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Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels
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My understanding is that for best results testing with an aerometer, you want a dedicated speed sensor and not speed data calculated by GPS. When running a wheel with a traditional hubs, this is easy enough, e.g. throw a Garmin Speed Sensor 2 or Wahoo RPM on the hub (front or rear, doesn't matter). I suppose you could also go old school and use a chainstay sensor with a magnet screwed onto a spoke.

But if neither of your wheels has a traditional hub shell or spokes (e.g. trispoke front with rear disc), what are people using for dedicated speed sensors? Best solution I can think of would be a thin round neodynium magnet taped to the disc wheel, with an old school chainstay sensor. But is there a better way?

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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [refthimos] [ In reply to ]
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Why do you need a better way than taping a magnet to the wheel and what about that method is not adequate?
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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [habbywall] [ In reply to ]
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A hub-based speed sensor is easy to add/remove as needed. It's a 5 second job. With a magnet/chainstay sensor, you're zip tying the sensor to the chainstay, lining up the magnet, taping it, ruining the aerodynamics of your disc wheel and TT frame, then if you only need the sensor for aero testing and don't want it on your bike for your race, you have to remove and then reinstall when testing again.

Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099
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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [refthimos] [ In reply to ]
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The Wahoo speed sensor is small enough to stick inside the valve cutout on most disc wheels or something like a HED trispoke.

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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [refthimos] [ In reply to ]
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I still prefer a chain stay speed sensor over GPS for distance.
I use a rare earth magnet and tape it to the cover of the valve cut out of the disc wheel.
Make sure you do a good roll out a few times to make sure you have the speed sensor calibrated.
Most default wheel setting circumference sizes are set to 2096 (+/-1) for a 23mm tire.
Tire width and pressure are important because it affects the height of the wheel ultimatley changing the circumference in motion.
Just throwing it on might make you off an inch or centimeter per yard or meter.
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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [mike s] [ In reply to ]
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Fun fact. Different brand speed sensors (and/or if they're connected to different head units) can read differently even on the same bike, wheels, tyres, tyre pressures, reading on the same wheel and having same roll-out input. Saw that in action back in track testing once and made sure never to change wheel sensor during a test after that. I guess it's a question of different signal processing and/or data syncing somehow. I can't remember the difference exactly, but I think it was something in the area of 0.5% - which translates to ~1.5% difference in calculated CdA.

I don't know which was wrong or if they both were. But even simple stuff can be off if the electronics and/or software is not made properly for the accuracy you want.
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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [refthimos] [ In reply to ]
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refthimos wrote:
My understanding is that for best results testing with an aerometer, you want a dedicated speed sensor and not speed data calculated by GPS. When running a wheel with a traditional hubs, this is easy enough, e.g. throw a Garmin Speed Sensor 2 or Wahoo RPM on the hub (front or rear, doesn't matter). I suppose you could also go old school and use a chainstay sensor with a magnet screwed onto a spoke.

But if neither of your wheels has a traditional hub shell or spokes (e.g. trispoke front with rear disc), what are people using for dedicated speed sensors? Best solution I can think of would be a thin round neodynium magnet taped to the disc wheel, with an old school chainstay sensor. But is there a better way?

For aero testing You want an old school sensor and magnet as they are more accurate and the Gold Standard.
Tape a magnet to your disk (you can get thin round neodymium magnets on Amazon).Tape the Sensor to the inside of your chainstay.
Last edited by: m@tty: Jul 26, 23 0:51
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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [m@tty] [ In reply to ]
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Is there a classic speed sensor with a magnet which broadcasts via Bluetooth?
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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [fredly] [ In reply to ]
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fredly wrote:
The Wahoo speed sensor is small enough to stick inside the valve cutout on most disc wheels or something like a HED trispoke.

I taped mine to the side of my disc near the axle
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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [refthimos] [ In reply to ]
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I’ve got a Garmin Speed sensor 2 velcro’ed to the side of my spin bike wheel, and it works perfect. No reason it wouldn’t work stuck to a disk wheel.

Athlinks / Strava
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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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MTM wrote:
Fun fact. Different brand speed sensors (and/or if they're connected to different head units) can read differently even on the same bike, wheels, tyres, tyre pressures, reading on the same wheel and having same roll-out input. Saw that in action back in track testing once and made sure never to change wheel sensor during a test after that. I guess it's a question of different signal processing and/or data syncing somehow. I can't remember the difference exactly, but I think it was something in the area of 0.5% - which translates to ~1.5% difference in calculated CdA.

I don't know which was wrong or if they both were. But even simple stuff can be off if the electronics and/or software is not made properly for the accuracy you want.


ANT+ speed sensors have a measurement error due to the limit time resolution (this is given in the ANT+ protocol) to measure wheel revolutions (at 45kmh it is about 0.2 km/h, what I remember, but I have to look at real data). Than it depends how the data collecting device handles the smoothing / data collection.
Last edited by: BergHugi: Jul 26, 23 6:07
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Re: Speed sensor for Trispoke/Disc wheels [BergHugi] [ In reply to ]
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Plenty of the older Speed/cadence combined sensors use Bluetooth.
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