In Gulliver’s Travels, the Lilliputians find a watch in the protagonist’s pockets. They don’t quite understand what it is for, but they discover that Gulliver consults it before doing anything. They conclude that it must be his God.
Three hundred years later, all we would need to do is take them to the finish line of a gran fondo. They would see cyclists who, one metre after the finish line, before they have even caught their breath, lower their heads and press a button on their handlebars. Before hugging anyone. Before having a drink. Before even realising how they feel. They have to stop their bike computer. Otherwise it will ruin their average speed. The Lilliputians would take notes. Then they would see someone return from a beautiful ride and get angry because the GPS didn’t record it. Someone else decide not to go for a ride because their bike computer has run out of battery. Yet another cyclist look at their watts to decide whether they can be happy with themselves. They would probably have figured it all out by then.
And what about us? Do we recognise ourselves, at least a little? Bike computers, power meters and apps are extraordinary tools. They help us train, understand our progress, discover new roads. And for many people, they are part of the fun.
But every now and then, we could try an experiment: go for a ride with nothing on the handlebars.
No bike computer. No numbers to check. No worrying about recording the ride. At first, we might even feel a little strange. How far is it to the top? How fast are we going? How many kilometres have we ridden? Then, perhaps, we might begin to notice other things. The road changing beneath our wheels. The sound of the tyres on the tarmac. Our breathing becoming heavier on the climb and settling down again when the road levels out.
We could stop to admire a view, take a road we’ve never ridden before or ride alongside a friend without thinking about our average speed. And when we got home, we wouldn’t have a map to post or a summary to study. But we would still have everything we had experienced in our legs and in our minds.
There is no need to give up technology forever. But every now and then, a ride with nothing on the handlebars can remind us of something simple: why we started riding a bicycle.
And you, when was the last time you went for a ride without a bike computer?
