Schwinn Computers for Dummy Cyclists

Schwinn 12-function bike computer

We looked out the kitchen window at AN World HQ yesterday morning and spotted a peloton rounding the curve in the distance... it was 36° F at the time, but at least it was sunny. Even if he lived in our neighborhood, though, we rather doubt that Floridian (and eHowian) C. L. Rease would have been in the pack. Given the vague understanding of road cycling that Rease exposed in his SportsRec.com post "Schwinn Speedometer Instructions," we're pretty sure he hadn't ridden a bicycle since the first time he climbed on a four-wheeler...

As is typical of the eHow.com "contributor" family, C. L. started out with an introduction (he had to: it was required). He then proceeded to reword the instructions for one specific Schwinn cyclocomputer, which left a lot to be desired if the reader doesn't own the same model some blogger owned in 2006! His post included this instruction:

"Move both the sensor and the magnet until they sit across from each other and have 1 millimeter of space between them..."

...which is, unfortunately, bogus. Did Rease even know that 1 millimeter is about the width of the letter r in the word "millimeter"? No, other models (even of Schwinn computers) instruct you to keep the magnet within 5 mm of the sensor. And then there were his instructions for entering the wheel diameter, a factor essential to accurate measurement of speed and distance with any cyclocomputer:

"Multiply the diameter of the wheel by 25.4 to convert an imperial measurement to a metric number recognized by the speedometer. Multiply the converted number by 3.1416 (pi) to determine the circumference of the tire. Enter the metric number into the speedometer. For example, a 26-inch wheel multiplied by 25.4 equals 660.4. Multiply 660.4 by 3.1616 [sic] for 2074.7 or 2075."

Even the manual he copied disagrees with that last number (2075), perhaps because Rease apparently thought π is 3.1616 instead of 3.1416 (although 660.4 times 3.1616 is 2087.7)... That's not to mention that many people would have to put in fairly serious research to determine the diameter of a 700C wheel (622 mm). More to the point, the instructions Rease cribbed his post from show four different calibrations depending on tire profile, not wheel diameter; they range from 2073 to 2136 mm of rollout. The people at Cateye, whose cyclocomputers are far more widely trusted than Schwinn's, list fourteen different 26-inch tire sizes ranging from 26x1 (1913 mm) to 26x3 (2170mm). None, by the way, is 2075mm. In other words, look it up...

Oddly, C. L.'s introduction says that "entering the bike's tire diameter correctly [is] important [for] accuracy"; which leads us to wonder why he apparently didn't honor said accuracy in his post? Well, he does win an award for all that hard work of the copy-reword-paste type – he's our Dumbass of the Day.

copyright © 2018-2021 scmrak

SE - BICYCLES