Originally Posted by
WhyFi
It can be used to monitor speed, distance, lap times, cadence, heart rate, power (if you have a meter), etc. Some can be used as to follow a route or to compete against a virtual riding partner. Phone apps can do most, if not all, of this, but they generally have poorer battery life and are not typically suited to exposure to foul weather. In my experience, accuracy on the phone was worse, too, but that was a couple phone generations ago. Whether or not it's worth it is up to you to decide.
As do some bike computers, heck mine VDO even has the temp reading, and this one has the temp and the altimeter, not to mention HRM plus speed, distance, lap times, and other mumbo jumbo for just $92, see:
http://www.amazon.com/VDO-2-0-Wirele...uter+altimeter
Or if you want downloadable ride info you can get what I got...except I got mine on a crazy sale for just $49 from Performance, see:
http://www.amazon.com/VDO-Altimeter-...uter+altimeter No altimeter on that one though, but you can wear it as a watch to so if your a runner as well just strap it on your wrist.
I hear all this gab about the Garmin's, which is fine, but for a lot of people it's overkill, heck I know people here that don't even ride with any sort of computer. We each need to weigh out how much technology we're willing to except, and weigh out how much of that technology later becomes a useless toy. Personally I have no desire to have a Garmin, they don't react to changes in speed etc because the sat is not an instant relay, I like the fact I can wonder without a gps, part of riding a bike is having fun exploring new places and all a GPS will do is make the trip robotic and boring. I never cared about how much altitude I gained while climbing, I could see the road sign that said "elevation"!