Tech on Wheels: A Deep Dive into Cycling Computers, Radars, and some other fun stuff

Speaker 1: 1:13

Well, it's time for Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure, the podcast for cyclists who understand that riding is not just about getting to the destination, but the experience along the way. Now here are the original Cycling Men of Leisure Adam and Michael.

Speaker 3: 1:28

Hey, good to be with you. Happy to be with you again, Adam. How are you?

Speaker 2: 1:33

You know what Doing well here in the digital universe of Zoom, with you here Zoom.

Speaker 3: 1:41

Not quite the same, but we're going into the winter months so we'll be using Zoom a lot more, but you know.

Speaker 2: 1:47

I've been looking for flights on Delta. They go both ways. Believe it or not, they fly to Kansas and to Detroit, do they? They do that's a beautiful thing, and if you do it right, you can book a round trip.

Speaker 3: 2:04

I've already told you I will be down this winter and we'll go have some fun.

Speaker 2: 2:10

But it goes both ways. I enjoy your family as well. I've been searching Delta. So far they're not playing nice, but I'm hoping we get into the fall a little bit more and in the winter maybe we can find some. Find a random deal. Keep wiping out my cookies so I can pretend like I'm not a current customer. So, anyways, that'll be good when that happens, awesome. So been up to anything exciting.

Speaker 3: 2:38

No, just the usual stuff school and work and that type of thing. One thing I did come across when I was cleaning out my stuff from our most recent adventure you know how I don't know, it's been probably back in, I don't know May, april, may. You know how I said I loved America and one of my top reasons why I loved America is because there was just crazy museums about everything out there.

Speaker 2: 3:08

Oh, yes, that's when I said I was perfectly fine flying and you said you were perfectly fine driving with the family and looking at museums.

Speaker 3: 3:15

That's right, because there's just so much cool music. Well, you know what? I wrote down? Some of the museums that I saw on the way back from Georgia. Okay, or Kentucky, I should say Kentucky, our last adventure. Okay, I wanted to share these with you. All right, I'm listening, we're in Kentucky. What's? What do you think about when you think of Kentucky Bluegrass.

Speaker 2: 3:39

What else Bourbon?

Speaker 3: 3:42

Okay, I tell you what let's. Let's cut out the guessing game because you are no good at it, but Louisville.

Speaker 2: 3:48

Slugger baseball bats. Yeah, that would be that. Now see, when you were mentioning museums before, you said like the Iron Skillet Museum, I'm like oh skillet cast iron, oh cast iron. Now Louisville Slugger. I mean, I've seen pictures. It's got the huge baseball bat in front of it. I'd like to go there.

Speaker 3: 4:08

Yeah, well, you know it's interesting, it's the Louisville Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. Okay, so you can visit that the next time you're in Louisville. And they interesting fact, they make all of their bats here in the United States. No, that's that is cool. Yes, another one that I found interesting, and it's not crazy or anything, but the Mary Todd Lincoln House in Lexington.

Speaker 3: 4:32

Mary Todd Lincoln yes, wife of President Lincoln, yes, I just found it weird because I mean, you know, of all the First Ladies, not to diminish her importance, but she really is not known for, you know, doing a lot of what other First Ladies had did. So it was just kind of interesting. I mean, I know every town has to have their, you know, tourism thing, but it just seemed a little odd to me, you know, I mean it wasn't in Eleanor Roosevelt who, after they're being the First Lady, she went out and was a UN, a delegate to the UN from the US, or you know one of the other ones, like Mrs Harrison, benjamin Harrison's wife, you know, started the White House China collection and donated money to John Hopkins, you know things like that. She really didn't do anything. So I just thought it was interesting, I just was like, hey, we should go visit that I don't know.

Speaker 2: 5:25

I'm being serious when I say this, I'm not trying to be funny. He did not meet Mary Todd in Illinois.

Speaker 3: 5:31

He did meet Mary Todd in Illinois.

Speaker 1: 5:33

Oh, yeah, but.

Speaker 3: 5:33

Mary Todd. But Mary Todd was originally from Kentucky, hence Lexington. Okay. And then, when I think she was, like in you know, teenager, their family moved up to Springfield, illinois, okay.

Speaker 2: 5:49

So you and I have many times talked about scouting in our younger, younger years. Being a gentleman who grew up in the state of Illinois, we did many things to do with Abraham Lincoln. We actually hiked the 21 miles that he would go back and forth from the library to his home, and we did it all in one day, and let me tell you something that was, that was a pretty cool experience. So, anyways, that's why I was curious.

Speaker 3: 6:14

Well, you know, it was just, it was just kind of odd. I thought maybe it's not to other people, but I thought it was kind of odd. I mean, it wasn't, you know, she wasn't like Dolly Madison who made those great cakes and pastries and things, but I was just.

Speaker 1: 6:28

I just threw that out to see if you were even paying attention to me.

Speaker 3: 6:33

It took you a minute too, it was like I'm going to go to sleep here when Michael rambles on.

Speaker 2: 6:39

Well, many times when we talk about items, you, you do have a very vast knowledge of lots of things. So I was just thinking to myself is he pulling my leg?

Speaker 3: 6:48

You were really going. Huh, I wonder if it's going to be warm enough for me this week to get on the golf course. Hmm, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2: 6:55

No, whether here has been awful, and the answer is no so.

Speaker 3: 7:00

Dolly Madison did not make fruit pies or pastries. Dolly Madison is, you know, well known for saving a lot of the American treasures, such as paintings and things from the White House when the British burned it in the war of 1812. So cool, you know. But another one that I found. How about this? The RV Hall of Fame and Museum. A museum nothing more than RVs, recreational vehicles.

Speaker 2: 7:27

I got to tell you I seriously hope they have cousin Eddie or something picture of cousin Eddie there. I'm not a fan of Clark, that's an RV. Yeah, we're taking it with no. All right, just anyway. So, um well, I'm facing.

Speaker 3: 7:47

I would actually saw a sign for that and I was like really they have an RV museum, or all right, I mean, I'm an RV owner, but I don't know.

Speaker 2: 7:55

I will tell you that one of my coworkers she said I got to go I said, oh, everything, okay, I thought there was something wrong. I was like we have tickets for tonight's RV show. And I said what's an RV show? And she said it's. It's like an expo center and has all kinds of RVs and you want to see the new and exciting things. And I said, ladies and grace. I said, okay, have a good time. You know, each their own night. But I had never even heard of such a thing.

Speaker 3: 8:21

So, oh, they're big, but they generally they're in the springtime around here and got you so you know you can buy your new RV just before the spring season. So the other one that I found this one is interesting the paranormal road trippers nightmare gallery. I want to go. I'm in the paranormal road trippers nightmare gallery, somerset, kentucky. Well, um, now let me let me. I can see I've got you completely stumped on this one. This is a gentleman who is into the paranormal. A paranormal investigator has basically traveled the country collecting unique and haunted items and has put them all in one place.

Speaker 2: 9:04

Well, I think my wife would love that she watches all these crazy things, and I love the teaser. Don't get me wrong. I shall say oh, look at this, so look at that creepy thing in the corner. I'm like, babe, it's a reflection, and so she would. She would be somebody who would highly enjoy that.

Speaker 3: 9:20

So that's what I got. I just you know what other country is going to have an RV museum or some crazy paranormal you know, unique and haunted items museum.

Speaker 2: 9:32

So what I'm hearing is we'll go to Louisville. Yes, we'll get a baseball bat, absolutely. We'll get us a new RV and someone can scare the bejesus out of us.

Speaker 3: 9:46

And then we can go learn about Mary Todd Lincoln. So I was thinking so. And in Lexington they have the you know, probably five different horse museums. You know they've clearly, you know, got all the horse museums.

Speaker 2: 10:01

I think right on the Kentucky Horse Park Campground, right there it even says a museum.

Speaker 3: 10:06

Yeah, and they got the Kentucky Derby Museum and the Saddle Horse Museum and I didn't even get into the horse stuff. It was a little overwhelming, I gotta admit that's a beautiful area.

Speaker 2: 10:16

I could see why it'd be a good place for a museum.

Speaker 3: 10:19

Anyway, done with museums I'm just fascinated, driving through America, the signs that I see for museums.

Speaker 2: 10:27

Yeah, I feel guilty because at this point I am still perfectly fine with boarding an airplane and getting somewhere within a couple of hours.

Speaker 3: 10:36

But you lose out on the American experience. You're missing out, trust me, you are missing out.

Speaker 2: 10:44

But I get that much more additional time than somewhere else.

Speaker 3: 10:47

Yeah, but you've never seen the world's largest cast-iron skillet. You're right, I haven't I was gonna say I don't need to, but you really do need to. It's like the largest ball of popcorn.

Speaker 2: 10:59

I've seen that. You have and you're a better person for it. Yeah, I didn't know what to expect when we were in Iowa and it said you're gonna see the largest ball of popcorn and we drove by. I almost missed it, but it was inside of a building. I was expecting it to be like outside, but then of course, the birds probably did.

Speaker 3: 11:21

Yeah, that tree with all the birds in it, that's actually the yeah. So there we go. You're missing out. I'm just saying road trips are a wonderful thing and you should try them a little bit more. But that's fine if you don't want to.

Speaker 2: 11:35

You know, I know what it is to be fair. For nine almost 10 years of my life I drove the bus and I literally spent 40 hours a week inside the bus. I did a wonderful job and I loved helping people, and the last thing that I would want to do, like on Friday night, is someone said, hey, let's drive just so-and-so. I'm like I am out. So I think that's where it comes from.

Speaker 3: 11:59

But you're not driving a bus. I mean I'm not saying you take a road trip and grab a bus and the wife and go on a big bus or anything. I'm saying you know, you explore America. I'm leaving it at that. You explore America.

Speaker 2: 12:13

All right, and the only thing I'll add to that is I don't disagree with you, but it is going to be interesting. So if I said to you 1980s movie, if I said to you traveling in this country, if you couldn't afford a plane ticket, your mind would probably think a bus and what I am curious about is Greyhound was just purchased by another company and I just wonder if those days of like getting on a bus like that are going to go to the wayside. Just a random thing, I thought I would just talk to you, so that is pretty random.

Speaker 2: 12:51

Yeah, it's random, but I just was thinking to myself. You know you talk about traveling this great country and you know people do it by bus or by car. I just wonder if it's going to be gone one day.

Speaker 3: 13:05

So it's a ponder. Things are ponder Just to think about. But why we're pondering things? Yes, I got. I got something to go on here.

Speaker 1: 13:14

Bear with me, bear with me.

Speaker 3: 13:17

Think of, oh say, 2004. You're on your bicycle, You're cruising along in 2005. And I don't think you're recycling in 2004.

Speaker 2: 13:26

I wasn't, but I'm going to play along.

Speaker 3: 13:28

Oh yeah, you're cruising along. You've got that, the hottest new 2004 bicycle. You know, you've got some, some great gear, the Huffy I'm just kidding, you got a very fine Huffy. You're going along and you look down and you see how far you've went. Now, my point to this whole thing is I started thinking about the computers, the computers of old, the computers of just like 10 years ago or a little bit further. You know, they were there. They were these little tiny things and boy, let me tell you we were excited because they would tell us how far our trip distance was, the total distance we had went on that computer, and they told us our speed and they were this really cool thing. And they clicked in there and they were wired. You had to have them wired and they ran on one of those little round batteries. I just started thinking about that and we thought we were just awesome when we had that computer.

Speaker 2: 14:36

Well, at the time you were, but unfortunately technology is at rock speed.

Speaker 3: 14:42

You're not awesome anymore, yeah, so I started thinking about this. Ok, I started looking at today's, because I don't have any wires hooked to mine and I know, you don't have any wires hooked to yours. I do not and I started looking at all the different options you had and I was like, wow, cycling, computer technology has came a long ways, and just say 15 years.

Speaker 2: 15:07

You make a good point. I mean and I have mentioned a few times on this show that I have a 2013 track Love it. I was 17, 16, 17,. Don't be sorry, listen. I understand that you've got the Celeste Bianchi. I know it's nice and it's beautiful. I call it your Italian stallion, but it's no track, so anyways. So the point is but no, seriously. I got that bike in 2013 and when I left the shop with it and had a computer about the size, I would say a half dollar. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 15:44

Oh, it was even smaller than oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:47

A little round ones, a little bond tracker, and all it told you was how many miles you've done and your speed. That's about it. And then I had a dual trap sensor in it and some of the computers were just starting to come out that would read that. And then I bought a Wahoo Reflect. The Reflect was even smaller than a business card. It was probably no bigger than an Apple Watch, honestly. And then I decided I needed this Magellan bike computer and at the time was very expensive. And then since then, then I went to Wahoo and then recently, as you know, I switch, so you're absolutely right, I switched to the Karoo 2 hammerhead, which will get into that. But so you're right, they come a long way and the things that they can do now, I mean you can read text messages on them, you can read I wouldn't necessarily suggest you're reading text messages while you're cycling, but you could do it if you chose to.

Speaker 2: 16:55

No, I mean the things that we're saying. There's just what they have available.

Speaker 3: 17:00

We're not telling people you should probably read messages or take phone calls or anything like that. No, my question to you then. So we're going to talk a little bit about cycling computers. I thought that might be interesting to do today because we've not addressed it and I know you use a different brand of computer than I use. First question that people ask is do I need a cycling computer?

Speaker 2: 17:23

I don't think so. I mean, I don't think you absolutely have to have a bike computer. Let's, let's take it, let's take the basics. Do you need a helmet? In my opinion, yes, I think you need a helmet. Cycling shoes that's up for debate as well, if you're not comfortable with it?

Speaker 3: 17:39

Yeah, you don't need cycling shoes. I don't.

Speaker 2: 17:42

Well, obviously only man I know who peddled 165 miles without cycling shoes.

Speaker 3: 17:47

So you did very well, by the way.

Speaker 2: 17:49

Oh my gosh, so you don't need it. But do you need a cycling computer? Not necessarily. I mean, if you're doing an organized rides, most of the time somebody has gone out and marked those rides. Most recent ride you and I did was the bourbon country burn and they use the bourbon bottle. And if the bourbon bottle is pointing to the left and you were following the blue route, well, guess what your turn left going left. Most, most organized rides prints map. They print maps, excuse me, or they have maps downloadable. And as far as recording everything, the cell phone, I mean just like it killed my photography business the cell phone is very comparable, very competitive to any bike computer, in my opinion.

Speaker 3: 18:39

And everybody has a cell phone. They're carrying it with them at any given time. The other thing about a cell phone, other than everybody has it obviously it's affordable because you have it and you can get things like Strava or map my ride. There's a ton of apps out there that could that can allow you to like record your rides and, you know, share them with your friends and that kind of thing. The only downside I have with the cell phone is we've ran into this before is battery life.

Speaker 2: 19:07

I would say yeah, I mean, in my personal opinion, is not only battery life but sometimes coverage. I mean true, you know, when you and I went across Michigan we were hitting most areas that we did when we did O'Bram, which, if you never looked into that ride, put your hand up in the air, but your thumb is on the right side. Take your finger from your pinky all the way to the crevice of your of your hand. That's O'Bram right there. So 160 some miles, we did that in one day. Why do?

Speaker 3: 19:39

Michigan people always use their hand to show their state.

Speaker 2: 19:43

Come on now, don't do this, because you're going to walk me right into a horrible joke. Why do the people from Ohio use their arm?

Speaker 1: 19:50

Oh, no, no, no no no, no, moving right along, it's just. Ever since I've known Adam.

Speaker 3: 19:57

I'm not that familiar with Michigan. I mean I've ridden across a couple of times and been to his house several times, but he always like they, and even everybody I run into is like oh well, wherever that's. And they hold up their hand and they're like it's, you know, it's here on the hand. I'm like OK, anyway.

Speaker 2: 20:13

I mean it's like having a map with you everywhere you go, as long as you have a hand.

Speaker 3: 20:17

so Good thing it's not shaped some other way or something. You guys are out of luck it's like well, it's a yeah Pintag, a grand thing octagonal anyways.

Speaker 2: 20:29

There were times that when we went across the state of Michigan We'd have solid service and we'd lose service and solid service. So some people get frustrated when they use their cell phone because they've lost service. They don't collect the miles that they want to collect and of course, the battery life, like you said. I mean unless you have a way of charging. That If you have, you know nowadays you know 10,000 milliamp chargers to carry next with you. Know, next to you or with you is nothing there. Pennies on the dollar, I mean they're cheap so you could record it. But now you're carrying another device on your bicycle to be able to charge your phone. Do you so by computer? Many of them are designed to last a long time. But your question is do you absolutely have to have one? I would say no, you don't have to. If you do regular cycling on a regular basis, I think it's a nice perk to have.

Speaker 3: 21:22

Yeah, okay. Well, I think when you're looking at bike computers to me, there are so many different kinds out there now. I mean, back in the day Cat eyes was like the, the brand, but nowadays they've just got so many brands out there. You know they have different options. I think to me the biggest thing is ease of use. Yep, and the display. Yeah, the size of the display. I don't myself. I don't need color. I know you have a color display, but the size of the display and how easy it is to use Are the two biggest features that really drive me.

Speaker 2: 21:58

I'm just surprised, safety wise, I mean, because mine is color and it's about the size of a deck of playing cards. I mean, you're using an iPad.

Speaker 3: 22:06

I was really surprised, so I'm Watching 80s movies as he rides across the state.

Speaker 2: 22:12

I'm just kidding, but you know that's a good point. I mean some of them. Some of them have huge screens, like the Garmin 1040, big, big screen on that thing. The 1040s are also solar and so of course that's built in there so it charges by itself. Yes, I mean. So, like I said, I use the hammerhead.

Speaker 2: 22:38

Hammerhead was an impulse buy over the summer, right before I went to Iowa, the idea that you could put a data card, a cellular data card, in. I love the fact that you know my family was a little bit concerned of of the grueling miles and Iowa and they kind of wanted to be able to like follow me along the route and it was pretty cool. I mean it would show what time we started, because I would use a route every day and it would say this is how much, how long we were into the route. It would show how long we have left of the route. It would give my average miles per hour, it would tell exactly and I mean exactly where I was and even though we were out there with thousands of people a rag brine, I got service every day.

Speaker 3: 23:21

So so what I'm hearing is your family was concerned that you would be out there along the road somewhere. So basically, they have no faith and confidence in my ability to make sure that you are safe out there.

Speaker 2: 23:39

Absolutely. That's what I'm hearing. Absolutely true. I mean, I didn't want to say it, so I mean you said it. So Absolutely, yeah, no, no that's not true at all.

Speaker 3: 23:53

You don't trust that Michael guy. Get something better than him, because he'll leave you in a ditch.

Speaker 2: 23:57

That's not true at all. My family thinks the world of you, but no, it was just a comfort level for me and it's a feature. As you mentioned, some of them have more features, some of them have less features. The other thing is doing updates to the device. It's an Android based device and there's multiple updates and I could just sit and do the updates from anywhere. I don't have to be connected to a Wi-Fi. So there was a couple perks for me for that particular unit that I decided to go. Also, I caught a summer sale. I mean, some of these computers could be 749, 400 bucks, 200 bucks, I mean, 300 bucks. I mean when you're talking price point, depending on what kind of features you're looking for oh features.

Speaker 2: 24:46

Yeah, depending what you're looking for. I mean to be very truthful. During the summer excuse me I picked my new Karoo 2 up for 259 bucks. They're still selling it for 399 now, so I caught it on sale. It was an impulse buy. I wanted to try a different computer system Really cool, because that one for me has pinch and touch screen and you can pinch and zoom and so there were some features there that I really wanted to try. You know, so far I like it, but before that I had a Wahoo element and it was that's what I got.

Speaker 2: 25:25

Yeah, so it's honestly for the longest time. I used to call the Wahoo the apple of the apple of buy computers or basically something that just worked. I mean, you've had that unit for how long?

Speaker 3: 25:39

Oh four or five years and you've had zero issues with it. Zero issues, yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:46

And, by the way, my element had zero issues and of course a lot of people say if it wasn't broke, why did you fix it? I fully admit mine was an impulse buy, just for some of the features.

Speaker 3: 25:54

Because you're one of those tech guys and you always want the latest and greatest. That's true and that's okay.

Speaker 2: 25:59

I fully admit that I do. I like new. Sometimes. New is not always the greatest, because there were some features from my Wahoo. That's the one thing that's weird. There were some features that my Wahoo had that when I got the hammerhead I opened it up and said, okay, where's this setting? I just assumed because this was like standard. And when I decided behind the scenes to email support at Hammerhead and they wrote back and said, oh, I'm sorry, we don't offer that feature, I couldn't help myself. I'm like, well, you're a competitor, we're not Wahoo. Yeah, exactly, but anyways. So of course our friend Juan always teases me and always says just get a Garmin.

Speaker 3: 26:42

He's all about Garmin. Garmin have a lot of good stuff. I mean, garmin's got the 1040, which comes in a solar power unit, so the battery life is not an issue really, I mean, as long as you're charging up a little bit as you go, and they advertise on, like their 1040 and I think even their Garmin Edge 540, that they get up to something like 26 hours of battery life. So I mean we're yours. It advertises 10.

Speaker 2: 27:15

Yeah, but I think you were. I don't think you quite got that much but on a hot day in the middle of Iowa.

Speaker 2: 27:23

I can tell you I got six. Now what I did is it charges via USB-C, and it did have to be fair. It did have the like low power mode, but the whole point was is I bought it because I wanted the features that they were offering, and of course that's in high power mode, and so I actually you and I, throughout the years, have purchased batteries from REI that are rechargeable, that just do just amazing stuff.

Speaker 3: 27:51

Small, small little fits right in your back pocket. Goal, zero, goal zero, yep, yep.

Speaker 2: 27:56

And so all I would do is, in my bike bag that's on the top bar of my bike, I had a USB-C cable from there going there, right from the computer into the goal zero battery. No one would ever know the difference. I mean, we were going straight for most of the 500 miles and even when we turn, there's nothing that was pulling or yanking on the cord, and so, essentially, I was able to figure out a way, but of course, that's another item that I had to purchase to make it work. But while you were talking, I decided to pull up a website, and I want to give credit where credit is due. But on OutdoorGearLabcom, wouldn't you know it, they have a site called the Six Best Bike Computers of 2023.

Speaker 3: 28:42

Woohoo, are you ready for Let me guess, are we starting at the six or number one?

Speaker 2: 28:48

I will start at six for fun.

Speaker 3: 28:50

Because, I bet I can tell you what number one is.

Speaker 2: 28:52

Okay, but don't tell me yet, I'm not telling no, go, all right. Number six the Hammerhead Caroo 2. So there are five more better, according to this, than mine.

Speaker 3: 29:04

And you got to understand. This is people that are out there using them and do this, but it's going to be different for everybody, depending on what features are important to you. That's all. That's what you got to keep in mind.

Speaker 2: 29:16

According to them I'm not sure what time they did this study, but according to them the price was $3.99. It got four and a half stars out of five. The pros are beautiful display, great navigation I agree with that User friendly, lots of premium features. Like you said, I'm a gadget guy. That makes sense.

Speaker 3: 29:38

Premium features, though. Does that mean you have to purchase additional thing? Okay, so that's just-. Premium features does not necessarily mean you have to get some kind of subscription to get special-.

Speaker 2: 29:49

Nope, special things Okay cool. No good point though, but no, the cons, or integration with third party is spotty, pricey and, as they say, it's a battery hog, which I would agree with, that So-.

Speaker 3: 30:04

I remember you've told me that it was a battery hog.

Speaker 2: 30:06

Yeah, bottom line it says that Hammerhead's first serious contender for the top computer in the cycling world. So that's number six. What's number five? Number five the Garmin Edge Explorer 2. This comes in at 300 bucks. The pro for this is excellent navigation, a good feature set, bright, colorful screen. According to them, the cons are tough to use in the rain, can be slow, has limited workout features and, according to them, bottom line is a great computer with a bright screen for navigation and adventurous limitations and workout features and sometimes has a laggy interface.

Speaker 3: 30:55

Ooh, don't want a laggy interface.

Speaker 2: 30:58

Nope.

Speaker 3: 30:58

Okay, what about Go ahead. Number four Number four.

Speaker 2: 31:03

No, just kidding. Number four the Garmin 830. List price was 400, but they're claiming you can now buy it for $309.99 at a little site called Amazon. So if you've never been there, they sell all kinds of cool stuff. But anyways the pro awesome features in an app environment, bluetooth this is kind of weird how they write this Bluetooth smart and ant plus. For anyone who doesn't realize, bluetooth and ant plus are two languages that computers speak to your sensors on your bike wirelessly. So sometimes you can have a device that's Bluetooth, such as a heart rate monitor, or you might have a sensor built into the frame of the bike. That could be ant plus, but that's how the computer talks to all the sensors. That could be like a wheel sensor or a speed sensor, heart rate, things like that. Let's go back to what they said, just to give them their due diligence.

Speaker 3: 32:01

Let's get out of the nerd speak and get back to it.

Speaker 2: 32:03

I was just saying that if somebody wants to know. It says awesome features and amp app environment, bluetooth, smart and ant plus has a good battery life. It's touchscreen radar and bike light controlled. The cons system might crash. That's interesting, that's two garments in a row that says laggy and might crash, but it says system might crash, navigate glitches, strava, live track integration issues. So that's really weird that number five and number four and five are both garments and they both say they might be glitchy. So as a tech guy I would not like that, so we don't like glitchy. Bottom line it says it's a fantastic bike computer with super useful functions and features for everyone, from training to navigation.

Speaker 2: 32:59

All right, Number three number three, the Wahoo fitness element bolt version two. This is two hundred and seventy nine bucks. Pros simple operation, great suite of great suite of metrics, good navigation, uniquely useful LEDs. If anyone ever seen that computer, they usually have LEDs on the side and LEDs on the top. Both of them are customizable. You can do different items, such as you want to show your power or your heart rate or your speed. You can actually use LED lights as an additional thing on top of the screen to be able to read things.

Speaker 3: 33:38

And you can customize that at the app right.

Speaker 2: 33:43

You do and that's a cool part about the Wahoo computers is basically, the Wahoo computer is a representation of what you want the app to be on the, what you set inside your app on your phone whether that's Apple or Google, I don't care either, or and so what you could do is you could say okay, I want this screen. You can have hundreds of screens of different data things that you'd like to look at. If you're a guy who likes to look at miles per hour and heart rate, you could look at that. If you're a guy who likes to look at all kinds of stuff, you can do. I mean, it is really sweet when it comes to customizing those different screens that you can have. According to them, the cons of that computer is lacks activity, specific settings, it has a small screen and, like we said, it requires a phone use for some features and, according to them, an unimpressive battery. Now, I'd never had an issue with my Wahoo, to be honest.

Speaker 3: 34:41

So I have not either. I mean, I've gone 160 mile days and not had problems with it.

Speaker 2: 34:49

Gotcha. But bottom line for that one, it says a smooth to use device. A smooth to use device that just works day in and day out and does what you need, no more. No number two, number two, all right, the Garmin Edge 1040 solar solar.

Speaker 3: 35:11

Oh no. Yes, that was going to be my number one choice the Garmin Edge 1040 solar charger.

Speaker 2: 35:17

I think I well, let's hear what they have to say.

Speaker 3: 35:20

But okay, that would have been my. That's what I was going to say was number one, but 750 bucks.

Speaker 2: 35:26

You better polish the pennies, my friends. That's right, yeah, exactly the pros giant screen, amazing feature, exceptional battery life. Well, yeah, it's solar, it better have an exceptional battery life. The cons expensive features can be overwhelming and touchscreen only. Oh, okay, bottom line an amazing computer with a huge screen and great battery due the integrated solar panel, held back by the expense and a few physical buttons. Okay, ready for number one.

Speaker 3: 36:06

Number one. I'm going to have to say I don't know what it's going to be, but I'm going to say probably going to be another Garmin. It is a Garmin, I figured so.

Speaker 2: 36:17

According to this, it won an award as editor's choice. It is the Garmin 840, coming in at 450 bucks. This is the top rated five full stars. Top class features and app. It's easy to use, unmatched sensor connectivity and an incredible versatile. Some of the cons expensive, overkill for some, smaller screen and bottom line does everything you need and more in an excellent device that fixes Garmin's past Blitches. Yeah, they're using a fancy word, but I think they're trying to be insulting to the other models. So sounds like if you're into a Garmin, the 840 might be the way to go, is a place to go. Well, that's cool.

Speaker 3: 37:10

All right. Now we know I've never had any trouble with mine, I've never had any trouble with the batteries. I just think when you start to look at this I mean unless you're at them and just like, oh look, technology and you just buy something I think when you go out to look, the things that I'm looking for, like I said, is easy use, easy setup. I'm not a techie guy. I don't want to have to go a bunch of places and do a bunch of stuff to get it set up. The battery life is important, depending on for me, depending on what kind of rides I mean. We're generally doing seven, eight, nine hour rides, versus if you're just going out and doing two hours, the battery life probably isn't that big a deal. The screen size unfortunately, as I get older I notice that the screen size that iPad is not big enough.

Speaker 3: 37:59

Well, I do wear the reading sunglasses to help me out a little bit, so I need all the help I can get there. And then also on the screen is the touch. Do you want to have the touch ability or do you want to use the side buttons? Honestly, I don't fiddle with mine a whole lot. I don't know if a touchscreen would do me a lot of good. Right now mine is, you know, I can just do it on the button, the three buttons that are at the bottom of my Wahoo, to change it to different settings. The one final thing I wanted to bring up is we use radars.

Speaker 2: 38:32

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 38:34

And like on my Wahoo, he was talking about the little lights. You know you can have that set up so that when your radar's coming, the little lights on the side will, you know, change color to like be orange or be red, based upon the speed of the vehicle and that type of thing. So I really like the integration that they have with things like cycling radars.

Speaker 2: 38:55

Absolutely, and one thing I have to give credit for most of these computers is there are other companies than Garmin that make the radar, but I will say that Garmin is the most popular brand of radar and I think what's really cool is the integration of all of these brand name computers to allow the Garmin radar to work with it. If you have never seen this radar, I truly believe in my heart that it is probably one of the best inventions for a safety for a cyclist that I've seen in a long time, maybe right behind the helmet.

Speaker 3: 39:35

Right behind the helmet.

Speaker 2: 39:36

Right, I mean, the way this device works is you somehow attach it to the rear of the bicycle? Some like to use a mount that sticks onto the seat post, Some like it with the two bars on the seat. You can get some of the clamps on there. The actual device comes with a rubber block, or chalk if you want, that sits on the seat post with rubber bands and holds it on. And the idea is, if a car is 200 meters behind you, you start to see on the bottom of your bike computer the little insignia of a car and as that car gets closer to you, then that car moves up the screen. If it's coming at a normal pace, then your bike computer is maybe green or orange or thinking. You know, thinking everything is good. If the car is coming faster it moves into orange, and if a car is coming really fast it goes into red.

Speaker 2: 40:26

And all jokes aside, I used to say red is dead, but unfortunately what happens now is you're right on the side of the road where there's a sidewalk and the cars are to your left. It will show up red. But at least you know and you make you more aware of your surroundings and cars behind you. So, as you mentioned, in the computers, usually on the side of the computer, there's a little I don't know eighth of an inch block on the computer that allows this, and the radar will show up to eight cars. And so, depending how many cars you have behind you, if you're in a park and you're riding let's say you're in a metro park or or your local city park and the cars you can actually see one.

Speaker 2: 41:04

They got three cars behind you and you'll hear a lot of cyclists say, okay, there's one more going around. Is one more going around? Of course, the radar should never, never, never, never be your soul. You should still look, you should still turn your head, look. But it is definitely a great invention and tool, and so it's really neat to see all the bike computers whether a perfect example would be the Karoo hammerhead, my Garmin radar within two seconds connected to it and work with it. So that's pretty cool.

Speaker 3: 41:38

So another great piece of cycling technology.

Speaker 2: 41:43

That's. That's. That that's saved you and I on a ride that we just want, don't talk about so we don't talk about that ride, but yeah, thank goodness for the radar.

Speaker 3: 41:53

Absolutely yeah, that's we're here today.

Speaker 2: 41:56

We won't do that again. So, anyways, so lots of great companies out there, why don't you and I drop a link to this website, give website credit where the credit is due, in the show notes, and so this is outdoor gear, labcom, and we'll we'll drop the link to this review for bike computers for those who are interested.

Speaker 3: 42:20

I think it sounds great. You know it's one of those things that you don't think of very often, but when you need a new one you go out there and it's a bit overwhelming. And if you're a newer rider or you're a bit of rider and had been out of the game for, you know, 10, 15 years, it's a whole different ballgame, a lot of different things that it's just amazing that your bike computer can, can tell you, and you can also I mean all of these you can hook up to a heart monitor, either through your watch or through a chest, you know strap, and it will monitor your heart and tell you what zones you're in and all that kind of thing as well. So they're pretty crazy.

Speaker 2: 42:59

And and and the computer you use, the Wahoo. They even have an arm strap for your heart rate which is really it's rechargeable, and so I, like you said, I'm a, I'm a techie, I love to look at all that stuff. And then I asked a few friends about that and they said it just wasn't as accurate as a, as a chest, and I imagine the chest is always going to be your best, so but yeah, jerry's still out for me. I mean, if someone said to me, would you buy, buy a career hammerhead? I mean there's a lot of great things I love about it. I think I just need to use this some more before I would say yes or no.

Speaker 3: 43:32

Yeah, you haven't had a lot, of a lot of time to use it. So we'll come back to this later on, after you've written another season, and see, see if you're wanting to bring back the old Wahoo. That's right, maybe Cool, all right. Well, I'm glad we talked about cycling computers. I think the final thing we got to talk about is we've got some exciting, exciting or an exciting episode coming up. You want to talk about that?

Speaker 2: 43:58

Yeah, we do. We are going to have someone on who's done a ride called bike and build. Bike and build was brought to our attention by the next guest coming on and essentially.

Speaker 3: 44:13

Yeah, I was just going to say we were at the Kentucky ride, yep, we're setting around a campfire and they say, oh yeah, I went on this ride, that I did this and this and I thought they were joking. I did. I'm completely honest. I thought they were just trying to lead us down a path and make us look silly. I had to look it up.

Speaker 2: 44:36

As a matter of fact, our guests will be a she. And when they said when she said, oh yeah, I rode my bike across the country and we built houses, and just for a second I had to process that in my head I was like, so I'm very familiar with habits after humanities, they do some wonderful stuff and many, many, many areas of the world, but did you ride so far? Then they brought you back and then you worked on a different house, or how did that work? And and no, we'll let the guests talk about it, but it was bike and build, which is, ride your bike across the country and build affordable housing, and and sure enough, they would ride so far and then they would work on a house in that area.

Speaker 2: 45:20

Our day off were helping build a house, so we're pretty excited about having having her on blows my mind, blows my mind. That's incredible so and I would like to hear, like the route, how many days in a row? Things like how often did you break? Would you get a certain you know few days off? Or how'd you do laundry, and I mean all the things that you and I think about when we go cycling. Did you have to wear your tool belt while?

Speaker 3: 45:48

you're on your road, you know yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:50

That's right.

Speaker 1: 45:52

Here's my hammer and my hammer and my measuring.

Speaker 2: 45:57

If I had a hammer and I'm just kidding, I won't sing, so no, that's, that's what we got up next, and then that'll be interesting.

Speaker 3: 46:05

I've got a lot of questions.

Speaker 2: 46:07

I do too. I'm curious and I'm intrigued. I really am. So that's, that's pretty much it, but the only thing that I would say is in Michigan, you know what it wasn't today?

Speaker 3: 46:22

Well, I would say it's always Michigan included, a great day for a bike ride. You just have to be motivated to do it.

Speaker 2: 46:33

You better be real motivated.

Speaker 3: 46:35

It poured and it's cold Top reasons why not to live in Michigan.

Speaker 2: 46:43

Hey, listen. It may not be my best choice, but listen. There are some beautiful times here in Michigan, but today was, today was not one of them, so still other parts of the country.

Speaker 3: 46:56

It's a great day for bike ride.

Speaker 2: 46:58

Absolutely All right, fair enough. Thank you so much, thank you.

Speaker 1: 47:04

Thank you for coming along with Adam and Michael on Road Adventures with Cycling man of Leisure. If you have enjoyed this, please subscribe to the show on the podcast app of your choice.