11 Responses to “Regression : Mile Trackers”

1. 1 Rob L  on Feb 5th, 2008 at 8:40 am

   I don’t let the mileage stuff drive everything, often the edge gets left at home on the charger or I forget the heart rate strap. I usually just leave my el-cheapo cyclecomp on all the time. Its more of a maintenance log thing so I know how far I’ve been since my last x,y,z. Plus it gets the most accurate mileage measurement…argh The GPS/HRM/cad stuff really for me is a fitness tracker. I can tell when I am feeling/riding more fit.

   As for seeing new things/etc just getting out and riding, I suspect for a lot of roadies that might be true, but many of the mtn bikers i know make a dedicated effort to get out and hit new/not regular rides. I hit 4 new trails last month that I hadn’t visited in my 9 months living here in metro DC.

2. 2 Levi  on Feb 5th, 2008 at 10:23 am

   I’ve been skipping the HRM for a year or so, and this year I’ll be starting without any electronics on the bike, so we’ll see how it goes…

3. 3 fixedgear  on Feb 5th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

   I’ve gone from paper logs to Excel spreadsheets, and I always used to use a computer. I was a compulsive record keeper (52.17 miles!) but it’s starting to seem less and less important. I’m not that impressed when someone tells me that they rode X miles last year, at least not like I used to be. Piling up big numbers is cool, as is a century a month or whatever. The older I get the more I just wanna ride with my friends and bullshit around about the economy, movies, beer, wine, music and food. Eventually I’ll take the computers off the bikes and just ride, every ride will be a soul ride.

4. 4 Quinn  on Feb 5th, 2008 at 12:55 pm

   1. I avoid computers and such like the plague, ever bike I have put one on has had its life ended prematurely.

   2. I could care less about the exact measurement. (is my heart rate elevated? am I keeping up with traffic?)

   3. less weight

   4. less to deal with, maintain, work/clean around etc.

5. 5 Jimbo  on Feb 6th, 2008 at 12:30 am

   I have a co-worker who has a gps 305 thingy and can pull up every ride he has done with it and match the elevation with heart rates, etc. I ride. I do keep an eye on miles but, mostly I use my cyclocomputers so I am not late for work. He is a serios trainer and follows programs designed to optimize performance. I ride. He goes on training rides and does intervals and speedwork keeping an eye on the gps and heart rate zones. I ride. He enjoys spending time analizing his performance. I just ride to and from work everyday in whatever kind of weather puttting on more junk miles. He enjoys cycling his way and I have mine. We ride together some we train differently with about the same results. I like simple he like to make simple hard . So some people need the validation from training devices some people just need to ride and experiance life.

   jimbo
   .

6. 6 Kerbouchaud  on Feb 6th, 2008 at 2:25 am

   I ride with a cheapo Bell cyclocomputer that tracks miles and supposedly calories. I look at the miles when I do urban rides just so I can compare how I feel with how much riding I did. I do this since I rarely take the same route. It’s funny, some days I can put in 25 miles and feel really good, other days I’m beat after 8…..As for keeping track of them, who cares. Off road I don’t really care about the miles since I know how long all of the trails I ride are. I try to keep the comp on though so I can look at max speed and average speed at the end of the run. Average speed tells me if I was dragging ass as bad as I thought I was, and max speed let’s me know how far I let my balls drop going down the steep hills and drops.
   I don’t really care about the miles so much. When I ride offroad I’m riding for the thrill of the next section, the next jump, and the next drop. When I ride urban, I’m just trying to get my out of shape ass squared away for the next offroad ride.

7. 7 Choke  on Feb 7th, 2008 at 3:35 am

   I just took up trials riding…so you could say that I’m doing it for the fun and challenge. I do have a ‘puter on my karate monkey, but I haven’t ridden it since I got a monocog 29er.

8. 8 shawn  on Feb 7th, 2008 at 11:40 am

   I moved to Denver last year, from Detroit. While in MI I never kept track of my mileage. I would just meet up with my buddies after work and ride. Well, since I have moved to Denver, I have been commuting to work. Denver is a bike friendly city with great paths. I started keeping track of my miles to work, because I knew they were going to start racking up pretty quick. I commute 50 miles a day, and it is fun to watch the miles add up week after week. I serves as a motivator when it is 6am, 2 degrees outside, and I really just want to hop in my car. But when I get to work 1.5-2 hours later, I could not be happier.

9. 9 Spenny  on Feb 8th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

   I ride to lower my carbon foot print, I am also a triathlete so I guess I ride to stay in shape. But, I don’t use a computer on my bike, I do use google maps to get a general idea of how far I bike. Someday I might get a computer for that.

10. 10 Fred  on Feb 9th, 2008 at 11:58 am

    I have a computer on my bike. I don’t pay that much attention to it, It’s like someine above said when you’ve been riding you know it and when you haven’t you really know it especially with a 32×16. No faking it.

11. 11 Hilton  on Feb 10th, 2008 at 10:50 am

    I just bought a HRM because I felt I needed to gt some feedback. I was just charging around every training without a clue as to what my body was feeling, other than out of breath trying to stay up with some of the champs in the group.
    I think you need some form of scientific feedback but keep it to a minimum, we still need to listen to our bodies.

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