Power to weight ratio?

Master

5557

, California

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

eyeofthetiger2007 - 2012-04-02 11:15 AM What is a good power to weight ratio on the bike? Do you use your max power or your average power?

Training and Racing With A Power Meter has a couple pages with a table of rough watts/kg values for various rider levels, time spans, and male vs. female.

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Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

spudone - 2012-04-02 8:20 AM

eyeofthetiger2007 - 2012-04-02 11:15 AM What is a good power to weight ratio on the bike? Do you use your max power or your average power?

Training and Racing With A Power Meter has a couple pages with a table of rough watts/kg values for various rider levels, time spans, and male vs. female.

x2

I don't have a link to the chart, but it's basically your average power for different time spans. Specifically 5 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 1 hour (or 95% of 20 minutes).

Also keep in mind that power to weight ratio is most important when climbing. For flatter races (like triathlons) power and aerodynamic profile is most important.

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Master

1770

Bedford, MA

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

Watts per kilogram (w/kg) is the commonly used term in biking. Anything around 3.5 w/kg and above is considered decent. Professional tour riders generally have a 6+ w/kg ratio for one hour power (FTP). To put that into perspective, we're talking about a 150 pound rider having an FTP of 410 watts or greater.

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Master

2236

Denison Texas

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

A little off topic, but why is it Watts/kg and not Joules or newton meters per kg? Obviously this was a weak point in my education.

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Master

5557

, California

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

Av8rTx - 2012-04-02 12:17 PM A little off topic, but why is it Watts/kg and not Joules or newton meters per kg? Obviously this was a weak point in my education.

Joule is a unit of work, n-m is torque, watts are power. They are all related but not the same.

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Master

2236

Denison Texas

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

spudone - 2012-04-02 2:23 PM

Av8rTx - 2012-04-02 12:17 PM A little off topic, but why is it Watts/kg and not Joules or newton meters per kg? Obviously this was a weak point in my education.

Joule is a unit of work, n-m is torque, watts are power. They are all related but not the same.

I see, I guess I was thinking Watts was an imperial measurement and the others were metric-my ignorance shows through

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Coach

9167

Stairway to Seven

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

spudone - 2012-04-02 1:23 PM

Av8rTx - 2012-04-02 12:17 PM A little off topic, but why is it Watts/kg and not Joules or newton meters per kg? Obviously this was a weak point in my education.

Joule is a unit of work, n-m is torque, watts are power. They are all related but not the same.

This guy sounds smarter than me, but here's how I think of it: Joules represent the total work you do over the course of a ride. Watts produced are the instantaneous power you are producing. Watts can go up and down and the joules accumulate faster or slower over the course of a ride.

The watts is a produce of Torque & cadence.

While you don't NEED to know the differences (and I'm not 100% sure I've got them correct), having a vague idea can help you enjoy training with power a little bit more.

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Master

5557

, California

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

The watts is a produce of Torque & cadence.

And 1 watt = 1 joule per second. (also: the watt is used in the SI system, btw)

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Master

2356

Westlake Village , Ca.

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

natethomas2000 - 2012-04-02 12:06 PM Watts per kilogram (w/kg) is the commonly used term in biking. Anything around 3.5 w/kg and above is considered decent. Professional tour riders generally have a 6+ w/kg ratio for one hour power (FTP). To put that into perspective, we're talking about a 150 pound rider having an FTP of 410 watts or greater.

Chart is here

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Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

that is a really good page

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

I really like this page...

http://americanroadcycling.org/TheBook/PowerToWeightCalculator.aspx

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Pro

5892

, New Hampshire

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

... or in my case, kg/W

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over a barrier

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

Fastyellow - 2012-04-02 5:35 PM

natethomas2000 - 2012-04-02 12:06 PM Watts per kilogram (w/kg) is the commonly used term in biking. Anything around 3.5 w/kg and above is considered decent. Professional tour riders generally have a 6+ w/kg ratio for one hour power (FTP). To put that into perspective, we're talking about a 150 pound rider having an FTP of 410 watts or greater.

Chart is here

I've never found that chart very accurate. Example this weekend, raced a Cat4/5 Crit and my 40 min power for the race was 3.6 w/kg and I got dropped in the last lap from the group. I think the chart understates the the 20 min portion. I haven't really paid to much attention further left on the power curve.

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Expert

1087

Portland

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

running2far - 2012-04-03 9:09 AM

Fastyellow - 2012-04-02 5:35 PM

natethomas2000 - 2012-04-02 12:06 PM Watts per kilogram (w/kg) is the commonly used term in biking. Anything around 3.5 w/kg and above is considered decent. Professional tour riders generally have a 6+ w/kg ratio for one hour power (FTP). To put that into perspective, we're talking about a 150 pound rider having an FTP of 410 watts or greater.

Chart is here

I've never found that chart very accurate. Example this weekend, raced a Cat4/5 Crit and my 40 min power for the race was 3.6 w/kg and I got dropped in the last lap from the group. I think the chart understates the the 20 min portion. I haven't really paid to much attention further left on the power curve.

The other major factor to take into consideration here is strategy as well. The person who wins a Crit is not always the person who has the highest W/kg over a specific time. Better positioning may have given you a better result.

That being said, everything should be taken with a grain of salt as JUST because you can produce 4.5 W/Kg does NOT mean that you ARE a CAT 3 racer.

The best use of W/kg is in comparing your ability to another racer as we don't all weigh the same. I think "training and racing with a power meter" does an excellent job of explaining this, but basically someone who is 225 may be able to push 400 watts for an hour, but the same rider who is lighter can maintain the same speed at a lower wattage.

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Master

5557

, California

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

running2far - 2012-04-03 7:09 AM

Fastyellow - 2012-04-02 5:35 PM

natethomas2000 - 2012-04-02 12:06 PM Watts per kilogram (w/kg) is the commonly used term in biking. Anything around 3.5 w/kg and above is considered decent. Professional tour riders generally have a 6+ w/kg ratio for one hour power (FTP). To put that into perspective, we're talking about a 150 pound rider having an FTP of 410 watts or greater.

Chart is here

I've never found that chart very accurate. Example this weekend, raced a Cat4/5 Crit and my 40 min power for the race was 3.6 w/kg and I got dropped in the last lap from the group. I think the chart understates the the 20 min portion. I haven't really paid to much attention further left on the power curve.

I think the current edition of the book has different values in the chart from what is in that link. I'll check when I get home.

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Master

10208

Northern IL

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

spudone - 2012-04-03 11:19 AM

running2far - 2012-04-03 7:09 AM

Fastyellow - 2012-04-02 5:35 PM

natethomas2000 - 2012-04-02 12:06 PM Watts per kilogram (w/kg) is the commonly used term in biking. Anything around 3.5 w/kg and above is considered decent. Professional tour riders generally have a 6+ w/kg ratio for one hour power (FTP). To put that into perspective, we're talking about a 150 pound rider having an FTP of 410 watts or greater.

Chart is here

I've never found that chart very accurate. Example this weekend, raced a Cat4/5 Crit and my 40 min power for the race was 3.6 w/kg and I got dropped in the last lap from the group. I think the chart understates the the 20 min portion. I haven't really paid to much attention further left on the power curve.

I think the current edition of the book has different values in the chart from what is in that link. I'll check when I get home.

Yes, it does. In addition to the right most column being more optimistic for what level you are at a given power/weight, it's for 20 min. I just bumped up near two Cat levels from that.

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Master

2372

Subject: RE: Power to weight ratio?

running2far - 2012-04-03 9:09 AM

Fastyellow - 2012-04-02 5:35 PM

natethomas2000 - 2012-04-02 12:06 PM Watts per kilogram (w/kg) is the commonly used term in biking. Anything around 3.5 w/kg and above is considered decent. Professional tour riders generally have a 6+ w/kg ratio for one hour power (FTP). To put that into perspective, we're talking about a 150 pound rider having an FTP of 410 watts or greater.

Chart is here

I've never found that chart very accurate. Example this weekend, raced a Cat4/5 Crit and my 40 min power for the race was 3.6 w/kg and I got dropped in the last lap from the group. I think the chart understates the the 20 min portion. I haven't really paid to much attention further left on the power curve.

The top end is also skewed. Undoped cyclsts don't max out at 6.6w/kg. It is much more in the line of 5.9 to 6.1 w/kg. Good article here. (You can spend hours reading on that site - sport geek heaven)

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Power to weight ratio?

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