I ended up having a love/hate relationship with my computer. At first, it was very helpful in learning how to use cadence and that made it possible for me to increase the distance I was able to ride. And seeing that increase in mileage was definitely cool.

But then I got too caught up in the numbers, to the point that I felt like I could never relax and coast because it'd screw up my average speed. Or if I got off the bike to walk, I had to disengage the computer so it wouldn't mess up my speed, but then that messed up my mileage. So for me, that data went from being useful and cool to hampering my enjoyment of the ride. Since the computer taught me what optimal cadence feels like, I took the thing off and happily went back to not analyzing my riding.

Like so many other aspects of cycling, whether a computer is helpful for you depends on you. Are you a numbers cruncher, in training, or just riding for the heck of it? Will you learn from the data or become obsessed with it? The best way to find out is to install it and give it a try.