Cyclistats first impressions

I'm in the process of reviewing for you a product called Cyclistats. It's a cycling log to keep track of your training. I'll write a full review when the 30 day trial period is up, so this will focus on only the initial impression I have on the product.

Almost any "serious" cyclist keeps some sort of log. I use the term serious here as someone who is serious about the performance aspect of cycling. Don't confuse it with someone who takes cycling seriously. Which many-many-many people do but will never keep a log. Reasons to keep a log are many, but I feel that it gives you insight to how you may be progressing with training.

Cyclistats is a Windows aplication that you download directly from thier website. They allow you to use the product for thirty days after which, if you don't purchase the product, you can not add anymore data to it. But according to a post on bikeforums.net you can still open and export your data out of it. This is smart as it's your data, you should be able to get it with out too much fuss.

Prior to trying Cyclistats, I downloaded Bikers Log Gold, to try. It seemed like it would be a less expensive option. But after using it for a month for the trial period it locked up. You couldn't even get into the program. No prblem right? If you like the program, upgrade to the full version (in other words buy it). Except the company no longer exhists. The download page is still up on downloads.com, but the online purchase page isn't there. The readme file has a mailing address, but there's no way I gonna send a check to someone in Europe that may or may not be there and may or may not send me the unlocking key, for a product that isn't gonna be supprted anymore.

Ok, end of my rant on Bikers Log Gold. Back to some first impressions of Cyclistats.

The download and install was simple enough. The only complaint I have here is that it would be nice to install the program on a flash drive so I can carry the log with me and be able to access it on any computer I'm at. The workaround is to install the program on the computers you normally use (for me it's one at work and one at home), then do a backup of your data on a flash drive. Just be sure restore the backup from the flash drive before adding anything to the log otherwise you will loose any data not included on the backup. It's a little tedious and you run the risk of overwriting your backup if you accedentally backup the database insted of restoring it when you get to your destination computer. Oops.

Setup was also simple enough. You can enter your personal and bike info, as well as heart rate info.

Adding rides to the log is straight forward, choose what bike (if you have multiple) and enter the info. The program will figure out your average speed and can even automaticly enter milage if you save routes in it's database. Actually the route function is very handy when used in conjuction with a mapping website. My fixedgear bike doesn't have a computer on it. So I map my rides on MapMyRide dot com (review on this tool to come), create the route name in Cyclistats, save the mileage, and even a link to the map with it, then I choose it from the dropdown list and the milage appears magicly.

Something else of interest to fixedgear riders who don't use a cyclocomputer is in the tools area of the program. With the Gearing Calculator you can figure out your average cadence for a ride. Say you already entered a ride and know your average speed. Open the Gearing Calculator and choose "Cadence based on speed" on the seconde dropdown. Then enter your chainring, cog, wheelsize and average speed. Wow, now you know what your average cadence was.

So far my only real complaint is with the heart rate info. To me it seems a little off and doesn't fit the same parameters as my Polar Accurex Plus that I use. Mabe it meshes better with the newest crop of monitors on the market. I don't have the interface to download the info, so i just manually enter the data. So I enter average and max HR for the ride. But I want to be able to keep track of time spen above, below and within the limits I set for the ride. Which may change depending on the training session. You can enter up to five zones in Cyclistats, but if I use below target, within target and above target limits as zones in the program, I can't change it for each ride. Or maybe the finctionality is there and I havn't found it yet. More on this when I do the full review.

My impression so far is that Cyclistats is a good product. It is much easier than setting up Excel spreadsheets. Is it worth the $50 they are asking? Time will tell. I have 25 days left of the trial period and I'll let you know then.

Rubber side down.

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