Power Meter Advice

triathlontom

I am toying with the idea of purchasing a Power Meter, I have come to the conclusion that a Power Meter is going to improve my training and thus my race results more than splashing out on a Disc wheel for example.

My question is this: What power meter is best for me?

I ideally would like something transferable as I have two bikes. I am currently running a Giant TCR Advanced as my training bike, on Fulcrum 5’s with Sram Red chainset. My Race/TT bike is a Specialized Shiv Expert on Sram S60’s with an FSA SL-K chainset.

My computer is a Garmin Edge 500 so ANT+ devices are probably best.

(I have included the details about the chainsets/wheels as I know a few of the devices will depend on what kit I already have etc.)

Be gentle, I’m new to this forum stuff!

sungod

for ease of swapping, a wheel with as powertap is the simplest, although there are quite a few postings about poor reliability

there are now the first of the pedal systems entering the market, but the test i saw in one of the mags recently said they had big problems with zero offset (so accuracy suffers), maybe it was a bad unit, maybe it's a product in need of further tweaking, i'd be wary of being an early adopter

crank based systems are srm and quarq, quarq is cheaper, it had some reliability issues early on but as far as i know they are resolved, there are some differences in how they log power - srm uses a fixed rate (1 or 0.5 second), quarq is cadence dependent - but in practice no big deal, one advantage with quarq is easy battery change (srm is officially a service centre job, but if you can use a soldering iron you can diy)

with crank based, you just need to choose a bb standard that'll fit both bikes and then get an srm or quarq to match, then swapping is as easy as changing crankset, so avoid one that needs preload adjusting

dawebbo

In a nutshell srm/quarq are better, powertap is cheaper. Fairly easy to swap any of them between bikes. So depends on your budget. You'll have to check bb compatibility yourself.

As an aside, a powermeter doesn't magically make your training better. Whereas a disc is free time on the right courses.

triathlontom

Thanks for your advice both.

I think something crank based would be most suitable for my application. The pedals would be ideal, but I can foresee quite a wait for something like the Garimn Vector.

As an aside, a powermeter doesn't magically make your training better. Whereas a disc is free time on the right courses

A disc is very tempting, but from what I have read, most people advocate a power meter before a disc? However as you have said dawebbo it is basically free speed on most courses.

So maybe more thought on the disc, then that steers me towards a crank based system.

amaferanga

Cheapest of the crank systmes is the Power2max - not much more expensive than a PowerTap and much cheaper than SRM/Quarq. There are issues with auto-zeroing it seems, but it looks like most people are still happy with them.

brettjmcc

triathlontom wrote:

Thanks for your advice both.

A disc is very tempting, but from what I have read, most people advocate a power meter before a disc? However as you have said dawebbo it is basically free speed on most courses.

So maybe more thought on the disc, then that steers me towards a crank based system.

Why not get a Powertap built into a wheel and then buy a RALtech disc cover then and have the option? That way if its windy you can just take the cover off but still have the PT.

andysol

If you are after power meter look on chain reaction now! 60% off
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=39911

ugo.santalucia

andysol wrote:

If you are after power meter look on chain reaction now! 60% off
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=39911

Yes, but what are you going to do with a 20 holes rear wheel? Turbo is pretty much the only application

andysol

If you have campag then 28 hole is available or 24 for shimano.
It's the old version though with A 12mm axle.
Andy

springtide9

The Powertap Pro is good VFM.

I waited until the usual 10% extra discount came up on Wiggle (as well as 12% via British Cycling) so got the Powertap Pro rear wheel for just under £600.

BUT... issues....

- the wheel wasn't built up very well
- the DT rim is not that light and neither are the spokes and also has 32 hole hub

After 4 hrs riding, the wheel was unusable (fell apart due to the loose spokes)... currently being repaired by Cycleops. The hub itself worked really well and was very pleased... just a shame they couldn't have built up the rear wheel package a bit better with a decent lighter rim, spokes etc as wouldn't have added massively to the cost (not compared to the G3)
If I was doing it again, would have got the hub only and a custom wheel build.

P_Tucker

ugo.santalucia wrote:

andysol wrote:

If you are after power meter look on chain reaction now! 60% off
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=39911

Yes, but what are you going to do with a 20 holes rear wheel? Turbo is pretty much the only application

Someone better tell Mavic - after all what do they know about building wheels? http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=81819

ugo.santalucia

springtide9 wrote:

The Powertap Pro is good VFM.

I waited until the usual 10% extra discount came up on Wiggle (as well as 12% via British Cycling) so got the Powertap Pro rear wheel for just under £600.

BUT... issues....

- the wheel wasn't built up very well
- the DT rim is not that light and neither are the spokes and also has 32 hole hub

After 4 hrs riding, the wheel was unusable (fell apart due to the loose spokes)... currently being repaired by Cycleops. The hub itself worked really well and was very pleased... just a shame they couldn't have built up the rear wheel package a bit better with a decent lighter rim, spokes etc as wouldn't have added massively to the cost (not compared to the G3)
If I was doing it again, would have got the hub only and a custom wheel build.

I am sincerely sorry to be happy about it. Having built one of those against the economics of buying a ready made wheel. Once again, hand builts are not necessarily good, unless they are properly built.

For your info, I did built with excellight and Aci spokes and it was not too heavy... Just over 1 kg