"Tom Nakashima" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:...
Quoted message said:
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...Quoted message said:Quoted message said:On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:07:22 -0600, [email hidden] wrote:
>On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:34:37 -0600, [email hidden] wrote:
>
>>On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:48:32 -0700, "Tom Nakashima"
>><[email hidden]> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>><[email hidden]> wrote in message
>>>news:[email hidden]...
>>>> On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:39:27 -0700, "Tom Nakashima"
>>>> <[email hidden]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>"still me" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
>>>>>news:[email hidden]...
>>>>>> On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:51:47 -0700, "Tom Nakashima"
>>>>>> <[email hidden]> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I'll have to say the electronic cyclometer, which was started by
>>>>>>>Avocet
>>>>>>>back in '83.
>>>>>>>-tom
>>>>>>
>>>>>> How crude a device do you attach to the word "cyclometer"? I have
>>>>>> an
>>>>>> Avocet that does speed, mph, ride distance and I was sure it was
>>>>>> older
>>>>>> than '83.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>It could be you have a prototype from Palo Alto Bicycles?
>>>>>-tom
>>>>
>>>> Dear Tom,
>>>>
>>>> "AVOCET pioneered bicycle electronics in 1985 with the Cyclometer
>>>> 20."
>>>>
>>>> http://www.avocet.com/cyclopages/cyclo.html
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>>Dear
>>>> Carl Fogel
>>>
>>>
>>>Dear Carl,
>>>Scroll down to 1983
>>>http://www.jimlangley.net/ride/bicyclehistorywh.html
>>>Cheers,
>>>-tom
>>
>>Dear Tom,
>>
>>The disagreement between the 1985 date given by Avocet for when it
>>"pioneered bicycle electronics" with a specific model and the 1983
>>date given in Jim Langley's widely reproduced timeline with no model
>>mentioned is one reason why I take that enjoyable timeline with a
>>grain of nit-picking salt.
>>
>>I don't know which date is right(er), but I tend to believe a specific
>>claim by the manufacturer over a snippet in a wide-ranging survey.
>>
>>That said, the Avocet claim for the model 20 pioneering things in 1985
>>raises the possibility of an earlier model 10 prototype, possibly not
>>commercial, that someone might dig up.
>>
>>And whoever scribbles the Avocet web site details could be the one
>>who's confused, not Jim Langley.
>>
>>This kind of stuff causes the pedantic heart to beat faster, as anyone
>>who's quarreled over the dating of "The Tempest" knows.
>>
>>Bierce cast his usual light on such matters:
>>
>>"GNOME, n. In North-European mythology, a dwarfish imp inhabiting the
>>interior parts of the earth and having special custody of mineral
>>treasures. Bjorsen, who died in 1765, says gnomes were common enough
>>in the southern parts of Sweden in his boyhood, and he frequently saw
>>them scampering on the hills in the evening twilight. Ludwig
>>Binkerhoof saw three as recently as 1792, in the Black Forest, and
>>Sneddeker avers that in 1803 they drove a party of miners out of a
>>Silesian mine. Basing our computations upon data supplied by these
>>statements, we find that the gnomes were probably extinct as early as
>>1764."
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>Carl Fogel
>
>Aha! Googling for avocet + cyclocomputer + 1983 doesn't turn up
>anything useful, but avocet + cyclcomputer + 1984 turns up a mention
>of an Avocet C-10 "that came out around 1984":
>
>http://archive.roadbikereview.com/04/0EF1E2CD.php
>
>That thread also includes a claim that electronic stuff was already
>available and that Avocet only made them smaller.
>
>Both claims are off-the-top-of-someone's-head. It's worth noting that
>the thread opens with someone remembering Avocet making cyclocomputers
>"around the '70's."
>
>More searching yields this:
>
>MSS.328/C/12/4/448, 664-678 Historic photographs arranged by subject:
>Technical: Trade Pictures 1984-1988, undated
>
>664 a. Chains
>664 a. Drawing of chain construction.
>665 a-c. Components
>665 a-c. Weinmann components - 2 brake levers and displays.
>666 a-j Computers
>666 a. Peugeot KSC-1. b. Avocet. c. Peugeot KSC-2. d. Cyclotronic. e.
>Heret Multronic and magnet. f. Cateye Solar. g. Cisiomaster. h. ditto
>- fork fitting. i. Catevemate. j. Avocet.
>666 k-n. Computer Sensors
>666 k. Cyclotronic large sensor - multi pole magnet. l. Handlebar
>Ciciomaster. m. Typical standard sensor. n. Avocet.
>
>http://www.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/ead/328c.htm
>
>This puts Avocet somewhere in 1984-1988, but it could still be
>earlier, particularly since it took a while for stuff to reach England
>from Palo Alto.
>
>But it also raises Peugeot, Cyclotronic, and Multronic and others as
>possible rivals for the earliest cyclocomputer.
>
>Here's a 1984 brochure for the Sachs/Huret Multronic:
>
>http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/v/broderir/Catalogs-Posters/Huret/1984/Page+01.jpg.html
>
>So cyclocomputers clearly pre-date the Avocet site claim of pioneering
>things in 1985.
>
>Here's a no-date picture of a Cyclotronic, just because the huge
>magnet ring can be mistaken for a disk brake:
>
>http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/boeding.htm
>
>The Peugeot eludes me.
>
>With luck, these details may stir some memories and links to old,
>oddball cyclocomputers.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Carl FogelFumbling with the U.S. Patent office yields a 1977 filing and 1979
patent issue for an electronic bicycle speedometer that cleverly uses
the trigger of the bigger blink of the valve stem interrupting a light
beam:CF
Oh, dear!
A very specific and earlier claim from yet a different company:
"Oct. 1981 Microcomputer-based cyclocomputer "CAT EYE VELO" was
developed and mass production commenced."http://www.jbpi.or.jp/english/JBG/JBG2006-2007/data/018-021.pdf
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Report on Enigma decipherment 1 November 1939
http://www.turing.org.uk/sources/nov39.html
See #3 Cyclometer.
Cheers,
-tom
Taken from a Sears Catalog of 1908:
http://www.stanford.edu/~scamp/mountlowe/archives/Cyclometer.jpg
-tom