Tricky bar mount situation

[brianeray]

My current oversize, wired cadence bar mount is probably not seated as rock solidly on the bar as it could be. Wondering if anybody has overcome the same situation, and how they did it. The round oversize section of my handlebars--Ritchey Comp Streem if memory serves--are round for only a short run, then it flattens out quite a bit. The mount is sitting partly on this round section and partly on the stem clamp for lack of real estate. I think this is contributing to some tilt drift during my rides.

My ideal fix, I think, would be a wired stem mount. Unless I'm going blind the only stem mount is wireless.

Anybody have any setup tips? And on a related note, where can I find more of that double-sided foam tape? Hardware store? Office supply store?

Thanks much

[Site_Admin]

My current oversize, wired cadence bar mount is probably not seated as rock solidly on the bar as it could be. Wondering if anybody has overcome the same situation, and how they did it. The round oversize section of my handlebars--Ritchey Comp Streem if memory serves--are round for only a short run, then it flattens out quite a bit. The mount is sitting partly on this round section and partly on the stem clamp for lack of real estate. I think this is contributing to some tilt drift during my rides.

My ideal fix, I think, would be a wired stem mount. Unless I'm going blind the only stem mount is wireless.

Anybody have any setup tips? And on a related note, where can I find more of that double-sided foam tape? Hardware store? Office supply store?

Thanks much

Brian - what I think we saw done successfully was that some people used either handlebar tape or rim tape to kind of 'round out' the area that was usable. However, as long as you're using the double-sided sticky tape, I think that's what's going to keep you from getting tilt drift from that component.

We may do a wired stem mount, but right now, we've got some other priorities - look for some announcements on this forum and elsewhere in the near future. I think we've got the wireless down pretty good, so I'm just trying to minimize all the unique challenges with different bars and stems.

[brianeray]

Brian - what I think we saw done successfully was that some people used either handlebar tape or rim tape to kind of 'round out' the area that was usable. However, as long as you're using the double-sided sticky tape, I think that's what's going to keep you from getting tilt drift from that component.

It seems immune to small brushes with, say, a stray hand. I can deliberately push it and make it stick in the new position with a moderate amount of force. I've just had a couple rides where I've done a tilt calibration prior to the ride and then come back and done a tilt check, and the slope is off approximately 0.5 percent points. Today I did much of my ride on pretty flat roads and most of the time I looked down, incline was mildly positive, between 0.5 and 1 perrcent. I backtracked one section to see if I could get a complementary negative slope but nope, it remained in the low positives.

I calibrate in my garage, which is probably 10 - 15 degrees warmer than outside these days when I roll out. Does temperature affect tilt calibration at all?

We may do a wired stem mount, but right now, we've got some other priorities - look for some announcements on this forum and elsewhere in the near future. I think we've got the wireless down pretty good, so I'm just trying to minimize all the unique challenges with different bars and stems.

Right on. Long-term if I can get everything dialed in with the wired mount, at some point I might invest in the wireless mount. Just want to dip my toe in first both in terms of money and complexity. I'm sure you have a wireless connection between the head unit and the remote sensors that's just as reliable as a wired connection. Just one less thing I want to worry about now as I familiarize myself with the iBike.

[Site_Admin]

Brian - what I think we saw done successfully was that some people used either handlebar tape or rim tape to kind of 'round out' the area that was usable. However, as long as you're using the double-sided sticky tape, I think that's what's going to keep you from getting tilt drift from that component.

It seems immune to small brushes with, say, a stray hand. I can deliberately push it and make it stick in the new position with a moderate amount of force. I've just had a couple rides where I've done a tilt calibration prior to the ride and then come back and done a tilt check, and the slope is off approximately 0.5 percent points. Today I did much of my ride on pretty flat roads and most of the time I looked down, incline was mildly positive, between 0.5 and 1 perrcent. I backtracked one section to see if I could get a complementary negative slope but nope, it remained in the low positives.

I calibrate in my garage, which is probably 10 - 15 degrees warmer than outside these days when I roll out. Does temperature affect tilt calibration at all?

We may do a wired stem mount, but right now, we've got some other priorities - look for some announcements on this forum and elsewhere in the near future. I think we've got the wireless down pretty good, so I'm just trying to minimize all the unique challenges with different bars and stems.

Right on. Long-term if I can get everything dialed in with the wired mount, at some point I might invest in the wireless mount. Just want to dip my toe in first both in terms of money and complexity. I'm sure you have a wireless connection between the head unit and the remote sensors that's just as reliable as a wired connection. Just one less thing I want to worry about now as I familiarize myself with the iBike.

Understood on the money front.

If you can move the mount, then we've got a problem. Send me some photos off-list and I'll take a look. Another thought is maybe a sliver of pvc pipe. Man, sometimes you just want a plain old handlebar.

[brianeray]

If you can move the mount, then we've got a problem. Send me some photos off-list and I'll take a look. Another thought is maybe a sliver of pvc pipe. Man, sometimes you just want a plain old handlebar.

Heh, that's what I was thinking when I installed the mount. I really like the flat flats on that Ritchey though. Less hand fatigue. Alternately a stem with a smidge narrower clamp faceplate would also give me just enough room.

Lemme take another crack at it over the weekend with some of the suggestions you gave. I'll report back no matter how it goes and send you pics if necessary.

Thanks again

[brianeray]

OK, the mount seems more solid after using the round bit of that banjo foam adapter to help clear the lip of the stemp clamp. And my local Ace store had some longer SS machine screws to secure the mount's clamp around the now "super oversize" handlebar.

When I push moderately on the clamp, reported tilt changes a few tenths of a percent. Then tilt slowly springs back to the original reading when I stop pushing. Good and good.

Last night after the new setup I did another tilt calibration. Pre-ride this morning, a tilt check reported about a 0.3 percent drift from last night, so I calibrated again and hit the road. I repeated my previous ride.

On-the-road reported tilt still _seemed_ biased toward a positive slope. But that may have been my own selection bias. Back home in the garage another tilt check revealed again a drift of a few tenths of a percent upward.

So I re-downloaded the previous days' ride and downloaded today's to get the un-analyzed average slope readings. Both around 0.65. Weird. There's another thread ("10 Coast Downs and 4 Mile Ride Calibration") that suggest weight transfer can be a factor. With all this in mind, my next experiments are:

1) Recalibrate and check tilt several times several times between now and tomorrow morning's ride.

2) See how much reported tilt changes between no-handed and in the drops position.

[brianeray]

Meant to post an update a few days ago. Anyways, a few days late:

Sunday I went out and did about 55 miles on the valley floor, tilt display
on-screen the whole time. For about 2/3 of the ride the reported tilt and watts jibed with my seat-of-the-pants inclineometer/ergometer. Most of the ride was over flat roads, and reported tilt was always mildly negative or positive for the first two hours, instead of always mildly positive. So far so good.

But the last 1/3 of the ride, tilt felt biased downhill quite a bit. Got home and dumped the ride into the software, and it gave raw average slope as -0.12%. On previous rides my altitude has been very close at the start and finish, but on Sunday finish altitude was about 10% too high. (All rides are loops.)

As mentioned in the previous post, I think the mount is on the handlebar pretty solid. And I don't recall grazing the computer during the ride. Between rides I'm getting tilt drift around 0.5 percentage points, give or take a few tenths. So I'm wondering if atmospheric conditions are changing enough during the ride to influence tilt and altitude. Being able to correct after the ride is great, but it's tough to get precise on-the-road feedback if things are drifting.

Next experiment will be a longer acclimation period for the iBike prior to pre-ride calibration. Still a few experiments up my sleeve ...

[travispape]

Meant to post an update a few days ago. Anyways, a few days late:

Sunday I went out and did about 55 miles on the valley floor, tilt display
on-screen the whole time. For about 2/3 of the ride the reported tilt and watts jibed with my seat-of-the-pants inclineometer/ergometer. Most of the ride was over flat roads, and reported tilt was always mildly negative or positive for the first two hours, instead of always mildly positive. So far so good.

But the last 1/3 of the ride, tilt felt biased downhill quite a bit. Got home and dumped the ride into the software, and it gave raw average slope as -0.12%. On previous rides my altitude has been very close at the start and finish, but on Sunday finish altitude was about 10% too high. (All rides are loops.)

As mentioned in the previous post, I think the mount is on the handlebar pretty solid. And I don't recall grazing the computer during the ride. Between rides I'm getting tilt drift around 0.5 percentage points, give or take a few tenths. So I'm wondering if atmospheric conditions are changing enough during the ride to influence tilt and altitude. Being able to correct after the ride is great, but it's tough to get precise on-the-road feedback if things are drifting.

Next experiment will be a longer acclimation period for the iBike prior to pre-ride calibration. Still a few experiments up my sleeve ...

Could you send me your 55 mi ride file? Email address is in my profile.

Travis

[brianeray]

Could you send me your 55 mi ride file? Email address is in my profile.

Can do. On the profile I see the "private message" feature but no email address. I might be glossing right over it. Is it right there hiding in plain sight?

Thanks

[travispape]

Could you send me your 55 mi ride file? Email address is in my profile.

Can do. On the profile I see the "private message" feature but no email address. I might be glossing right over it. Is it right there hiding in plain sight?

Thanks

One way to do it is click the email icon to the right of this message.

[racerfern]

One way to do it is click the email icon to the right of this message.

This is off subject so I apologize. However, there is no email icon to the right. There are indicators for PM, IM, etc. depending on individuals setup, but that's it. It is also interesting to note on my profile page there is no place to put your email address. You have to put your email address as part of your personal info for the website, but not in your profile settings.

I specifically have my control panel settings to allow people to email me and it does not show anywhere. It doesn't show for you either, Travis.

[travispape]

One way to do it is click the email icon to the right of this message.

This is off subject so I apologize. However, there is no email icon to the right. There are indicators for PM, IM, etc. depending on individuals setup, but that's it. It is also interesting to note on my profile page there is no place to put your email address. You have to put your email address as part of your personal info for the website, but not in your profile settings.

I specifically have my control panel settings to allow people to email me and it does not show anywhere. It doesn't show for you either, Travis.

Ahh, I must get extras as an administrator, even though I'm not logged in as an administrator most of the time.

My email address is at yahoo: travispape

Travis

[brianeray]

My email address is at yahoo: travispape

Right-oh. Should be hitting your inbox soon.

Thanks

[travispape]

Brian,

You did not have a profile attached to this ride file. Normally you would need to have a profile to view the attached picture, but I did a little developer magic so you can look at it.

Brian_tilt.png (41.05 KiB) Viewed 10341 times

The green curve in the top half of the graph is showing you where and how much your iBike's tilt changed during your 55 mile. ride.

It was gradually starting to tilt nose-down, then it suddenly got bumped nose-up at mile 15. Again, it was gradually tilting nose-down until mile 35 when it bumped up again. By mile 38 it was pointing down again and got bumped again at miles 48 and 53.

It definitely looks like your iBike is rotating on the bars, which isn't too surprising since it can even happen with normal mount set-ups.

On previous rides my altitude has been very close at the start and finish, but on Sunday finish altitude was about 10% too high. (All rides are loops.)

<snip>

So I'm wondering if atmospheric conditions are changing enough during the ride to influence tilt and altitude. Being able to correct after the ride is great, but it's tough to get precise on-the-road feedback if things are drifting.

The reason your elevation was too high at the end of the 3 1/2 hour ride is because the atmospheric pressure changed during the course of the ride. If you check out weatherunderground.com for the day of your ride at your location you will find that the pressure dropped by the time you got back.

Travis

[brianeray]

Brian,

You did not have a profile attached to this ride file. Normally you would need to have a profile to view the attached picture, but I did a little developer magic so you can look at it.

Yep true. To date, I just wanted to look at raw tilt and elevation numbers for my few inaugural rides. Once I get tilt dialed in, I'll start attaching my profiles.

It was gradually starting to tilt nose-down, then it suddenly got bumped nose-up at mile 15. Again, it was gradually tilting nose-down until mile 35 when it bumped up again. By mile 38 it was pointing down again and got bumped again at miles 48 and 53.

It definitely looks like your iBike is rotating on the bars, which isn't too surprising since it can even happen with normal mount set-ups.

I hear ya. I don't think anything bumped the unit, but the roads around here are a variety of smooth and rough pavement. Maybe the mass of the unit itself torques the mount when the road's bumpy. I can try cranking down the screws a bit more, but they're already tightened pretty firmly. Wish there was a wired stem mount at this point.

The reason your elevation was too high at the end of the 3 1/2 hour ride is because the atmospheric pressure changed during the course of the ride. If you check out weatherunderground.com for the day of your ride at your location you will find that the pressure dropped by the time you got back.

Gotcha. If I can get the mount stationary then all systems go. If I can't, I'm not sure how useful it can be on the road, even prospectively with some tilt correction in firmware, if the elevation's based on barometric pressure. The wireless stem mount sure seems like it would prevent all tilt slippage. Which I'd consider.

Thanks

[Site_Admin]

The first question here is - Did you use the double-sided sticky tape on the handlebar mount? Do that, plus honking down on the screws, and you should be good to go.

I've had a wired hbar mount on my Soloist since March of '06 and I've never had to adjust it at all.

Throw me a jpeg and we'll have a look at your hbar setup.

[brianeray]

The first question here is - Did you use the double-sided sticky tape on the handlebar mount? Do that, plus honking down on the screws, and you should be good to go.

Yep--though the tape holding the top half in place is the "banjo" chunky foam tape, used for fit issues described near the beginning of the thread. The thinner mounting tape's under the bottom part of the clamp. The screws can probably endure a bit more torquing. Don't want to go overboard and damage the clamp.

I've had a wired hbar mount on my Soloist since March of '06 and I've never had to adjust it at all.

Throw me a jpeg and we'll have a look at your hbar setup.

Will do within the next day. Foolish stuff like "work" and "errands" is pre-empting the more important bike-related activity.

[brianeray]

OK, here's some glamor shots. The double-sided foam tape under the lower half of the clamp is the same stuff that ships with the iBike, just in skinny roll form. (Thanks to Ace hardware.)

Since my last post I torqued down the screws a bit more and added another blob of blue Loctite to each. It really seems immobile. Haven't had a chance to ride lately because of rainy weather but as soon as things clear up I'll give it another shot.