Cycling, a sport taken up
by many across the globe, and since the popularity is so vast with
many people taking up professional cycling as their occupation there
are bound to be many innovations in how they study their own
abilities. Starting with the pedals that measure the power you
produce by the watt, they also measured the distance and speed you
achieved by converting those watts to distance and km/h. Then the GPS
used in motorized vehicles was made compact and added to the bike,
however at the time it was somewhat costly. Although nowadays you can
find both of these devices combined into what is being called a cycle
computer.
With the innovation of
smartphones and telecommunications other devices such as GPS trackers
could be easily integrated into the telephone which was becoming more
compact by the year, but what does this have to do with cycling? Well
while the masses were getting new and improved communication devices
manufacturers would take the technology and create small compact GPS
and speed measurement devices that cyclists can use to both gauge
their speed and distance while also knowing their exact location,
giving them the do-it-all tool they needed, a cycle computer.
The device is especially
useful for cyclists that want to get an accurate measurement of their
abilities, by using a cycle computer which could have more features
than needed by the average cyclist but are welcome anyway. The
features depend on what you'll be using it for, weather you like to
measure the time between laps during a race or time trial, or if you
want to go mountain biking and need detailed metrics on your
abilities while also having better navigation during your ride, well
there are different models that have different features.
If you are going to get
one make sure you check exactly what it will be displaying to you.
Since a model that will work for a touring cyclist definitely won't
have the same features that the cyclist that has time trials will
need. And most cycle computers can be connected to a smart phone
which can then be attached to the bicycle's handlebars, it connects
to the cycle computer and shows all of the different settings and
timers that the computer has. With gauges for altitude, temperature,
heart rate, calories and some have a breadcrumb trail in the GPS
which shows you exactly where you've been.
