Is overdosing on data destroying your ride?

Think of the mountain of data we create everytime we go for a ride these days; we’re talking mileage, cadence, wattage, elevation, caloric intake, heart rate, ftp. The list goes on. May as well throw in the meteorologist’s percentage of precipitation too (they’re masters at ruining a ride). Going for a ride starts to sound more like a statistics class then a fun past time. Bleh. But it’s all voluntary.

And that’s without getting into the bike itself. Depending on your riding partner, you may be talking numbers all the way to the trailhead. What’s your PSI? What’s your stack height? Your reach? Do you know your shock settings? Your head tube angle? These are the kind of stats that used to be relegated to a set of riders we called ‘weight-weenies.’ Now it has permeated every facet of our sport and every level of rider.

OCD much?

There are companies and websites that cater to this kind of obsessiveness. BrakeAce and BYB Tech are offering sensors to measure how well your brakes work and every microscopic movement of your shock. Websites are writing 3500 word dissertations on the results they find. There are graphs, tables and metrics, percentages and calculations. And what’s the conclusion? Well generally one guy likes his bike set up a certain way and the other guy likes it the other way; regardless of the data.

Data has its place

Sure, I get it. If you’re Loic Bruni this stuff means something. And if you’re designing bikes, you need to know this stuff. But unless you have dreams of becoming Loic Bruni (and some kind of obvious natural talent that’s worth pursuing) maybe you can just try to enjoy riding a bike?

Back to basics

Remember when bike riding was fun? When it was simple? When you didn’t need an engineering degree to figure out which bike to buy? It was awesome wasn’t it? Sometimes remembering to turn on and off, charge and mount all these devices can ruin the desire to ride.

But it’s up to us to take back that simplicity.

Despite what my colleague may say, don’t be scared to leave your phone (and your shock sensor) at home once in a while. It’s okay to remain ignorant about certain things. Because you know what they say about ignorance? It’s bliss. Which is what we strive for every time we swing a leg over a bike. Right?