Crowdfunding OMATA, a gorgeous analog GPS Speedometer for bicycling

My qualification is that people don’t effectively use technologies which they take for granted. And why I think this is troublesome with regards to analog is that most people I speak with refuse to even recognize it as a human technology. The use of analog appears to be, to some extent, actively mystified. For any sort of technology, such an attitude seems problematic.

I wouldn’t call this thing “gorgeous”.

They lost me with the whole “miles” and “feet” thing. Who uses those antiquated units? Why not set it up in rods and cubits?

I hate stuff like this attached to my bike in any case. If I want something truly gorgeous and truly analogue I’ll buy a vintage watch.

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This thing is gorgeous. I can’t afford it, but it looks like plenty of people can.

As a side note, it’s nice to see the BB comment thread live-tweeting from inside the Springfield Retirement home.

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cool. which materials?

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The GPS isn’t analog; the display is.

When it comes to display, “analog” basically means, “shows a pictorial representation of” where “digital” means “shows the actual digits of the data.”

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They offer another optional arbitrary measurement system, in kilometers.

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That’s not how I understand it. An analog system models events through a continuous function, it outputs an analogy of its input. It this context it doesn’t matter much what the style of the display might be. With the OMATA, the display is basically a microcontroller with either DACs or PWM channels driving a mechanical display. But the data being represented is still discrete rather than continuous. These are two very different ways of handling measurement, signals, data, etc.

Came here to post this, so I’ll just append the Japanese text: お股 or 御股 if you overuse kanji :stuck_out_tongue:

Ah yes, I had one of those back in the 70s

GPS is by definition digital. Learn to deal with it. The fact that they put it on a rotating dial is pretty damn good,

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Steel is real!

I’m fillet-brazing steel bikes - my personal focus is on randonneur-style low trail touring bikes as I think that these bikes are the best all-rounders in terms of combining exercise, recreational and utility cycling; balancing speed, comfort and load-bearing. My philosophy is that (outside of pure sport cycling) if one is to spend a lot of money on a bike, it should be capable of serving the rider as much of the time as possible. As cycling has become more popular, many people get excited about high-end road bikes and spend several thousand on a bike that is not really suitable for the sort of riding they do, and which they are not capable of getting full performance out of.

However, all that said, I’m working on a variety of different road bikes at the moment, including one for an athelete who just wants to ride sportives in the mountains.

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Scam or the piece of kit every Rapha clad hipster needs?
http://internationale.teamjva.com/

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Why the hell would they label the dial 10-18-25? And making an analog display on a smartphone is pretty trivial, and would be easy to customize. For example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.binarytoys.speedometer

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I agree that the data, the system, and the signal are all digital. However, an analog display is something different. An analog watch display, as previously mentioned, displays the time as an analog of how much of a 12-hour period has passed. If it breaks down events discretely by having a ticking second hand instead of a sweeping second hand, that doesn’t make it a digital watch.

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/analog-and-digital.html

The fact that the data is represented internally digitally does not change the fact that it is being displayed in an analog fashion - that is, if you are moving twice as fast, the needle of the speedometer moves twice as far from the zero point.

It is a digital device with an analog display.

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For those choking on the $500 sticker price, I submit to you: the $25 Stem Captain. It tells time.

http://www.stemcaptain.com/

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I get so frustrated with speedometers. The wired ones break too easily, and they all have their own proprietary mounts so there’s no easy way to replace the cable. And even the wireless ones require you to adjust the magnet and sensor ever so carefully to as to give the right reading without rubbing against each other. And of course there’s always the possibility that some sticky-fingered miscreant will walk away with one part or another while you’re not looking.

Never mind analog displays, I say. Give me something cheap and functional.

There are a variety of plugins for dynamo hubs that will give you a usb charger. But for a $500 cycling computer, you’d hope they’d have thought about that already.

Also, for that price, I will let someone else go first in determining how well it will survive a New England winter (my last cycling computer did not, and since it died, I’ve felt no real need to replace it). As long as I can get Google Maps from my iPhone, I’m good to go.

kick ass. fillet-brazing means like this?:

from de-rusting and re-priming my BB lug. That’s what I’m riding currently, '87 Miyata 312:

it came fully stock with a logo on the chainstay depicting triathalons, which I thought was weird since the fork has a ton of rake to it (plus nowadays tri bikes are space-age, compact carboned pursuit bar things.) But then I read on wiki that they were what Miyata considered a “Sport-Tourer,” which I’d agree with. Probably similar to what you’re doing? I outfitted mine for city riding/all-rounder, racks and fenders, Mega-Range freewheel, Marathon Pluses etc. I’d heard Miyata had a good rep when I saw this in my size on Craigs, so I bought. I think i got lucky, though. She’s a good steel frame, probably never find a better one in 63cm unless I hire you!

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dude, this is gold.

nailed it.

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Can’t wait to get a gallon of the Taint Paint!
Where’s the kickstarter for that?

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