Atlas Shrugged

Garmin on every ride. Been doing it for decades and love the history. 1040 Solar unless city ride then Enduro 2. Could not imagine riding without.

50PlusCycling

I have an e-commerce business, and spend some 12 hours per day on various screens. I love cycling because I can slip my electronic leash for a while, and enjoy some time not checking orders, making transfers, or reading/answering emails. I miss the days when mail came in envelopes and was delivered to a post box by the road, and when phones were physically restricted to a fixed location. People didn’t waste hours of their lives each day texting each other nonsense, and shopping for things they didn’t need and couldn’t afford. Of course, if they didn’t do the latter, I wouldn’t have much to do.

Garthr

Ahahahah ..... What's old as dirt is now "new" ! I always thought going for a ride was to be exercise/express my inherent Liberty for simply and irrevocably BEING, as the form called "bike riding" . Just BEING the great outdoors as thoughts come and go like the clouds.

rsbob 

No, sorry, that is hiking. Cycling is all about metrics: time, distance, speed, BPM and max, lactate threshold, watts, max watts, elevation climbed, % grade, total mileage, average speed, cadence, calories burned, VO2 Max, load, W/kg, moving time, total time Avg power, and on and on. Then there is your training focus with…..

liwhitehat

You forgot the mirror(s),

Kabuki12

I ride alone most of the time and don’t really have “a plan” other than just going for a ride. I have a few different routes and already know how far they are and how much climbing they involve. I do use Strava but my phone stays in my jersey pocket until I want to take a photo or call my wife to let her know when I’ll be home. She uses the beacon to check on me . I check my Strava after my ride and never worry about the results …they are what they are. It’s interesting , I came very close to buying a Garmin a year or so ago but decided I didn’t want or need that much information staring at me. I talked to one of the guys at Garmin and he told me all the stuff that the device is capable of and it sounded cool, but not for me. I have my bell and water bottle , phone in my back jersey pocket , spare tube and patch kit in my seat pack and maybe a snack bar ….I’m ready to go!

BobbyG

I have been having bad luck with wireless speedometers lately so I have ridden a few times lately without immediate data. I don't want my phone on the handlebars.

I mostly commute, so I generally check the clock. I also like to see my speed, average speed and distance. It adds a piece to my morning self-evaluation as to my health. It also helps be evaluate the state of the bike I'm on that day, how it compares to the performance of my other bikes, and how the weather and wind are affecting my ride.

Since I mostly ride on the street, all my bikes have a bar-mounted AirZound Airhorn button...even the project bike. I used to have bells for pedestrians on all my bikes, but I had decluttered two years ago, but have since added those back to my main commuters. And at night I pop my main headlight on the handle bars.

I also just remembered three of my six bikes have secondary, interrupter brake levers on the upper portion of their drop bars. Also good to have in traffic.

I used to put mirrors on my bars, but after 25+ years of using a glasses mounted take-a-look mirror, I don't need bar mirrors.

From 2012 to 2022 I would listen to spoken-word podcasts in one ear while riding...even with multiple routes, after so many years they had become dull. But with the new job I had new commute routes to learn in 2022, and there's a bit more traffic interaction as I cross downtown Colorado Springs and take more heavily traveled paths. So I stopped listening and haven't felt the need. Also my commutes now average 33 minutes as opposed to 45 minutes. On longer weekend rides I will start out without audio support and so far have only resorted to it a few times.

And while I enjoy keeping abreast of my 'performance', I'm not a data geek. And although I like to keep up a spirited pace, I don't race through the streets, n the same way as I don't speed through traffic in my car. I suppose it's part of getting older, more patient and more cautious. And at 62, any thorough data analysis would only show a general decline over my remaining cycling years.

zandoval 

For me unfortunately more data on my bars would probably indicate progressive decline rather then improvement.

I dont need the disappointment.

But if it could make a difference in improving my ride and abilities, then bring it on...

79pmooney

I went out yesterday afternoon for a 35+ mile ride on my fix gear. Stopped at mile 6 as I usually do for espresso Stopped a mile later after some gentle climbing to flip the wheel from 42-18 to 17. Then just rode. Beautiful warm day (70!), almost no wind. Watched the sun for a sense of time. (Left at around 3pm. Wanted to arrive home ~7 so rush hour ll happened while I was out on county roads. Only information on time or anything else was my cell phone, inside my wallet and in my jersey pocket. Primary roads are N-S and E-W making judging sun location and time easy. Stopped at that favorite bench for a break. Looked at my phone to confirm time. Right on schedule. A couple of miles from home I stopped, flipped back to the 18, put a sheet of newspaper under my jersey and armwarmers on. Cool down mosey along the MUP. Arrived home within minutes of 7pm in the very last sunlight. 47 miles at a steady pace. Hammered but in a really good way.

So almost no metrics. Time, yes, but the old sun time, ie timeless. Only other metric - the gear ratio which changed twice. Pure bliss. Riding at its best. (On a classic, 45 year old steel bike with 50k miles on it, all under me. New paint job, fit as good as it gets (never thought about it once except twice shifted my weight slightly to spare a butt with nowhere near enough miles to be conditioned), new wheels and rubber; GP4s and Corsa G+ tubulars.)

Fun how differently we can ride and still share that love!

plumberroy

Small bag on the bars for snacks and phone I run urban biker for milage and average speed. Phone is in the bag

genejockey 

The key, I found, was to spend 20 years getting old and fat, then another 20 years half-assing being a cyclist, and then going nuts and riding a hell of a lot more. You'll find yourself scoring a lot of PRs on Strava.

But it takes decades of sloth. If you haven't put in the lack of time to not prepare, then you will likely see decline.

OldTryGuy

All METRICS I can obtain while riding, whether positive or negative compared to previous rides, are not only welcomed but desired and needed. Tuesday's rides had winds blowing with efforts varying as per how I felt and wanted to achieve. Tried my hardest to hit a wind assisted 30mph but trying 5 times could only make 28.7mph, so disappointed but happy I could attempt it 5 times (total ride 45.54 miles with a slow 15.2mph moving average). Yesterday was able to get out 2 times with first ride 20.02 miles then 2nd ride 21.12 miles. 1st ride was at 3:11am on my DAY 6 Semi Recumbent and 2nd ride was at 1:11pm on my 20" wheel 5 speed DAHON FOLD-UP a neighbor gave me since she no longer rides (84yo who walks with my wife).

Rides take substantially longer and are substantially slower and while disappointing still enjoyable. ALWAYS post on STRAVA and can't wait to see how things went during the rides. I just reviewed today's rides and my March 20, 2020 recorded ride popped up showing 141.23 miles, 17.9mph average speed and 9,000+ Calories so a HUGE difference compared to today.

BTW, soon to be 74yo, just had 2nd Prostate Cancer recurrence as per a biopsy, still suffering from being hit by a wild hog on Aug 26, 2022 for the 2nd time while biking and other crashes and lest I never forget the my Testosterone is non existent thanks to my APRIL 2015 bilateral Orchiectomy to begin cancer treatment.

My boat (bicycling) requires that I have INFO AVAILABLE to keep things floating and without the DATA the efforts would not be as enjoyable. Do as you all need to do to keep your BOAT FLOATING and bicycling enjoyable.

Trakhak

At 72, I do structured indoor workouts during the cold months that are continually modified by Xert in accordance with my heart rate/power data. To keep the modifications of the workouts up to date, I use a power meter on my outdoor bike during those months so that the data from any outdoor rides I do are incorporated into Xert's calculations.

I don't really care about the results, though, except insofar as they motivate me to do those indoor workouts. (Pleased that my watts/kg went from 3.2 to 3.8 this winter, though.)

During the warm months, I drop the Xert subscription and remove the power meter.

Paul Barnard

If I don't have a computer, how else will I know if I am speeding on 30 MPH roads? I also have a light. Despite that clutter I find that I am able to pry my mind away from it for long enough to absorb the full essence of the ride.

ofajen

This may just be a single speed thing, but with road bars, I don’t want anything on the bars near the stem. That’s where I hold the bars when pushing hard up a hill while riding in the saddle. And I only use old-fashioned 25.4 mm bars because I don’t want any funky bulge there either. So even the bell is relegated to the stem. I guess I could put stuff on the SS/touring bar/MTB, but I don’t. YMMV.

Otto

Sierra_rider

I like the data, so I like having my Garmin head unit with HR and power data. I also enjoy knowing my mileage and elevation gain. Finally, I like having the timer feature, to gauge when I should eat. When I was only doing short rides, data tracking was of no importance to me...now that I do structured training for events, the data is fairly important.

Contrary to what some may believe, I don't feel like a slave to he data. If anything, it encourages me to ride further and gain even more experiences. I don't dwell on whatever my head unit tells me, I just occasionally check it for power data, time, how much longer a climb is, etc. The only electronic engagement I allow during a ride, are the cycling metrics. I generally ignore calls, texts, and e-mails unless it's of vital importance. The ride is a chance for me to disconnect from the rest of the world for 2-8 hours a day. After the ride, I really enjoy going and analyzing the data on Strava. I also enjoy having years of this data that I can then go back and compare, or just reminisce about.

Reynolds