Road Cycling - Power Tap v/s Computrainer

I´m thinking about buying a Power Tap or Computrainer in order to train using power.
Which one is best? why?

Thanks all.....

They are both great training tools.

The computrainer will only give you a power reading when you are on the system. Which means most of your workouts using a powermeter will have to be done indoors. The computrainer is very cool in that you can create a course similiar to a race you a preparing for and train on it. The computrainer also mimics road conditions.

The powertap will allow you to train with a powermeter anywhere (except the rain:( ), including an indoor trainer since the data is received from the rear wheel. The powertap is about 1/2 the cost, and will give you another wheel to train on.

IF money is no object go for both!
If you are on a budget and want to train outdoors as much as possible go for the powertap.
If you train primarily indoors and want to design your own course go for the computrainer.

I hope this helps!
Buddy B

I would suggest the PT,the CT is not to accurate.

I would suggest the PT,the CT is not to accurate.


I have used a computrainer with a powertap on the bike and found the power reading to very close to one another. The c/t has a longer lag time, but the average power for both sytems was virtually identical when doing TT testing.

Thanks
Buddy B

If you have any thoughts of working with a trainer, a powertap is a prerequisite
to giving you and the trainer any idea of how you are really doing. Without
objective benchmarks a trainer is just an expensive penpal. Steve