Cycling Computers

If you are reading this blog, there’s a good chance that you have some fond memories of bike riding. You can probably recall your first bike ride in detail, and I would safely bet that most of you had very little, if any, technology involved in that maiden voyage - except for a parent recording the moment on their memory-recording device of the times. It was about as pure an experience as one can find. While I still have fleeting glimpses of that moment on some of my rides today, the truth is that there is a lot of technology that goes out with me on my rides. Phones, cycling computers, lights, GoPros, wireless shifting - even our bikes need batteries! Technology isn’t going anywhere, so we’ve built our product to support the known technology in cycling today and do our best to support what might be coming in the future. 

Getting Started

Before diving in, we want to provide some terminology and definitions as it relates to our System to avoid any confusion as we discuss all of the technology options that can be used with our products.

Adaptors: These are intermediate parts that adapt one bolt pattern to another. Technology does not directly attach to any Adaptor, e.g., K-Edge Adaptor

Mounts: Mounts serve as the connection point of your preferred device. Most Mounts require an Adaptor to completely attach to any Bag, e.g., Tech Mount - Bar Fly - Garmin.

Each of our Bags has a port on its lid (or 3 for the Big Bag). These ports serve as the connection point for any technology you want readily visible during your ride. At the bottom of each port are two holes that make up our bolt pattern.  This has been carefully developed to support several common bolt patterns found on cycling accessories and is the basis for our decision-making when developing new mounts for technology. Currently, we have two primary Adaptors available for use in the ports found on each Bag -  the red Bar Fly Adaptor (1 included with each Bag) or the blue K-Edge Adaptor. Installing one of these Adaptors is step one in setting your Lid up to accept a device. For the sake of keeping this focused on the cycling computer conversation, both of these Adaptors serve the two big brands - Garmin and Wahoo - equally well. However, there are some key differences we want to call out.

Bar Fly Adaptor

The Bar Fly Adaptor is our Adaptor Series's workhorse, which is why it is provided with each Bag and serves as the native bolt pattern on our Out Front Mount. It supports our available computer connections from Bar Fly (Garmin & Wahoo) and our Quad Lock Integrated Mount. Additionally, you can purchase other solutions from Bar Fly for Bryton, Mio, Cateye, Joule, Omata, Polar and Lezyne computers - all compatible with the Bar Fly Adaptor and Out Front Mount.

K-Edge Adaptor

K-Edge makes some really nice machined out front-style mounts. Many - us included - use their products. Their mounts provide a unique setup difference from Bar Fly - a reduced stack height. While this is seemingly a small thing, it is a nice touch to get your device as low as possible, saving those precious watts. One key piece of this Adaptor is it is only compatible with our Bag offering. Due to the unique bolt pattern, the K-Edge Adaptor will not work with The Out Front Mount.

Tech Mounts

We have several solutions within this group, but only two focus on cycling computers. We’ll address those used with phones or other devices in the other installments of this series.

Bar Fly (Garmin & Wahoo)

We’ve partnered with Bar Fly since we started for one key reason - they provide the largest selection of connectors for most major brands of cycling computers (and some other accessories). We stock the Garmin and Wahoo options at routewerks.cc, as these two brands make up a significant portion of the market. The Garmin option serves as a great solution for several other quarter-turn devices like Hammerhead Karoo & Karoo2 computers (using the included quarter-turn wedge) and Ravemen and Bookman lighting. The Bar Fly options will also directly mount to the Out Front Mount. All hardware required for attaching the Tech Mount - Bar Fly comes with the red Bar Fly Adaptor or The Out Front Mount.

If you want to take a visual journey of installing the pieces mentioned above, check out this video on our YouTube Channel.

Up next…

We’ll go over the available options to keep your smartphone close at hand. 

Until then, happy riding!