Today a man bought a bicycle computer from the shop that employs me. For this -- and for several other reasons, one being that it took him a full week to decide what color bar tape he wanted -- he is a douche nozzle. (Another being he made his bar tape decision based on his desire to keep his bike "factory" but then didn't want to keep the "factory" bar plugs even though they were far superior to the ones that came with the new tape. But I digress.) The fact that he already had a computer mounted on his bicycle didn't stop him from wanting a new one, with cadence.
This is not an issue of installation difficulty, as 1) Bike computers aren't really that hard to install; 2) They've gotten pretty easy to program in recent years; 3) This particular computer was wireless, making it the simplest of computer installs. What I don't get is the weekend warrior's fascination with bike computers. With the exception of power meters, I think every piece of information a bike computer provides is useless. Ok, maybe not every piece; I will concede that time of day and ride time are useful data. But that's what watches are for, right? The rest is "negative information" as some like me are wont to say.
That's just my take on it.
Really, I'm probably more annoyed because this guy came in as I was about to go home, "needing this stuff installed now," and not keeping his annoying self out of my work shop. "Can I come back there?" he asks, as he's already standing next to me, hovering.
"Uhhh... Ok."
"You're going to put the black [non-factory] bar plugs in there, right?"
As a matter of fact, I wasn't going to do this because I was told he wanted to keep his ride looking as "factory" as possible and it had taken him a week to conclude as much. In a somewhat subtle attempt to remind him of his ridiculousness, I told him, "I can do whatever you want. The original bar plugs are much better than the black ones, though." (They're those Cateye ones that feature a simple compression mechanism that keeps them from falling out.)
"Well, maybe you can put the black ones in there, and I'll take the original ones with me in case I don't like the black ones."
"Uhhh... Ok."
Bar plugs. Seriously. What a wanker.
