The things you pay attention to matter.
Whether the thoughts in your head, the conversation you have with your friends, the feeling of the smooth glide of chain and gears moving your forward, or the buzzing, chirping, pattering, rattling, wooshing sounds of nature doing its work in the landscape all around you.
These are all things we do not ever want to take for granted, despite what the Internet may beep and buzz about at any given moment.
Have you ever tried riding without your beeping digital things with you?
Throw your Garmin/Wahoo/Lezyne/iPhone in your jersey pocket. Take the digital display off your handlebar.
Go ahead. Do it just for one week. Do it even for one weekend. Can you?
Listen to your breath. Feel your legs ache. Pay attention to the river of sweat about to sting in your eyes. Marvel at the miracle muscle pounding away in your chest keeping you going. Learn to intuit your power output and cadence by feel.
You may wonder why we created the OMATA One with an Analog Display (aside from the OMATA One’s instrument-inspired and debonair good looks..)
We all know that digital displays demand more attention, attract the addition of more features, more complexity and inevitably want to be connected to the Internet — the boiler room of the ‘Attention Merchants.’
Do what you will with the data the OMATA One captures. Send it to Strava. Get forensic on Training Peaks. It’s all good. Just save that data for later. Pay it no mind during the ride.
The OMATA One is designed to keep your ride as pure a ride as possible, while still embracing the fact that cyclists like to know where they went, how high they climbed, and how far and how fast.
We here at OMATA do not want more of your attention.
In fact, we want less of your attention.
Why, you may ask?
The landscape around you, your friends, the feeling in your legs, the thoughts in your head — those are the things that deserve your attention. Those are the sights, the experiences, the feelings that become the worthy heroes of the stories you will tell, the memories you will recollect, the things you would miss.
You may say, well — the OMATA One? It’s still a computer, isn’t it?
Of course it is.
With the OMATA One you can capture all your ride data while your ride — and leave all the analysis and forensics for later, after you are done soaking in the landscape and capping off your ride with friends over a cold pint, or a slice of cake.
But the OMATA One will never send you an Alert, Beep or let you know you got a text message.
Analog is Calm. Quiet. Serene.
Even while enduring a heart-pumping climb or on a competitive morning ride, your computer should not be distracting your mind from the essential act: riding as hard as you like.