Today's ride started at around 10:00AM. Rode North through St. Omer, Middletown, Waldron, St. Paul and Adams. This was my first bike trip ever into St. Omer, Middletown, Waldron and St. Paul and I believe this is my first time ever in St. Paul. I enjoy riding through small towns and often (as today) put in a few extra miles exploring; which slows down my average speed.
Trip map:
Waldron loop
Distance: 35.88 miles
Average speed:15.03 MPH
Bicycle computer:
Some of you may wonder how I get the trip miles and the average speed, this is gathered through the use of the bike computer. This is a device about the size of a wristwatch that is bought separate from the bike. It works by having a sensor on the frame next to the front wheel. This sensor then counts every time a magnet that is installed on the front wheel passes by the sensor; this equates to the wheel doing a complete rotation. The computer then calculates the distance traveled by taking the number of times the wheel spins and multiplying by the diameter of the wheel.
How does it know the diameter you ask? I measure it by placing a long piece of masking tape on our cement driveway. I then mark a spot on the tire and ride the bike down the piece of tape until that mark rotates next to the tape twice. I mark both times the mark crosses the tape and then measure the distance to the nearest millimeter. This measurement is then entered in the bike computer. This makes for a very accurate measure of distance and average speed, much more accurate then most car speedometers.
The computer can also measure how fast in revolutions per minute that my feet are spinning, I'm typically over 90 RPM. It also has a clock and trip time, distance and average speed. The trip parameters are only calculated when the bike is actually moving, that way it doesn't hurt my average speed when I stop at stop lights, stop signs or those rare rest breaks.
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