h2o_polo_boi

i cannot justify spending over $600 for a power meter but i am also curious in the average and peak wattage i can output. Is there any cheap and accurate way of measuring that? thanks

huytheskigod

Borrow a power meter?

666

You could get a trainer with an electronic readout that includes power output. Performance sells one in the $250 range. Or, find someone roughly your size/weight e/ power meter and ride with him.

55-11

https://www.mne.psu.edu/lamancusa/Pro.../bikecalc1.htm

h2o_polo_boi

nobody i know have them lol. if i did, i would have asked them to borrow it much earlier. aren't many power meters fixed onto the bicycle itself though? like hubs and bottom brackets.

ericcox

Not sure how accurate they are, but a lot of stationary bikes also have power meters on them. I have spent a lot of time recently at my gym on a stationary bike that had a power meter. Again, I am unsure of the accuracy, but it seemed to match my estimates based on some online calculators.

ericcox

Oh, and to the irony of this post with your signature. My gym is at my workplace; I have been off the bike due to injury until today.

h2o_polo_boi

actually i tried those stationary bikes before. what i hate about them is they adjust the resistance to keep your heart rate at a certain level. that means i can't really up the resistance and mash away manually. must have been the stationary bikes i were using.

i would think that the meter on stationary bikes would be pretty accurate since there are fixed variables such as terrain, rolling resistance, and wind resistance.

ratebeer

Use the Kreuzotter bike power calculator to get estimates.

You can ride up a hill a measured distance on a known grade and plug in the number. You can get good estimates from Google Earth or your Garmin if you have one.

Or top out your speed on level ground with wind under 5 mph. It looks like LowCel and I had similar speed/power ratios doing this and both of our wattage figures were somewhat close to Kreuzotter estimates.

Campag4life

I hold my finger up in the wind and adjust for barometric pressure. On low pressure days, I subtract 5 watts for each mile per hour faster. I have learned to calibrate with the finger method while riding with those that own a power meter. Unfortunately the finger that works best is my middle finger which sends a bad message to fellow cyclists. I double check by pedaling with one foot....my right because I am right foot dominant which imparts about 55% of my total power to the pedals.
HTH.

ratebeer

Also I believe CycliStats estimates your power for you if you don't have a power meter. I imagine that for total rides this is less accurate than if you simply did short peak power tests on level ground or uphill grades.

ericcox

The bikes here, and at our local Y, let you pick how they want it to work. All of the ones I have used give you the choice of several preset programs (I occasionally use the interval workout) or setting resistance / time yourself. I have been using this latter option of late, adjusting the resistance on the fly to get different levels of workout.

ratebeer

Anemometers are cheap, light and more accurate.

h2o_polo_boi

doh i wish i knew that before!

h2o_polo_boi

hey guys and girls...would this work?

https://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm

Generate power at the same time and just plug in a meter like in the video lol