There was no need for Rule #74 until the cyclometer showed up on our handlebars. According to the late Sheldon Brown, the cyclometer has been around since the early 1900s.
“Star-wheel cyclometers, such as the Lucas unit, suffered two serious problems. They made an annoying “tink-tink-tink” noise. At high speeds, the star wheel would sometimes turn too far when hit by the fast-moving striker, then, the next time around the striker would hit the tip of one of the star points, sometimes knocking the unit out of position.”
My thought is, these things have been annoying us for much too long. As a youth no one had any measuring device on their bike. There are no old black and white photos of racers staring down at their front hubs to the Lucas meters. Eddy had retired before the Avocet made its debut. He would have caused his to go to failure or he would have removed it because it was extra weight and rubbish.
I bought an Avocet digital cyclometer as soon as I could. It had two slightly inset buttons to better hold water to seep inside. It read speed and elapsed time. That was something to get excited about. Going from no data to data was big, this was going to improve cycling.
Thirty years and many cyclometers later I’m not convinced. My most recent model was a Cateye wireless cyclometer with heart rate and it demanded a new battery every two months…enough! I needed anything else, which made me ask an obvious question- why? Do I care how fast I’m going? I know it’s not very fast and no I don’t really care.
It’s more a question of how hard am I going? Hard or not so hard and again, I’m not trying to quantify this anymore. I’m no quant. I’m beyond quant. It’s not being too old as much as I’ve been riding for so damn long the numbers no longer interest me. Even if I was training for a specific event I have moved past the desire to have data. I did encourage my wife into upgrading to a Garmin 500 as she is into data. I encouraged her because I wanted to know the grades of some of our climbs. I should have kept quiet and emulated a friend who actually went out with a tape measure and long level and quantified the grades to the island’s most “interesting” climbs, bless his heart.
It’s been gratifying to look around on the Sunday group ride I’ve fallen into and notice that some of my cycling friends also have no cyclometers on their bikes. I’m not even sure it’s an interesting point of discussion amongst us. The people who are training with data don’t show up on this ride often because we spend the first 40 km gossiping, riding two abreast, riding a route too curvy, hilly and breath-taking for staring at a watt meter. The second part, I’ve heard*, turns sporty as the big guns get fired leaving bodies scattered along the route home. Training with data requires control of effort. Luckily my people have little interest in that. This Sunday ride is more pleasure than pain and I don’t need a meter to tell me a serious workout was logged.
I was visiting friends who worked and lived in Monaco and was told about the eighty year old owner of the building they rented in. Most every Sunday morning he and his buddies would kit up and go for a ride either east into Italy or west into France. I assume this had been the routine for decades. Eventually they would stop for a nice long Sunday lunch then they ride to the nearest train platform, roll their bikes on the train and return home via rail. Damn, I want to be one of those guys if I get close to eighty. And damn I wish I had a bike and kit when I was there, it would have been a riot to ride with them. I bet those old dudes have V-meters on their bikes.
*either I have turned back before the official turn around or I’m shelled out so early that all I hear are the distant reports. At some point the return always becomes a death slog and as such, a good training ride.
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@Adrian
I want to know if you have been chased by any monkeys? And what would happen if they caught you? I assume they would fuck you up.
@Gianni
Most of the monkeys we see are the macaque ones, which are everywhere and are almost considered vermin (we will often see 50+ on a ride). They are quite small (30cm) and relatively harmless. Sometimes the alpha male will run at you if you get too close when the family is crossing the road, but it's all show more worried about him getting caught in the wheel than any real attack. But mostly they are more interested in the garbage on the roadside than in us. The only bad bit is that the little fuckers will occasionally fling their shit at you from a tree ............. three to four hours in the sun and monkey skat is a unique experience.
The cool monkey experiences are the bigger sort, howler monkeys and gibbons. Sometimes we have the howler monkeys cheering us on as we go past but they are very shy so you don't see them...But my coolest experience was seeing a gibbon cross the road in front of me...we were on the steepest mountain route around, the last section is about 28% and I was cooked. All of a sudden out of the jungle walks this meter high jet black gibbon. He crosses the road in front of me (not difficult as I was going so slow), gives me a look that says HTFU and then swings off into a tree. Got to admit that was a bit scary cos I knew if he had wanted to attack I was in trouble as I was redlining.
Anyway enough Animal Planet....
@Adrian
Heheheeee, beauty. HTFU'd by a gibbon. Those bastards would have your brains out of your skull in seconds if they were inclined.
Thanks for the information. Getting lost in Kuala Lumpur on bike and then cornered by some jet black gibbons. Good reason to have a Garmin.
@Adrian
Thinking about seeing wild animals like that on a ride is crazy.
I've seen the odd deer while out, and I saw a peacock this past summer (hint: they are NOT native here). And when I ride in eastern Oregon I see little chipmunks running around in the dirt.
The worst is the dogs that want to chase you, but those are usually only around because of their dumb owners. Never had a problem with a wild animal (yet).
@Adrian
Only gibbons around here are at the Oakland Zoo. Impressive creatures. Else we have the standard deer and turkeys. Turkeys are unbelievably stupid creatures. Also, I saw a fox once, pretty early in the morning.
@Gianni
And a mobile phone......
To complete the full wildlife picture we regularly will see scorpions and snakes, have seen hornbills, water buffalo (those are scary mothers) and several 4-5ft monitor lizards. but mostly we just see crazy morons driving cars badly
moose, at 85km/h during a descent, stepped on to the road.
Gianni, great post. rode most of this fall on my CX bike sans cyclo-computer. it was great
I will throw the phone in the jersey and if I remember I'll track with the gps.
Made the decision a year ago not to have a computer on #1 bike. Only use the one on the rain bike to time intervals, and I suspect when this one dies I'll be bodging a cheap watch onto the stem instead. I figure out how far I've gone with mapmyride...and no-one in my house cares either...
I accidentally knocked off my Sigma (BC 1909 HR) while riding in the middle of a group during the Tour de Hans. Needless to say I did not slam on the binders so I lost it and have been riding without data ever since. Well not quite. I usually ride with my brother. He has a Garmin 500. His data is my data so I check his segments, distances, elevation gains and average speeds on Strava. Since I always carry my android on rides for safety reasons, I'm liking the above comments re Strava on the phone and pour over the data later. That means I can clean off all the barnacles on the mo-sheen, leave the chest strap in the drawer and use the V-meter only. Nice.