Unless I am touring, I'm not the type who enjoys measuring every single km I have covered. Cycling is about total freedom and many a time, having a cyclometer can be rather stifling. Instead of enjoying the easy pace and the wind in my face, I want to increase the average speed or set a new max speed. I find myself cycling one more round to get the target distance and all these really take the fun out of uninhibited cycling.
So why did I just fit one onto my Bike Friday Tikit after 3 years? Well, I managed to get a Louis Garneau cyclometer at an unbelievable price of US$18 a few months back. Some deals are too good to be true and this is one of them. A base model Cateye would cost easily US$35 so its a no brainer. One of my regular bike shops had this for sale in their clearance bin and my mates and I bought 3! Also, it matches my white paintwork perfectly. Its biggish display too is appreciated by us oldies.
It was a pretty easy job installing it but callibrating it took some work. I could not find the right measurements in the manual and ended up doing so by hand, rotating the wheel one full circle and then noting the distance. For Kojak 16 x 3/8 tire, it is 1830mm precisely.
So here I am with a cyclometer, still not sure if I did the right thing. The fact that I took so long to install it reflects my thoughts. Well, I guess I can always remove it if I feel the need for free-spirited riding.
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