GEAR HEADS UP
Wireless communication. After more than a decade and multiple wired bike computers from three companies with mixed success, I finally made the switch to a wireless bike computer, and it’s been a revelation.
No more wrapping the wire 50 times around the forks and stem. No more getting the wires caught on stuff in random car trunks or other things while loading and unloading. I even took my bike in to get it repaired one time, and the shop accidentally snipped a wire while doing a tuneup. And then disavowed blame.
So, this time I went with a Cateye Strada Wireless, after being as happy with their wired version two computers ago as I’ve been with any. My most recent bike computer, a Sigma, had the touchiest wheel sensor, would randomly blink off every few rides and have to be reset, and its modes were not intiutive; I had to keep the instruction manual in the bike bag all the time for refreshers on where data could be found.
The Strada, however, had the easiest install of all — wireless makes a big difference — and the movement between the modes (current speed, average speed, trip distance, elapsed time, clock) makes sense.
The only downsides: You have to calibrate this carefully to get an accurate distance and cadence, but after you do it once, this is a precise piece of equipment. Also, it takes two batteries. But it costs only $40 on amazon.com — which is cheap compared with many models that aren’t as slick. I like it so much, I just bought another one for my backup bike.
HEAD FOR THE HILLS
Rock stars sign on. Well, rocks of a different sort — Chris Sharma, considered to be one of the world’s top climbers, and Steve House, one of the world’s top high-altitude mountaineers, will be featured as guest speakers at Mountainfilm in Telluride, May 25-28 (), which will premiere “House of Cards,” about the summit of the Shark’s Fin, a granite buttress on the northeast side of 6,310-meter Meru Central in the Gangotri mountains of India, by Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk. Visit the website for ticket prices and the full schedule of films and speakers.
ROOM REPORT
Fixer-uppers. The pet-friendly Molly Gibson in Aspen (101 W. Main St., 970-925-3434, ) just updated the 56-year-old property with flat-screen TVs, MP3 players and Wi-Fi in all 53 rooms. The European-style ski lodge offers après — beer, wine and apps — during the ski season and a free buffet breakfast daily year-round. Rates start at $139 for a courtyard room online. … The Wapiti Lodge (3189 Yellowstone Highway, 307-587-2420, ) in Cody, Wyo., originally built in 1904, is scheduled to reopen Memorial Day weekend after being gutted and extensively remodeled. Located 30 miles from the entrance to Yellowstone National Park, the lodge — which was originally the Green Lantern Tourist Camp, in the early 1900s — offers six guest suites with private baths and kitchenettes on the Shoshone River. Rates start at $150 a night.
Kyle Wagner: 303-954-1599, outwest@denverpost.com, twitter.com/kylewagnerworld
