If rider A rides 30kph toward rider B who is riding 22kmp, at what time with they lay down The V?
I think the most exciting Christmas present I ever received as a child was an Avocet 30 in what must have been 1989. Being in Minnesota and it being December, it meant my bike was going nowhere near the road any time soon, so I kept the silver dollar-sized computer in my pocket wherever I went, just so I could look at it, touch it, and imagine how much I was going to look like Greg LeMond now that I had this computer. My heart broke a little bit that next summer when I realized he had abandoned the Avocet in favor of a Ciclomaster CM34 with a built in gradient meter and altimeter. Perhaps this signalled the beginning of the end of my love affair with data on my bike; it faded almost as soon as it had begun.
I have a Garmin 810 which I use primarily on rides with whose routes I’m unfamiliar, or on any gravel ride in the mountains for safety reasons. It makes me feel like I’m riding with my iPhone on my handlebars. It probably has Facebook on it. While riding, it serves as a constant distraction; how much have I climbed, how much longer is the climb, where is the next turn. Even when I know a turn is coming up and precisely where it is, I still find myself distracted by the little changes on the screen as the directions flicker across.
The background noise serves as constant static between me and the sanctity of the ride, always there simmering just below the surface. What bothers me about it is that these questions are raised by the availability of the data, not by a need to have the questions answered. Brad Wiggins reportedly crashed out of the Giro d’Italia because he was staring at his power meter data, wondering if it was accurate. This was not a relevant question to be asking when descending a mountain pass in the rain.
Riding is one of the few opportunities we have where we can escape the internet, data, and the noise of our daily lives. Data has its place in Cycling, but there is an undeniable liberation in untethering and riding just for the sake of riding.
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@RobSandy
Oh god ... you're going to go all Chris Froome looking at his stem on us!
http://chrisfroomelookingatstems.tumblr.com/
I train for ironman and have all sorts of watches and data collecting gizmos . . . My favorite rides (and runs) are always the ones where I am, for whatever reason, "unplugged".
I agree whole heartedly with unplugging. I ride everyday and enjoy looking and listening to the world around me. I pay attention to the cracks in the pavement that try to dump me. I contemplate how many have gone before me by the bike tire tracks on the white concrete. I look for cool treasure that one may have left. Ride to ride. My personal best is when I get to where ever.
@chuckp
Honestly and with a certain amount of shame I have to confess I think I look a fair bit like Froome on the bike, especially when I'm suffering. I mean, I don't think I have the full 'spider-humping-lightbulb' elbows out look (at least I hope not), but I find my head nodding, staring at my stem a bit, head to one side...
@chuckp
Phone with cards in an padded waterproof case and Lezyne Caddy Sack in the middle (smaller one when riding tubs, bigger one with spare tubes for clinchers) as I'm hoping not to have to use any of that stuff. Food evenly divided between left and right pockets.
If it's going to be really big then the caddy sack and phone move to the left and a third bottle goes in the middle. if it's wet the caddy sack and phone go in the the central jersey pocket and the food goes in the softshell left and right pockets.
@Teocalli
For sure. I carry my iPhone with me (1) to use the Road ID eCrumb when I'm out riding by myself just so my wife knows where I am in case anything happens to me and (2) so I have a way to get a hold of my wife (or whoever) in case of an breakdown or some other emergency. Otherwise, I don't pay attention to it when I'm out riding. I have a unique ringtone for my wife's number so I'll pay attention to that and I know she'd only call me if it was something important that couldn't wait until I got home.
@frank
If you're riding with experienced racers and you're all familiar with each other, I'd agree you can do this. But I honestly don't think this works for most "average" riders on most "average" group rides. Almost everyone surges when they get to the front of the line because they think they need to work harder coming out of the draft. Conversely, they'll keep their effort level the same but with their nose in the wind they're riding slower. I think some sort of speedo is needed by the majority of riders. You don't have to look at it all the time (and shouldn't). But as the rider in front pulls off take a quick glance down to know what speed you need to maintain to keep the line moving at the same speed.
I also think a speedo is needed when you have disparity in riding abilities but want to keep the group together. If you're going to ride as fast as the slowest rider can ride, the faster riders need to know how slow that is. Harder (if not impossible) to do by feel since for the faster riders their idea of riding slow/easy may still be faster (even if just).
Even when I'm riding with just one or two other guys who don't have a speedo, when I say "Let's take it easy and back it off" they have no idea how to do that. But if I can say "Let's relax and ride a xx mph" and they have a speedo, at least they know what that means.
Just because you have a GPS or some other bike computer doesn't mean you have to be all Chris Froome and stare at it all the time. When I'm out solo, I don't worry at all how fast I'm going. I ride as fast or as slow as I ride. When I'm with other folks, I only worry about speed if we're trying to keep the group together, i.e., what's a good pace that suits everyone. If I'm out with the young guns, I look to see how fast we're going mostly to confirm just how much I suck as I try to hang onto a wheel. And climbing, speed doesn't matter at all. It's all about how the body feels, how hard you think you can go, and how long you can sustain it ... or not.
The data I actually care about when I'm out riding is distance (as I usually have in mind how long a ride I want to do) and time of day (what time did I say I would be home?)
@RobSandy
I'm trying to answer the math question in the photo, but I need to know the distance between them prior.