Power Meters / Powermeters (SRM, Powertap, Quarq, Ergomo, Vector, Stages, power2max, P2M, 4iii, InPower, Cinch)

I have Vectors, P2M, Powertap and SRM, of them all P2M is the easiest, "just works" powermeter.

Unfortunately with power meters, unless money is no object there is always some compromise (even SRM's seem to need servicing in Germany every now and again).

There is no good solution to wanting to have one PM between road and track. Its perfectly possible to share one between road bikes, provided the bb's are the same. Or you can use a powertap, but having one wheel for everything has its limitations.

Training with power is a slippery slope and quite addictive. Which is why I am currently in the market for a third fucking power meter ... Currently my nicest/ most expensive bike doesn't have a PM and as a result I never ride it, so my options are sell the whole thing or get a PM for it :-/

Happy to use the pedal, i have some basic look anyway. That was my thinking, quick to switch just before to go to the track and then put them back to the second bike.

The main problem with pedal based power for racing is that it's really easy to destroy a pedal in an innocuous crash, let alone a bad one. A hub or crank spider, not so much.

I can feel the addiction coming to me already...and i don't have a PM yet!!

I already looked into developing a garmin app so you can get real time data out of your garmin behind the saddle directly to a laptop in the middle of the track. Then i would create a soft to chart and analyse data in real time so the coach can advice during the session (rather than looking at it after the session at home). Then i would spend hours developing model to analyse the data.....let's get a PM first.

Well i'm even more confuse of what can be my solution....SRM for my main track bike and then P2M for the training bike? Powertap is great but only one wheel....

I agree for the pedal crash but the pod are cheap so i wouldn't mind too much.

I swapped the battery in my P2m yesterday. Piece of piss once you know how.
Plugs in the back of the spider, unscrew, cover comes off with o-ring, swap batt (positive inwards), put cover on and screw up finger tight, then put o-ring around cover. Yay.

You wouldn't just write off the pod, but the pedal too.

If you've got the money to burn, just buy 2xp2m. Theres no real reason to pay more than 2x as much for SRM unless you're Chris Hoy or Bobby Forstemann

Alternatively, just buy one power meter and use the money you would have spent on the second one on a coach. You'll get more from that performance-wise than any bit of fancy kit will ever give you.

Well i don't like to burn money for the sack of it, not sure i can justify to myself spending that much. Or maybe a P2M for the track bike and then a stage for the other training one, not great but it would help at least for intervals. At least it would bring some consistency in all my intervals even if the value isn't perfect.

Why the padel too in case of crash? i crashed few times and my pedals took very limited impact (my collarbone is another story). So i would expect the pod to break but not really the pedal.

Already part of the plan for the coach, moving to HK soon so i will organise that once arrived and tested the velodrome.

Depends on the crash and the surface you're racing on doesn't it? If you're racing indoors all the time its less of an issue as the pedal is more like to wreck the track than the other way around.

Stages will still cost you 2/3's of the cost of a p2m.

Yep i agree, it really depend and on the road....anything can happen.

And i was checking, you are right pointless to put some money in a stage if for a little more i can get a p2m.

Ok then i'm going to be reasonable and only buy a garmin 1000 so at least will get cadence, speed and heart rate. Not perfect but it will help and then once arrived in HK, i will take a coach who will probably guide me into one solution for the powermeter.

Shame, i have now probably 6 weeks off before the move and wanted to made the most of it to train harder and better. And i saw that p2m take 3 weeks to get to you anyway so probably too late already for me.

Tks for the advices guys, really appreciate.

Ok then i'm going to be reasonable and only buy a garmin 1000 so at least will get cadence, speed and heart rate.

If you understand its limitations HR isn't a terrible metric on which to monitor training intensity - you can train better with it than you can without.

runs away

Well if i'm looking into powermeter, that's probably specifically because i'm aware of those limits ;-)

You want to push me into buying a powermeter right? please don't do that to me otherwise i won't resist.

Of course - but if you at least get HR now you can make more of your six weeks than you could without. Tis all.

Yep that is exactly my thinking, it would already help a lot especially for those 5min/2min intervals.....no i will be strong and won't click on the next tab "buy p2m now"

Why not settle for Garmin 510/500 if you don't need off-route navigation #moreaero #lessdorrah

This sounds great. How would you relay the data? ANT radio range is super limited. Would you add an intermediate hop via your smartphone?

Would be better using Bluetooth from Stages probably.

BLE/Bluetooth Smart has a similar range to ANT+

I do long distance too, planning a trip in the next few weeks london paris return via calais in less than 48hrs so the 1000 will be a nice upgrade.

ANT and bluetooth have a very limited range indeed so i was thinking creating a wifi hotspot via the laptop. Then you get a mush better range, hopefully enough to get the data from the middle of the velodrome. Your garmin is then connected to this hotspot (all that have to be tested first obviously but a wimax get a range of few miles).

Never worked on this kind of technology and i'm far from being an IT but it should be possible to push the data via the wifi for the software to capture them in real time. You now can pass a movie from your mobile to the TV via wifi, no reason a low volume of data couldn't pass through.

In the end, you could even capture data from every rider at the same time. The soft (probably C++) would be able to compare instantly the data from every riders between their own series and each others.

I will think about it further and look into it seriously in the next few weeks, you could even get the data from a car behind a group of rider but that would really depend how the wifi would perform in that case.

Can't see how that's going to work unless you can hack the Garmin's firmware. How else will you get it constantly transmitting data to the laptop?

@xavierdisley already has live power data from his Aerocoach victims on his lap top in the middle of the velodrome doesn't he?