iBike within wireless mount have play

[leonsrocketcar]

While working on putting down some new 3M sticky tape, I noticed that my iBIke has a bit of play while in the mount. I am not talking about the mount moving, but rather you can move the iBike back and forth within the mount itself while the mount is cramped down.

My tilt numbers have been whacked and Richard and I are working the issues (took a break due to racing), so we are working all angles of install to proper CDs, etc. This new strangeness has caught me eye because of several reasons: 1. I remember the day in Dec07 that I installed the mount and thought that my iBIke didn't fit super snug on the new wireless mount like it does on my wired mount and my pc interface mount. 2. If I hit a big enough bump or slightly bump the iBIke it gets dislodged and goes to "wireless fail", then I have to twist it back into correct position. 3. I went down in a self imposed crash at a race several weeks back (drop a chain mid 16%er and fell over ) and my iBike went flying across the chip n seal.

SO does your wireless mounted iBike fit snug or loose? I consider mine loose in the wireless, snug in my wired mount and pc interface mount.

And for the tech supporters: does a loose iBIke in mount cause tilt issues? But not sure how to define loose since I can't measure the degree of tilt my iBike moves in my wireless mount.

Kevin

[pjboyle]

In my wireless mount (high angle) the iBike can be rocked slightly front to back (side to side is rigid). The front of the iBike will deflect about 1mm during this manual rocking. I have had no ill effects that I know of with th ebike in motion (tilt is OK).

In the usb mount the iBike is entirely rigid and has no play whatever.

PJBoyle

[Site_Admin]

Guys - Add some electrical or duct tape (about two layers) to the top of the battery cover, and that should fix it. You can also e-mail me off-list for more options and ideas.

[racerfern]

I put two small pieces of electrical tape on top of the wireless battery cover. No rotating, no WLS FAIL. Needless to say the corners of the tape need to stay away from the contacts.

[leonsrocketcar]

Cool, I will try the electrical tape solution. I forgot to mention I get wireless fail all the time too. As always, this forum finds/has solutions Thanks guys

I actually used the electrical tape to tapme my iBike to the mount wrapping it around the mount and ibike yesterda. No wireles issues, but a waste of tape if I had to do this everyday.

Will give feedback in a few days. Rather than do 2 tests, I will follow my other thread on putting new 3M down AND elect tape to keep my mount secure.

Not sure how to explain it, but I compared this past weeks tilt slope and using the elect tape to secure my ibike to mount on yesterday's ride bought down the tilt curve by 200'.

[racerfern]

Not sure how to explain it, but I compared this past weeks tilt slope and using the elect tape to secure my ibike to mount on yesterday's ride bought down the tilt curve by 200'.

That is interesting. My base curve used to be slightly downward, then it became very close to level and now it is going higher and higher to the point I'm considering doing another set of coastdowns. I tilt calibrate the same way each time and this is also the same way I did it for my last set of coastdowns in early February. On a 74 mile ride I end up with almost 1000' of positive tilt slope (if that is the right term). So when you get home you end up being disappointed at the wattage numbers.

[leonsrocketcar]

...... 1000' of positive tilt slope (if that is the right term). So when you get home you end up being disappointed at the wattage numbers.

Yep this is exactly where my tilt stops. From zero and a straight line up to 1000' for the 1.5hr rides I did on Monday, Tues. Wed after I did the tape the tilt line stopped at 800' and I am talking a straight line, not like the one in the maual.

My question is if I am riding basically flatlands, shouldn't I expect my tilt to be flat like the after picture. Or does everyone's tilt all start at zero and straight line upwards and ours works just fine?

Right now I don't use my tilt analyze because I don' t believe it. I use the wind analyze because I believe it vs my perceived efforts. It has been constant 20mph winds this week with gusts to 30mph per weather station and iBike rides agree with it! The watts that are reading on the iBike match my HR and PE against this wind/ride efforts. Now when I use the tilt analyze, it drops my Zone3 numbers to Z1 sleepy zones and I know that isn't what I was pumping out.

So what I have left to do before I make a call out for support is test today through Sunday with new 3M tape/crank down mount AND 2 layers of tape on mount/iBike so it doesn't rock.

What I need to do after above, but will hold off due to heavy winds is new CDs/4mil. So until the winds die down around here, I will stick with current CDs.

Kevin

[racerfern]

Yep this is exactly where my tilt stops. From zero and a straight line up to 1000' for the 1.5hr rides I did on Monday, Tues. Wed after I did the tape the tilt line stopped at 800' and I am talking a straight line, not like the one in the manual.

Hmmm. I'm not convinced the upward tilt slope has much to do if anything with the movement of the iBike within the mount. It seems to me that if it moved slightly, that would make for only slight errors on rougher roads. I've been riding silky smooth roads for the most part and still have the same upward tilt. Besides, I used to have a downward tilt from me leaning on the handlebars and now the opposite happens without having made any changes.

My question is if I am riding basically flatlands, shouldn't I expect my tilt to be flat like the after picture. Or does everyone's tilt all start at zero and straight line upwards and ours works just fine?

Not really. Everyone's tilt starts at zero and ideally would stay close to zero (perfect world). You could climb 10% for 30 minutes and if everything were perfect, the tilt slope line would be zero, IOW no error was introduced. I'm not at my computer but I just looked at the manual on page 38 and that illustration and the resulting wattage drop is excessive.

What I need to do after above, but will hold off due to heavy winds is new CDs/4mil. So until the winds die down around here, I will stick with current CDs.

Winds have settled down here so I'm going to do a set of coastdowns of Saturday if all goes well. However, I have a feeling that the problem is deeper than that.

Edited 03/27/2008 at 18:50 PDT

I just downloaded two rides that I completed today. The difference is that I received a new firmware update. The upward tilt slope was greatly reduced to only about 175 ft for an 18 mile ride. This made the power numbers after correction pretty much on the money. I am still going to do a new set of coastdowns and try to get back to where I was with a slope effect less than 100 for a normal ride. I'll post results.

[leonsrocketcar]

Did the new 3M stips and tape on mount. New tilt numbers have gone down to 550....down from Sat' ride of 2200. Good to see these numbers going down as that seems to be good. Don't really know cuz the manual and support give no feedback so just guessing here. However, don't really put stock into it until I get new CD/4m. What I am excited to see is the sponsored team posts and their data. But it would help to see their tilt details. What I really need to do is quit messing around here and bug one of our team members to pony up their PowerTap for a few days and compare to see if my percieved efforts vs iBike are cat spray highs or I have real issues with my set up/Cds/4m. Either way, I am getting fed up and will make a decision soon to stay or cut my losses and move on.

Firmware for shots below 1.17

Here are a few tilt shots over the last few days:

[racerfern]

But it would help to see their tilt details

Go to http://www.kaneracingteam.com/power1 and download some of Boyd's rides. All the data is there. Click on any of the adjustment screens as you would your own. Tilt error, elevation, weight, it's all there. You can even import it into WKO.

[leonsrocketcar]

cool , downloaded his last 2 days and his tilts match the rides. makes sense. I need to go look at old threads to see other's aero and fric numbers, Boyd's looks sweet.

[Site_Admin]

Guys - Boyd is one of the strongest riders on the team, is a Team Captain, and is coaching. HE KNOWS THE IBIKE AND HE KNOWS HIS STUFF.

I'm going to put up a special sub-category for the DLP-TI Team, but you should definitely go to their site, support them and their sponsors, and meet them if they come by your neighborhood.

[leonsrocketcar]

Just read some old threads and it looks like my CDs are an issue...Richard pointed this out a few weeks back So as soon as the wind dies down or I do CDs at 3am I will have to ignore my numbers for a few more days or so. I feel confident that the new 3M/sticky tape on mount + cranked down unit to bars are as they should be. I should have reviewed my current CDs to old threads here the day I did them and seen that my numbers looked whacked. I guess riding was more fun than playing with PMs

[scittkit]

Hey Kevin.. Lets hook up for a ride here soon! Maybe we can talk to the other two other ibike riders (Steve & Robert) to go along. We will probably have to wait on Robert "The half Watt" every now and then. We all live or work in Sugar Land. We can all download and compare ibike data . Maybe an upcoming Sugar Cycles club ride.

[Robert]

Don't be jealous that I use less watts because I am more aerodynamic and more efficient. Besides, I hardly have to pedal when I am behind you, it's not really drafting, it's more like being pulled along in your wake!

[racerfern]

Well, after doing a careful tilt calibration I got the following before and after slope correction. The nice thing is that the actual wattage matched the shown amount and that matched my PE.


Because of an adjusted riding position and new tires I am going to do another set of coastdowns early before the wind really kicks up. We'll see over the next few rides if I can keep this kind of accuracy.

[leonsrocketcar]

Results as expected and hoped for After redoing 3M mounting tape, tape on mount, clinch down mount, psi120; early am CDs (low wind and not cars/big trucks) I have good tilt read outs My tires are S Works all conditions with 2000+ training and race miles on them. Looking pretty narwley, might explain higher than .004-.008
Point is, my PE and what I see with this calibration are a whole lot closer than previous operator errors

[Site_Admin]

Yeah, but your Crr and CdA are still too high.

Let me know if you'll be up here for Min. Wells or out in Ft. Davis and we'll get it right.

[racerfern]

I did a new set of 20 coastdowns (discarding 2) with my latest firmware update. Then a four mile ride as prescribed. I also downloaded the latest iBike2 software 2.0.4.

This is how a 47 mile ride looked pre and post tilt analysis. This was the pre-ride test for the upcoming City of Angels fun ride. http://www.coafunride.com . Typical downtown LA streets, with potholes, cracks, you name it, then off into the outlying areas.
This also using the latest v2.0.4 of iBike2. Nice work guys, thank you

[travispape]

Hey guys,

Good thread--I'm glad you are getting better results. I just wanted to point out that if you ever get in a situation where you see the same amound of tilt error correction in all of your rides that that is a good indication that the riding tilt derived from your calibration ride no long applies. Usually the explanation would be that the tilt calibration before the calibration ride wasn't good. While you can try to manually modify the profile to fix it; the best thing would be to redo the calibration rides.

Travis

[scittkit]

How are you all posting your tilt screens? I can copy and put it in another file, but can't get it to recognize on this forum. I would like to post some up to see if they look realistic.

[coachboyd]

ctrl+ print screen

that does a screen capture. Paste it into MS Pant (best picture editing software ever). Then crop and save as a .jpg.

[racerfern]

ctrl+ print screen

that does a screen capture. Paste it into MS Pant (best picture editing software ever). Then crop and save as a .jpg.

I do a screen capture and save it as a jpg. Agreed. Use whatever method to get to that point. But I've never been able to paste a picture directly into the message. I've always had to upload it to some server and then link to it via the "Img" button.
ie:

[leonsrocketcar]

I use Snag-it to caputre screenshots and save as jpg. Then I go to the bottom of the reply and click on "Upload attachment", browse to the jpg and add the file to load.

[racerfern]

Duh! I missed the upload attachment tab. And that's probably why some of my screenshots get cut off and can't be expanded to full size.

I've been using PrintKey Pro.

Thanks,