What cycling computer features should I prioritize as a beginner rider on a budget?

QUESTION: I’m looking to buy my first cycling computer, but I’m overwhelmed by all the options. What features should I prioritize for a beginner rider on a budget? —Sarah L.

RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES: Although budget needs to be considered, a better starting point for determining which features you should prioritize is to decide what data you want the device you purchase to provide.

For example, if you primarily want to know how far you have traveled on a given ride and maybe what your average speed was, any of the basic computers is sufficient, and you can spend as little as $15 for one of these. And even at that price, the computer will likely provide an odometer and readouts for current speed, trip distance and more.

For a few more bucks — say up to $75 — you’ll almost certainly have additional features, including maximum speed, trip distance, trip speed, a clock and perhaps a stopwatch, as well as altimeter, cadence and temperature readouts. And there’s no reason you have to track all these functions unless you want to. Typically, you can click through a series of screens that show the various groupings of the functions, but once you determine what you want to know most of the time — perhaps speed, time of day and trip distance, you can leave the computer on that screen while riding.

An advantage of the basic models is that once set up, you generally don’t have to mess with them other than to adjust the clock when daylight time starts or ends. For models that don’t have rechargeable batteries, you will also need to reset them when replacing the battery. But today, even many of the basic computers are rechargeable.

One thing basic computers do not provide is navigation assistance. So these days, when cyclists speak of bike computers, they often mean GPS computers, which do help with navigation — real time GPS, route planning and tracking, and turn-by-turn directions. GPS computers also offer weather info and data on interval training, power expended, climbing and electronic shifting. They provide the ability to download your data and routes to a linked app for analysis, sharing with others and comparing your performance to riders in online communities such as Strava. These computers have rechargeable batteries.

GPS computers usually cost a few hundred dollars. While you can technically use a GPS computer without a subscription to a navigation service like Ride With GPS or Map My Ride, to access features like turn-by-turn navigation, detailed route planning and offline maps, you will need to purchase a subscription to unlock the full functionality of these services, and the subscription price is an ongoing cost for using a GPS computer.

Since you haven’t said which features you most want in a bike computer or what your budget is, I can’t recommend a specific device. But my personal experience is that most of the time, a basic computer is all I want. The majority of my riding is in my home county and surrounding area, and once I have explored a route, I remember it and don’t need a map for the next time I ride it (I sometimes refer to this as the GPS in my head). Where I sometimes wish for an actual GPS computer, however, is when pedaling in an unfamiliar area with a group where the route has been mapped for us in advance and is available for download and turn-by-turn assistance. But even in those cases, there’s usually a printed cue sheet provided, and I’m often riding with others who do have GPS computers.

There’s also always the option of using your phone as your bike computer. There are several companies that sell mounts that will hold your phone in place as if it were a regular bike computer. Some riders don’t use a mount at all and will simply start an app like Strava, put the phone in their rear jersey pocket and record their rides and only look at the data later, after they finish and upload it. Cadence is another app that has previously been an advertiser at RBR.

I ride for pleasure and exercise. I keep a record of miles ridden, but I don’t track other aspects of my performance on the bike.

So even if you aren’t a good navigator, but most of your riding is in a group where you are pedaling with friends, and you aren’t tracking your performance, a basic computer may be all you need.

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Stan Purdum has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including an across-America ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on U.S. 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio. See more at www.StanPurdum.com.