hack

Stages + rain = ?

Do any of the power meters get along with wet weather? I don't plan to ride in the rain too often, but don't want to feel like I can't. I suppose with as easy as it is to install and remove the Stages I can just swap it out if the weather is foul.

waterrockets 

lol

hack

To clarify...I don't want to feel like I'd be unable to ride in inclement weather with the Stages when an alternate product would be better (e.g., Quarq). But, if they are all sensitive to wet weather and just need some additional maintenance, then it is what it is.

Racer Ex 

SRM. Pretty much ride them into a swimming pool.

hack

So expensive ... I guess you're paying for quality though.

Specialized2k10

Stages is also limited on the crank arms. I know for sram they only make rival and it's gxp and no bb30 option.

mattm

PowerTap is pretty solid in the rain - mine survived 3 years of rain-soaked rides and races. (and is still going strong, though I did get a $10 replacement transmitter last year).

Plus, you don't have to babysit it (i.e. messing with "slope" before/after intervals, etc). For me that's the main thing, low maintenance.

revchuck 

+1. I've ridden with mine in rain so bad I've had to dodge errant manatees. No problems at all.

globecanvas

Stages and older Quarqs are known to be sensitive to rain. The newer Quarqs seem to have improved somewhat in this regard.

thechemist

My quarq was in snow last week and will see some foul weather this week as well. So far so good as I have seen more zero offset fluctuation from temperature than rain (all within acceptable range)

Edit:this is a newer quarq

Ygduf

get a stages and know you can always get a new model year when you want one via warranty.

or put a wrap of this around the battery cover https://www.amazon.com/Rescue-Tape-Se.../dp/B000ZTK6CI

gsteinb

used power tap

waterrockets 

Yeah, I bought a used PT in 2006 and still haven't had rain problems with it, including a flash flood crossing that submerged it for about a second, and I don't skip rides due to rain.

Specialized2k10

So I realized that I also have to set my ftp on my garmin. I thought I only had to set it on whichever website I was using (strava, training peaks, etc). My IF always seemed high and playing around with the Garmin I found where to enter ftp value. So I can say this weeks tss values are no good, correct? I've only had the powertap for a month, I just rode around all of December. Starting to learn more each day on how to structure rides. So far I love it.

shovelhd

The FTP setting on the Garmin is for the Garmin only. If you display IF or TSS, or set zones on the Garmin, it's used for that. However, at least with Golden Cheetah, it has no effect on IF or TSS with the training program, because FTP is set independently in the program. The two have nothing to do with each other.

revchuck 

I've never entered my FTP in my Garmin 500. Your TSS is figured by the software into which you load the data from the Garmin. If you had a high TSS, and you had entered the correct FTP in the software during setup, it just means you worked really hard that day. If that ride felt easier than the TSS showed, you were just having a really good day. Either that, or your FTP is too low and you need to re-test.

ETA: Dang, Shovel beat me to it!

rbart4506

Same with WKO...

thechemist

Nothing really to comment on here but figured I would post this snippet as I still decide between GC and WKO and this is an easy spot for me to go back and dig up the info:

Wko4==GC

- Power Duration Model == CP Model
- FRC == W'
- dFRC** == W' ba;
- FTP == CP
- NP == xPower
- TSS == BikeScore
- iF == Relative Intensity

shovelhd

Golden Cheetah v3 shows actual TSS now.

globecanvas

I just use a spreadsheet for tracking my training. It's pretty straightforward if you are familiar with spreadsheets.


Inputs: FTP, T (ride time in hours), NP (normalized power), notes.

Outputs: TSS (training load per ride), CTL (fitness), ATL (fatigue), TSB (form).

TSS = T*100*NP*NP/FTP/FTP
CTL = (today's TSS)*(1-exp(-1/42))+(previous day's CTL)*(exp(-1/42))
ATL = (today's TSS)*(1-exp(-1/7))+(previous day's ATL)*(exp(-1/7))
TSB = CTL-ATL


In case it's of any use to anyone, I'll attach a cropped version of the spreadsheet, with this week's data in it (and imagining I was starting from literally zero fitness last week).

training_ex.zip

Not saying this is better or worse than using WKO or GC or whatever, but it works for me.

thechemist

thanks shovel, yea I was curious when I found that snippet from Mark because I have always seen TSS on GC.
not a fan of the pretty graphs huh good stuff globecanvas

ovoleg

absolutely zero issues with my Quarq Riken in the rain. I've ridden in the rain a lot with it to tell you that I've never once seen it drop a reading. I can post some rain rides to show you if you're not convinced. One race in full rain too.

shovelhd

Excellent.

Specialized2k10

If I did a 20 min ftp test, I subtract 5% correct? My power for 20 min was 220w, which will make my ftp 209. If I'm trying to do a workout at 95% of ftp for 20 mins, my goal should be about 199w?

furiousferret

For the most part, yes. There's also supposed to be an all out 5m effort and 15m recovery ride just prior.