As I was reading my weekly edition of RoadBikeRider I came across a couple neat, and assume new, products today. I know some of you also use Bikejournal.com to log your miles. There is another site called CycliStats that provides downloadable software that is quite thorough in the information you can log. More so than some of the other sites I've seen. And it's compatible with Polar H/R Monitors for those of you that own them, which can make entering your data here much easier instead of manually entering your data on multiple sites.
The purchase price on the software is $49.95 but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of the product. I'll probably sign up for the free trial in the spring but if anyone uses this currently, or signs up for it in the near future, please check in with us and let us know what you think of the product. If not I'll give you a full report when I try it in the spring. (Only 11 weeks from Sunday until Daylight Savings Time!)
The other cool item is called The Sky Mounti Inclinometer. It's a lightweight gauge that mounts on your handle bars and it fits to the handlebars very easily and works like a carpenter's level. The price makes it affordable for a stocking stuffer, if you haven't finished your shopping yet.
Now while this items is lightweight, inexpensive and I feel the desire to own one, I think to myself how much would I really use it?
My issue is that on the steepest climbs where I want to know the gradient I'm too busy suffering up the darn hill to look down at my handle bars to check my heart rate monitor on bike computer, let alone trying to sneak a peak at the level to determine the grade. I suppose it would be good for those seated climbs like Streaked Mountain, Pinkham's Notch and Evan's Notch, but for the short, really steep climbs I probably wouldn't look at it.
However, don't let me deter you from purchasing one. I can see how it would be a fun little thing to have mounted on the bike. Not to mention all the inquiries you'd receive from having one. And if you do purchase one, please let me know so I'll be able to ask you what the grade was on that last climb, once I'm done catching my breath....
Dana
2 comments:
As it turns out, my husband bought the Inclinometer for Christmas. He actually bought it before I found out about the product and posted about it. So I'll let you all of you who are interested know how well the product works in the spring.
I own one , jointly actually with Greg Macomber. It does work fairly well, but I have noticed that to get a good reading you really have to stop the bike for a minute to let the bobble settle.
I used it to confirm my suspicion that the apexes on the switchbacks on New Hampshire side of Hurricane Mtn are indeed over 20% Having fallen due to lack of forward motion on the steepest apex during the First Memorial Day White Mountains Ride, the year we did the course counterclockwise (bad idea), I bought the thing to comfort my damaged ego. Don't know exactly since the gauge pegged itself at it's highest reading, 21%
I also learned that Mitchell Hill is slightly steeper than Dutton, though much shorter and that Walnut street is the steepest hill in Portland, about 17%.
If anyone would like to borrow it, let me know as i no longer have it on my bike.
Kris Clark
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