Originally Posted by
rpenmanparker
To those who consider me a Luddite, let me say that it isn't disdain for modern technology that drives my avoidance of Strava. Witness my post count here for proof. I long ago vowed that I wouldn't fall behind the technological times like my dad did. He never used the air conditioner in his cars because he didn't know how, and that is just one example.
No, my disdain is for recording the information at all. Whether it be by pen and paper, computer spreadsheet or now Strava, etc. I have never recorded the details of a ride. Not the date, distance, speed, weather condition. As a corollary matter I have never known exactly how many miles my tires, chains, wheels, brake pads have lasted. How many mikes I have ridden a particular bike. If I had electronic shifting, I wouldn't know how long the battery lasts between charges. It is simply of no concern to me. I ride what I like, when I like, for how long I like, and nothing I write in a notebook or save to a computer file is going to make it any better. I don't train. I don't compete. I just like to ride the bike for enough time and distance and fast enough to get some joy and aerobic benefit. You would be surprised how easy it is to accomplish that still being ignorant of all the facts.
Full disclosure requires I say I do use a $5 bike odometer/speedometer. It helps me keep track of the time and distance I have gone away from home in order to get back there in the allotted time.
Cool.
What's funny to me (I'm the opposite) is how you keep track of time so you know when to go home, but you don't keep track of where you happen to go. I really don't worry about how long I'm out or how far I get from home, mileage wise (I maintain a sufficient sense of all that and often have wide latitude - my disdain is reserved for people who look at their watch during a ride
), but once it is all over I am often eager to discover where, how far and how fast I actually went: what WAS that? It's quite in vain, of course, but I like the sense of having captured the magic of it somehow.
I look at the historic accumulations now and then, but more out of idle curiosity than concerned interest. Of course such records are meaningless if they aren't consistent, so I've gotten in the habit of maintaining them.
I'm totally with you on the batteries thing - one of the reasons I've been so slow to start riding in the mornings again is because I hate worrying about the lights.