Two weekends ago I was on my Saturday morning ride of about 45 measly miles. About ten miles into the ride I noticed the LCD display beginning to fade. By mile 30 the display had faded into memory, and I pedaled harder, wondering if I could get home before the battery lost the last bit of juice.
I feared that the records of all my pain, sweat, scabs, and fun would be lost into the digital space vacuum.
I pedaled harder, frantically even. When I got home, I went directly to the local battery depot (KMart), purchased a battery, and immediately installed it when I got home. Surprise! All data gone, including my calibration settings for my wheel size, auto-startup/stop settings, and all of my statistical data. My highly personalized cyclometer was acting like it didn’t know me. Like I hadn’t spent hundreds of hours with it over the past two years. Like a total stranger.
Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway: this was quite the frustrating experience. Why could Cat Eye designers/enginners not give me a warning that, “Hey dude, your battery is getting low. Time to replace it.” Or better yet, why not stick a backup battery, or solid-state storage in that honking piece of plastic to record that miniscule amount of information? I can’t wait until we’re finished with Distance Logger.
There is a better way, but Cat Eye isn’t paying attention. And here is the offender:
