Introducing PowerCal a new kind of Power Meter

[dracs]

Same here, very happy. And in terms of accuracy - I felt on K2C I could not deliver power (due to my back spasm). Values afterwards showed exactly that - I spent my entire day below threshold! Most waaayyy below.

 

So whatever the muti is in the transponder - it's good enough for me and I'm one very happy chap with the product. And like I said earlier, the good thing is, I just strap it on and no worries which bike I pick, I have the same device working on the same principles.

I'm sold - time to get on board... Reckon it will meet my needs perfectly too.

[NotSoBigBen]

Just upgraded my Garmin from a 500 to an 800, wonder if that will make any difference .... i.e. does the 800 do anything better regarding power than the 500 did?

[Slowbee]

Did you guys have to pair both the HR function of the strap and the power meter function ?

 

Anyone import the data into sportstrack ? Is it easy to do ?

[NotSoBigBen]

Hey Slowbee, yip did pair both power and HR seperately!

 

I did upload to ST but it doesn't do any power upload or analysis without a plugin - check old man bikings plugins - not free

 

I use 'Golden Cheetah' free software to do mine!

[Slowbee]

Thanks Ben

 

Going to be putting in the order a bit later this week then.

[dracs]

Hey Slowbee, yip did pair both power and HR seperately!

 

I did upload to ST but it doesn't do any power upload or analysis without a plugin - check old man bikings plugins - not free

 

I use 'Golden Cheetah' free software to do mine!

got mine last week (great service from Michael btw... Done 1 ride so far and downloaded to sportstracks and found exactly that... so thanks for the tip on Golden Cheetah - going to download it now.

 

For the ride I had to take a wild guess at my FTP before the ride and clearly was too low as spent the entire 3 hr ride well over it... Was impressed that the unit seemed to know when I wasn't peddling 80% of the time (had 3second power and %FTP dispayed).

 

On the down side I had 3 or 4 occasions where my heart rate supposedly spiked to 225 giving ridiculous power figures. Anyone else had this issue? It was cold and windy so could be that the strap dried out a bit (issues were on fast downhills)... will be a bit annoying if this happens often.

Edited October 2, 2012 by dracs

[SeaBee]

dracs, never had any HR spikes. I get the odd power spike, but it seems that is par for the course for any power meter. But it does make for depressing graphs, if it caters for a 3000w shooter somewhere in the ride and the rest of the line is piddling down theeeere under.

[dracs]

dracs, never had any HR spikes. I get the odd power spike, but it seems that is par for the course for any power meter. But it does make for depressing graphs, if it caters for a 3000w shooter somewhere in the ride and the rest of the line is piddling down theeeere under.

Ja - haven't played around with Golden Cheetah yet but I think I saw some functionality that lets you remove spikes presumably for this reason... Re the HR issue - I haven't had this again in subsequent rides. May be a combo of the conditions on the day and the strap may have been a little loose.

 

Need to do some analysis of my rides now and see if I can learn anything... - just haven't got there yet

[NotSoBigBen]

I see an update is available for Golden Cheetah

 

http://goldencheetah.stand2surf.net/?p=629

[dracs]

I see an update is available for Golden Cheetah

 

http://goldencheetah...surf.net/?p=629

Am I just being slowed up or do you need to start from scratch with the new instllation? Doesn't seem to upgrade but rather adds a second program so you need to re-do settings, re-import data etc?

 

Quick question to the CycleOps guys (or anyone else who knows), is the Powercal waterpoof? It doesn't look particularly so and I was planning to use in the 70.3. Will it be OK...?

[NotSoBigBen]

Were you running V3? I just did an upgrade ......

[BicyclePower]

Am I just being slowed up or do you need to start from scratch with the new instllation? Doesn't seem to upgrade but rather adds a second program so you need to re-do settings, re-import data etc?

 

Quick question to the CycleOps guys (or anyone else who knows), is the Powercal waterpoof? It doesn't look particularly so and I was planning to use in the 70.3. Will it be OK...?

 

nope the CycleOps PowerCal is not to be used in multi sport disciplines like swimming.

[dracs]

nope the CycleOps PowerCal is not to be used in multi sport disciplines like swimming.

pity...

Were you running V3? I just did an upgrade ......

only v2.1...

[Minion]

DC Rainmaker has done a comprehensive review:

http://www.dcrainmak... (DC Rainmaker)

 

A summary of pros and cons:

Pros:

 

- Cheap, really cheap

- A gateway drug to full blown power meters

- Compatible with any ANT+ power meter device, easily integrates with existing devices

- Includes ANT+ heart rate strap functionality as well (you can use that part standalone for a run, which I do all the time).

- Can be calibrated, if you want to venture down that path

 

Cons:

 

- Shorter duration accuracy is rough

- Longer duration accuracy depends on many variables

- Pace fluctuates quite a bit

- May not be as accurate for everyone, highly individualized

- Calibration procedure requires repeated testing, may not improve accuracy

Edited November 30, 2012 by Minion

[covie]

This is super news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.What do you all think

 

I think its bull if you know how your heart works then it has nothing to do with power. Just go read joe friel's heart rate training bible, Your heart is unique individual and works differently every day. And depending on a million of factors like illness, fatigue, food, etc the rates changes, I am no doctor but from the bit i know and have read Im damn sure theres no way to get an acurate power reading from your heartrate. Other factors are the delay in HRM's as they dont poll often enough, the time it takes for your heart rate to get up to tempo after prolonged excessive length the curve goes down. Which means your heart rate starts dipping even though maintaining the same speeds/effort.

 

And the only reason you have power meters is because they are more accurate than heart rate monitors for training. Even if the formula comes close its still not acurate and wont help you in the slightest besides having "interesting" data. Sort of like the way strava works out your "power" output based on heart rate.

Edited November 30, 2012 by covie

[Minion]

I think its bull if you know how your heart works then it has nothing to do with power. Just go read joe friel's heart rate training bible, Your heart is unique individual and works differently every day. And depending on a million of factors like illness, fatigue, food, etc the rates changes, I am no doctor but from the bit i know and have read Im damn sure theres no way to get an acurate power reading from your heartrate. Other factors are the delay in HRM's as they dont poll often enough, the time it takes for your heart rate to get up to tempo after prolonged excessive length the curve goes down. Which means your heart rate starts dipping even though maintaining the same speeds/effort.

 

And the only reason you have power meters is because they are more accurate than heart rate monitors for training. Even if the formula comes close its still not acurate and wont help you in the slightest besides having "interesting" data. Sort of like the way strava works out your "power" output based on heart rate.

And yet the reviews (i.e actual data) out there indicate that it gives better data than heart rate alone and much better data than an online estimator like Strava. It doesn't give the same accuracy as a true direct force PM (nor does it claim to), but then it doesn't cost R9000+ either.

 

It's a reasonable compromise between cost and accuracy. I am seriously considering one as a load (i.e. TSS) estimator for MTBing, rather than shelling out R12,000 for another direct force PM.