Does anyone apart from me just get on their bikes and ride them?

[Smokin Joe]

It's very easy to become obsessed with average speeds, distances and what hills you've climbed to the extent that you turn cycling in to a chore. Everything is geared to going faster and further and comparing yourself with other riders and it's easy to get dispirited if you can't beat your best performances. Anyone who's really interested in how good they are would be best off pinning a number on their back and doing it for real, otherwise you lose the point of what attracted you to riding a bike in the first place.

 

[gavroche]

I do keep a record of my mileage but not interested in speed as most other riders go faster than me. Too old to do Strava or segments. I have no interest in those at all.

 

[screenman]

I only ride for excersise, others ride for a magnitude of reasons.

 

[AM1]

Back when I was a lad it was one of these!

 

[Pikey]

Irrespective of logging mileage or tyre wear or strava segments or cadence or.........

I know I'm not in training or trying to maintain heart zones or optimising my power vs aero position, but so many people seem to keep logs of this and records of that and know to the n'th degree how far they are off a KOM on strava or their Eddington number or the duration of every ride and when it rained on them back to 4th of March 1977 just after teatime.

I feel like some sort of oddball because I just go out and pedal to where I want to go and get off and do what I need to there and then get on and pedal home again or I just go out and pedal around for the sheer darned heck of it without giving the slightest thought to whether I'm 5 seconds faster than last week and am up to 3rd on the towpath KOM or whatever.

Why am I so easily satisfied? & darn my uncompetitive nature.

I've spent a couple of years heavily using strava, doing the challenges etc... And did love it once.

I'm toying with sacking it off though, I've fallen out with all the pressure for averages and segments etc... It puts on each ride I do, it's made my rides too much like being at work and having targets for everything, to the point where I stopped wanting to go out and ride.

I'm just gonna ride and enjoy it for now, if I get better at it, bonus!

 

[G3CWI]

I've fallen out with all the pressure for averages and segments etc... It puts on each ride I do

I think you may find that the pressure is coming from you, not Strava. I know what you mean though!

 

[Pikey]

I think you may find that the pressure is coming from you, not Strava. I know what you mean though!

Yeah you're right with this

Probably some sort of character defect or the product of relentless target conditioning at work

 

[Booyaa]

I know lots of cyclists and none of them are obsessed with segments and the like mentioned here. I use a Garmin to track my rides, all I could tell you about them though is the route I take, no idea on average speeds or what segments I have done, I just like to have a look at where I have meandered to and see if there is anything decent nearby for a future ride.

 

[arch684]

Sometimes i leave the garmin and my watch at home.Phone in back pocket switched off and go out on the bike all day just for fun

 

[xxDarkRiderxx]

Ditto @AM1

You have burst my bubble. Why o Why do I have Garmin and Polar? Time to go back to old school Ride and wave boys.

 

[Hip Priest]

I'm totally obsessed with gadgets and logging things. My heart rate monitor broke on a recent ride, and it totally ruined it for me. Quite sad really. I think I need to ween myself off!

 

[Ian H]

I'm on Strava, but not to post anything. I have a Garmin but don't record rides with it. I have a heart-rate monitor that I almost never use.

The AUK site does have records of quite a lot of my riding, and there's a lesser amount on the CTT site.

 

[summerdays]

I like to use Strava only to keep a rough idea of my total mileage and where I've been ( like a diary ) not in the slightest bit interested in setting PR,s not that I could anyway

I use it like a diary, and because my memory is bad it's really useful when I'm trying to fill out my time sheet and I've forgotten which days I've worked! And everyone can get Personal Records as they are personal to you so sometimes you must go faster than other days.

I never bother looking at my speed apart from the occasional how fast did I go down that hill or how slow I went up it, I haven't the foggiest what my average is (not in double figures maybe?).but at the end of the year I want to know if I did over or under 3000 miles.

 

[uclown2002]

Not without my Garmin

 

[snorri]

I've come to the conclusion that once a cyclist has disproved the oft quoted theory that the more you cycle the more your performance improves, then he or she dumps the electronics.