My Garmin Edge 520 Knows Everything About Me, and I Love It

How a bike computer that does nothing more than spit out numbers helped me figure out who I am

This is “I Can’t Live Without,” a column about the apps, gadgets, and services that make all the difference.

If there is one thing you should know about me, it’s that I ride bicycles a lot. This year, I have spent 253 hours and 36 minutes on the bike, covering a distance of 3,753 miles, and ascending 223,953 feet.

I know this because every time I go for a ride, my Garmin Edge 520 is there, recording my every movement, heartbeat, and pedal stroke down to the second. As I putz along it sits there, fixed to my handlebars with a $30 machined aluminum mount, shouting numbers into my face.

It is the only piece of consumer technology that I trust.

These days, it’s assumed that the websites and gadgets we use are tracking us. It’s hard to say exactly how or to what extent — which is part of the problem. But we can point to the near-daily revelations of how Facebook misuses its trove of personal data in new and unexpected ways, or how app developers can’t help but leverage the iPhone’s ubiquity to track you while you sleep, or how Amazon is actually listening to your conversations through Alexa…