Keeping under pressure with Cycplus Electric Tire Pump A3

What a shocker, a post that’s to do with cycling. Don’t worry folks the legend is still alive and kicking keeping the human healthy. In fact this month (May 2023) the Legend may have a sibling….. 

Anyways on with this little review…

I have had this electric air pump on my list for many yrs.  I have a very good track pump that has served me well since i first got the legend. Early last year I pumped up my tired up just before going to work. By the time i got there my tyre was flat. Thinking it was a puncture I took the inner tube out looking for a hole. Didn’t find one til I got to the value. Seemed when I pumped my tire up I damaged the value. I always have problems with my track pump and the big value attachment on The Legends small wheels and tight spokes.

So I got myself an electric air pump. This pump can basically do any kind of value. Dunlop, Schrader & Presta are covered.

It’s a pretty easy to use. You turn it on, set the pressure you want with the clear digital read out. Attach the value and push the power button. It will pump your tire up to the set pressure and automatically shut down. It’s fully rechargeable via USB and comes with its own charging cable and even a little pouch bag.

It maybe alittle heavy (500grams) to take on a ride cause rechargeable batteries are notoriously heavy, but do able.

 I’m impressed by how quick it topped up my Marathon + tires to 100psi from about 60psi this morning.

Always keep your tyres pumped to proper pressures as marked on the sidewall. When at the proper pressure you get less punctures, less rolling resistance meaning you travel faster, longer with less wasted energy. Only down side is that you will feel the bumps alittle more but thats what padded cycling shorts are made for right.

Cycplus Electric Tire Pump A3 from AmazonUK

till the next ride, bee safe.....

Gadget Upgrades

During last year I have been steadily improving my cycling. When I got my Garmin Edge 800 Performance & Navigational Bundle I decided to install the cadence sensor (Garmin GCS10) and started to wear the heart rate monitor as well on my rides.

But because BBB has small wheels the GCS10 couldn't reach both the wheel magnet (Speed) & pedal magnet (Cadence). 

When I installed the Garmin GSC-10 on BumbleB I couldn't get it to sense my cadence & speed directly as the speed sensor couldn't reach the wheel's spokes where the magnet would be placed. I wasn't to fuzzed about this till recently.

Garmin GSC10 Mounted

I've wanted to get more accurate data on my rides so I found ANT+ compatible cadence/speed sensor that would work with the Brompton & Garmin Edge 800

 PowerTap ANT+ Dual Speed Cadence Sensor

• For use with wireless ANT+ PowerTap power meters.
• Compatible with android and iPhone/iPad devices with use of appropriate ANT+ adapter key

The small bo is the speed part of the sensor & short cord is attached the cadence sensor. Zip ties, rubber bases and spoke magnet also come with the package.

Here it is all installed on BumbleB

PowerTap Fully installed

Speed sensor & magnet on spoke

Cadence sensor lined up with magnet in pedal

I found that if I placed the cadence on the underneath part of the rear frame, when BumbleB is folded/parked the cadence sensor would be crushed my the frame/bottom bracket.

Cadence sensor & Bottom Bracket

 

Pairing with Garmin Edge 800:

Now pairing up with the Edge 800 is easy but here is a step by step screen shots taken from my Edge 800.

Go to settings (spanner)

Go to Bike Settings

Bike Profiles

Select your bike profile

Hit ANT+Speed/Cadence

Yes to Bike sensors & search.

At this point make sure no other ANT+ sensors are in range to make sure the only sensor it picvks up is yours.

YAY its paired

Now you have to tell the Garmin your wheel size. If you want to be SUPER accurate you can measure your actual wheel using a tape measure and put it in manually in millimetres.  Brompton's come up to around 1300mm +/- 50 depending on wear & tires.

I let the edge calculate it itself (ride for about 15mins and it will automatically set the size)  and it comes in around the size I've read up on.

Wheel size set

Now its all done. No more 0.2mph when I'm stationary as the GPS signal slightly drifts cause of the delay etc

PowerTap ANT+ Dual Speed Cadence Sensor on wiggle.co.uk

Another senor of this type I have also seen that should work with the Brompton is the

Wahoo Fitness Premium Speed Cadence which is of the same type of design.

Keep it safe, wear a rubber :D

Ok it's not rubber but silicon based protection.

Nothing major or anything that's going to improve my cycling but when David P from London Brompton Club group told me about this I just had to get it. I guess you can see why in the photos below....

Garmin Edge 800 Rubber Protector

Yellow & Black

On my Garmin Edge 800

You can get this silicon cover in many different colours: Black, Yellow, Pink, Blue, Green, Red, White. Can also get it for the Garmin Edge 500/510 series too.

Not much I can say other than the cover feels the same as the original silicon cover from Garmin so its good quality & will do its job as the black one has done for many yrs now in rain/snow/hail & sun.

Garmin Edge Silicon Case on wiggle.co.uk

Free Mapping on the Garmin Edge 800

Yesterday a member (David P LBC's path finding wizard) of the LBC group made a posting about Garmin Edge 800 and using free OSM maps. I had always wanted to put different more detailed maps on my Garmin but always found the sites I looked at very complex to do so it put me off.

I read David's posting then followed the yourtube video he had found. Followed the instructions and it was all done within 8mins (most of that was just copying over the file to a microSD card)

Do a search for website "talkytoaster" (should be the first thing to come up on your search) to download the maps & follow the video instructions below. (Video tells you exactly which file to download from talkytoaster)

Here is a couple of screen grabs of my Garmin's screen with the different maps. 

City Maps

OSM Maps

City Maps

OSM Maps

My Tips:

1. Copy the file to your MicroSD card though a card reader as it's much faster than doing it though the Garmin itself.
2. Get a good quality (High Class) MicroSD card (I personally recommend Class 10 & 4Gb minimum)
   You probably won't fill it all unless you intend on using ALL the OSM maps for the whole planet at once

First Impressions: Garmin Edge 800

After having the Garmin Edge 200 Cycle computer for about a month and even taking it on holiday with me to the USA (without Bumble B) I found that I wanted more. The only next step would be to get the Garmin Edge 800 cycle computer as it's Garmin's current top of the line cycle computer. I liked the idea of turn by turn navigation even though it can replace the good ole paper map & asking the locals to where things are. I guess I like to see the moving map of where things are as sometimes when driving I put the satnav on just to see the names of roads etc past by.

Today was going to be a training ride with my partner in crime Mr.O but the night before it was raining pretty hard and we thought today would be the same. How wrong was we eh? Well I had a few things to do and with the weather turning out nice I thought I'd give the Garmin Edge 800 abit of a work out as well as myself.

Review:
I thought I would keep my old Velco cycle computer on Bumble B with the Garmin Edge 800 as I did with the review for the Garmin Edge 200 to see if there was any more difference between them.

Cateye Velo, Garmin Edge 200 & Garmin Edge 800

As you can see the Edge 800 is much larger than its little brother but then again it does a hell of alot more.

I haven't really had enough time to really play with the Edge 800 as this is the first time I've been able to ride with it. I found that I could use the same mounting clip as the Edge 200 so I didn't have to change anything on Bumble B. I've only just scratched the surface of what the Edge 800 can do and its going to be fun doing it. I know a few of the members of the London Brompton Club have one so maybe in future we will be swapping hints and tips on how to get the best out of our little gadgets.

Garmin Edge 800 mounted on Bumble B

I just luv cycling around and watching the map move about as I ride, even with the tom tom in the car I do the same thing :D

Todays cycle log from the Edge 800

Hacked my Garmin Edge 800 already >:D

Ended up going along Hackney Canals so took a few pics