I am 60, just got a new bike (Specialized Vita Sport) - riding for recreation and some exercise. Last Sunday, rode 19 miles, mostly flat, mostly bike path. I want to get a cyclometer, and want to know what features are important, in particular, in order to improve, is cadence a necessary feature or is a speedometer ( which they all have, of course) good enough?

IMHO Cadence is the most important, to keep the knees going well....got a bad one and its still holding up well,if I keep the rpms up.
Bud

Fully agree on the cadence. As a heavy person I also have to watch out for my knees so it's a good idea to keep the cadence high and the gears lower, which a cadence meter will help you do.

So if I do go for cadence, is there a cadence I should shoot for? Note: I am female, 5'3", and don't have bad knees (yet )

I agree cadence is an important factor in your performance, but I have personally never felt the need to have it on a cycle computer. I know my own cadence from years of riding, and even as a beginner, all I ever did was count revolutions for 15 seconds and multiply by 4, or if you can get a decent count over 6 seconds, do that and just add a zero after it. As far as a number goes, I've always heard that 90 is a good target, but whether your most efficient cadence zone is right there, or slightly above or below that number, is something that varies with the individual.

For me, I want auto-start and -stop and average speed (a pace arrow is helpful in this regard, too). The other essentials are all pretty much there on any computer - current speed, trip distance, total distance, max speed (not really helpful, but fun) and a clock. My most recent computer is wireless, which I'm liking a lot, too. No ugly wires to mess with.

Have never used cadence but I understand why it can be useful.
Just about any computer will have current speed, trip average, trip distance, trip time, total distance, clock, max speed.

I am an older rider getting back into cycling after 30+ years. When I bought my new road bike in April, I bought a host of accessories at the same time, one of which was a cycling computer. I asked about cadence, but the salesman dissuaded me from buying one with that feature. He claimed that a beginner such as myself didn't need that level of functionality, and that computers with cadence are tricky to setup because they have two sending units (one for the front wheel, another for the crank to measure the cadence).

So far, I am fairly happy with the computer I bought (a Bontrager 5W). It has just about every function other than cadence. It is wireless, which I like a lot. Its only downside is that it is somewhat tricky to reset the trip statistics: One has to depress the two buttons simultaneously for two seconds. It turns out that the "sweet spot" where these buttons activate the switch is tiny; I found by trial and error that I have to first press the two buttons near their outside edge and then rock the buttons towards their inside edge until I hit the sweet spot. It is a little bit annoying, but now that I've learned the "secret," I can do it every time.

Wrong, mine only has one sensor & is good for the beginning trainer. Now that I know the feeling of 85 to 90 RPM's I don't need it as much, but would recommend the extra 30 or so dollars of upgrade.

I just bought the Cateye Astrale 8 from Nashbar for $30. Good reviews, and I'll report back when I have used it for a while.

Cadence is a very useful feature for a new rider as it really drills in awareness of how slow you naturally pedal compared to the optimal cadences you'll notice being discussed on the forums. But it is not something you can't do without. Comes down to preferences. I would go for cadence before wireless. Computer wire spiraling down the front brake cable is a cool thing. The cadence sensor does add an extra sensor and is a little harder to integrate attractively, but it is nothing that can't be figured out in an hour or so.

I have one of these on each of my bikes and ride 950 miles a month.



https://www.dealextreme.com/p/sunding...edometer-24075

What features you NEED, well you really don't NEED any, a good map and a watch will give you rough data. What you want, that's a different matter, I would say the most important feature is trip distance, followed by elapsed time, then saddle time, then speed, then cadence, then odometer distance. Realize that wired units are more reliable the wireless, and if you use a trainer in the winter, then a longer cable can be handy. Don't count on instruction book distances being accurate, you need a helper to do it right, first pump tires to normal pressure, then with the valve at the bottom, have your helper mark a line, then ride 5 wheel rotations, and mark another line, measure the distance between the two marks divide by 5 and convert to millimetres.

Odometer(total miles)
Distance of current ride
Ave speed
Clock

After that it's pretty much overkill.

I will use my smart phone to track stupid things like amount of climbing. But I'm doing a ride here shortly with 8,000 feet of climbing and wanted to know what I was doing on my training rides.
That's another thing. If you have a smart phone you may not need a cyclometer but I like seeing the cyclometer and WILL NOT mount my smart phone on the bike.

Cadence/schmadence....

Schwinn cyclometer from Walmart will run a huge sum of $10.

Gratz on the new bike and the desire to ride. It's fun.

I ordered my road bike with the computer so it was all done for me when I arrived to get fitted. I do have cadence and I check it on occasion when I ride. Not sure I can do 90, but I generally am in the 75 - 80 range. For me, I like to see mph, distance traveled and my computer comes with time and temp. I can easily press a button to change to cadence, heart rate, Alt, what time my breakfast is ready, etc. At the end of the day, you have to decide what it is you'd like to see on your computer.

BurlingameBiker, Most every feature is helpful, or at least entertaining. I don't have cadence, though one of mine is capable on any of mine, I simply count to six and that's close enough for me. I prefer my wired units over the wireless ones as there are no 'dead zones' from electronic interferance.

Brad

I sometimes think that a simple unit that clips onto the left chain stay, and shows total distance would be best, essentially a sensor unit with a display, and it just shows the distance.

Which one do you have?

Anybody remember those little chrome mechanical odometers you'd mount to your front hub? They were belt driven if I remember correctly. I wanted one of those so much when I was a kid that I finally got one for my Sekai back in the late '70s. Hard to reset, harder to read, harder still to maintain the belt. I gave up on it in pretty quick order.

I use a Cateye Strada Cadence (~ $48.00) wired computer on the road bike and a Sigma BC 509 ($23.00) that on the hybrid. The Sigma has MPH, distance, ride time, odometer and clock. Pretty much what I need and use most often. For me, the reason for the cadence on the road bike is so that I can use the computer on the trainer. On the Strada, both sensors are mounted on the chain stays; the speed sensor on the inside of the stay and the cadence sensor on the outside.

I see cadence as a tachometer on an automobile. Some have them and some don't. You really don't need to know how fast the engine is turning when you are doing 55 mph in 5th gear. At 55 mph, the engine will always turn the same rpm in 5th gear (+/- some rpm's). Since the two go hand in hand, maintaining a given speed requires that you use a certain cadence in a selected gear. As CraigB said, you can calculate your cadence relatively easy. Don't get me wrong, it's nice if you have it but to get cadence on a computer you will pay for it.

Average speed is also a nice feature to have but is very misleading at times. If you start riding and hit your normal riding speed (let's say 15 mph) right off the bat and do the entire ride without stopping, your speed will fluctuate +/- some mph and average speed will be fairly accurate. But if you slow your speed down for any reason or have rides where you have several stops, average speed goes out the window if you are using it to track your progress. When I ride, I normally ride between 17 and 20 mph on the road bike. I occasionally slow down to drink or get a gummy chew from my jersey pocket or when there is a headwind or the bike path is very crowded. At the end of my ride, the computer shows an average speed from 14 mph to 15 mph just because of the times that I slowed down for whatever reason. And again, its nice to have it if it comes on the model that you select but I don't really think it is necessary.

Other opinions may differ......

I find cadence useful, and have Cateye Astrales on two bikes. Don't really need it on the flat or on group rides, but hills, especially when I'm tired, is when having cadence helps keep my knees happy.

But need? Maybe a clock, so you can figure out how long until the sun goes down. Everything else is just gravy.

I use a Protege 9.0 from Planet Bike. Works great.

If your goal is fitness, cadence if far more important than speed. If your goal is performance, then, well, cadence is far more important than speed. I have a power meter and a Garmin Edge 500. I have a wealth of data from which to use. Speed is the least valuable of those for training. It's anecdotal, and a distraction, with little to no bearing on my goals. It's not even shown on one of my two different screens. There are times when you need it, but for most of us, those times are rare.

The first thing you need to do when starting to ride is to get your heart and lungs in shape. You do that by keeping the cadence up. As much as you -think- you know what your cadence is without a meter, I promise you that you don't. It will have slipped down, and you didn't notice it.

Cadence, riding time, distance. Those are by far the most important.

Some Cateye models have an annoying habit of spontaneously resetting hemselves during a ride.. you then have to push buttons on the back and scroll through settings to get it working again.

Its ok to start off with something simple, not too complicated. If you decide to take bike riding to a next level, then you will eventually get a different bike. If you're not mechanical, let the local bike shop where you bought the Specialized do it for you. The more you ride, the more you will want to improve something or other. That means your pedal stroke. Then cadence, not the other way around.

I've got one that measures Smiles

None is needed. If you need to set a goal for miles ridden to help for fitness motivation, an odometer is good, if you have a course you ride and frequencly and want to get an idea of how you are doing, speed is important. After that, heart rate and cadence might be helpful.
On my training bike I use speed and cadence, use a HRM and GPS. On my race bike I don't have cadence because my training has taught me the feel and all I use is the GPS and HRM.

So IMHO, start out with a cheap speedometer and if you want more - get more later, your investment will be minimal.

However, if you truely want ot be happy - find out where DF bought his smile-o-meter and get one of those. I've been looking for one for a long time but he won't tell me where he bought his from.