George-a cycling buddy of mine was a regional distributor of iBike. You might check it out:

http://www.ibikesports.com/

Oh, that's good.

Thanks Joe, that really looks like what I need. I'll read more about it tomorrow.

Careful with Ibike. Ibike may be a solution for time trialists. I know of at least 2 racers who use it on their TT bike. Ibike relies on a calibration of the coefficient of drag via a coast down test. So for TT riders who are in the same position on generally smooth roads by themselves on the course I think it may be good. For riding in various positions (tops, hoods and drops), in a pack, rough roads and etc, Ibike IMO is not accurate enough to justify the cost. It is still expensive and comparable to a wired power tap.

George, I use that web site also and think it is pretty good. It has its limitations. There is a new power meter that may hit the market in the next quarter this is included in a Speedplay pedal. The target price is about $800 and includes the pedals. You can move the pedals from bike to bike. The company is Metrogear. We will have to see.

Thanks again Rich, I'll just wait until something comes along. I got a feeling power meters will come down, just like everything else. If they want to keep moving them and newer models come out. What comes to mind is the calculator. Remember when they came out.:D

I saw a picture of that and thought it was not real - it will be great if it really comes out and it mat be the thing that puts me over the top on the justification for a power meter.

I wonder if they ungraded the ibike? It gets some good reviews.
http://www.ibikesports.com/documents...ing_Dec_09.pdf

Had to read this a couple of times...

To play devil's advocate:

HRM make sense to me for recreational riders if they use it to slow their rides down. It's a strong tendency even for duffers to speed up during a nice ride and push too hard when you shouldn't.

But wattage calculations seem pointless to me.

My nemesis is hills, of which there are a bountiful supply in my area. When I'm going up one, feeling the searing pain in my legs, seeing blood trickle out of my ears, and developing tunnel vision with a figure dressed in Gleaming White calling out my name and entreating me to come Home, I can't imagine knowing that that happened at 250W instead of 245W like the last ride being useful information.

I glad to hear you made it home from a ride like that. Now tell me what your getting your readings from.:twitchy:

They are derived from my Ascent program, which is why I have no idea whether they're the least bit accurate.

I dunno, forgive me for saying so, but sitting around and comparing wattage is like having us argue about the sizes of our respective, um, um, aw never mind.......

Power meters are a racers training tool, so that during training a racer can increase his power output, to drive taller gears and therefore go faster. During a race the power meter itself probably adds too much weight and takes too much parasitic power itself to be used. HRM are useful for physical training, especially for those who might going up heart attack ridge, exceed their Max HR and keel over. Useful for overweight and out of shape riders, wanting to fix either.

Crank length? I think mine is pretty average, 170mm. However I have never had anyone comment about my crank length nor has anyone ever complained about the width. I do know that I would never try to ride if my crank was not stiff.

Second base.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vev3NHU_Olk

It sounds like I should just stick with my first idea. Garmin 500 Edge:thumb:

For a recreational cyclist using a power meter is the equivalent of a runner using a watch to time his runs or a golfer keeping score. Lots of people just want to improve their power/speed/score and a power meter is the easiest way to measure that on a bike.

For context:

http://valvejob.files.wordpress.com/...pg?w=418&h=460

Human power output. From D.G. Wilson, Bicycling Science, Third Edition. 2004.

Based on my calculations, I am pretty much a 100w kind of guy.

fify
IMHO, a power meter is about 4 or 5 levels of complexity higher than the comparative tools/sports.

Floyd's epic climb (clean or not) was around 450 or 470 watts, not 750 - still prodigious!

Energy is the amount of work you do to accomplish a specific task. If you bike from Ann Arbor, MI to Chelsea, MI at a certain average speed, you use a certain amount of energy measured in joules, watt-hours (watts times hours), or calories. If you bike from Ann Arbor to Chelsea and back all at the same speed, you use twice the amount of energy.

Power is the rate at which energy is expended. It's equal to force times velocity, and the tricky part is taht on a bike the force is proportional to the square of velocity, being dominated by aero drag, at speed. Power is equal to energy divided by the time over which it is expended. If you expend the same amount of energy in half the time, that's twice the power, and also needed twice the force.

If you bike from Ann Arbor round trip to Chelsea one week in two hours, you consume a certain amount of energy at a certain rate, aka power. If you bike the same route in one hour the next week, had half the time and hence twice the speed. Twice the speed means you applied four times the force. The power in the faster ride was 8 times the power in the slower ride.

It's really hard to go a lot faster than you do.

Based on what I've read, the iBike is still not a broadly useful power meter.

After reading all the post/replies it sounds like something I don't need. I'll draw the line at the Garmin Edge and that will be more than enough for me to know. The only question I would add is, what did the pro's use before a power meter came on the scene?

[QUOTE=Sluggo;10588686]For context:

http://valvejob.files.wordpress.com/...pg?w=418&h=460

I think my power is "off the charts;" but I am not going to reveal which side of the chart I went off...

[QUOTE=BengeBoy;10589381]On this chart I'm around 220 watts for 5 to 10 minutes, based on the lab test I did about 18 months ago. Never done a real time trial, the test was patterned on a Conconi test with a calibrated power meter. The point was to find my lactate threshold so I could set up zones. So I'm below the healthy NASA guy! But he wasn't a 56 yo recovering couch potato. Maybe I'm good for a couch potato?

A cyclocomputer may be similar in complexity but not functionality.

A power meter may not be for everyone but it is not that difficult and anyone capable of posting on a message forum using a computer should be able to manage a power meter. It is certainly simpler than knowing the rules of golf or using a GPS enabled Garmin.

Hummm... really brings into question the power calculation (guesstimation?) from my Garmin 305!

03:39:43 h:m:s, 64.9 mi., 209 watts

This thread has been forward to John G of the TwoJohnsPodcast. Everyone here will be punitively ridiculed and accused of being a dentist.

Are you using your Garmin to give you a ball park on watts used?

ball park, soccer field, what ever. I ride by heart rate, and the rest of the stuff is interesting. I will say that the calories burned do provide a nice "justification" for that next beer or 2nd piece pie.

There's a pretty good explanation at:

http://bicyclesportshop.com/buyers-g...ers-pg1208.htm

I sure see what cyclinfool's talking about, not being able to justify it.