Waterproofing the iBike [SOLVED]

[steveoc]

Hi All,

I am new to the concept of training with power, as I recently got myself an iBike Pro Gen III with wired cadence and speed after my el-cheapo computer died (2 years of hard abuse was a bit much for the poor thing).

Anyway, the iPro has been a lot of fun to use. The additional information has been invaluable, and in the short time that I have had the unit (couple of months), it has already made a serious difference to the way I ride, my abilities as a rider, and the value of the training that I do. So I am a happy iBike customer, and a strong advocate of the value of the unit whenever I am asked about the gadget.

Never having used an SRM or PT .. I am probably not qualified to make any comments about the accuracy of the power figures ... but ... I will say that the numbers I am getting are consistent with the effort that I put in, and thanks to adding Golden Cheetah to the mix, I can genuinely see consistency and improvements in my output over time. I am not training for the Olympics or anything .. so I am happy to say that whatever this gadget is measuring, it is perfect for riders in my position. Like the millions of other semi serious enthusiasts out there riding bikes, the iBike is a perfect companion on the ride.

Im OK with the battery life issue as well - that is not really a problem, once you plan around it and pay attention to the voltage figures of the battery. No complaints there. In fact, its an awesome design, since you can do a long distance multi-day trip and carry enough CR2032 batteries with you. You cant do that with a recharger unit.

The one remaining issue that I have with the iBike is this waterproofing thing. It has been a source of some frustration. I have other electronic devices on my bike - such as a watch that I use for an interval timer with audible alarm, and my cheap mobile phone that occasionally gets a bit wet on the road. All of these devices cop some water and handle it without complaint. Also my previous el-cheapo computer which never had a single issue with heavy rain, severe storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, or falling meteor showers (OK, I made that up, but you get the idea). Dropping it by accident one day and having it run over by a car was the last thing that this computer ever saw. Unfortunately. It stopped working after that.

My iBike on the other hand, water is a huge problem. I am not talking about riding underwater at depths of 100m or anything - I am talking about any short duration of the lightest rain. 9 times out of 10, a little wisp of rain will manifest itself with a complete loss of speed reading. The head unit continues to work for a while, and the cadence never has a problem .... its just the speed sensor on the front fork seems anything but waterproof. This of course leads to a power reading of 0 .. and any prolonged period of zero reading after that leads to a power shutdown as the unit believes it is idle.

This has been frustrating .. but Im not complaining at all. I see the iBike as a magnificent idea, and something that I personally want to make perfect. I believe that maybe 5-10 years down the track, a completely bomb proof, low cost data acquisition device like this will be a regular part of cycling for the masses. I hope so.

Anyway ......

I have a 160km ride coming up this weekend, and the weather looks like bouts of serious rain for the day, in between sections of sunshine. I am praying to the Gods of cycling that I can get a full data reading for the event, but at this stage that is probably unlikey So Im going to treat this ride more as an engineering exersize in getting the iBike to survive the day. I have a few months to sort this out yet, because my 'main events' down in this part of the world start in November, and culminate in the fantastic Tour Down Under in January 2011.

So here is the plan for this weekend :

Speed Sensor:
I believe the speed sensor is the main cause of the problems so far. I can say this because the cadence reading is consistently fine in all weather conditions, so that has to point the finger of blame at the speed sensor. Im going to try a ghetto engineering solution here by :

- Coating the speed sensor unit with a thin layer of vaseline (hydrophobic, non conductive petroleum jelly), paying particular attention to the joint where the wires enter the unit.

- Wrapping a layer of strong flexible plastic around the fork leg, covering up the speed sensor .. with electrical tape tightly securing each edge of the plastic cover (a sandwich bag cut to size should do the trick I reckon.) I will have to give the plastic cover a decent set of drainage holes at the bottom .. just in case it actually collects water and just makes the problem worse !!

That should cure waterproofing the speed sensor .. I hope. I am also trusting that the thin plastic + a bit of vaseline will not interfere with the magnetic pickup. It should be fine for that.

The only other concern with this approach is the long term effect of vaseline on the plastic coating of the wires, and the plastic used to make the speed sensor. Worst case is that it melts the plastic over time ... at which point I upgrade to a wireless unit anyway and try again.

Head Unit:

Ill smear a little vaseline around the point where the wires go into the head unit, as per the speed sensor.

With my head unit mounting, I use a little carbon fibre extender bar to mount the iBike just forward of the handbars in a nice clean airstream. This places it centrally over the wheel, and forward enough to provide easy vision without having to look down too far.

Photos:




As you can see from the second photo, this does expose the underside of the unit to a potential bit of spray from the front wheel. The front brake does catch most of it, and after a ride, it is pretty dry under there, but it is one area of risk.

So what I am going to try and do under here is build some sort of aero looking splash shield to cover up the underside of the unit, and hopefully avoid any possible splash that is coming up from the wheel.

See the photo here for an artists impression concept of the splash shield :



This should be easy enough to make a solid prototype :
1 - Take some measurements.
2 - Create a mould in plasticene or some sort of putty that matches the shape.
3 - Place plastic sheet in the oven for a few minutes to soften it .. take it out, and then press the plastic sheet into the mould.
4 - After cooling, give the sheild of quick spray of matt black paint, let it dry, and then figure out a way to attach it under the unit.

For the plastic sheet - Ill see if I can get some 1-2mm styrene stock sheet (available from all good modelling shops). If I cant get these parts by Saturday, Ill try making a splash shield from a plastic bottle. The top section of most large plastic bottles is a perfect shape to cut a splash shield out of. Quick spray of black paint, and it will look the part too.

Anyway, Im determined to make this device work in the worst possible weather conditions, so any feedback or suggestions on the above would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

[Avanti]

You hit the nail on the head there, honestly the unit is great and I can accept short-comings due to the price of the unit. But seriously the water issue is huge...Wait for it I can just see someone is going to say buy the RWS Sensor !! I've gone through around 40 batteries just this winter in Australia, purchased an additional Wireless Mount, the Garmin Upgrade. I say jam your RWS Sensor and make the thing waterproof in the first place.

You do a hard race in the rain you get crap data, you have to guess the TSS for that making it difficult to have an accurate PMC and then here is the kicker, after the unit's been in the rain...That profile you toiled so hard to create well it ain't working anymore because I gather there are temperature issue's with the unit now. Originally I thought the issue related to the cold winter here in Australia and the differences between setting a Summer and Winter Profile, then I started to realise a trend...Everytime it rained and the unit dried out boom my profile is giving me higher power readings by around 60-70 watts. Can anyone answer why this happens ????? Because I'm at a loss....Would be nice for one of the tech guys to actually answer this rather then say send the unit back, because I know I'm not alone here was speaking to a guy on the start line of a race with one just last week and he has exactly the same issue.

Frustrated, yes I am and sorry to high-jack the thread but the amount of time I've invested in getting this thing set-up properly only to see it washed away in the rain is bloody annoying.

[Morocco Mole]

With my head unit mounting, I use a little carbon fibre extender bar to mount the iBike just forward of the handbars in a nice clean airstream. This places it centrally over the wheel, and forward enough to provide easy vision without having to look down too far.

Steve, what extension bar are you using, is that the FSA one?

[steveoc]

You hit the nail on the head there, honestly the unit is great and I can accept short-comings due to the price of the unit. But seriously the water issue is huge...Wait for it I can just see someone is going to say buy the RWS Sensor !! I've gone through around 40 batteries just this winter in Australia, purchased an additional Wireless Mount, the Garmin Upgrade. I say jam your RWS Sensor and make the thing waterproof in the first place.

You do a hard race in the rain you get crap data, you have to guess the TSS for that making it difficult to have an accurate PMC and then here is the kicker, after the unit's been in the rain...That profile you toiled so hard to create well it ain't working anymore because I gather there are temperature issue's with the unit now. Originally I thought the issue related to the cold winter here in Australia and the differences between setting a Summer and Winter Profile, then I started to realise a trend...Everytime it rained and the unit dried out boom my profile is giving me higher power readings by around 60-70 watts. Can anyone answer why this happens ????? Because I'm at a loss....Would be nice for one of the tech guys to actually answer this rather then say send the unit back, because I know I'm not alone here was speaking to a guy on the start line of a race with one just last week and he has exactly the same issue.

Frustrated, yes I am and sorry to high-jack the thread but the amount of time I've invested in getting this thing set-up properly only to see it washed away in the rain is bloody annoying.

Thanks +++ for adding that. Makes me know that Im not alone, or that its not just my unit acting odd.

Had a wet ride last night, and today, there is nothing I can do to make the unit give me a speed reading. I am going to assume at this rate that my speed sensor has had the Richard.

Tried different positions for the magnet and orientation of the speed sensor. The best I can get is a quick reading of speed, for about 10 seconds, before it goes back to zero. Been playing with this now for the last couple of hours .. cannot get a reliable speed reading today, and it is nice and dry.

When I got my iBike, it came with a wired speed only mount plus a wired speed & cadence mount. If I plug my iBike into the speed only mount, the sensor on that is fine. By Saturday if the speed + cadence mount still does not work (major event on Sunday), I am going to try cutting some cables and grafting the other working speed sensor onto my speed + cadence mount, and see if that works. Whilst it is highly annoying in a way, Im trying hard to take the attitude of just enjoying the challenge of making it work.

One thing I have noticed, which is highly consistent - every single time that the water issue causes problems like this with the speed sensor ... the battery voltage drop increases. There is definitely a correlation there from what I have seen - once it gets into this state, you can put in a brand new name-brand battery, and the battery will be down to well under 2.7V in less than a couple of hours. I put a brand new Sony battery in this morning, and within an hour the reading went from 3.02V down to 2.68V .. riding along with 0 speed reading.

Again - no problems with cadence readings today.

Last weekend, same thing exactly. Nice haul up to Mt Lofty, everything fine, pretty cold up there (5 degrees C + 18km/h winds), but battery voltage all good after a couple of hours on the road. On the descent, the heavens opened and ended up getting a soaked for a few minutes before it suddenly cleared again. A reading of Zero on the speed sensor for the rest of the descent ... followed shortly by a flat battery. No water in the head unit - but the speed sensor was damp. Something shorting in the speed sensor creating a short perhaps ?

Steve, what extension bar are you using, is that the FSA one?

Its only a generic unit from some anonymous ebay seller. Looks pretty much identical to the FSA unit, but I think I paid about $25 for it + $5 postage from China. Arrived in the mail about 3 days after paying for it.

Ditto with the generic Chinese ebay people - if you hunt around you can find sellers that provide CR2032 batteries - generic chinese brand, for a mere AU$ 3.26 incl postage for a tray of 20 !! Bargain !! They have Chinese writing on them, but I can vouch for their quality - they are every bit as good as the name brand batteries.

[steveoc]

OK then, the 'Aeroguard' for the head unit begins to take shape.

The skies have gone nuts tonight, and its raining in buckets, so Ill give it a shot on the ride home.

Here are some rather poor shots of the unpainted prototype. This one was made from a 600ml bottle of Pepsi(tm), rescued from the recycling bin. A bit of creative sculpturing with the soldering iron, and I have a custom made splash guard to protect the sides and underside of the head unit from getting drenched in this weather. Its very simple to make - but if you want one yourself, you need to custom make your own to exactly suit your own setup.

The plastic bottle approach is pretty neat, It is flexible but strong enough to put on and off very quickly, and it sits nice and snug with no noticable rattles. The front nose cone is a hack job, where I have welded and extra strip of plastic over the hole left by the original neck of the bottle, and roughly sanded it back. This is just a rough prototype, but it does look rather neat already. (I might have to adjust my CdA by 0.001 after attaching this !!)

Underside View showing how the 'Aeroguard' totally prevents any water being thrown up by the front wheel into the joint on the head unit.


Side view clearly shows how the 'Aeroguard' protects the head unit from oncoming rain, whilst keeping the static pressure gauge underneath the unit open so it can still function.


A small slot in the port side of the 'Aeroguard' provides room for the wires to move freely and reach the head unit without additional stress.

... that steerer tube really does need the chop now ... another project for later.

As I said, I will try that on the way home tonight. First though, I might just have a crack at making a splash guard for the speed sensor.

[steveoc]

Continuing on with the speed sensor on the fork now.

I used the remains of the Pepsi bottle, which has a nice bulge in the side to accommodate the speed sensor.

Close up of the splash cover over the speed sensor, from the front


Front view again, very tight seal at the top to stop water running down, and an open end at the bottom to act as a drainage channel


Close up from the inside of the fork leg ... the whole sensor arrangement is completely covered and 100% waterproof now ... I hope


Only half the fork is covered, that should be fine. Zip tie madness though .. my 'sponsors' wont be too happy about their sign being covered up


Ill have to have a further play with it tomorrow now ... mainly because I have gone through 3 batteries fiddling around with this just tonight. 2 of those batteries were marginal, fair enough, but a brand new battery has just been drawn down from 3.1V to 2.66V over the course of a couple of hours. Must be something very wrong happening in that speed sensor.

After I get it tuned in properly (and maybe dry out the sensor again with a bag of silica dessicant), Ill replace the zip ties with strong clear packing tape, and give it thorough seal around the edge.

Ah well - really hoping I can get this all working for Sunday, and set out with great confidence that I can do a 6 hour century through the hills .. in the pouring rain .. and come home with a complete data capture of the whole ride.

Cross Fingers.

[NCH1]

In terms of covering the handlebar/stem mount during a down pour, I use a 2 litre milk bottle top which sits perfectly on the mount without any fastening.

Nik

[Avanti]

Steveoc thats some great design concepts, would be good to know how you get on. I seriously can't believe how much rain we are having over in the land of Oz at the moment.

Steve,
You are thorough--you must be an engineer

Water issues with the iBike are nothing new, as you will see if you search the forum. My solution is to remove the iBike if I get caught in the rain, cover the wireless mount with cling wrap (there have been issues with leaky mounts as well), and pop the iBike into a plastic bag in my pocket. Not a good solution, but an acceptable one for me, considering the frustration of having a profile go bad after water in the wind port somehow changes the Windscaling factor of the iBike.

I've had issues with migrating Windscaling factors even when the iBike has stayed dry as a bone for months. Using contact paper over the screen has helped in the past. The new screen design is supposed to seal the screen perfectly, but I am still having issues with the new design.

Tommy reading your comments I see you have had some issue's and your solution is exactly where I'm at now. I wonder if the tech guys who appear to go quiet on these issues are prepared to state on their website that the IBIKE should not be used in wet weather.

Seriously how about a full explanation Velocomp about firstly what occur's after rain enters the IBIKE and secondly the procedure to alter your profile to get it back working because I'm sick of doing coast downs (I'm up to my 9th profile now after 7 months). There has been a thread promising how to adjust profiles for the best part of 6 months but nothing has been done.

[minus10]

While there may well be issues with the wired version in some cases, a sweeping statement that the iBike does not work in the rain is not needed as the GT version with Garmin sensors does work extremely well in the wet.

I hope the issues you obviously have do get resolved. I imagine the weakness is at the points where the wires enter the device and/or the sensors themselves. It's certainly been interesting to see he solutions being engineered.

[Velocomp]

We're not quiet; we are extremely busy and it's tough to find enough hours in the day

If cadence is working but speed is not then water entering the mount area is not causing the problem.

From your photos I can see that your wired speed/cadence mount uses a speed sensor we discontinued over 2 years ago, due to quality problems. Even so, if you purchased your iBike new less than one year ago from an authorized dealer, we will replace the mount under warranty.

Regarding water inside the iBike: for months now we have had a Gen III iBike (and more recently an iBike Dash) mounted on the roof of our car. They have survived months of severe tropical rains, without leaks. If your Gen III iBike has experienced water penetration we will fix it under warranty. There is no reason to avoid using the iBike in wet weather.

Regarding the wind sensor: since day one we have said that if water enters the wind port then wacky watts may happen. Wireless mounts, fresh batteries and Garmin upgrades won't stop water from entering the wind port and causing wacky watts. The RWS will; furthermore, the RWS will keep profiles very consistent in rainy conditions.

Folks, we always do our best and strive continuously to improve. As always, if you have a specific issue please contact us and we will address it appropriately and fairly.

[Avanti]

We're not quiet; we are extremely busy and it's tough to find enough hours in the day

If cadence is working but speed is not then water entering the mount area is not causing the problem.

From your photos I can see that your wired speed/cadence mount uses a speed sensor we discontinued over 2 years ago, due to quality problems. Even so, if you purchased your iBike new less than one year ago from an authorized dealer, we will replace the mount under warranty.

Regarding water inside the iBike: for months now we have had a Gen III iBike (and more recently an iBike Dash) mounted on the roof of our car. They have survived months of severe tropical rains, without leaks. If your Gen III iBike has experienced water penetration we will fix it under warranty. There is no reason to avoid using the iBike in wet weather.

Regarding the wind sensor: since day one we have said that if water enters the wind port then wacky watts may happen. Wireless mounts, fresh batteries and Garmin upgrades won't stop water from entering the wind port and causing wacky watts. The RWS will; furthermore, the RWS will keep profiles very consistent in rainy conditions.

Folks, we always do our best and strive continuously to improve. As always, if you have a specific issue please contact us and we will address it appropriately and fairly.

John,

Thanks for the reply, let me start by saying I have never doubted your Customer Service infact I believe as far as after sales support goes I believe your company is one of the best I have ever dealt with.

In my post yes I mentioned purchasing Garmin keys and an additional Wireless Mount and I didn't expect they would make any difference at all to the performance of the IBike in the rain. My point there is that this units initial price was attractive but after a number of additional purchases and now it sounds like another RWS this unit is now very similar in price to a Power Tap.

Don't for a minute think I'm on a witch hunt here, what I want is an answer for you to simply say that when a unit is exposed to rain without an RWS wacky watts will occur, thats ok but what about after the fact when trying to use again and your your profile is now useless. I'm not alone here I want an answer, lets face it every now and then your going to get caught in rain and I can handle the wacky watts during that part. What I can't accept is the unit now un-calibrated once again. My question Why does this happen? And how do you get an accurate profile after this has occured.

[Velocomp]

We very rarely get reports of profile variations caused by rain. If your unit is behaving this way please send it to us and we will look at it.

[samwebster]

I had problems in the rain with my iBike too but we'd had an unusually dry year in South Wales so it hadn't been a big problem. When the rain came back I had to send the iBike iPro back to Velocomp and they replaced it with a new one. 

Since then I seem to have ridden in nothing but rain and it has worked great! I haven't even plugged the RWS into it yet. Light rain, heavy rain, showers, steady rain, spray, wind - all fine. Only once did I notice the wind speed go screwy so I stopped, tipped the water out of the wind port and popped the iPro back on the bike. Everything was fine after that. 

The iBike works fine in the rain in my experience, if you have a watertight one. 

[steveoc]

Thanks for the reply John, that is awesome service !!

I purchased my unit from the Australian distributor on 13 Jul 2010. Ill PM you the details. Glad to hear that you identified that model of speed sensor as an issue, and replaced it in newer units. I was thinking of upgrading to full wireless soon anyway, so I could get HR readings as well .. so will see what can be done with this mount. I am very happy to hear that the speed sensor I have is NOT the latest and greatest unit that you offer.

My event today turned out to be awesome spring weather .. not a cloud in the sky, and not a hint of rain. Just lots of long hills in the sunshine with stunning views. Absolutely breathtaking views ! Unfortunately, not a single speed reading from the iBike for 5 whole hours, just bits and pieces of cadence data. No speed, no distance ...

Silver lining on that cloud - as a result of the complete lack of data, I took the whole thing real easy and just treated it as a big long base session, and concentrated on enjoying the view rather than focusing on the numbers. Surprisingly ... this meant that on every long climb, I actually relaxed into it and found a much better rhythm. Not sore at all after today !! (I am probably the world's worst climber, so that was a good result)

As another huge bonus result of this, because I wimped out on the first full loop of the ride, and made my own way back to the half way point, I got to take off on the 2nd loop with the fast guys. That bunch of 'fast guys' just happened to include the current national U19 road champion and a few of his pro team mates, all on their team issue bikes. Man - what a huge privilege to ride alongside these guys and have a chat ! I have the iBike to thank for that in a very strange roundabout way, so it all turned out well.

Finally - after I finished for the day, I pulled up by the car and started taking the bike apart. As I went to take the front wheel off ... you guessed it, for the first time that day, I started getting a speed reading for all of 5 seconds. At the first the air turned blue around me with the language that came out of my mouth, but then I just laughed and took it philosophically. Man .. what a day out

Ill be in touch John, and we will see what we can do about getting me sorted out for the coming season. Im not after a hand out - I am happy to invest good time and money to get this working really well. Thanks.

[steveoc]

* Bump *

Hey guys, waiting for a response on my next course of action. (check your PM / emails ?) Sorry to be persistent, but I want to get this thing back on the road ASAP, and the local Australian distributor cant seem to help out. Looks like the speed sensor is a gonna now - 4 days drying out wrapped in silica gel so far, and not so much as a clicking noise when the magnet passes over it. Looks pretty dead WInd, elevation and cadence are still perfect though, so its not the head unit, just the old model speed sensor.

I have sent a PM to velocorp with a couple of quick questions before I take it off the bike and post it back.

Thanks.

[steveoc]

Just to put this issue to bed (since there may be new readers / potential buyers coming in here looking at the iBike and reeling in horror at the story about waterproofing)

After some direct communication with John the CEO of velocomp .... he explained that the problem was with an older release of the pickup unit for the speed sensor. He then sent a FREE replacement via the mail, which arrived very quickly.

I have now been using the newer release of the speed sensor for a few weeks and a few wet evenings. Results are very pleasing :

- 100% reliable in wet conditions. Happy !!

- Battery life seems better ? Or at least the situation with the old unit was that when wet, it would start sucking power and drain the battery. New unit drops the battery at a very slow and consistent rate in all conditions. Ive been on the same battery now for a couple of weeks, and only drained about 0.1 Volts so far. Happy !!

- The wiring on the head unit of the sensor now extends from the unit to the rear, not the front (7 oclock location rather than 10 oclock). This is less likely to pickup water IMHO. Happy !!

So on the subject of waterproofing, Id say that with the latest version of the wired speed + cadence sensor has made that a thing of the past. If you are considering an iBike, then at least from this user, here is a big thumbs up for the reliability of the unit in adverse conditions :



(and +1 for great customer service to !!!)