop, none of the wireless units are very strong, so I went with a corded unit and haven't had any problems.