The display on Mary’s Cateye Astrale cyclocomputer (remember cyclocomputers?) faded to gray, which meant a new CR2032 lithium cell was in order. I grabbed one from the heap, popped out the old cell, inserted the new cell, and … the display stayed blank.
Quick like a bunny, I reinserted the old cell to save the odometer (15524 miles) and wheel circumference (1475 mm) data; the display returned to dim gray.
The “new” cell, which came from an unopened pack, read 0.45 V with no load…
The cell didn’t have a date code, but the package sports a cryptic MU that might encode the date of manufacture or the date of packaging or the copyright date or something; the various search results aren’t forthcoming and the Energizer site gives no explanation.
I’m pretty sure I haven’t owned that package for more than a few years and it’s been in a shirtsleeve environment (plus the occasional hot van) ever since.
Another Energizer cell from a more recent lot, bearing CA on the package and YA on the cell, worked fine.
Being that sort of bear, I wrote the date and mileage on the previous cell (a Newsun, whoever they are, with a 3Y code), because the last time around the odometer value didn’t survive the cell change. The current total works out to 277 miles/month = 3300 miles/year, including winter downtime, which is fine with us; we mostly ride the bikes around town on errands and take the occasional tour.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Heh, my (used) bike came with one of those bicycle computer thingies when I bought it in ’04, but I just tossed it in a box somewhere because I was pretty sure it’d get stolen instantly. I suppose it would’ve been interesting to see just how many kilometers I’d gone a few years later. My guess would be at about 2000-4000 kilometers per year. That’s based on a very crude 10 (km) * 5 (days) * 52 (weeks). It doesn’t take less movement during vacations into account, but neither does it take into account cycling in weekends, at night, to the grocery store, and just generically cycling throughout the vacation for all kinds of purposes, so I figure it should just about even out that way.
That’s how it gets done: we ride nearly every day, not just on special occasions, and leave the van in the garage as much as we can. I think that’s easier for you, even with the cobblestones.
Although I did take another trip with a propane tank a few weeks ago. That’s always a special occasion, even if it’s along one of my usual routes…
Ride on!
For one thing, we don’t have a car. ;) Belgium may be behind the Netherlands in cycling-friendliness, but they’re working hard on catching up with more cycling infrastructure and more cycling-friendly infrastructure (or Flanders is; not so sure about Wallonia or car-loving Brussels). In fact the Antwerp Velo project is apparently just about the most successful in the world, but then I’d posit the ubiquitousness of bicycles in the Netherlands wouldn’t exactly aid the success of something similar.
But yeah, that was just a long-winded way of saying it’s probably much easier than anywhere in the US.
Well, that certainly keeps you from driving too much… [grin]