spinner5339
09-10-05, 01:10 AM
A group of roadies passed me this morning, I went to re dial the setting to keep up..then I realised I do not have power tap on my fixed wheel. Anybody has power tap on their fixie?
Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Power Tap Fixed Wheel
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red house
09-10-05, 02:14 AM
what a heck is a power tap? -it does sounds cool
11.4
09-10-05, 03:01 AM
I've built a couple wheels for fixie and track riders on Powertap hubs. (These, by the way, are hubs that have pressure transducers inside that enable you to measure wattage output, which allows you to track your training and to test your output at different gearing, positions, etc. Very valuable if you're racing, interesting to know in a self-improvement perspective otherwise.) There are two ways to modify Powertaps for track -- one is to use the Shimano freehub to fixed conversion from Surly, and the second is to buy an actual re-machined Powertap hub. The former you can use with the new Powertap SL, and the latter is available (so far) only for the older all-aluminum Powertap. The primary advantage of the SL, in my mind, is that you can have a non-contact sensor that picks up the signal from the transducers through the carbon shell, rather than needing a continuous electrical contact through the side of the hub. It just makes the hub more reliable. That being said, the SL had some problems out of the box, which Powertap has supposedly dealt with at this point. Be sure your hub is a revised version if you go to an SL. The remachined one is completely adapted to track dimensions, including conversion from 130 to 120 mm.
They lace up just like any hub and you can read power, cadence, speed, heartrate, etc. all on one monitor on the handlebars. As an alternative, you can get an Ergomo for the same price, which I've found is a bit more accurate and slightly more reliable. It has the sensors incorporated into a Dura Ace 7700 series splined bottom bracket, so you can use current DA track cranks or 9-speed road cranks of any version. It's very elegant and about the same price as the SL. Then there's the SRM, which is outlandishly expensive but is the gold standard and works better than any of the others with transducers mounted in the right crank arm. Get a Dura Ace 10 version and use a DA-10 road crank as in a conversion rig, or there's a dedicated track version (which, however, is nowhere near as stiff). You can google for manufacturers and retailers for all of these systems.
Fun toys, and very valuable if you are racing seriously, but they all need care and are not exactly typical fixie gear. Oh, and you need a reasonably competent Windows computer with Windows XP to download data from all of them and analyze it (if you don't do this step, you miss the whole point of the units).
They lace up just like any hub and you can read power, cadence, speed, heartrate, etc. all on one monitor on the handlebars. As an alternative, you can get an Ergomo for the same price, which I've found is a bit more accurate and slightly more reliable. It has the sensors incorporated into a Dura Ace 7700 series splined bottom bracket, so you can use current DA track cranks or 9-speed road cranks of any version. It's very elegant and about the same price as the SL. Then there's the SRM, which is outlandishly expensive but is the gold standard and works better than any of the others with transducers mounted in the right crank arm. Get a Dura Ace 10 version and use a DA-10 road crank as in a conversion rig, or there's a dedicated track version (which, however, is nowhere near as stiff). You can google for manufacturers and retailers for all of these systems.
Fun toys, and very valuable if you are racing seriously, but they all need care and are not exactly typical fixie gear. Oh, and you need a reasonably competent Windows computer with Windows XP to download data from all of them and analyze it (if you don't do this step, you miss the whole point of the units).
Aeroplane
09-10-05, 05:49 AM
Wait, so if PowerTap is just a super-duper computer, how could changing the settings on it let you keep up with a pack of roadies? I am confused.
gorn
09-10-05, 05:54 AM
He's making fun of poseurs.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=136161
Roadie poseurs, not hipster poseurs.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=136161
Roadie poseurs, not hipster poseurs.
spinner5339
09-10-05, 08:14 PM
11.4, thanks for the details on power tap..all sounds a bit complicated and toyish for me, wouldn't it be easier just to measure the time for 200m?
tlupfer
09-10-05, 09:33 PM
11.4, thanks for the details on power tap..all sounds a bit complicated and toyish for me, wouldn't it be easier just to measure the time for 200m?
no. that doesn't tell you how hard you worked to go 200m, only how fast you were able to do it.
no. that doesn't tell you how hard you worked to go 200m, only how fast you were able to do it.
auk
09-10-05, 10:51 PM
Very good post 11.4, thanks.