Dave's Cycling Dashboard: Click on
photo to see full-size, labeled image

A couple of weeks ago, Peter Hamilton-Scott asked me to show how I mounted my Garmin Forerunner 201 on my bike. Apparently, he is a Forerunner owner who had not purchased a Garmin Forerunner Bike Mount and was trying to use the wrist strap to hold the Forerunner in place on his bike's handlebars.

I decided to show off my fully assembled cycling dashboard, including my Garmin Forerunner 201 and my Polar S-710 Heart Rate Monitor (if you want one like it, you can get a Polar S-720i). Each one has a bike mount that makes the gadgets fit the handlebars of my Marin Bear Valley SE mountain bike perfectly. (The Polar Bike Mount must be purchased separately as well.)

The beauty of this setup is that I can configure the displays of these devices to get a number of key ride statistics at a glance with minimal duplication. The stats I typically display are:

• Garmin Forerunner 201
  • ride time,
  • speed, and
  • distance.
• Polar S-710
  • speed,
  • cadence (requires Polar Cadence Sensor sold separately), and
  • heart rate.

The photo shown here was taken after my wife and I got back from a quick 10k ride.

I love this setup because I can use the Forerunner 201 as a sort of a scoreboard, so I can see how far I've ridden and how long I've been riding. When I ride my 26-mile training route, I can quickly see whether I am on pace.

After I'm done with the ride, I can download the ride data from my Forerunner and create maps and charts from it, using GPS Visualizer or USAPhotoMaps. (Those links point to articles on Operation Gadget that talk about using those geographic visualization services, not to the services themselves.)

I use my Polar S-710 to compile my training log. It's really helpful in gauging my level of physical effort, because it accurately measures and integrates heart rate, speed, and cadence, and estimates caloric consumption. You'll get a good idea of how Polar displays data for each exercise session by looking at my article about Polar Precision Performance Software.

I'm using Dave's Cycling Dashboard extensively in my preparation for the Tour of Hope (you can donate here). I'm hoping to post some details about my training, including the routes I'm riding later this week.