Originally Posted by
wphamilton
I'm satisfied with my reading comprehension, but thank you anyway. You've implied of course that you generalize from your experience of never losing the bet to all the rest of us fools who don't think that highly of your procedure.
I understand computers and their capabilities (30 year professional), so it doesn't particularly impress me to say that you hook them up with one.
So this "baseline power" that your computer establishes, can you be a little more explicit? As stated, it's still essentially meaningless. What your setup measures doesn't necessarily correspond to an increase in FTP, or 5 second power, or any of the other potential benchmarks. There's no way for anyone to evaluate your claims of a perfect record of 10% improvement unless you're a little more specific about what you've improved. If you want to say "I don't know exactly" (probably the best answer), and that it shows an improvement in whatever it is that you measure that's somehow related to power, that's fine. But it won't mean that the rider has more power generally, when riding his bike.
Secondly, is this power number established for the person on their bike, or on analogous stationary equipment?
Yeah, amazingly enough we actually need the rider to be ON the bike when they are pedaling it and having the setup done.
We do the actual fitting on the road. We hang out the window of a car and do the adjustments on the fly. We drive faster, they ride faster, it is tons of fun. If it is raining, we have a RETUL and a Cyclocomputer we can use. You know. The same stuff half the pro teams in the world use. But what do they know?
Because you don't like something does not mean that it does not work. And I truly do not have time to do an on-line fitting class explaining how all the equipment works. If you are really that interested, take a class or go to your local shop. Peruse the internet. Educate yourself. Learn. Then come back with some information for a discussion.
You know them fancy schmancy power meters thingys? Riders can establish power levels using them based on the type of riding they are doing. It's how they measure....ready?...improvement. Whoa. There's a concept. And the really fancy machine can actually measure how much of the pedal stroke you are using. Another big whoa, eh? Wow. Correct fit adjustment allows the rider to use more of the circle, and then they can ride in bigger gears, produce more power and...ready?...they go faster with less effort!! That's a big reason why professionals are paying attention to their setups. I mean, look out for that one, eh?
It works. Whether you agree or not really does not matter.