Ride recording

When I first seen a cyclometer at the age of 14, it was an excitement to know that we could see how fast we are going. My friends and I were so happy and keep playing with the magnet and receiver which was then a wired system. We never know what else it does besides showing the speed for advance cyclist. I couldn't afford to have such luxury gadget and always keep my distance close to this friend who one the cyclometer. The reason doing so was to find out how fast I am going by check his cyclometer.

In recent day cyclometer was just a gadget which came along with bike. It cost nothing comparing to the price tagged to the bicycle sold. And you can either have wired (cheaper) or wireless depending how much you bought the bike. And for a folding bicycle most shop sales will recommend you a wireless cyclometer because you fold you bicycle without those tangling wire between your cyclometer and receiver.

My folding bicycle do come with cyclometer unfortunately it was wired type. I didn't had much problem with this wired cyclometer because I do fold my bicycle with care. Besides I am glad to have that cyclometer because I was not aware that a cyclometer is so cheap (still had the old memory 10th years ago). Not really know what this cyclometer can do but I basically use it to see my speed. Then later on I notice it could track my total distance travelled as well as top and average speed of each ride. And of course you need to know how to operate it...it took me a while to find out.

After few rides with fellow cyclist, I notice the differences between my cyclometer and other cyclist. I learnt new term like cadence, altimeter, temperature, etc in a cyclometer. Then I started to pay more attention to this gadget by surveying a better cyclometer for my rides. Since my brother's friend left his Gary Fisher Katana (MTB hard tail) in my house I could relocate my wired cyclometer to this bicycle for other use. More I look into cyclometer feature and specification I could not make a solid decision which to have it. It just got complicated by my greed......

Before continuing to conclude my cyclometer story, I would like to share another story which happened during my search for cyclometer. After joining a ride most cyclist would like to share the result of their ride by snap shot their cyclometer result. Some would just shows average speed, total distance (current ride) and time cycled. While other with much advance cyclometer would have more information which he/she could analyse and recap how he/she did. From this data it is possible to input to a website where you can can have history of your rides. And good news is these sites provide free App for GPS enabled phone with mobile internet which will perform like cyclometer. Then I was amaze and thought it would be an alternative for me to use these App without getting a full feature cyclometer.

Later these Apps that runs on GPS enabled mobile phone broaden my search for cyclometer. I have to include another feature to look far in search of cyclometer, Global Positioning System a.k.a. GPS. With GPS enabled we can get many information without actually having other sidekick (sensors) to incorporate to cyclometer. Speed, distance, elevation (altitude), temperature, time etc will be made available with the availability of GPS reception. These GPS enabled device commonly called tracker which will record every coordinate point with all possible information this device can retrieve from. Some of this tracker can incorporate gadget like cadence sensor, heart beat sensor, foot step sensor etc. Apart from those, everyone knew GPS enable device can lead us the way. I can pre-plan my ride with the application on web to route preferably road to go. Just download planned route to my device and it will be my cycling buddy on the road.

With so many choices that come with price that determine type and feature you will get from the device. It is hard for me to determine my liking. I have budget to control thus decision making will have to be tougher. Then came an angle from abroad.....friend (friend is what we need most when we are away, making more friend is part of my routine whenever I am abroad). This friend of mine could help me to acquire a full feature GPS enabled device. With friend's help I could get this device with an extreme good price which I cannot resist from buying. Using it every ride, everywhere, every time....