Guest Post by Steven is the chief editor of Lava Reviews, bringing you the latest expert reviews and top ratings. For more expert reviews, check out Lava Reviews.
Riding a bike is not as uncomplicated as it used to. Cycling is now as technically advanced as other things in life. This is the Information Age and that means there are more riding data available than ever before. Smartphones are now being used in collecting ride data but a bike computer is still better option, especially for bikers who are data-hungry.
Before you get started, ask yourself what information you want to know and how you are going to use it. You also need to determine your budget and what functionalities you think are important.
Match Your Information with the Kind of Rider You Are
It is important to understand that you need to match yourself as a rider to the information you need. If you are a casual cyclist, then you may only want to get right information on time, speed and distance. Like how far you have ridden or how far you are going or how long did a ride take.
For enthusiastic riders, touring riders and commuters, more options may be needed like maximum and average speed, total odometer and trip distance. And if you happened to be a competitive cyclist, you will need all the above mentioned features and more, like power output, elevation gained, heart rate and cadence.
If you want to be an efficient and stronger cyclist, or if you really want to be more confident, comfortable and stay alive while you are riding, it would be best to really get the right bike computer.
Riding Type
The type of riding you will do and how you will use your bike should really determine the type of bike computer that you will want to purchase.
If you use your bike daily and as your main transportation mode and not as a sports bike, then you may not really need a bike computer, maybe installing an app on your smartphone will be enough. Or if you really want a good device attached on your bike then a basic one should be sufficient. There are basic bike computers that are handy and can be easily popped off and placed in your pocket or bag.
If you like cruising along the beach or riding on pave trails and you really want the distance you have taken, a basic or inexpensive computer bike will also do. A computer with a GPS feature may also be a good idea especially if you want to know if it is a good day to go out or not.
If you are cycling as a sports and you train at many times in a week, or if you join races and groups rides, then a more advanced bike computer is what you need. You need one that’s GPS-enabled and can be synched with powerful features like cadence sensor, power meter and heart rate monitor.
Cycling is fun and it is even more so now because of the technology that you can use. Before you decide to buy a bike computer it would be a good idea to put the facts mentioned here into consideration first.
