power meter questions .....

I’d strongly recommend buying the power meter book and reading it before buying one. They have a whole chapter on the different types and a chart with pros and cons of each.

http://www.amazon.com/Training-Racing-Power-Meter-Hunter/dp/1931382...

For me it was an easy decision. I have more than one bike, and the powertap system is way cheaper for more than one bike. You just swap out wheels, get a second harness system for about $65 and you are good to go.

Plus the system was so much less money. I bought mine from Performance Bike when they had a 20% of coupon so it was $1000 less $200 brings it to $800 then 10% in points to use on future purchase so net of $720.

Ergo system is $1550 and second bike kit is $700. I was able to get system and my Zipps for less than that.

You can buy the system and have someone build you a wheel or get it with the Mavic Open Pro rim and Sarris (power tap co) builds it and sells as a kit…so the price for the built wheel is $100 which you can’t touch anywhere. The wheel is heavy though. The difference between it and my Zipp 404 with power tap is 17 oz. I’m not sure I’d spend $300 on some other kind of lighter wheel to save 6 oz.

Part of it depends if you are going to race with your power meter. At first I wasn’t going to as I was racing gadget less as I sort of had this issue with being negative with myself and judging myself harsh while racing and actually going slower. I’ve moved up to racing with it and like the data from it. Often I race by feel and glace at my powermeter computer, but I know how hard I can push my body.

Doing a HIM or IM I think it will be more helpful to make sure I don’t push to hard early on the bike and also to not slack off in spots on certain types of downhills. Plus watching my power on up hills and making sure it doesn’t get to high preserves my legs better.

One big plus of PM is if you have a coach it is like they were with you on the ride and they can help critic your ride so you can improve. Two things my coachl has helped me with is pacing as I used to go to hard in the beginning and sort of fade in a race or TT. The other thing is like my HIM is challenging hill wise. He set up my weekly interval to duplicate the efforts needed to climb the HIM hills. Thus my legs and body will get used to that rhythm of effort and hop I get better at buffering lactic acid which should make me perform better at the HIM.

I did have issues with my first PM computer. Sarris has sent me free ones and actually upgraded me to the more expensive one for free. First two HR wouldn’t pick up as it wasn’t coded and I think my cell phone interfered. The first new coded one I got didn’t work. Seconded coded one has worked well. What I was told is they were going to completely coded system for them now. I’d make sure the CPU and HRM you get is coded as it picks up HR much much better. Sarris is great for customer service and exchanges which is a big plus with an expensive item.

A huge thing for me was having the PM for winter and trainer rides as I actually worked hard and improved in the off season. I hadn’t really realized how easy I was doing the trainer until I started with the PM. It actually for me makes trainer rides fun and challenging and I no longer watch TV or need a distraction.

I'd recommend getting cycling peaks software as it is much better than the Sarris software and it was written with the authors of the books ideas.

On-line power meter review
http://www.biketechreview.com/archive/pm_review.htm

wattage group:
The folks that wrote the Power Meter book participate in this list. Most of the people who post are hard core bike racers. Much of what they say goes over my head but by joining you can scroll back at old posts and learn a lot. I find it very informative. Lots of discussion on type of equipment/which power meters as well if you look on-line at the old threads. It can be a little like slow twitch where if you get it wrong they jump all over you.
http://groups.google.com/group/wattage?hl=en

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