Cyclometers for Touring

[smh_bike]

What are the model recommendations for touring cyclometers?

[DaveB]

Is a "touring cyclometer" different from an "ordinary cyclometer"?  What do you expect it to do that is unique to touring?

My recommendation for any use is the Cat-Eye Enduro or its clone, the Cat-Eye Mity.  I have these on five of my bikes and my son, son-in-law and a friend have eight more among them.  They have ALL been 100% reliable and weatherproof.  In fact two of them are on bikes that are specifically used as rain and bad weather bikes.

Cat-Eye uses CR2032 batteries that are cheap, available nearly everywhere and last for years.  They also provide all the ride info I've ever needed; speed, total distance, two independently resetable distances (say daily and the entire trip), ride time, average and max speed and a clock. They can be set for two different wheel diameters so you can use the same head on two different bikes.  

The Enduro 2 and Mity 3 have been replaced by restyled but otherwise nearly identical models so they are available at closeout prices (less than $20) from Nashbar, etc.  These are screaming deals.

My only other experience says avoid Avocet cyclometers.  They have proven extremely unreliable over the last few years.  

[JayH]

I'd second the Cateye computers, I use a MITY 3 for bike commuting year round and it has been reliable and handy with the multiple wheel circumferences. I'll sometimes use my road bike to commute rather than my mtn bike so it's nice to easily switch between them without having to go into the setup menus to change the circumferences all the time.   The Endura I think is a Mity 3 with a beefier cable that runs from the pickup to the mount.  

If you are interested in altitude, I have a wireless Cyclosport CM414 that is fairly costly but it's has a ton of features and does altitude functions including % up/down, total daily ascent/descent and max. ascent/descent %.  It's barometric but is a fun toy to use.  

If you are also using a GPS, most GPS has speed and altitude functions as well as trip odometers and stuff. Of course, they eat batteries like the dickens so might not be a great touring item. But I've used my GPS with a basemap for touring and I've gone to work with it on full time just to map my route.  

Jay

[wanderingwheel]

Take a look at the Echowell F1.  They are truly waterproof (no more plastic baggies over the computer), and have only one central button so you don't reset your computer by bumping the buttons on the side while climbing.  The only thing it's missing is a backlight for night riding.

Sean