Added cycling computer

I needed a way to measure the way the the bike rides. This means mearsuring speed at which the can travel at. Given the size of the wheels and the gearing it has, one would expect a very low speed. Although this is not a full sized you get a bit of a surprise as to how well it does go. to measure the speed of the bike, I mounted a Mongoose cycling computer to the A-bike. A wireless type cycling cycle would be the ideal for this bike but all I could get was a wire based cycling computer. It may end up getting a wireless unit down the road but for now, this one will have to do. I use this same type on my other bikes so I know they all give me reliable accurate readings. This bike was never really designed to have a cycling computer put on it and the one main item I had to get creative on was the mounting of a magnet on the wheel. I lost the magnet that came with the cycle computer and had to go to a dollar store top pick up a fridge magnet. I took off the clip assembly that was on it and glued the magnet on to front wheel. I used the instructions for setting the computer so it reads the size of the front wheel. You basicly set a number on the computer to "read" the wheel size. I found out that the size of the wheels on the bike are only 7.5 inches, not 8". To set the number, you take the size of the wheel and multiply this by 3.1416. the number you get is 23.5575. This number must be converter into metric so you can enter the number into the computer. Times the number 23.6 (I rounded the number out) by 25.4. The entered number on the computer comes to 598. Once this is done, the computer now can read of a accurate speed for the bike.


After mounting the set-up cycle computer on to the bike, I did a ride of 4.6 km long. This would fall well within the bounds of the urban commutering it has been designed for. The riding time was measured at 20 minutes and 42 seconds. The max speed reached was 18.9 kph. The average speed was 13.3 kph. This falls below the speeds set in the ads but with the gearing set-up this bike uses, this works out to to accurate based on gearing charts I have from books I own. I am maintaining an average of 65 to 70 rpm. My peak rpm is 90 at 18.9 kph.


Anything added to this bike is subjected a very bumpy time. The computer is moving on the ties it has on the bumpy sections of road. This bike demands you be on where guard at all times. The handling is very quick. I tried a number of times to adjust the moving computer and the steering was very quick to react the the small change in hand postions. The light was being affected as well. On bumpy roads, the light was flicking off and on. At least the light is there to make it legal for night time riding. The tail light works great. It is nice and bright.