SRM/Power meter advice

markwb79

Hi,

I have finally decided to get a SRM power meter and I was wondering if anyone had any tips for setting up and using it!

I have gone for the FSA Gossamer.

Does anyone use them with 11speed Campag? I have bought replacement FSA chain rings.
I have also bought the press fit BB as it is going on a BB86 frame
When setting up the PC7, do you record all the data every second? 3 seconds? I have seen different settings for this.
I understand they come calibrated, but I need to do the zero offset?
Swapping from one frame to another? How often do people do this?


Any other tips/suggestions? or things I might not have thought about?

Thanks in advance
Mark

Spikeoz

Advice based on using a powertap, diffrent system but basics are the same.

-Get it setup right and make sure your adjustemnts are all done, then just ride for a few weeks, log the data but don't look at it, get a baseline of data

-My system self zero's when i start up, just do teh same thing every time i say!

-Understand power training, read read and then re-read, test your self regularly, i do this every 8-9 weeks, 2 x 20 minute intervals on the trainer.

-Have a plan for using the powermeter, it's a great tool but useless if your not using it properly!

-i record every second

-Ride then ride, then after that ride

Mccaria

Run mine with Shimano, so can't help on the Campag.

Setting up the SRM was pretty straight forward, the instructions booklet is good and it is useful to keep the little booklet on the PC7 close by for the first few sessions.

I reset the zero offset before every session, but it is really easy to do. Once the PC7 and the SRM are talking to each other, set the cranks parallel to the ground, then just press the middle (mode) and right buttons (set) together and it goes to the zero offset screen. Once it comes up with a value, press the middle (mode) button to store and you are done.

One tip. The default setting for the PC7 has the screen display changing every few seconds, which can be frustrating if you are doing a work-out focused on maintaining a given power output/rpm etc. Once you download the software, you can attach the PC7 to the computer and under the options menu you can lock the screen display, which I found helpful

ric/rstsport

Spikeoz wrote:

Advice based on using a powertap, diffrent system but basics are the same.
-My system self zero's when i start up, just do teh same thing every time i say!

-Have a plan for using the powermeter, it's a great tool but useless if your not using it properly!

To clarify, if you're using a power tap you still need to manually zero the offset every ride. the power tap only zeroes the offset if it's slightly wrong (i can't recall the spec on this). If you're taking it from say a warm house to cold outdoors it'll need about 20-mins to stabilise to the new temp and to be zeroed.

if you just use a power meter as a fancy speedo it won't do much for you. we can help speed up the learning process with coaching programmes and training plans

cheers
ric

markwb79

I am not that silly with my money and it hasnt been bought as a fancy speedo!

Thanks for the advice so far, other than racing and training with a power meter, are there any other good books or online resources?

Cheers Ric, but as for getting a coach, that will have to wait for now!

Thanks
Mark

APIII

I have the FSA K Force SRM from 2008. I think it was one of the first wireless powermeters they released, but even so it's proved to be very reliable. When I had it serviced last year they put new 11 speed rings on, but I'm still running 10 speed Campag (it works fine). I would also suggest setting it at 1 second recording.
I don't know much about the gossamer crank, but swapping mine is not a five minute job, so I just keep it on the same bike. I think if I were buying again I'd either take a deep breath and get the campagnolo version, or the Rotor, as both would be much easier to swap.

markwb79

haha, I agree on that one, the Campag one would be the easiest to swap out. But it would need quite a deep breath!

Is yours the wired version FSA one?

5 years is certainly some good use and a lot easier to justify the money!

APIII

It's the wireless version. Tbh, at the start I did get a few data dropouts, but I think that was caused by the garmin head unit as various firmware updates seem to have cured it.

markwb79

Is it possible to use the Garmin sensor instead of the SRM one?

Thanks

sungod

you mean using a garmin gsc 10 just for speed? probably will, the simplest way is try it and see if it pairs

fwiw...

a garmin hrb1b strap works fine with pc7

for speed i use one of these...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/VDO-Speed-Trans ... B001CY6GOC

you can get device compatibility info from the ant+ directory...

http://www.thisisant.com/directory/powercontrol-7/

mine is set to log at 0.5 seconds, the memory is huge so might as well take advantage of the resolution

btw if you experience curious 'blackouts' on some roads, where the display goes to zero and logged data has a few seconds gap, it can be caused by some speed radars, took me a while to figure out what was up, thought my pc7 was faulty at first

aside from that the pc7 is really bombproof, cooked, frozen, drowned, dropped, it just keeps on going

Mccaria

Sungod,

That's interesting on the radar. I use my SRM/PC7 on the turbo and use wireless headphones linked to the TV. Using the wireless headphones does interfere with the PC7 picking up data from the SRM.

markwb79

It should finally be arriving today. Cant wait now!

When riding, what is the best gap to view power? does it average it over 3secs, or is it best to have it every 0.5seconds too?

sungod

record at 0.5s, then you have best raw data

view at 2-3s, otherwise the display jumps around too much

markwb79

sungod wrote:

record at 0.5s, then you have best raw data

view at 2-3s, otherwise the display jumps around too much

Hopefully my last question on the topic!

I think I am ready to go, but I cant see where to change the setting to view the power at 2-3s?

Alex_Simmons/RST

Markwb79 wrote:

sungod wrote:

record at 0.5s, then you have best raw data

view at 2-3s, otherwise the display jumps around too much

Hopefully my last question on the topic!

I think I am ready to go, but I cant see where to change the setting to view the power at 2-3s?

SRMwin - powercontrol set up - special - smoothing interval

On an SRM, the smoothing of displayed power is not by seconds but by number of crank revolutions.

markwb79

Thanks a lot