An indispensable tool for the serious cyclist

When I first got into cycling out here in southern Oregon, I knew nothing of the roads I was riding. I had no idea where I was, no idea where to ride, no idea how hard the rides would be, and no idea how far I had ridden once I came back home. I initially purchased an inexpensive cycling computer which logged my cadence and distance. However after reading online about Garmin’s Edge product, and the website for the product – motionbased.com, I had to purchase one of these.
Never have I been more impressed with a piece of modern technology. Before purchasing the Edge I had never owned a GPS device. Let me tell you that this device isn’t so much a useful GPS as a trip log that will monitor your cadence, heart rate, altitude change, and speed along the course of a ride. Whether you’re using your heart rate to train or you’re trying to see how you climb hills on your bike, this is one very useful device. The most useful aspect I found was overlaying my uploaded rides (you use the motionbased software and a USB cord) onto Google maps so that I could map out new rides through the countryside. I also got to see closely which towns and neighborhoods I was passing by.
On the road, you can monitor your speed, cadence, and even race yourself from previous rides. My real interest was my improvement in speed and heart rate along the same rides I would do over and over again. While the weather is hampering my cycling these days - we have plenty of snow – you can guarantee that come spring when I begin to train for my summer century rides I will be using the Garmin Edge.