Power meter thread #23413425

ilav84

What's the best power meter for around £500 lads? Read a few different thread on here but nothing really specific to my questions.

I have started to get more serious about my training and have been using HR to base a lot of my effort in training but I know this is limited. Have done a couple of TTs and looking to start racing after I get La Marmotte out of the road, so I want to try and tailor my training more specifically rather than just jump on the bike and go for a 50mile spin. I am just about to change my groupset over from Shimano to Campag so I want a pm that I can change to a different bike. Am I right in saying that some PMs can only be used on certain bikes or cranks etc?

Anyway, what are my options? Or am i safer waiting until the winter or start of next year? Price will hopefully have went down by that stage.

meesterbond

Ok, so PMs can be based in the rear hub, cranks, pedals, axle and probably a number of other places.
Any that work on the cranks (power2max, quarq, SRM etc) are going to be pretty specific to that crankset so if you're going to swap the cranks from shimano to Campag then either wait until you've swapped or avoid crank-based ones...
If you happen to use the right type of pedal system then Garmin Vector or Polar (or the new Powertap) would work and theyre probably the easiest to swap about.
If you only use one set of wheels, then Powertap would work pretty well - I think you can change the freehub pretty easily when you swap to Campag.

As for prices, with all the new entrants there's bound to be more competition on price at the lower end but if you could wait forever for them to keep dropping. One general rule seems to be not to be an early adopter though - wait until they've ironed the bugs out in v1.1

cougie

Or - look into using something like trainerroad and a turbo.

If you're serious enough to want a power meter - you should be serious enough to use a turbo.
You dont need an actual power meter - you can use virtual power -that should be good enough.
Use that through the winter and you'll see the benefits. Then you can choose a PM next year when prices have fallen and there are yet more options.

Its harder using a PM on the road - traffic, weather, junctions, riding pals - all have to be taken into consideration. On the turbo there are no excuses. Very efficient use of time.

yakk

Hi there, I'd definitey agree with Cougie regarding turbo workouts and how useful they are. I would say that since training with power on the turbo, my average speeds on the road have gone up with a lower HR.
This is what I got: http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TRFLPROP/c ... er-trainer. Doesn't strictly measure power, but apparently correlates very well (read reviews, look on-line) to other PM systems.
It's a very good turbo, heavy, good realistic feel to it. Easy to set up. The reason it's down in price in my opinion is they are probably bringing out a version that is ANT compatible. This isn't.
It will give you average and max HR and watt reading after the event (and time and av speed), but it won't give you how long you spent at a certain power etc. So the readout after is pretty basic. This info you can look at in real time though and then note down.
For the money and as an entry PM, I feel it's worth it for what I want.

Previously, I had set up the bike on a turbo with a rear wheel sensor, measuring speed - that way you have a benchmark you can go by, and I used that system for a month before temptation got the better of me. If I'm strictly honest, that would achieve the same thing, all other variables being equal. But the Cascade is a quality turbo compared to the basic Minoura I used before, so am happy enough to justify the cost.

Hope this helps. Best wishes.
Yak

ilav84

Should have said I use a turbo. I have a friend who is a cycling coach and I was doing very specific turbo work over the winter on his recommendation. I still do a bit every now and again during the week. I should really join trainer road over the winter. Another benefit is that I live in the countryside and there are very few traffic lights etc. I don't think a PM will be the be all and end all for me by any means. Just thinking it will help bring my training to the next level. The vector pedals look to be the best bet for transferring between bikes but they also look the most unreliable. A lot to think about.

sloppyschleckonds

You don't need to pay subscriptions to use a turbo, you may as well use RPE as use virtual power.

Personally I'd go for an established power measurement method, Quarq, SRM, P2M or Powertap hubs.