Me and My Computer

Tuesday, July 19, 2005, at 11:29AM

By Eric Richardson

I bought a cycle computer yesterday -- a Cateye Enduro 8 -- and used it for the first time on my ride into work today. I'm trying to make sure I've got it all set up and callibrated correctly. To do that, though, I need a way to show mileage for the routes I take, which is something driving direction oriented tools won't manage (they don't account for cuts through parks, etc). Gmap Pedometer is an amazing tool for that sort of thing. It lets you just plot points on the map and creates a path out of it. It doesn't hold you to roadways, which is both good and bad. Good, in that parks are no problem. Bad, in that you have to manually click your way down the bends of a roadway.

In any case, it's the best thing I have at my disposal. Here you can see my route from my apartment to Union Station. The pedometer shows 1.29 miles, while my computer showed 1.45. Here's my route from Memorial Park to JPL. For this leg the pedometer lists 4.8 miles, while the computer gives me 4.91.

At first I thought this might be calibration error, but in that case the error should be linear, and increase with distance. Obviously these differences aren't doing that. My best guess? I don't ride in a straight line.

Here's the fun route -- JPL to my apartment. Some parts make more sense from the satellite view; the bike path shows up in empty space on the map. Here the pedometer gives me 14.81 miles. We're see how that corresponds to actual distance travelled by the bike in just a bit.

Other quick stats: Max speed on the ride in was 28.5mph, down a hill on Lincoln. Average speed was 12.5mph, though that includes limited sections pushing the bike through Union Station, etc (at 3-4mph). We'll see what I hit on the hill down Salvia Canon coming toward the Rose Bowl. I'm guessing 37mph.