The PowerTap CPU is becoming an increasingly common sight in the pro peloton, the amateur peloton, in tri's, and on club rides. The price, reliability, and functionality are hard to beat. Uploading into PT's PowerAgent or CyclingPeaks or any number of electronic diaries makes studying ride performance easy.

But not everyone has the cheddar to drop on a powermeter. And not everyone wants the full-on data overload that comes with; zombiedom has occurred in a few instances. Cycle-Ops has addressed the needs of these crowds with the Cervo 2.4 Pro. It's a wireless computer, recording speed with cadence, heart rate, and the ability to record intervals. It can record for up to 14 hours at the one-second sampling rate. For many, this is data enough.

While intuition might be the best training tool, having rides recorded can help develop an overall picture of one's training. Upload every ride and it's hard to fake easy weeks and easy to know when you've gone too hard for too long. The Cervo can also get its marching orders from the computer -- downloading settings is simple.

And for those who want to someday upgrade to using power, or even borrowing a Power-Tap hubbed wheel, the computer has a "learn" mode so that it can figure out what to do and start recording power at that point. All that's needed is a wireless compatible PowerTap hub. Upgrading to power is that simple.

The Cycle-Ops Cervo 2.4 Pro comes with a computer, handlebar/stem mount, wireless speed sensor, wireless cadence sensor, speed magnet, cadence magnet, zip ties, software CD (works with Mac and PC), and upload cradle. The cpu features are: Speed (current, average, and max), heart rate (current and average), ride distance (miles or km), ride time, programmable odometer, interval mode with on-bike recall, real-time cadence. The color of the computer is Yellow. The other pieces are Black.