Walter S

Keeping up with your total miles is easy without a spreadsheet. Just glance at your odometer. Done.

e0richt

not only that, cheap computers also have "trip time", so if for some reason you want to check your speed on your commute (i.e. to see whether losing those couple of pounds has affected your commute time)

valleyrider

I track my mileage with a simple Excel spreadsheet at work. I have it set up calendar style and every day I ride I just put a "1" on that day, and I have it set to calculate the miles from that day and add it to the rest. I use this to see how much money I am saving by biking (I take the MPG from my car and do math). Mainly as a defense to people who think I am dumb for biking to work. The money adds up quite quickly, really. And it feels really good to know that I have biked 1,000 miles simply to and from work this year. Keeps me motivated to keep riding.

Phamilton

Phamilton

Update: Between Strava and the computer I've been tracking my mileage consistently since last fall. All in all, I have found very little reward for the commitment. I think it was a good process to go through and especially Strava helped to sort of understand how different variables (wind, sleep, diet, road conditions, etc) affect my commute times and general ride quality. But I don't drive, my bike is my only vehicle (and at the moment I have a fleet of only one to manage). I never really tracked mileage much while I was still driving a car, and it doesn't make much sense to me to start tracking it now just because the vehicle has changed.
I've also been participating in the commuting mileage thread, but I'm considering "dropping out" of that race as well. I think it might be more work than I'm willing to do to try and segregate all my commuting and "other" miles.
I like having the computer on my bike, and I like knowing how many miles I have put on a specific bike. If I had a fleet, I think I'd put a cheap computer on each one. It would be very simple to keep a small notebook for each bike logging dates/miles for things like "New tires", "adjusted cleats", "replaced chain" etc.
Maybe also a factor is that I don't ride for fitness, that is to say that any increase in fitness I may experience from cycling isn't much more than a by-product of the riding, and not a goal. So the mileage data that I get from my computer and the mileage and other stats provided by Strava aren't really all that useful for me on a day-to-day basis. I'm just going back and forth to work and the store and whatever.

Skipjacks

I don't compete against anyone else, especially in the commuting mileage thread. That is a meaningless comparison. Some people in that thread commute up steep hills. Some are in flat lands. Some are pushing as hard as they can on every pedal stroke. Some are casually enjoying the ride. It's not a comparison.

I do it to compete against myself.

I know how far I rode last year. I have higher goals this year. And those are more for my own fitness than time trials or average speed or anything else related to biking. I just know that the more I ride the healthier I generally am so I set annual goals to keep my exercise on pace.

It's also fun on an individual ride basis to be able to say ""Wow I rode 50 miles today" and just feel good about that accomplishment.

Phamilton

Can you see, though, how FOR ME setting mileage goals is pretty meaningless? My bike is my only vehicle and I ride everywhere unless weather, roads, or personal injury or health issues prevent me from doing so. I don't really have an individual ride basis to work with. Isn't it a little weird for any bike commuter to be looking at it "one ride at a time"? The way I see it, commuting implies daily. I did not consider myself a bike commuter until I began doing it on a regular basis.

I know that most bike commuters put in non-commuting miles (myself included) but for the sake of clarity I'm referring to just commuting (as per the sub forum).

FWIW cycling to me is mostly a mode of transport, and in my mind personal transportation isn't ever a competition, not against myself or anybody else. It's quite literally just getting back and forth from the places I need to go/be.

I will allow that at some point in the future I may see some value in the pursuit of fitness on a bike, but I doubt I'll try to combine transportation AND fitness into one activity. In my mind there are conflicting priorities between them.

Skipjacks

Sounds like you're missing all the fun of biking, brother.

Phamilton

Do you keep the commuting mileage thread pretty up to date?

Edit: In other words, is the mileage you report there accurate?

Further edit: What a terrible thing to say. I love the time I spend on my bike. I love it enough that I'm making an attempt to eliminate distractions, like thinking about mileage or average speed or KOMs, so that I can enjoy it even more for what it is. I love riding my bike enough that I sold my car and let my drivers license expire. I spend 2 hours a day on it and wish I had more energy to spend more. What a terrible untrue thing to say.

Final edit: I don't bother with "ignoring" or reporting people on BF. Skipjacks, if this is truly how you think, please ignore my threads.

Phamilton

My gawd, this sub forum sometimes.

I generally regret telling people that I'm a bike commuter or that I live without a car. Sort of ironically, the people I regret telling the most often are other bike commuters or people who live without a car.

LET ME TELL YOU WHAT YOU'RE DOING WRONG

Everybody is an expert.

Nobody reads threads, nobody pays attention to post dates, nobody pays attention to the names or avatars or locations.

Why is anybody here?

Does anybody even ride a bike?

acidfast7

yes.

fietsbob

Otherwise, I see no benefits ..
I only put a battery in my bike computer, for the odometer on long tours.
Use the trip reset button at distance to town signs

so I can see how far it is to a city , updated, , since I'm going slow it takes longer
and the sign is for faster movers noting 10 miles out and such ...

Are we there yet?






....

Phamilton

PaulH

Nothing to track:.
52 weeks in a year x 5 days per week = 260 days
152 hours vacation / 8 hours = 19 days
12 days of holidays
10 mile round trip
(260-19-12) * 10 = 2290
Always the same every year.

Things that matter: the full moon over snow fields, spring flowers, summer mornings and autumn leaves.

acidfast7

No sweat. I am to please.

Kedosto

I use a bike computer, but only for data/record keeping and I'm not very diligent about it. I don't track miles just for the sake of tracking miles but I do want to know how many miles I got from a tire, or chain, or maybe a cassette. I make a note of the odometer reading at (or about) January 1 of each new year just for giggles at how many annual miles I've done. I damn sure don't Strava, or GPS, or ever care about my speed. I do lots of miles on lots of different bikes and in order for me to make sense of where my time, money, and energy are going it helps if I can understand how and where the best value is achieved. Keeping an eye on such bare minimums also helps prevent me from being stranded by breakdowns which could have been avoided.

I don't quite understand the mindset of "missing all the fun," as being a slave to a bunch of otherwise useless data hardly seems like fun to me. I kind of look at it like one would do for a car - when the oil is due to be changed, when to rotate the tires, check the brakes or transmission, etc. But, like I said, I'm not the most disciplined about it. There is no spreadsheets or anything formal, just a bunch of notes scribbled on a notepad I have taped inside a cabinet. Mostly I just write notes on the boxes or wrappers the items come with. Let's just say my effort is just enough to give me a pretty good idea of what's going on, but it's barely accurate.

I don't ride for "fitness" or as a weekend hobby. I ride because it's a part of my lifestyle. I bought a brand new vehicle in 2008 and I just turned 51k miles on it because I mostly get around by bicycle. Tracking mileage for anything other than practical reasons would just be ridiculous in my case.

Sounds like we're fairly alike.


-Kedosto

Skipjacks

It sounded like you were announcing how you feel you are better than anyone who does track millage. And that no one should dare to say they are a 'bike commuter' unless they do it everyday to go everywhere they go. So the fact that you only got a "Doesn't sound like you enjoy riding" is pretty tame.

If you're not missing out on the fun, good on you! That's great! Glad to hear it!

If you weren't being holier than thou to anyone who tracks millage, that's great too! I gave you the benefit of the doubt on that one and didn't call you out on it. But that's how you sounded.

You post on a public forum, you get the public's responses. And when your posts sounds like you are declaring that anyone who doesn't bike the way you do is beneath you, expect feedback. If that wasn't what you meant, maybe explain it better. (I'm still giving you the benefit of the doubt here that you didn't mean it that way. But it does sound that way.)

It's a discussion about bike riding. It's a fun activity and usually pretty fun to discuss. If you don't want to talk about it and hear the feedback on what you post, maybe a public forum dedicated to biking isn't the right place for you.

Homebrew01

MOD NOTE to All: Enough of the personal Back-and-Forth.

RubeRad

Yes, I totally see how for someone in your situation it could be meaningless. Like tracking how many days/year did you go to work? Or how many times did you eat? At some point it also depends on innate enjoyment of numbers (or more abstractly, quantification)

Skipjacks

This. I just enjoy numbers. They make the world around me make sense.

Average speeds. Distance. Doing the ongoing calculation in my head about when I can expect to reach the next milestone or destination....then either trying to hit that mark or beat it. It's all just fun in my head and keeps me focused on the ride. Sometimes I focus on the scenery around me. But sometimes I like to run the numbers in my head.

They also can save me money. Literally.

By tracking millage I know that my chain ring and cassette on my commuter wore out at about 1000 miles. WAY sooner than they should have. They were just bad parts.

I paid to have them replaced and sent the details along with the millage records to my credit card company's extended warranty program and they reimbursed me for the repair. They wouldn't have done it without tracking the millage. They actually asked for proof of the 1000 miles and I sent them the millage log from the app I use. They approved the extended warranty claim the next day.

So there is a real world practical side to it as well.

Phamilton

Exactly this.

Friday evening after I got home from work, I was feeling a little inspired to keep riding so I changed clothes and put a quick charge on my phone and hit the trails. I hadn't used Strava all week, was just resetting the trip odo on my computer daily but for some reason I decided I was gonna track my fun ride. Just even knowing that it was running was a distraction. I paused it when I stopped to eat and forgot to unpause when I left for home. I probably spent 15 minutes messing with and fussing over the tracking for a 2 hour ride. As far as numbers go, that's not good. The miles I rode (20) don't matter, my average speed didn't matter, my top speed didn't matter, the feet I climbed didn't matter. It was warm outside and I got to spend two hours on my bike NOT going back and forth to work. And the commuting stats don't matter either. I don't even look at them anymore. 4 total hours on my bike last Friday.
I forgot that I'd read Grant Petersen's book, the one where he suggests measuring rides by hours not miles. It's an interesting philosophy.
So yeah, the computer for being able to track component mileage etc., but I think I'd rather be surprised by the mileage, have it sneak up on me. Since I'm too lazy to track my commuting and other miles separately, I don't think I'm going to update commuting mileage thread. I'm car free. There are no goals to set that haven't already been achieved, I guess. Edit: At least not goals that have anything to do with mileage.

RubeRad

My computer I mostly ignore, and I 'enjoy' ignoring it kind of in the same way dynohubbers enjoy ingoring their lights.

Over the weekend, my crew did our annual all-day ride, and I was VERY attuned to my computer, to gauge how much longer to the next planned stop, especially near the end. 70mi on the day, avg speed 10.5mph (not including 3 stops for beer&pizza), which is a lot for me (the miles, not the beer/pizza (or the mph)), and reinforced my lack of desire to complete a century.

But normally, I'll neglect to reset the trip meter on my computer for months at a time. The biggest thing is I like to log every Jan 1 the odometers of our two cars and my bike, and make sure that I'm riding more miles than I drive 'my' car.

volvostephen

I used to track with a GPS - was really hooked on the big numbers and got upset when I missed tracking a ride. Then I missed a whole summer due to work travel and my GPS buttons all wore off so I gave it up. Then I got a new bike and I put a cheap CatEye wired computer on it. Love the simplicity of it. Of course, I ride different bikes and don't move it between bikes, but I am happy that my main bike has it. I don't distinguish miles. I think about 50% was commuting and 40% touring and 10% other? But I don't care. I love numbers / math / stats and I am somewhat OCD so I track. I don't care if others don't and I don't think it matters. It doesn't contribute to my happiness of riding. I didn't track mileage all winter (although I rode) and that was fine. I do like the top speed number when I am touring. I did some real fun downhills and it is neat to see it go over 40 mph. Interesting lifetime of this post. Nice to see car-free. We only have one car in the family and I don't use it for work. It is nice to have for some errands though.

RubeRad

I like that too; for the past 5 years or so I've been holding a berfday ride where I ride (at least) my age in miles; the last few years I also have ensured that I hit my age in mph. There's only going to be a few years left where it will be possible for me to hit that mph target, unless I find some steeper hills!

ThermionicScott 

Sounds like tracking mileage doesn't spark joy anymore. Time to Marie Kondo it!