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and it's fun.

Last Sunday was the last day that I've ridden with a computer and my Garmin. It seemed all I did was check the grade of the hill, my cadence, my heartrate any this myriad of data to the point that riding had become a chore. I feel I had become a slave to the data and would push myself to reach certain measurements. Riding has not been fun for some time.

I've ridden four times since Sunday and I can't tell you how far I've ridden; I don't know how fast I've ridden; I don't know how many hours I've ridden; I don't know how many feet I've climbed;........................

All I know is that riding is fun again!!

Anyone else like to ride naked********************???

malkin

I can't see the numbers on my computer anyway, unless I wear my bifocals, which I don't.
Does that count?

howsteepisit

I love my Garmin, but the reality is the less I look at it the happier I am. I mostly use the Heart Rate funtion to moderate my effort.

FREE!

BluesDawg

All my mountain biking is naked. Only one of my road bikes has a computer. I do like to know how far I've gone on a century ride. No HRM, no Garmin.

Artkansas 

Last instrumentation that I had on my bike was an speedometer when I was a boy. You remember the green ones with a cable down to the front wheel hub, direct drive.

Not having instrumentation is one of the real joys of bicycling. Nothing to disturb you.

But I find that my bicycle is perfectly tuned. The only hard trick is learning to pace yourself so that you can find your maximum sustainable speed. That takes a little learning.

edzo

I will not ride unless I have a record of the miles ridden and total miles since computer reset,
and the thing is accurate to .2 miles in 50.

it doesn't matter if I ride 1 mile or 70, I have to know. other than that I do not want any more data,
so i use the cheapest smallest cyclometers I can find and stick them on all my bikes

guybierhaus

Well I pretty much ride the same ride each time. It's 20.37 miles. I reset trip miles and time at start and check at end to see if I've gotten any faster. No Garmin for me, just an expensive toy IMO. So except for seat pad, I'm pretty much naked between 0 and 20.37. O' I also wear a hat.

zymans

Only on my single speed!

George

I keep mine set on time all the time now and when I get home and look at the surprise.

BluesDawg

Man, you really need to step outside your box!

stapfam

I do finally have a computer that is releable- Or it will be till the batteries go flat. Mind you- plenty of time for it to go wrong. I normally check at the Cafe to see the average- how far I've ridden and what the top speed was- Think this one is going wrong again because I can't have only done that milage and such a slow average but the top speed Is somewhere about right. Slow.

NotAsFat

When I read the title, I thought you were talking about something like this (look at the pic in the upper half of the cover).

cccorlew

Gotta have it. I believe in my heart it's a weakness, but I really like knowing stuff, even stuff that doesn't matter.

Plus, seeing the numbers change lets me know I'm still alive. I like that.

Tom Bombadil

I use a simple 4-function wired computer and only use one screen on it - my speed and distance. So it basically functions the same as the old speedometer. I really like it, as I like to see the distance creep past in 1/100ths of a mile and I frequently use the speed readout to push me a bit ... as in looking down and seeing that I'm going 11.8 mph, getting disgusted with that and pushing me up to 12.5 - 13.0.

Sevenrider

I like using both a Garmin 305 and a computer. I look at the computer during the ride for speed and distance. We have so much road construction in our area that I never really know what route I am going to ride until I'm out there. I really only look at the Garmin data after I have downloaded. I like to see the route map, HR, speed and altitude. It also is nice to be able to compare how did when I repeat a route.

Digital Gee

My current computer only measures speed, top speed, and total mileage since zero. It does not measure the time on the ride, which I thought I'd miss a lot. But it doesn't, and I don't.

johnnyb

I like to know about how fast I'm traveling and it's nice to know later how much I went, etc. but I SURE don't obcess over it during the ride. It could take the fun out of it.

HopedaleHills

I have five Garmins on my bike

One is set to show HR, Avg HR, Max, HR, Min HR, HR of my riding partner
One is set to show Total Elapsed Time, Rolling Time, Rest Time, Clock Time, London Time
One is set to Show Total Dist, Dist for this ride, Dist of last lap, and Dist from previous intersection
One shows Speed in MPH, Speed in KPH, Max speed, Min speed, Avg speed, speed of the car behind me
The last one doesn't work at all but an odd number is more asetically pleasing

Oh yea, I also wear a Timex Ironman Triathalon watch that alarms me every hour.

Once I reset them all and hit the start buttons I don't have any time left to ride.

rschulze

I went as far as buying a Power Tap a while back, I became obsessed with the numbers. My coach pushing me for more, change hills that one is too long or steep or not enough. Push harder, faster, slow down.... I was under a microscope.

I dumped it all. I've been riding naked for almost a year and I agree, cycling is fun again. I figured I had to have a computer for RAAM but it only lasted a day and kept rattling off (long story). So the remainder of RAAM, no computer.

I'm naked, proud of it and not going back.

Digital Gee

Can you ride naked and clipless at the same time?

Tom Bombadil

Good question DG.

BTW - if you go to Google Images and search on "naked cyclist" some pretty interesting pictures will come up.

Longfemur

I do use a heart rate monitor. It consists of placing my fingers over my wrist to feel my pulse, and counting the heartbeats for 6 seconds and multiplying by 10. For the arithmetically challenged, that's just adding one zero.

cccorlew

Need photos.

Old Hammer Boy

When I have my BoB trailer hooked up with 50lbs of gear loaded in it, at about 53 miles/hour, it gets pretty twitchy. Therefore, I like to have a cycle computer so I can monitor it to keep it below 50.

card

I bought that book when it came out, and it's a great read!