Last summer I biked from Provo, UT down to Mesquite, NV. My brother Jared came along with a high-definition camera and got some nice footage. The video above is a spec ad that he put together showcasing the power meter that I use on my bike (click here for a high-res version of the video). This power meter gives me lots of interesting data about every ride, including altitude, road grade, temperature, and wind speed (more information about it below). Interesting data for this 5-day trip include:
Mileage: 402.471 miles
Mileage (no wind): 446.026 miles
Mileage (no wind and flat): 489.002 miles
Energy expended: 18,161 kJ
Vertical climbing: 27,906 feet
Pedal revolutions: 119,483
Temperature: 45 to 111°F
Maximum wind speed: 42.1 mph
Below are overall statistics for my cycling during 2011. I'm off to a late start this year because of a cold, snowy winter and lots of work, but I hope to get in many miles this summer, bringing my cumulative mileage to be over 10,000.
Mileage: 559.779 miles
Mileage (no wind): 550.980 miles (–-0.02%)
Mileage (no wind and flat): 554.841 miles (–-0.01%)
Time on bike: 36:31:18
Energy expended: 21,816 kJ
Vertical climbing: 11,770 feet
Pedal revolutions: 153,594
I use an iAero to gather all this data. The iAero is a wireless power meter made by Velocomp that gives me nine sets of data for every ride (bike speed, wind speed, power, distance, cadence, heart rate, elevation, road grade, and temperature). The iBike Dash, an enhanced model of their power meter, was introduced last year. It generates the same data sets, and if used with an iPhone (instead of an iPod touch) it also includes GPS functionality.
I wrote a program that uses the data for each ride to calculate the speed I would have gone for two situations: (1) the same ride with no wind present and (2) a windless, flat ride, similar to riding on an indoor trainer. Calculated totals are included in the statistics on this page and show that tail winds are slightly more numerous than headwinds where I bike. Click here for a detailed description of the program and figures of power and speed output.
I used to use WKO+ to gather and analyze all my ride data, but I have grown tired of the program's shortcomings, most notably no native support for Macs. So, now I'm using Golden Cheetah, an open-source, free program that provides some features that WKO+ lacks. This program, while it has some shortcomings and bugs, is supported on Linux, Mac, and Windows, and is updated much more frequently than WKO+. Click here to see some of my data in Golden Cheetah.
Below is another spec ad that my brother Jared put together. It is currently being reviewed by the BYU Independent Study office. Click here for a high-res version of the video.
These statistics include all my available data back through 2008:
Mileage: 8,721.625 miles
Mileage (no wind): 8,581.053 miles (–1.61%)
Mileage (no wind and flat): 8,910.237 miles (+2.16%)
Time on bike: 552:38:50
Energy expended: 334,432 kJ
Vertical climbing: 261,406 feet
Pedal revolutions: 2,614,124
My cycling data is also available for 2009 and 2010.