Originally Posted by
Dunbar
I have a power meter and I find Strava's average power (and thus work/calorie burn) estimate pretty accurate. But this only works if you do an out/back route to account for wind. And obviously there's no way for Strava to know if you're drafting someone so keep that in mind for group rides.
Originally Posted by
SpeshulEd
I will go along with this and say, Strava does a pretty good job of estimating power over a large amount of time. For example, if I average my power curve over the previous month, Strava's estimate is pretty accurate to what I see when I take a month's worth of power data from my power meter.
I also agree - but it's kind of like a +/-20-30% kind of accuracy. I also notice that when I ride and the wind is up, then it is not accurate at all.
Power meter pricing continues to come down. I will say that I learned a lot from having a power meter that I didn't expect - things like being able to fine tune or even understand technique differences was really enlightening.
J.