Riding Alone Without a Speedometer: Our Tips for Improving

When we spend so much time focusing on watts, speed, cadence, heart rate, or average speed, we sometimes end up forgetting what we came to the bike for: the experience. Riding without numbers—alone and in tune with your body—can, however, be an excellent way to recover, improve your technique, and even prepare for upcoming challenging rides.

By Guillaume Judas – Photos: depositphotos.com

You only have to watch a group of racers, recreational cyclists, or even weekend riders on the road to realize it: their eyes keep drifting back to the bike computer. How many kilometers? What’s the average speed? How many watts on the climb? What’s the cadence? What’s the heart rate? With modern bike computers and apps that let us analyze every ride afterward, we’ve gotten into the habit of measuring everything. And often, comparing everything. When riding in a group, it even turns into a sort of constant competition. The one who takes the lead a little faster, the one who refuses to let their front wheel fall behind their friend’s, the one who accelerates on the small hill just to show they’ve got the most power. Until the ride that was supposed to be a relaxed one ends up being all-out once again.

The problem, of course, isn’t the bike computer. It’s how we use it. When you ride with a goal constantly in the corner of the screen, you eventually find it hard to just enjoy pedaling. You’re always trying to maintain a pace, beat an average, stay within a zone, hit a power output, or impress your followers on Strava. “No pain, no gain” eventually becomes the philosophy behind every ride. And over time, this can take its toll: recurring fatigue, legs that won’t respond, stagnant performance, and, above all, a certain weariness. When every ride becomes a training session, cycling can end up losing some of what made us want to do it in the first place.

What if we just turned off the screen?

Every now and then, it can be nice to ride alone, with the bike computer turned off. Or, if you want to record the ride to keep track of your activity, simply hide the screen. The data will still be there when you finish, but it won’t distract you during the ride. That makes a big difference.

Without speed displayed, you’re no longer trying to absolutely maintain 30 or 32 km/h. Without watts, you’re not wondering if you’re five watts above or below what you’d planned. Without cadence, you don’t force yourself to stay at 90 revolutions per minute. And without heart rate, you stop constantly monitoring every extra beat. You can then start paying attention again to what’s actually happening on the bike.

The first thing you notice is the pedal stroke. Is it smooth? Are you pushing harder with one leg than the other? Are your shoulders relaxed? Are your hands clenched on the handlebars? How are your feet positioned in the shoes? Do your knees follow their natural path? Are your hips moving unnecessarily? Are you breathing freely, or are you holding your breath without even realizing it? These are very simple things, but ones you don’t necessarily notice when you’re focused on a number.

Re-learning to become one with your bike

This type of ride is particularly valuable because it helps you regain a sense of proprioception. You become more aware of your body’s position, the pressure on the saddle and handlebars, the movement of your legs, the force applied to the pedals, and how the bike responds. Nothing spectacular, but all these small details can end up making a difference when you’re riding fast.

It’s also a good way to work on your technique without feeling like you’re doing a specific exercise. On a hill, you can find the position where you feel most comfortable. On a descent, observe your line and where you’re applying pressure. On the flat, try to pedal as smoothly as possible. On a sprint, feel how the bike reacts when you stand up on the pedals. There’s nothing to “get right.” Nothing to check off on Strava. You’re simply experimenting. And that’s exactly what helps you improve.

An ideal ride after a tough workout

These rides without numbers also have their place in a training week. After a demanding session, going out for a leisurely ride alone can be an excellent way to get your body moving again without putting any new strain on it. Again, the trap would be to try to turn this recovery ride into an endurance workout just because the bike computer shows that the numbers are too low. If your legs need to pedal gently, they pedal gently. If a small hill forces you to slow down, you slow down. And if the wind forces you to ride five kilometers at a speed that looks ridiculous on the screen, it doesn’t matter—since the screen is off. You can simply focus on your breathing, the fluidity of your pedaling, and that pleasant sensation of gradually regaining lighter legs.

This isn’t about giving up all structured training. On the contrary. Sessions with specific goals have their value and help you make progress. But not every ride needs to be calibrated down to the nearest watt.

Finding that pace where you can think about something else

There’s also another way to ride alone that we particularly enjoy: a slightly more sustained pace, but without ever pushing yourself too hard. It’s an intensity that could be placed somewhere around a solid Zone 2, slightly above that depending on the person and the day. Not slow enough for your mind to start wandering all over the place, but not hard enough for your entire attention to be monopolized by your breathing and your legs. It’s a rather unique intensity. Your body is working, but at a steady pace. Pedaling becomes almost automatic. You’re moving fast enough to feel like you’re making progress, without having to fight against the bike. And that’s when something interesting happens: you can start thinking about other things.

It’s an intensity I use quite often before writing an article. I set out on a ride with an idea in mind, without trying to achieve any particular performance goal, just with a rough idea of the distance I want to cover. As the kilometers go by, ideas start to take shape. Some fade away, others emerge. A certain perspective becomes clearer. A phrase comes back to me several times. A problem I couldn’t solve while sitting at the computer sometimes finds its solution on the bike. I don’t deliberately set out to think. It’s actually the opposite. Pedaling at that pace—with enough effort to keep me engaged but never overwhelming—leaves room for my brain to wander. And when I get home, I sometimes sit down right at the computer and start writing. I’m already in the zone. When I’m testing a bike or wheels over several rides, for example, my ideas sometimes remain a bit vague for a few days. But it’s that final ride that allows me to write the article—sometimes in just a few hours.

No speedometer, but not without reference points

Riding regularly without focusing on the bike computer also helps you rediscover the sense of pace that the numbers had somewhat erased. You have a rough idea of what an easy pace feels like. You can recognize an intensity you can sustain for a long time. You can feel when your muscles start to tighten. You know if you can pick up the pace without pushing yourself too hard. You learn to listen to your breathing and tell the difference between a day when your legs feel strong and one when it’s better to ease off. This will never completely replace a heart rate monitor or a power meter when you want to precisely quantify your workout. But that’s not the point. The goal is rather to avoid becoming dependent on that information. A good cyclist obviously needs to know how to use the data when it’s useful. But they also need to be able to ride even when no one is telling them what their intensity level is.

The numbers can wait

There’s something quite liberating about coming back from a ride without knowing how many kilometers you’ve covered or what your average speed was. You can look at the data later, if you feel like it. It’ll always be there. And sometimes, it even holds a pleasant surprise. A ride you thought was slow might actually have been faster than expected. A tough climb tackled without watching the watts might have been completed at a perfectly respectable power output. A day when you felt like you had no legs might, on the contrary, show that your body was performing very well.

But above all, the numbers didn’t influence the way you rode. Re-learning to trust your own sensations so that, on the day it really matters, you’ll be able to make better use of the tools at your disposal. When you need to maintain a power output, keep a pace, manage a climb, or respond to an acceleration, you have an additional guide: your own body. It’s worth remembering that a bike is, first and foremost, a machine that you have to learn to feel.