Author Topic: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?  (Read 5036 times)

Thomas

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 5
I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« on: September 29, 2013, 05:27:13 PM »
I wish there was an exception to mandatory face punches for bike-related stuff.
I'm mainly posting to hear that I made the right choice to not buy this glasses-mounted heads-up display for biking that I just ran across:
http://jet.reconinstruments.com/ A year or two ago, this is the exact sort of thing that I would already have ordered in the time it took to write this post.

Any chance the Money Mustache Lighting Laboratory could be converted to test bike gear? It's deductible for him as a business expense, right?

"It's only a couple hundred more than a good GPS" is how I would justify it.  How do you folks that commute daily or ride hundreds of miles per month not fall victim to the same constant upgrades/consumerist streak that affects guys in car forums?

kudy

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 945
  • Age: 41
  • Location: RV Traveling the U.S.
Re: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2013, 05:56:39 PM »
Despite the neglected gadget nerd in me, and the part of me that always figured we'd all eventually be part borg with all the cool gadget the future will bring, this product kinda scares me.

First of all, I'd freak out about losing/breaking them.

Also, one of the few times I find myself able to break the constant pattern of checking my smartphone/A.D.D. is while I am biking - It has to be a good thing to not compulsively check into the digital world for a little while, right? I hope to build a resistance to this bad habit, and biking is certainly helping, my phone is stowed away in my bag, and I get a moment of zen.

If you're totally set on having live stats for your rides, maybe look into something more affordable like a pebble watch that you can strap to your handlebars?

Russ

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2211
  • Age: 32
  • Location: Boulder, CO
Re: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2013, 08:11:00 PM »
How do you folks that commute daily or ride hundreds of miles per month not fall victim to the same constant upgrades/consumerist streak that affects guys in car forums?
My bike is a tool that gets me where I need to go, and it just so happens to be so much fun that I also sometimes ride it places I don't need to go. It's not for showing off expensive carpet fiber parts that'll snap off all willy-nilly. If it's for showing off anything, it's for showing off its elegant utilitarianism with people who agree with me on what the "sweet spot" is for component cost vs. performance vs. durability. That's a totally different thing compared to a car you only drive around so people look at you. There are still some people who do this with bicycles though... mostly dentists.

This product in particular though... I'd hate having that shit in my eyes all the time. Couldn't stand it.

chardog

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 181
  • Age: 59
  • Location: Austin, TX, USA
Re: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2013, 08:59:00 PM »
This product in particular though... I'd hate having that shit in my eyes all the time. Couldn't stand it.

Another annoying electronic gadget that in a few months will be obsolete and replaced by the next best thing.

Jamesqf

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4038
Re: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2013, 09:12:51 PM »
"It's only a couple hundred more than a good GPS" is how I would justify it.  How do you folks that commute daily or ride hundreds of miles per month not fall victim to the same constant upgrades/consumerist streak that affects guys in car forums?

Honestly, seems like all the useful stuff that gizmo gives you, you can get by just looking down at your $15 (maybe less nowadays) bike computer.

As for GPS, why in Gawd's name would you need GPS on a bike?

Russ

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2211
  • Age: 32
  • Location: Boulder, CO
Re: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2013, 09:21:40 PM »
As for GPS, why in Gawd's name would you need GPS on a bike?

One of many reasons: Long point-to-point trips with a possibility of getting lost and a rider with a distaste for paper maps that you have to stop to look at. Is it worth $100+? I don't have one, but if someone makes a deliberate decision to buy one who am I to judge.

Feel free to tell me I'm wrong. Or maybe for once take the time to look at a problem from a different point of view than your own.

FunkyStickman

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 525
  • Age: 49
  • Location: Louisiana
    • Living Outside the Box
Re: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2013, 09:58:17 PM »
I'll be honest, here.

For a few years, I was obsessed with riding stats, tracking mileage, using GPS/Endomondo, etc.

But you just don't need it. Do you obsessively track your mileage when driving your car? Do you bring a GPS with you when commuting in your car?

Bikes need to be more of a thing we "just do" instead of making it some grand event where we are constantly seeking approval and verification. At one point, I was tracking everything as a motivational method, but it's easy to focus on the stats and not the actual riding.  I'm finally over it.

I ride when I want, I let my cheap bike computer track my mileage, but I don't record it. I don't keep a running journal of mileage on my car, and I don't need to on my bike.

If it helps you get on the bike and ride, that's fine. I find it more freeing to just ride now.

PindyStache

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 241
  • Location: Minneapolis
Re: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2013, 11:52:44 AM »
My bike is a tool that gets me where I need to go, and it just so happens to be so much fun that I also sometimes ride it places I don't need to go. It's not for showing off expensive carpet fiber parts that'll snap off all willy-nilly. If it's for showing off anything, it's for showing off its elegant utilitarianism with people who agree with me on what the "sweet spot" is for component cost vs. performance vs. durability. That's a totally different thing compared to a car you only drive around so people look at you. There are still some people who do this with bicycles though... mostly dentists.

This product in particular though... I'd hate having that shit in my eyes all the time. Couldn't stand it.

+1

So much changes every day and there is always such beauty to take in, why encase yourself in an barrage of statistics that distract you from that? Today was the first day that the bike path was covered with yellow and orange leaves, the wind was unusually strong from the south to lift me into the office, and every other road is torn up because the road construction crews are all like "holy shit we only have a few weeks left before everything freezes!" And I saw this awesome old lady biking about 2 mph on what was basically a big tricycle!

I'll ride over 500 miles this month and have only driven to work once in the past 3 months. The fanciest thing on my bike is a light that has settings for off, blinky, and on. I have been thinking some recently about whether I'll need anything repaired before the winter, but that's about all.

Jamesqf

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4038
Re: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2013, 12:33:55 PM »
As for GPS, why in Gawd's name would you need GPS on a bike?

One of many reasons: Long point-to-point trips with a possibility of getting lost and a rider with a distaste for paper maps that you have to stop to look at.

See the numerous stories about people getting lost, and doing things like driving over cliffs or into canals, because they do have GPS.  The problem is that while GPS gives you accurate position information, their internal maps are far from perfectly accurate.

(And FWIW, I do have a GPS unit that I sometimes use while riding the horse &c.  It's a bit disappointing to ride through the woods from Road
A, expecting to connect to Road B, yet when you get to where the GPS shows Road B to be, there's nothing but more trees :-))
Quote
Feel free to tell me I'm wrong. Or maybe for once take the time to look at a problem from a different point of view than your own.

You're wrong :-)  And the point of view is not mine (though I share it), it's Mustachian.  Why spend money buying an expensive thing to do something that you either don't need done (rationally, if not emotionally), or could do far less expensively some other way?
« Last Edit: September 30, 2013, 12:42:56 PM by Jamesqf »

prodarwin

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 299
Re: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« Reply #9 on: September 30, 2013, 02:37:12 PM »
Runkeeper and most other biking apps will tell you whatever statistics you ask for on a time and/or mileage interval if you set them up that way.  I wear my phone on my arm and it tells me every time I knock out another mile what my average pace is.  While the GPS kinda blows, it still works better than my wheel/magnet thingy (that I can never get to work right) for determining distance.

As for tracking mileage on my car...

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/prodarwin/sl2

TygerTung

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 75
  • Age: 39
  • Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
Re: I can buy it if it's bike related, right?
« Reply #10 on: October 03, 2013, 12:52:26 AM »
Yeah, I had a big blowout today and brought a new helmet! I know what you mean. It's easy to justify spending money if it's for a bike.