Once again last weekend, I started a ride without waking my cyclocomputer. It automatically goes into sleep mode if I’m stopped for about five minutes, and quite often, I’ll forget to hit the button to wake it up so it can continue to tote up my mileage and measure my speed and cadence.
It’s a bit bothersome, especially for someone as OCD as I am about keeping tabs on my cycling stats. But overall, I like the computer. It’s a nice Cateye V2C. It’s wireless, and it gets me the info I need — but not the info some of my friends expect from their computers.
So I wonder — What do you expect your cyclocomputer to do? How elaborate do we want it to get at collecting and storing data?
Some want a GPS unit that saves the whole ride, so it can be downloaded to a desktop computer and then followed interactively.
Some want a computer that measures heart rate in addition to speed and cadence.
Others prefer a minimalist approach, and just want to know how fast they’re going and how far they’ve gone. They don’t really care about all that other stuff.
And then there are those who have a love-hate relationship with their computers. That would include both of my guest posters, Jeff Hemmel and Don Blount. Jeff and Don have each used this space to rejoice in the “freedom” that riding without a computer gives.
But whenever I ride with my club, every person in the group has a computer of some kind attached to their handlebars. So — to repeat my opening question, what do you expect your computer to do? And if you’d like to describe the make and model of yours and its features, feel free to go ahead. That’s what comments are for.