How accurate is Bikehike.co.uk?

SickAsAParrot

I've just stuck a computer on my hybrid, one of those 5 quid Aldi jobs, and measured the wheel as best I could.

My ride home came up as 7.22 miles, but bikehike says it's 6.93 miles, should I alter the wheel size accordingly on is bikehike not that accurate.

My raging autistic tendencies wants the computer spot on.

seadog12

Just mapped the commute home I did yesterday using my Garmin 305:

Garmin data:
Distance: 8.64 mi
Elevation Gain: 1,042 ft
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/84727517

Bikehike data:
Distance: 8.67 mi
Elevation Gain: 1,130 ft


Distance seems pretty consistent (and I'll take the Bikehut elevation gain ).

deptfordmarmoset

SickAsAParrot wrote:

I've just stuck a computer on my hybrid, one of those 5 quid Aldi jobs, and measured the wheel as best I could.

My ride home came up as 7.22 miles, but bikehike says it's 6.93 miles, should I alter the wheel size accordingly on is bikehike not that accurate.

My raging autistic tendencies wants the computer spot on.

If it's a hilly route, I think bikehike will only show the distance as if looking down from above - imagine the base of a right-angled triangle - whereas the bike has followed the hypotenuse. And the front wheel, where the computer is almost definitely mounted, will actually have travelled further than the rear because the near-constant correcting of direction to keep balanced means that the front wheel travels in less of a straight line than the rear.

That said, I wouldn't have thought that the difference in readings would be that great. I'd do a few comparisons until you can build up a picture. And if you've got any flat straight roads near you you could make an effort to keep as straight and as balanced as posible and see whether the difference becomes smaller.

sc999cs

SickAsAParrot wrote:

I've just stuck a computer on my hybrid, one of those 5 quid Aldi jobs, and measured the wheel as best I could.

My ride home came up as 7.22 miles, but bikehike says it's 6.93 miles, should I alter the wheel size accordingly on is bikehike not that accurate.

My raging autistic tendencies wants the computer spot on.

Try re-measuring your wheel again. It helps if you have some one to help who can mark the first point and final point while you sit on the bike and push it (in case your weight causes the tyre to deform and change size).

If the set wheel size is still correct then Bikehike just can't be suitable for your route.

Edit
Just entered my route. According to my phone's GPS the distance is 1.61miles, according to BikeHike 1.55 miles so it looks like there are some inaccuracies.

SickAsAParrot

It's fairly hilly but a couple of miles of it runs along a canal, so i'll narrow it down to just that section and see what happens.

Cheers y'all

Edit: The results are in, 1.85 on bikehike, 1.88 IRL, i guess that's close enough.