Hit 100 bike rides logged with my homemade tailwind sensor... but the numbers are weird

I strapped together this cheap wind speed thing from an old computer fan and an Arduino, stuck it on my handlebars, and started logging my rides. After 100 trips, I noticed the average speed went up by 2.3 mph but my actual effort felt way harder, not easier. Turns out the sensor was picking up my own pedaling motion half the time, not the wind. Did I accidentally build a weird fitness tracker that measures how much I wiggle instead? Has anyone else's half-baked gadget revealed something unexpected in the data?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivanl761mo ago

Ha! You built a wiggling detector by accident.

abbyr961mo ago

The whole "built it by accident" thing really hits home for me. I was trying to fix a shaky old fan in my shed and ended up hooking up a motion sensor to an alarm clock just to see if it would trigger. Turns out it pinged me every time the cat walked by the sensor, even through the screen door. Best part was I could lay in the hammock and know exactly when the raccoons were getting into the trash without getting up. Sometimes the weirdest little projects turn into the most useful stuff.