I bought a 50mm Carbon Clincher with a Powertap Pro+ from Boyd Cycling and combined it with a Garmin 500. Today was my first ride with all of that. I intended to just go out and ride my normal 24km round trip ride and see what the info looked like. At about the 6km mark I leave the city, cross the railroad tracks & typically pick up speed as there is an 8' shoulder from there. So naturally I decided to see what the next 20 minutes would look like for an FTP test. For my first attempt, and an ill-planned attempt at that, I'm pretty happy.

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/202306420

From this I see my 20 minute wattage is 282, so less 5% that equates to 268. I weigh 84kg so that's 3.19 w/kg. I can live with that as a start.

As far as the equipment goes, I love it. Boyd is an awesome vendor and the equipment arrived really fast considering they had to build the wheel. The Garmin is a real step up from the Bontrager Trip 2 I was used to using.

Any comments are welcome.

Impressive power. The speed, slope and power look correct.

It would seem you have more to give with a HR in the 160s during the test. I'm envious of your power. My best was 285 for 25 min but I weighed 79kg at the time. Those days are in the rear view mirror now. My HR would ave in the upper 170s for the 20 min. Everyone is different but you did run up to 187 in the warmup.

I assume I can hold my HR higher on another attempt. No idea what power that will produce. It would help to have more wind as I push harder into a stiff wind. If it's stiff enough I might be able to do it without the 180 turn which kills the wattage.

It usually takes a couple efforts to figure out the correct pacing for a 20 min field test. If you are not near puking at the end you didn't go hard enough! Don't go out too hard though and burnout, but the last 3 min should be an all out effort, whatever is left in the tank.

How much did it cost, out of curiosity? Are you a racer? What category? Just wondering.

It was $1,800 including the Garmin. I don't race, just cycle for fun and fitness.

no offense but a can of Alpo would be an improvement on a Bontrager trip2, butt it's still runner-up. the wiener award goes to the Neos pro+ that would have me believe I gained 10 feet in altitude by going around the block. and after every bath it wants to play peekaboo.
good luck with the new gear. Boyd is on my letter to santa.

Sure is! Think I'll put my powertap wheels on soon and go out for a session of humiliation and disappointment.

For those thinking of getting into this, you can save a few hundred by getting the hub on an aluminum rim... no criticism of the OP's deal intended. It's an excellent way to understand why your bike isn't going faster!

I have a spare wired PT wheel for sale if someone is interested. I ride with a PT about half the time these days. The numbers aren't quite as good as they once were but it's all relative I guess. The data can help get you moving in the right direction if you are motivated that way.

Powers meters sound like fun.

What I would do with $1800:
-buy a new frame and start building it up.
-look for God's own wheelset.
-outfit my current bkie with a rack and panniers and take the left-over money and plan some touring.
-buy some PEDs. Lots of PEDs. Epo, andro and stuff.
-downpayment on a decent car with a good trunk hitch and bike rack that's easy to use and doesn't trash my current piece of poop car.

I'd be OK with Strava telling me I almost never get over 250 Watts, ever.

That's the one thing we all have in common: we're all different.

They are.

As for what you would do with $1,800... that could be said for the majority of posts about new equipment on this forum. It's early for me to speak about measuring power, but I'll bet that this outfit is going to have a larger impact on my speed & cycling enjoyment than any of the items you listed.

btw, this raised an interesting point. I looked into comparisons of power using a power meter vs. Strava estimates. An example of what I found is here...

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Sl...tual_P4054650/

Some quotes:

"The estimated "power" in Strava is for entertainment purposes only."

"First to the OP, as everyone else has said, ignore the estimated power in Strava. I'm sure it can be occasionally close under the right conditions, but it is more often than not wildly inaccurate."

"I can understand the appeal of wanting to be able to use Strava to estimate power, but even under very specific conditions that’s just a foolish pursuit. Sorry, if you want power, you’re going to need to buy a power meter. Plain and simple."

So maybe you are getting over 250 watts, regardless of what Strava tells you.

Dudelsack,

A power tap is more than a measuring device for casual curiosity. It is a basic training instrument for anyone who wants to continue to improve strength and endurance. I spent the winter training on a Computrainer, and a power meter feature provides real time feedback. This allows a cyclist to train correctly and it helps establish meaningful gains from the time spent. It was remarkable to be able to increase power from 160 watts to 225 of average power over 20 minutes. This result was achieved in less than 10 weeks.

If your goal is to achieve greater fitness from your cycling time, a power meter is a smart investment.

MB

You're right about there being something left in the tank. Again, I didn't plan to go hard today but that seems to be what happens on the road. I hammered a little harder today, my HR was between 170 & 175 during the 20 minute section. I managed to get the 20 minute average wattage to 299, FTP to 284, w/kg 3.4. Now I've got to read more of Training & Racing with a Power Meter so I have some idea of what I'm doing rather than just going hard each day.