Help! Powertap question

The Kennington Kaiser

Hello all,

Father Christmas was kind enough to give me a powertap which I plan to use with my 705 but I'm facing problems getting a reading for power on the Garmin unit. The 705 has detected the powertap but when I turn the cranks there is no reading on the Garmin display unit on which I've included a power display. It seems to be measuring speed (bear in mind that I'm inside the house when doing this) but no power - any ideas?

Thanks in advance for your replies to what may be quite a novice question.

Pokerface

If you're just doing it inside the house, you may not be putting enough power through the wheel for it to register. Is it on a turbo?

And have you tried actually riding it?


I've had problems with it not reading power when just turning the cranks indoors (not on a turbo).

The Kennington Kaiser

Just inside at present. I'll give it a blast on the road tomorrow and see what happens.

Pokerface

The Kennington Kaiser wrote:

Just inside at present. I'll give it a blast on the road tomorrow and see what happens.

Just inside - so are you just lifting the rear wheel up and spinning the cranks? If so - that's the problem (especially if the Garmin is recognizing the Powertap).


Just not enough power going to the wheel.


Put it on a turbo (if you have one) or wait to ride on the road.


(Or wait for someone to come along and tell me I'm wrong again) :oops:

The Kennington Kaiser

Aye, just spinning the wheel at present. I;ll get out when I can tomorrow and put the hammer down, unless of course someone comes along and tells me you're wrong.

Pokerface

Find a length of hallway and do a short sprint

jibberjim

If by spinning it around by hand without resistence, then you probably won't be able to to produce many watts, even with resistence by hand you'll probably struggle to produce more than a few.

Pedalling on a turbo with resistance you should be able to comfortably.

Remember to Zero it first "ant+ settings, power, calibrate" on the 705 making sure you wait on the screen for the number to come back.

Also make sure you have the latest 705 firmware, and Smart Recording turned off. As well as Auto Pause switched off and zero averaging ON.

The Kennington Kaiser

Cheers gents, I'm sure it'll work on the road. But I find it's always worth consulting the BR 'oracle' for advice. If not, I'll be back. Not sure what size mansion you live in, Pokerface, but my hallway is barely big enough to put the bike in let alone get on it.

Pokerface

The Kennington Kaiser wrote:

Pokerface, but my hallway is barely big enough to put the bike in let alone get on it.

I'd get about 20 feet before I smashed into the wall. Enough for at least 100 watts

Pokerface

Did it work OK?

The Kennington Kaiser

Pokerface wrote:

Did it work OK?

It did, thanks. Now I just have to make sense of the bewildering of amount of information coming from it. Was really siurprised by the variation of power output on a normal gentle ride. Used the 3sec average and even that was all over the place.

I'm thinking of getting that book "Training and Racing with a Powermeter" -is it worth buying to help me make sense of the data and help get a more out of the training I do.

a_n_t

The Kennington Kaiser wrote:

I'm thinking of getting that book "Training and Racing with a Powermeter" -is it worth buying to help me make sense of the data and help get a more out of the training I do.

Definately, even better if you use WKO+ too.

Alex_Simmons/RST

The Kennington Kaiser wrote:

I'm thinking of getting that book "Training and Racing with a Powermeter" -is it worth buying to help me make sense of the data and help get a more out of the training I do.

Yes. Without doubt.