Talk to me about power meters.
BusyRaeNOTBusty
Posts: 7,166 Member
Do you have one? Do you like it? Is it worth the money?
If someone raced mountain bikes, it would make the most sense to put it on their primary race bike right, not say on their commuting road bike that they use on the trainer?
What are the options for a bike with disc brakes and a quick release front wheel?
If someone raced mountain bikes, it would make the most sense to put it on their primary race bike right, not say on their commuting road bike that they use on the trainer?
What are the options for a bike with disc brakes and a quick release front wheel?
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Replies
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As the power meter is based on either the crank, pedal or the rear hub, the front wheel is immaterial.
Ideally you'd want your meter on the bike you're going to spend most of your time on... In my case, I have a stages crank based meter, that takes about five minutes to move from the cross bike to the road bike ... Mainly because I've put shimano ultegra chainsets on both.
There are a couple of budget meters coming out, the 4iiii being the one I think is the most interesting $399 for a single sided meter... So, for $800 you could actually have one for the roadie, and another for the mtb, and it's still cheaper than a quarq chainset...
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Ah, the rear hub. I just looked quick and for some reason was thinking front.0
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I have two cyclops power meters. One on each of my road bikes but mtn bikes power is so erratic because of uneven terrain that I didn't put one on my mtn bike or my fat tire. Maybe if I was better on the mtn bike I would feel different. The cyclops power meter is the rear hub so it doesn't mater what type of breaks you have. I like them a lot! They help you know more about your riding and how you are feeling on a given ride. A small example is when you are in a race and you are feeling great! You look down and see you are putting out 50 more watts of power than you usually do. That's not sustainable so you know to back off just a little and pace yourself better. They also are indispensible for functional threshold tests. Your heart rate will vary depending on how you feel, but 200 watts is 200 watts no matter what you feel like.0
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To answer you easy questions, yes, yes, and yes.
The more complicated part of your post has been addressed by others. Here's my .02 cents worth.
PM come in several form factors, crank based, hub based and crank arm / pedal based. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
With respect to your question about where to put a PM, race bike or training bike, if you must make a choice I would look toward the one you ride the most. That will give you the most data for developing training plans to assist you in making improvements. However understand that if the ultimate goal is to be successful in racing you will need to capture data from both training and racing events. Training should mimick racing to be useful.
In order for PM data to be useful you REALLY NEED to use it every time you ride. Anything less and you get an incomplete picture. That creates the challenge, do you train and race on the same bike, if so then a crank based PM works well. If you train and race on two different bikes then a hub based PM may be a better choice, however in this case the training and race wheels become one and the same. The solution to this was mentioned by TBY, a crank arm based unit which you can move the crank arm from bike to bike.
I believe no matter which PM you get, a reliable, accurate, repeatable data set is crucial for getting positive results. The more established companies will accomplish this and stand behind their product. The Gold Standard is SRM. Everyone else follows.
I suggest unless you are in a TT, never look at your computer / PM while racing. It really doesn't matter what it says, race the race and analyze the data later at home. If you allow yourself to see a number you think you can not sustain (due to training data) you have already placed a limit on yourself in the race and lost.
GL
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I have two power meters: a Power2Max crank-based meter on my road bike and a Quarq Riken crank-based meter on my 'cross bike. The TT bike doesn't have one yet because, as nice as it would be, the bike just doesn't get ridden enough. The mountain bike doesn't have one because, as @sufferlandrian mentioned, power output on typical single track is so choppy and uneven the PM just doesn't make much sense to me.
I have been training with power for a while and find it very useful. It does require a time and education commitment though. There's a fair amount of science and theory behind training with power and if you aren't interested in learning about it and spending time analyzing data then then usefulness drops sharply. Alternatively, you could retain the services of a good coach that's well-versed in power training and let him/her deal with the analysis.0 -
My Christmas present was a CycleOps Powermeter for my road bike(s). I love riding with power! Since the PM is rear-hub based, I can switch it between my Go-Fast bike and my Brevet bike so that I always ride with a powermeter.
However, I would not recommend a powermeter for a beginning cyclist nor a cyclist who only wants to ride recreationally. A power meter is a training tool that requires a good bit of understanding or a coach in order to be the most effective. I have done a lot of reading and re-reading books by Friel and Coggan in order to understand how to train to improve my on-bike performance. I've also been picking the mind of anyone who I know trains with power and a coach so that I can learn how to train.
It's still too early in the game for me to say that the power meter is making a faster cyclist but it allows me to enjoy cycling even more because I am geek and need the metrics.
One examples is riding into the wind. With a heartrate monitor or speedometer, I tend to push way too hard in the wind. With the power meter, I know where my limits are at and can pace myself at best effort against the wind without going to hard.
IMO a power meter is great for:- Pacing
- High Intensity Intervals
- Establishing Baseline Metrics
- Forcing yourself to ride easy on recovery days
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This thread is interesting. Makes me kind of want one also, since I love the geek/data aspect of cycling, but I think I am going to wait a little longer for the tech to improve and the affordability to increase -- this is coming from a guy that has a very limited "bike + accessories budget".
(I have a 2015 objective of: replace 1980s road bike with something more modern before even thinking of a power meter system
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By the way, I remember reading about a cleat based system and thought they showed promise in that they would work on any bike at all and were simply attached to your bike shoes. Anyone use a system like that?0 -
that's the BrimBrothers meter - a plate between the cleat and the shoe, and a pod on the top of the shoe... It's a great Idea, but I think it's still "at pre-order" at the moment according to the website.
http://www.brimbrothers.com/
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I've been following Brim Brothers for a while. Looks interesting but there have been delays upon delays. It seems to be treading the ragged edge of "vaporware" at this point.
Another interesting new player in the market is the 4iiii Precision. It seems to be right on the brink of shipping and, if you have one of the compatible cranks already, can be pre-ordered as a one-side-only version for $350 right now. One if these might well end up on my TT bike in the not-too-distant future. Frankly, if it wouldn't necessitate a crank swap as well I'd already have one ordered for it.0 -
if only it was $350 over here, what's the betting that the UK price is £350 (i.e. $530 ish)
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Just looking at the website, I don't see any restrictions on who/where they sell and they are listing an international shipping option. Would there be anything that stopped you from just ordering directly from the company's website? Not sure if some sort of customs rule would come into play here or not but doesn't seem like it should.if only it was $350 over here, what's the betting that the UK price is £350 (i.e. $530 ish)
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I tried to get a stages for my Trek but it's so old that I would have needed to change out crank sets to make it work. I went with the cyclops instead. I love training with power. It really helps me train smarter and not harder. 0
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Cranking out 700W until "toasted!" I thought this was kind of interesting...
Toasted Vid0
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