Random11

I'm pretty disciplined about riding almost every day, pushing pretty hard, but not exhausting myself. I know the mileage of the routes I'm riding, but outside of the miles, I'm not metering my performance at all. No Strava. No GPS. No power meter. I don't even keep a record of my miles, although I know that I consistently ride more than 100 miles a week. The closest I come to measuring my performance is that I note the time I leave my bedroom for the garage to get my bike, and the time I'm back in my bedroom after my ride. I don't want to meter my performance because I have a tendency to compare how I did today with how I've done in the past. I always want to be faster, and am disappointed if I'm slower. So rather than compete with my old self, I just go out and enjoy the ride. I'm not loafing, but I'm also not trying to hit some performance mark. Every ride is a success, because I did the distance. I was the same way when I ran. Do the distance. Don't worry about the time. How about the rest of you old timers? Are you monitoring performance stats? Does it enhance your riding to keep up with watts, speeds, and such? Are there others like me who just don't want to know?

8000jcp

Yep, sounds cool. I don't do the cadence, heart rate thing, but I do like the mph, mile distance, and total miles distance that my cateye computer provides for me. I don't compare one day to another either, and my riding style is pretty loose concerning riding gear and such. I just like to jump on one of my bikes and go. I get 60 to 80 miles a week for the most part. My favorite bike is a converted Fuji fixie that I have 42/19 gearing going on. 60 or so gear inches, so I cruse at around 12 mph. Love it, but got to watch it going down some steep hills, lol.

Wildwood

Clear your handlebars and your mind will follow!

tkamd73 

Really nice tape job!
Tim

Bald Paul

For years the only thing I cared about was distance, just so I knew when to make the turn on my cuesheet. Of course, back then, that was about the extent of cycling computers.

Now I ride with a HRM (two heart attacks behind me, so I have to watch my BPM), power meter (arthritis in my knee - too many watts and I find I can't walk for the next two or three days), and GPS with turn by turn indications. I also have a cadence sensor, and one screen to tell me what gears I'm using in my Di2 system. Varia radar tells me when one of those sneaky plug in cars is silently coming up from behind me, because you can't hear them. I get reminders to take a drink from the bottle, because otherwise I tend to forget and get dehydrated.

Now, if only there were some device that would automatically tell me to stop at this nearby restroom, because the next one may be a bit beyond my range.

rumrunn6

I try to keep track of some basics, but in the end, for me, it doesn't really matter. what matters, is the riding

Helderberg

For me, it's my mileage. I like to know if I hit my goal for the ride but I don't dwell on other stats. I guess I do like to see my average but I don't push to make a particular mark. I try to ride to enjoy myself but occasionally I do get caught up in competing with myself. At 73 that isn't a big number so I usually get a good laugh at my own expense and just ride on.
Be safe all, Frank.

BobbyG

It was never about speed for me, just consistency. I commuted daily for 28 years. And while I had a target pace, it was more of knowing my average speed for each bike and not falling too far below on a commute, except in extreme weather (cold, rain, snow, wind, etc). Especially after a non-bike injury kept me off the bike for a year at 48 years old, my goal has to keep ride daily for at least 40 minutes which was the length of the ride to work. For weekend fun rides I set distance goals, but nothing extreme.

Last year at 59 I began working for myself from home and the challenge of consistency became very difficult because I wanted to jump on projects first thing in the morning, and if I stayed busy all day, it was hard to tear myself away. Especially in winter when the weather was unpleasant.

I was just talking to a buddy of mine who's 70, and while our average speeds seem to have declined a bit (more so for him) we both feel our stamina has increased and going longer seems easier. We may be wrong, but that's how it feels.

Anyway, being a long-time commuter, I like to see the current time, my ride time, my current speed and the temperature. I will look at the average speed after the ride, but it's more of a way to see if that ride's bike is performing as it should, rather than me.

Dudelsack

I keep track of mileage only so I don’t overdo it on my back. I have an e bike, so Average Moving Speed and that sort of thing is just cheating.

Saudadeii

I have an old Cateye wireless on my bike. No GPS, no power, no cadence, just the basics. I don't run apps on my phone other than to verify calibration of the Cateye. I also have specific routes of varying distances that I rotate through (albeit, somewhat at random).

While I want to know things like total time, stopping time, avg speed, etc., I don't really care that much to compare one day's ride to another (don't log the results). Conditions change everyday, even if it's just slightly, like cloud cover or wind direction that can dramatically affect my ride that day. I also live near the beach so many of my routes have portions along the beach. Some days I push hard, some days I enjoy the view. I don't have any real goal on a ride other than to get home safely. I listen to my body. When it tells me to slow down, I do. If it says "you can do better than this", I pick up the pace. So that overall the ride was vigorous, but not exhausting (like you said).

I-Like-To-Bike

I don't record, monitor or care about performance or distance stats, mine or anybody else's. The only "stats" of concern to me are a yes or no answer to the questions "did I arrive at my destination safely" and "did I enjoy the ride". No need to keep a journal since for the last umpteen years the answers have always been "yes".

gthomson

Agree with all of the above but I do use Strava to record my rides and then I compare my rides between Zwift vs. real time. I know that's pointless because neither Strava nor Zwift calculates any accurate numbers and I don't have a power meter, but it gives me something to look at.

Last year during the pandemic when all the gyms were closed, office was closed, no sports I made it a priority to ride my bike a lot because there was no other option. My goal was to ride at minimum, 100 km/week (62 miles) which between working full time, house, kids etc... was challenging but I did it almost all through the year. In the winter months I just rode Zwift to make up the distance and finished the year riding 4200 km's which was probably the most I've ever ridden in my life.

As of this year I'm already way below what i was doing last year so doubt I can beat that until I retire.

gthomson

No kidding eh? Wildwood, do you give classes on how to do that? sign me up!

caloso

I guess I'm the outlier. I record pretty much every ride, even commutes and unstructured rides. I always have. And now in particular I'm following a machine learning training program on TrainerRoad. More complete data means better adjustments to the plan.

Iride01 

I too record all my rides. And after most rides I'll look and see what I did and compare some of my climbs that I made an effort on to some of my previous climbs. There are also some segments I've made for some of my more common routes that I'll compare times for those with previous rides.

Only takes a few minutes. And it has enabled me to see in data collected and not just imagination whether certain things do better for me or not.

I don't think I'm missing out on any of the outdoor experience. I'm looking at the trees, birds, vegetation and all the other scenic stuff along the way too.

JanMM

Started keeping spreadsheets for distance ridden about a decade ago. Just the date, total miles for that day and which bike I rode. Still manually entered. One spreadsheet for each year. Still doing that but gradually moved to using simple gps and now navigating gps bike computers which send data to Garmin Connect and Strava. Mostly interested in how often I ride and how far I ride but good to see what Garmin and Strava compile for me and for the other cyclists that I follow. I rode more miles in 2019 - first retirement year - than ever before or since but in 2020 and 2021 rode on significantly more days both years. Mostly related to pandemic, more frequent but shorter rides, quite often solo or with spouse.

OldCoot

While I am riding I don't want to know any statistics. I do record all my rides, except when I screw up using the app... I find that way I can enjoy the ride while riding, and also track how I am doing. When I rode a tandem as the captain, my stoker (1st wife) wanted to know speed at all times.... So I mounted the speedo computer on her handlebars. On occasion when going really fast, she would call out speeds. I still remember, "58, 59, ...60!"

OldTryGuy

I too record using my GARMIN 920XT with STRAVA for what I bolded above. Unlike others, my need to record is to keep track of how my health and abilities are declining as my cancer progresses and sucks the life/abilities out of me. It's not that it's really depressing but instead it's how MY BODY is coping with the various things I'm doing to hopefully slow the decline and to see if the changes are effective or not. What's needed to float of my boat is just different than others.

Rolla

For me, the most sure-fire way to ruin an experience -- any experience -- is to quantify it.

downtube42

I've been doing this cycling thing a long time. I like it. At times I was about smelling the roses, which I liked. I've commuted to work year-round in west Texas and in Portland, OR. Loved that too. Spirited club rides, beer rides, randonneuring, camping rides. Loved all that. Grocery runs, tallbike farces, constructing and riding a sofa-bike, 24 hour races in Michigan. All fun. One year chasing an annual mileage goal I was riding in snow and ice just to hit some stupid round number. Heck, I rode a 200k on December 31st last year just to keep a string going; plucked a discarded potato-chip bag out of a ditch and put it over my frozen toes. Loved every minute of that too (in retrospect).

Sometimes I measure the heck out of everything, and sometimes I don't. It's all good.

Wildwood

The wrap is nothing special, but I like colors.
On the DeRosa = vintage Benotto ribbon.

And below is the ‘ribbon’ in silver




On the Bottecchia = vintage Benotto vinyl


Newbaums as a general rule.





^^^ooops silver ribbon again


I'm a top to bottom kinda guy. But have gone both ways.

except for maybe a bag = clear your handlebars and your mind will follow!

rsbob 

I have always monitored my data since the advent of cycle computers. Two years ago I took the plunge into a Garmin which feeds Strava.

Unless I am misinterpreting the first few posters, I don’t feel that monitoring data and enjoying the sights, stopping to take pictures or a scenic break are mutually exclusive. Today I did a 45 mile ride averaging 16 MPH, climbed 1500’ but stopped at least 10 times to take pictures, chat with another cyclist enjoying the day, and viewed some outrageous mountain scenery. Also stopped to admire a doe with two fauns a mere 10 feet away. they could care less I was there. It was glorious.

AlgarveCycling

Back in the 80's and 90's we trained without HR monitors, Power meters etc. We just had basic computers telling us distance, speed and average speed. It seemed to work just fine.

Now though, in my 50's, I use a Power meter religiously. When I got back into cycling a few years ago I used an HR monitor but now I rarely do, the power meter with data uploaded to Training Peaks for my Coach to analyse is all I need. When we are out training, it really does help to train with specific watts in mind for different sessions. I also more readily see the improvements as I get fitter, faster, stronger.

I've bought into using data to improve my performance - even Strava and segments, I find them a good tool for motivation albeit they are largely irrelevant given the variables involved and have no real measure compared to actual racing. But as an additional training tool they are ok.

I have a nice mix of social cruising, training and racing which I prefer.

gthomson

All fantastic and great choice of colours. How do you get your bike stems so shiny? Also, where do I buy tickets to see that collection of bikes you have?

GhostRider62

My HR and power are monitored during rides not to distract or entertain me while riding but to keep me from enjoying myself too much, they act as a governor.