Categories: Tradition

Riding Without Data

No Cyclometers Needed.

I’m compliant with Rule #74: no Garmin, no cyclometer, just an uncluttered cockpit. I’m not anti-data, if I could generate some awesome data I’d like to know about it. If I was racing I would train with data. I just got bored with looking at the numbers and not doing anything about them. When my Cateye cyclometer/heart rate monitor demanded yet another bi-monthly battery change, I took the whole thing off and never looked back. Total milage, elevation gained, I no longer care about these numbers.

Can you ride without data? Does a ride even happen if it doesn’t show up on Strava? Bretto brilliantly introduced the V-meter three years ago. It was an idea that flew in the face of all the new technology we needed on the bike. Push on the pedals and if in doubt, push on them harder.

I did buy into a heart rate monitor or two in my time. Early on we used them like kids used the early alcohol breathalyzers installed in bars. That was an ill conceived notion if there ever was one; it’s a damn bar, only young drunk males are going to use breathalyzers and it won’t be to see if they are too high to drive. Rather, they are going to use it as a drunkometer, to see who can get drunker. For us it was young males on bikes, I’m gonna peg this HRM, see, see, I can get a higher number than you because you suck.

Without data I know when I’m going faster than 65 kph, things do change at those speeds. And I know when I’ve done a 160 km ride only because it’s a route I know from past centuries. I do live on an island. But I still make deposits at the pain bank at regular times. Being too big to climb and living on the side of a volcanic island has made every ride something. When I was younger I couldn’t enjoy a forty-five minute ride, I actually wouldn’t go on one. What was the point of such a short ride? Now forty-five minutes can mean forty minutes of steady climbing and five minutes of descending. That’s a ride.

Getting shelled by your friends tells you something, something you already knew, they are faster. Riding with friends who are faster is the best training aid. I figure it’s a quality training ride if I barely make it home. Do more of those, keep doing them a little harder.

Keepers Tour 2012 was doubly fun for the training required before the trip even started. We all need incentive to crank up that kind of fitness. I’m sure the 200 on 100 Cogal riders felt the same way; this ride is going to hurt but it will hurt less if I murder myself in the months before. The Spring Campaign is looming and I’m already devising training rides that will either make me fit or ruin me, or both at the same time, which is what usually happens.

Gianni

Gianni has left the building.

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View Comments

Mike_P says:

Oct 31 2013 at 5:15 am

@viking

Exception should be made for older bicycle cyclists who have had their heart re-plumbed by a surgeon. A heart monitor lets you know the engine is still running and the tachometer is not still in the red zone AFTER you've reached the summit and want to scream down the other side. Very useful information!

I'd think the fact that you haven't died at the side of the road would indicate whether the engine is still running or not. But you've made a good and valid point. Knowing your zones if you've got a dodgy ticker could help your riding pleasure.
blackpooltower says:

Oct 31 2013 at 5:40 am

"Okay, guys! Can you just put your heels together for me? You're not looking camp enough yet... That's perfect".
gregorio says:

Oct 31 2013 at 5:43 am
@G'rilla

I live by The V-meter and even had one built into the paint scheme on my bike.

I like the Garmin 500 (get the black one) but I think it's only 1 in 3 rides where I ride with it at all. After a day of staring at a computer screen, it's nice to be fully analog for a change.

Fully analog makes room for rule #6. Analog effort:
1. Warm up...riding in a group and talking trash
2. Tempo...talking in single sentences
3. Threshold...grunts
4. Anaerobic...sheeeeee-itttttt!
VeloJello says:

Oct 31 2013 at 5:44 am

I use my very basic Cateye Strada purely for the time and distance. I'm only interested in how far I've ridden year to date, and if I'm gunna be late for work/picking kids up/Ale!

I'm a Strava premium user, but only because of the great cycle training vids they have now for when I'm on the turbo trainer.

I am ever so slightly intrigued by this though.... http://www.hammerhead.io/
dgran says:

Oct 31 2013 at 5:46 am

I train with power when I ride in the basement during the winter, but outdoors I use no computer on the bars and just use an iPhone app. I find that I'm more present minded for not having a visible bike computer. Also, I used to have a Shimano flight deck and it had a little up/down arrow that showed if your current speed was above or below average. That little arrow was a slave driver to me and I'm sure I ruined a good number of rides just trying to make sure it always pointed upward.
Buck Rogers says:

Oct 31 2013 at 6:15 am

@ChrisO

@Marcus

I wonder how many of you "data-free" riders who bag power meters have actually used one?

When they are used with even a modicum of common sense, they make you train oh so very much harder.

The thing about power meters is that they remove any chance of you kidding yourself.

But in keeping with the Masturbation Principle, anyone who talks about their wattage is generally a cunt and should probably be killed.

I agree with him...

Training with power has made a huge difference to me in the relatively short time I've been doing it.

I have a measurable way of showing how much I have improved, and I have a way of communicating with a coach in another country somewhat more accurately than simply telling him I felt good today.

Yes it's true that it doesn't teach you how to find your way through the pain cave but it helps you avoid burning a match that you might be grateful to have later on.

Would I use it if I wasn't racing ? Probably I wouldn't have started, but now I can't imagine not using it at least as part of my Bike #1. I think even in casual riding it has its uses and it makes people better group riders.

For example you see how foolish it is to get out of the saddle and stomp up a little rise doing do 500 watts for 20-30 seconds, then coast over the top and down the other side to bring your thumping heart under control.

Or, when you get to the front if you think "I'll sit on the same speed" it doesn't allow for perhaps a small incline or a change in wind direction so actually you do end up surging in effort, if not in speed. With a power meter you can think "I'll sit on 200 watts" and it keeps everything nice and steady for the whole group.

As for them being expensive, a Powertap hub is under US$1000 - in the scheme of stuff we buy for our bikes it isn't that much.

Shit. I didn't realize that Froomie's middle name started with an "O".
KW says:

Oct 31 2013 at 6:29 am

@wiscot

I'll admit to tracking kilometrage. Mind you, for some reason I'm looking less and less at the computer. If I'm doing a recovery ride I'll put some tape over it to eliminate the temptation to look at speed and distance. It can be quite freeing.

Here's an issue/goal for next year. I did my longest ever ride this summer - 157 miles. I felt good at the end as I ran out of daylight. I'd really like to shoot for a 200 mile ride next year but fear there will be no takers to join me. If this was posted as a cogal and only I showed up, would it count?

200 miles...Sounds very tempting, although I'm afraid Mrs. KW would tell me I'm fuckin crazy. Well, I already knew that.

That being said, I might be able to convince her to provide some SAG support. Might be worth thinking about.
norritt says:

Oct 31 2013 at 6:31 am

@JohnB

Doesn't a 4 hour gps monitored ride just eat the mobile phone battery anyway?

my phone tracks 200k and has still something left for possible emergency calls.
but it's in my pocket, nothing on my bike, it rides so much better without having to look at something you know pretty much anyway
VeloVita says:

Oct 31 2013 at 6:35 am

@Puffy

@wiscot

I'll admit to tracking kilometrage.

Is that a word now? I hope so... I'm pretty fed up with living in a metric country and getting strange looks when I use it. We don't measure distance in miles so why the hell would I be racking up mileage?

[/rant]

What's wrong with 'distance'?
Steve-o says:

Oct 31 2013 at 6:36 am

I use a Garmin and upload rides for comparison and tracking kilometrage, but don't get too worked up about numbers. I moved recently and map and download routes and it's helpful getting away from heavily traveled roads. Never used strava, don't feel the urge. I just wanna have fun. Since I've embarked on the path to Rule Compliance, I'm experiencing a higher level of enjoyment...fulfilment...on the bike. Rule #74 compliance is in my future. It's inevitable.