Psst.. wanna buy a cheap power meter?

[JasonW]

 

Some featured that would be useful in the CPU:

USB I/O plus charging.

SD memory' date=' or whatever popular format.  But it is important to be able to take data off the device without downloading to a computer for multi day rides etc.

[/quote']

It would also be very useful to have some form of barometric altitude measurement such as that found on the Polar. It would be nice to see your power output on the same graph as altitude, particularly for races where you can't quite remember what the terrain was doing.

[Minion]

 

 

Like this one: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0245835.html

 

Patent was filed in 2006.

 

Also check it on Google Patents. The advantage there is that you can see the images without having to register. It also has very useful hyperlinked cross-references to other patents.

Edman2008-04-25 03:56:03

[Minion]

Polar's power patent

Powertap patent

 

[CaptainDura]

I dont know about Aruba' date=' but the SA market for powermeters is limited. Of the 24k odd people who ride the Argus, perhaps 2000 wonder what their power on the bike is. 1000 of those think power training is not for them, and  500 of those already have a power meter. So you are looking at 500 units in SA - it will be a challenge to make money out of 500 units (but it can be done.)

 [/quote']

 

This is absolutely not true.  Look at the use of hrm's just in SA. Almost every funrider has one these days. Why? because it has become affordable thats why.

 

If the "wattEver"/cyclowatt is as affordable as your middle range hrm then i bet there will be a list as long as my arm wanting to buy one.

 

furthermore the international market is only as far away as the internet and if the WattEver/cyclowatt really works then the sky is the limit selling it internationaly.

 

 

[Guest Big H]

Name should be "The Big Watt"

My original idea was a load cell in the saddle. The harder you work the more your arse grips the saddle. This can be reworked to watts!!!!!!

The idea looked good but there was to many variables, some people are "hardegat" and others are tight arsed and some are even "slapgat" The whole idea imploded when it fell through his arse!!!!!!!!

Big H2008-04-25 05:10:59

[Windbreaker]

 

The whole idea imploded when it fell through his arse!!!!!!!!

Sort of like what your comment has just done to the credibility of this thread?

 

[The Doctor]

On the picture below the black area is where the power adaptor sits (but in between all the arms of the spider). The red arrow shows how you rotate the rings into the new hole positions.

 

 

Manufacturers spend countless hours each year redesigning and perfecting the position of the pick up ramps, pins and gates so that our shifting is as smooth as a babies toosh. Unfortunately your design will move these out of position and affect the shifting negatively.

[Viskop]

 

 

What about a PM that uses a HRM and converts the Heart rate effort with the other variables that the HRM records into watts.

 

Q??

 

 

 

Isn't that going the iBike (?) approach? Thing thingy that measures wind resistance and all' date=' and is pretty much universally denounced as useless...

[/quote']

 

Yes the i bike thingy was a good idea but (i believe and stand to be corrected) relys on the measurement of airflow, which as we can be rather iffy.

 

What I was suggesting was not to measure airflow but to rather use the effort as recorded on a hrm and convert this to watts.

Power measurement and recording is obviously more accurate by the use of strain gauges or other mechanical devices that react in relation to the "power" appllied, but they are not cheap especially when you try to fit them onto weight concious bicycles.

 

Therefore I was wondering about a conversion factor being incorporated into a HRM software using the already vast amount of power VS heart data that has been gathered over the last few years.

 

Granted it might not be 100% accurate (how do you know for sure your current power device is 100% correct all the time), but as long as it remains consistent, this would be cheaper than the available options of power measuring devices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I feel where you're going SwissVan,there are just to many variable variables in you're equation,if I can put it like that.The missing ingredient here is GPS.Think about it,GPS provides incline,that should make it  significantly more accurate.Mmm,maybe.

 

I think the peoples in the biz(Polar) would of done this if feasible.They give us the next best thing.Hart rate & Kcal's!

 

 

 

[Windbreaker]

HR is affected by stress, stimulants, temperature, fatigue and even sexy women jogging past. There is just no way to deal with all the variables associated with HR to accurately derive power. A GPS is going to add nothing to this problem that a Polar doesn't already do.