Who needs a bike computer when you’ve got a perfectly good watch? Screen, timer, heart rate, power, GPS, live maps and so much more. I’d flick my eyes down at 30+ km/h, squint at tiny numbers and look back up.

Then I met The Pothole.

It didn’t look like much, just a shadow in the tarmac, the kind you dismiss with a gentle swerve. I glanced at my wrist and, in that half-second, The Pothole introduced itself to my front wheel. Carbon fork: cracked. Me: airborne. Pride: vaporized. A new fork and a couple of stitches later, I realized a profound truth: trying to read a watch while riding fast is basically stupid.

Could I have solved it with a watch mount? Sure. And to be fair, a stem or bar mount is a huge step up from wrist acrobatics. I finally bought a bike computer and a proper out-front mount, the kind that puts your data where your eyes already go. Also, with the size and brightness of these new screens, no squinting is required anymore.

If a simple mount and a visible screen reduce the time my attention spends anywhere but the road, that’s not a luxury—it’s a seatbelt. The pace numbers can wait half a second. The potholes do not.

A small caveat perhaps is that adding a computer to the bike opens up the door for more potential accessories 🙂 You can pair some of them (say a Garmin) with a radar tail light (like the Varia range). The computer quietly tells you when cars are approaching from behind, how many, and how fast. You still shoulder-check, always, but having a second set of digital eyes on your back feels like a nice upgrade for general awareness.

Watt I Learned

Data is great; stitches are not. Mount your metrics where you can see them with a quick glance, keep your eyes up, and if budget allows it, let a radar light be the extra set of eyes you don’t have. Safety first.