A buddy of mine is lending a powertap wheel for my bike. I plan on using it during the offseason; I use a garmin edge 500 on my road bike. Any recommendations/suggestion on screens to use for training.

During the week, I either use the rollers or trainer.

The powertap is on your road bike? Or track bike?

Depends on the workout. I am usually just looking at straight power on the rollers/trainer(even on the road), or power, lap time, and possibly lap power for intervals. For most intervals and just riding I will use straight power, for longer intervals I use 3s. If you use it just riding around on the road then maybe do speed in there as well if you care but if you're structuring workouts off of power targets, speed and distance don't matter.

Cadence is important.

If you play it right, you'll come out of the winter with a decent spin. But if you spend the winter grinding away at 70RPM you may not.

There is a time for grinding and a time for spinning.

I've got power meters on all my bikes at this point- and after spending a lot of money to get there, I sort of feel that there is not a ton to gain for track racers- especially sprinters.

The key things for me are-
Being able to calibrate trainer efforts to track efforts based on power output and cadence. But to really dial that in you need power on your track bike and Trainer.

Keeping an eye on my output on sustained efforts on road rides so I don't detonate myself.

Beyond that you are typically just looking back at data.. And I'm as big a fan of that as anyone- but it honestly doesn't affect what I do next..

My best year on the track was before I had power- did it all with a $20 speedo and a $20 stopwatch..

+1

I used a PM for several years as a (wannabe) sprinter and looking back, most of my decisions were made based on cadence vs speed as just about every effort was maximal. If you hit Xrpm, then your gear was too low. If you couldn't hit Yrpm then your gear was too high. Wattage was just an interesting byproduct.

A power meter is great for enduros and roadies who want to work on threshold stuff. It's also good for coaches to monitor an athlete's fitness. "She hit X watts...she's getting stronger." "He can't hit Y watts, he may be overtrained."

Just my humble opinion.

Occasionally people ask about home-building a start gate. Here's what we've got at Hellyer now. .be

Im along the same lines as you Quinn, I haven't purchased power for the track yet but some days wish I had it just for the sake of 'I wonder how much power that was'.

I supposed you could compare times vs power to get a better understanding what you were doing, but really the times are all that matter, regardless of the power it took to get there. Because we are in a static environment (compared to road riding), speed is a pretty reliable gauge of power anyway.

I only have an old turbo, which doesn't add much resistance via the fly wheel. How else can I increase the resistance, if at all? I want to get a better turbo, when I can afford it. Are fixed wheel spin bikes a good alternative? I have access to them at the gym.

Tools to measure power < tools to increase power. Quinn, I can get you started with an introduction to weights if you want.

I would be concerned that lifting weights would make my legs feel heavy and slow...

They put SHOES & SOCKS on the guy?!?

Never lift without your slippers.

For the record, there is no such thing as too much data. It's just that Power data for the track is really expensive to obtain compared to Speed and Cadence data.

Mag trainers are sort of better than fluid or turbo trainers because you can turn on instant resistance.

Yes, Fixed wheel spin bikes that use pads for resistance can work very well for starts, provided that the rest of the setup is decent (you can put track bars on it) and stable.

Ill use the spin bikes then... its for interval efforts. I dont think my turbo adds enough resistance so unless i can find a way to increase it, its pretty pointless. Or since its not for starts....should i use the turbo?! lol :)

Like Quinn I have SRM's on all my bikes. On the track bike I do find the data invaluable for Pursuit training. For other track training and racing no so much other than analysing the data post racing...

Speaking of power meters, what are your guys' thoughts on Power2Max Track powermeters? It goes up to 2999W and is relatively cheap.

I need a new set of cranks for my track bike anyway and figured I might as well spend an extra $1000 to get power data. My only concern is it's a BSA bottom bracket frame and would need a BSA to BB30 adapter, any gotchas with this as far as performance?

I noticed those lately too, I think an ad on facebook (amazing how 'not random' ads are these days). Im looking to get the rotor crank anyway and this would add about cost of adding stages to a DA crank.

Still $1000 though

I have those on my road bike, on my old frame I had rotors BSA30 BB and that worked super. If you want power P2M is really good, go for it.

I saw a few of them being used last winter before they were official-
I chatted with the guys that had them on their bikes, they were happy and had no complaints. Were I to go back to a track PM, I'd go that route over an SRM. YMMV
(source: had an SRM, spent time with guys using P2M & Powertaps)

Thanks. I also just found out that that the non-3d+ cranks don't require a BSA adapter so hooray for that.

Keep in mind that all wireless power meters need about 3 seconds or 2 pedal strokes to start recording data. This means that the initial crazy torque of sprint standing starts will be missed. Only the wired SRM can record that initial torque spike. Even the wireless SRM cannot record the initial torque spike.

Not true for the Stages Meter-

assuming you are using the high sample rate iPhone app

Where can I find more details on the homebuilt start gate - building a couple might be fun during snow days.

Our club had some steel gates welded up with a bike brake to hold the wheel for practicing similar to the one pictured (to be honest probably made by the same person who made this one).

http://www.skcc.com.au/images/septrack5.jpg

End up always doing held starts instead of wheeling these onto the track...