POWER METERS: Crank, Hub or Pedal-based?

[kent77]

I think the garmin pedals will be the best choice. Hopefully there is no glitches but if there are they will be sorted soon enough being garmin. So easy to use and can swap to any bike. That's the winner for me.

['Dale]

I laaik the Sram Quarg.

Does it measure both sides?

 

***

 

Concerned about the Look / Polar product and the newly released Garmin pedals.

Being an early adopter comes with a risk.

Not knowing how reliable a product is - new technology, new design, etc.

 

***

 

Have some time to make a good decision.

This thread is very valuable.

[Zac.A]

I laaik the Sram Quarg.

Does it measure both sides?

 

***

 

Concerned about the Look / Polar product and the newly released Garmin pedals.

Being an early adopter comes with a risk.

Not knowing how reliable a product is - new technology, new design, etc.

 

***

 

Have some time to make a good decision.

This thread is very valuable.

 

The polars have been out for quite a while, and they come with the real deal Looks.

The only thing is that you have to ride with transmitters attached to your shoes.

Not ANT+

 

The Garmin ones are coming out soon, similar to Polar although they are also ANT+, which means you can use them with other head units and not just Garmin.

 

Edit: The Garmin pedals are Look compatible, but not real Looks.

 

My concern would be that if you crashed, your shoes are pretty much always going to get scuffed at least, and if there is a piece of expensive equipment in the way then thats going to get damaged too.

Edited February 5, 2012 by Zac.A

['Dale]

Thanx for that, Zac.A.

 

So much to learn about all this stuff.

 

[Mr LOOK]

Just to clarify...nothing gets attached to your shoes.

 

We know a bit more about Power than most people would think...we're actually pioneers.

 

[Zac.A]

Just to clarify...nothing gets attached to your shoes.

 

Oh ok, then it is the Garmin that is attached to the shoes and yours that is on the pedal spindle?

['Dale]

Just to clarify...nothing gets attached to your shoes.

 

We know a bit more about Power than most people would think...we're actually pioneers.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pOu_SDK4K3c

 

Impressive stuff there.

Had no idea that the Look company was so engaged.

Edited February 5, 2012 by ' Dale

[NotSoBigBen]

Hope I'm not hijacking 'dale's thread too much by asking this. What is the most 'cost effective' (OK cheap) way to measure power for comparison purposes for improvement that is rather than against others?

 

Hopefully that make sense? I do have a Garmin 500 ....

[kosmonooit]

As I understand it, the Garmin power meter is enclosed in the pedal completely, although there seems to be some unit that sits off the crank with the battery & xmitter maybe?. The Garmin-Barracuda team are using them this year (I posted a link to a look at their bike earlier this week).

 

http://bicycling.com/blogs/thisjustin/files/2011/08/garmin-edge.jpg

 

New tech, but makes sense... might be a while to reach the market though, too bad Polar / Look have gone a different direction in terms of comms protocols.

 

Article here

 

Disclaimer: all of academic interest to me, I just like to follow new technological developments.

Edited February 5, 2012 by kosmonooit

[Agteros]

Hope I'm not hijacking 'dale's thread too much by asking this. What is the most 'cost effective' (OK cheap) way to measure power for comparison purposes for improvement that is rather than against others?

 

Hopefully that make sense? I do have a Garmin 500 ....

 

Not quite a power measure, some say the CycleOps PowerCal is more of a Training Impulse measurement:

 

http://www.cycleops.com/en/training/training-resources/344-introducing-powercal.html

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/06/bikes-and-tech/upcoming-from-cycleops-heart-rate-based-power-meters-and-superlight-carbon-wheelset_178521

 

And then the DC Rainmaker take on it: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/06/first-look-at-new-cycleops-joule-and.html

['Dale]

http://cdn.mos.bikeradar.com/images/news/2012/02/03/1328303195417-rg78tbd0sf7o-800-75.jpg

['Dale]

http://cdn.mos.bikeradar.com/images/news/2012/02/03/1328303195430-19599knrti92o-800-75.jpg

['Dale]

Top contender for my moola pictured above.

[Minion]

My concern would be that if you crashed, your shoes are pretty much always going to get scuffed at least, and if there is a piece of expensive equipment in the way then thats going to get damaged too.

Both the Garmin and Look pedals embed the strain sensors in the pedal spindle and have a detachable electronics pod. I suspect it would be very hard to catastrophically damage the pedal spindle in a 'normal' crash. The electronics pod also looks fairly shielded. If it does get damaged, Garmin, at least, says it will be possible to get a relatively cheap replacement.

 

DC Rainmaker has some in-depth articles on both and it looks like he'll be reviewing the Look meter in the next few weeks.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/09/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know.html

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/09/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know_19.html

 

SRAM claims the new Red Quarq will do L/R balance, but it'll be interesting to see how accurate the turns out to be. We'll probably have to wait for it to be released and for someone to do side-by-side rides with a pedal-based meter before we find out.

[Minion]

Hope I'm not hijacking 'dale's thread too much by asking this. What is the most 'cost effective' (OK cheap) way to measure power for comparison purposes for improvement that is rather than against others?

The most important thing for tracking improvement is consistency. Absolute accuracy is not too important in this case.

 

Find a nice 20min TT course and ride it as hard as you can every month or so. Try to do it at the same time and with similar weather conditions each time. Your average speed will give an indication of improvement (faster = improved). You could upload your Garmin data to Strava.com to get a very rough estimate of power.

 

You could get a more consistent indication if you do the test on an IDT. Once it warms up, the speed-power curve is fairly consistent. Once again, faster = improved. There's a Sporttracks plugin that will allow you to estimate power from IDT speed data. Last time I looked at it, it was pretty consistent for steady-state riding.

[LOOK695]

Interesting topic so far. The thing with powermeters is that you need to know how to interprit the figures and how to use it effectively in your training, otherwise it can be a very costly white elephant on your bike. I like training and riding with power, but I also believe that you always have to try and improve yourself and to be careful that you don't limit yourself to climbing at a certain wattage. If you climb/TT at 350 watts ave, work at getting it to 380-400 watts ave for the climb for example. That is where a powermeter is better than riding on feel and HR alone. Would I invest in one again? Yes and I am waiting for the new LOOK Keo powermeter because I am using a Polar head unit and have different wheels for training and racing and the crank option is out because of the intergrated crank on my bike.