The Best Bike Computers
At its most basic, a bike computer should tell you how far you have gone and how fast you are going. However, in today’s data-driven world, most riders demand much more than that. A slightly more advanced rider may want to know information like average and maximum speed, as well as have a total odometer tracking mileage for a whole season. More serious consumers often expect GPS navigation, social connectivity like Strava, heart rate and cadence monitors, elevation tracking, and power output.
In our test, we only evaluated cycling computers with GPS. While there are many inexpensive basic bike computers, we feel that the multi-functional GPS models are more worthy of in-depth testing and comparison. And while you can get plenty of ride-tracking information from a smartphone and a good app, a dedicated bike computer is the way to go for a serious cyclist. A smartphone app can provide the same information as a basic bike computer while also connecting to social sharing networks, but the phone interface is not designed for easy manipulation while in the saddle. A dedicated bike computer serves as both a navigation tool and a training data recorder with better battery life than your phone.
96 
