Originally Posted by Kojak

Any discrete wattage figure means virtually nothing. Generally it's the amount of watts that you can produce over time, and how your heart rate coincides with that number. The theory goes, as you get fitter, your average wattage numbers should improve at a given sustainable heart rate. Most racers become very familiar with these numbers. I no longer race, so the numbers don't mean much to me. If I started racing again, I'd figure out a way to afford a Power Tap system. SRM are better, but much much much more expensive. The marginal additional cost is hard to justify. If you have kaboodles of cash lying around, go for the SRM.