When just out riding I could care less if I have a computer while on my mountain bike. However when racing on a course that I have not ridden before I really like to have the computer. It helps me pace quite a bit, plus when you feel like you are about to blow up it is nice to know if you still have one mile or five miles.

I'll never forget a race I was in last year. I blew up really bad so everytime I saw someone handing out water or telling me which way to go I would ask them how far I had to go. Every one of them told me 6 miles. At one point there had to be at least 10 miles left, I rode another 20 minutes asked someone how much further, they told me 6 miles, I rode another 30 minutes asked someone how much longer, they told me 6 miles. I was ready to kill someone. I had no idea if I would finish or not and not knowing how much longer I had to suffer only made it worse.