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wireless odometers are line-of-site, fawk!

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
well, I wanted to get another cuntputery thing so I could see how far i'm riding and have something other then the woods to look at while riding.;)

I wanted wireless because the last one I got had a wire that got destroyed rather quickly. flip a coin to decide what shop to go to (way too many bike shops in this area) and stop by the chosen one after work.

grab a cateye wireless something, come home, slap the cuntputer part on my bars, start reading the manual and wouldn't you know, it's line-of-site. that means the part that goes on the fork needs to be inline with the part on the handlebars for it to work.

craptacular. I thought I might be able to hook it up on the rear wheel and just have the thing someplace else on the bike, and just look at it when i stop. but then i can't tell how fast i'm going and that's just a lame idea anyways....

now i get to go back to the store and tell them it's a piece of crap and they all suck and the service is junk and how I'll never shop there again and the prices are way to high and they are ripping me off. or at least just trade it in for a wired one..:D

:nuts:
 

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
well, I took it back to the store yesterday and said "I need to return this, it won't work on my bike."
the guy says "why not?"
stupid customer/me "it's a line-of-site device, and I can't get line-of-site because my stem is really short (50mm or so) and the fork blade is really fat/thick."
shop guy " that shouldn't matter, these devices send out a patern that's about this wide." and with his hands demonstraits about a foot of distance.
stupid customer/me "yea, but it's a line-of-site device, the transmitter and receiver need to be able to see each other or it won't work."
shop guy "well, it should work because we have people that put them on their bikes with v-brakes and short stems and they work just fine."
stupid customer/me - Blank stare.
shop guy "can I see your credit card....."

wasn't too bad though. I didn't have to get into it anymore then that with him so I can't complain too much. just though it was kinda funny in a stupid sort of way.

sure, the transmitter probably does send out a patern in a triangle type pattern, with the transmition/data pattern getting wider as it gets further from the transmitter. A TV remote does the same thing. but if you put your hand infront of the remote or your cat/dog/wife etc. gets in the way of the remote/tv, it won't work. unlike a cordless phone, which will allow you to be far from the receiver and still function.