Using/no longer bike odometer? Restart?

[shootingstar]

Now, really it's pretty obvious for some members here, others know the chick is using her distance/speed odometer.

I've been cycling regularily for past 15 yrs. During first 6 years of returning to cycling at 32 yrs., an odometer helped me alot to improve my cycling and motivate me to go farther in 1 day. I was a mileage junkie and kept a daily cycling journal, noting mileage of day and anything I felt/saw during ride. THose journals do make interesting reading now...for myself.

Then I dropped off and now haven't installed my odometer for past few years. It's ok...I can estimate what my mileage is monthly, annually since local cycling consists of several regular routes and....my partner is a mileage freak, so I know what we do on out-of-town rides. I'm not a racer. Focus is on fitness, pleasurance and distance endurance....no matter how long it takes on that day.

It's just an achievement and sheer pleasure right now in life to cycle regularily given my schedule. Maybe later I'll get the odometer back on...


And you?

[7rider]

Metric junkie here.
Mileage. Avg. speed. Elevation gain.
...and folks here introduced me to BikeJournal.com, so I can feed my obsession on a daily basis.
And I have no clue why, really. It's not like my riding is anything to write home about!
But, yeah. It motivates me. Gives me a goal. Allows me to compare one (ride, bike, year, month, BikeJournal flunkie, etc.) against another (again...for what? Don't know).
And one January 1st, with much fanfare, I will have the "Annual Resetting of the Bike Computers Back to Zero!". Yee ha!

[kelownagirl]

I live for my bike computer. It's what motivates me to get stronger and faster. The only time I didn't pay much attention to my avg speed was when I rode in Provence this summer. I have not reset my computer - I like to keep an ongoing total miles tally.

[Popoki_Nui]

I pretty much live for my bike computers too, for the same reason: motivation. Every New Year's Eve, I reset all my bikes' odometers to zero, and start fresh. I keep my total cumulative distances on bikejournal.com.
When I restored the Falcon last summer, I didn't bother to put a computer on it. I felt nekkid without it. It's now on a trainer in our sunroom....with a computer installed.

[Zen]

Enjoyment comes from the doing, not from gathering data.
It's a zen thing.

Sometimes you just have to get back to basics.

[DirtDiva]

Nah, I like the nerdy approach.

[shootingstar]

summer, I didn't bother to put a computer on it. I felt nekkid without it. It's now on a trainer in our sunroom....with a computer installed.

I feel more naked if I'm somewhere cycling (a bike that doesn't belong to me) and I'm not wearing cycling shoes or forgot to wear my bike helmet...of which both are very rare.

I already "measure" myself against peers in my job field...I needed to liberate myself from constantly benchmarking myself..for things I loved to do outside of my job. So for cycling, I gradually "forgot" the odometer for the time being.

But I live with someone who is a mileage junkie..he tracks on Excel and bar graphs. I half-joke to my partner that he is a used car...since he's done over 100,000 kms. in past 14 years.

We don't have a (real) car.

[Eden]

Interestingly enough it was after I started racing that I stopped paying any attention to my odometer - half the time its on the wrong bike.... but my training is all done by time these days so I don't need to worry about distance.