Review: Omata One
The Omata might be one of the best looking bike accessories that has ever hit the market. It works by converting GPS signal to rotary motors it gives you your normal computer stats with the feeling of timepiece. With a $550 price tag in the bike computer realm people often question the amount of features, trying to compare the Omata to other computers. But, right there is where I’m going to stop you, cost doesn’t directly equate to features and that’s a really negative way to look at life. It can be craft, material, design, or any other number of things that add to an object’s price. I’m obviously a person who appreciates design and the Omata One hit the nail on the head, let me explain:
The Omata One is something beautiful that doesn’t detract from your surroundings, or your bike for that matter. Let’s face it, a lot of us put a ton of time and energy into our bike builds. When your eyes glance past it during a ride it simply adds to the experience. No notifications, no sounds, no bullshit, just a super well crafted instrument that encourages pedaling, never trying to slow you down. In reality, the sweeping of the speed hand has sparked that little kid in me to push and see how far around the dial I can push it. Finally, its about exploration, it will never tell you that you are “off route”. When did cycling turn into copying and pasting other peoples rides and just repeating them? Don’t get me wrong that CAN be amazing, but when was the last time you just went where ever looked interesting, then found your own way home?
It’s a way of thinking…What I mean by that is the Omata One tracks all of the information that most cyclist care about but its in the background. You are left alone with peace, your thoughts, and the rhythms of cycling. It has giving me true moments each day where I’m unplugged from emails, text, and notification. Which has been huge for helping me start my day creatively. When you are ready, head to the app upload them to Strava and dig into that. But it keeps the actual ride pure and simple. During your ride you see 4 things: speed, feet climbed, hours ridden, and miles ridden.
My best analogy for the Omata One is this; go to any fine restaurant, the ingredients can be the same as any other restaurant, but its how the meal is put together by the chef that can elevate it to a great experience. Here the same old cycling stats have been flipped, repackaged, reimagined in a super well designed and beautiful object that only enhances your ride. My favorite feature is a simple one. When you open the Omata app it shows the cumulative total of miles you have ridden with the unit. It’s done in a way that you take pride in watching the hand spin around the face.