iBike?
 

Anyone use this power meter or any reviews of it? Just kind of stumbled on it and figured I'd ask in here. I used search but when you put in bike, a ton of stuff comes up, so sorry if it's been discussed before. Thanks.

iPass. Buddy got one and it's very difficult to calibrate and reliability falls off depending on the direction of the wind.

I looked into it - and ended up with a Powertap. Havent regretted the decision one bit.

It's a total joke. Ptap, SRM or Quark.

Toy ... junk

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What's really astonishing to me is that you look around the Internet and there actually are some positive reviews for this gizmo. I had one for a month and I couldn't get it to work worth a damn. What a piece of junk. Very happy with my second Powertap.

^^^^^^
I'm not running mine for a workmanship issue and I haven't sent it back and may never send it back--don't miss having a PM--but patentcad had an earlier version. They've come a long way since then--pcad's comparison is like comparing an Apple III to a Mac or a DOS 5 PC to Windows; not the same.

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I don't even know what any of that means, but this isn't a power meter it's a power guesser.

I'd be curious to see if the newer versions work better, mine was about 3 seasons ago, it was awful. Again, I'm very happy with the Powertap, cost, performance, etc. Short of dropping $5-$7K on two new or used SRMs for a road bike and a TT bike, it's the solution that works well for me. The Powertap's big advantage is the ease with which it moves between bicycles.

Theoretically the iBike concept is plausible I suppose. I'd be curious to hear from BF users who have the latest version. If a guy from Velonews got it to calibrate and agree with a Powertap, maybe there's something to the newer ones being much better. I couldn't get the thing to even set up right.

I don't see how it could possibly work. From what little I can glean from the crappy info they have on their website, it looks at speed and incline, and then factors in tire/wind resistance as measured by some tests. Even the ibike people say it's only good for a single riding position because of the way the system is calibrated.

Many cyclists change their riding position constantly, and in any case wind and/or drafting conditions would have a dramatic impact on drag coefficients.

Yes, it measures everything except power, then guesses what that power might be. A power guesser as mentioned above.

The real problem with the Ibike is the price. As everyone has indicated there are calibration hassles, and some accuracy issues with the Ibike, although, there are a number of reports that the I BIke Generation III is not that bad.

That said, when you look at price, there's little reason not to get the $659 Powertap complete with wheel.

The ISport is not a serious tool for training given the lack of a computer download.

The IPro runs $429 wired, and $698 wireless.

The one thing that would be cool would be a IAero paired with a SRM, Quarq or PT, so you get the "virtual wind tunnel"

but again the problem is price, $798 for a head unit, when you can get a Garmin 500 for $249.

Make the ISport $99, the IPro wireless $199, and the IAero, $299, and they might have a market.

At current pricing, the Ibike just isn't a good value proposition.

This is why I want an iBike iAero so bad. For the cost of an hour or two at a far-away wind tunnel, you can ride around with one daily.

This is why I want an iBike iAero so bad. For the cost of an hour or two at a far-away wind tunnel, you can ride around with one daily.

I honestly doubt the effectiveness of one compared to the other

Considering how close it really comes to a torque-based power meter in so many conditions, it seems like it would do a fine job of tallying up rolling resistance and air drag during a test. We all know it's crap power for many conditions, but I think it would be fine on a relatively regular course, out and back, then average the readings. The thing is that, while it may suck for true power, it's a truly amazing little device with some great software on board for reading the environment around you while you ride.

I read an article on it a while back and it sounded like it was w/in a couple % on CdA calculation vs. a wind tunnel. Even with that error, all you need is relative comparison to various positions and equipment.

Considering how close it really comes to a torque-based power meter in so many conditions, it seems like it would do a fine job of tallying up rolling resistance and air drag during a test. We all know it's crap power for many conditions, but I think it would be fine on a relatively regular course, out and back, then average the readings. The thing is that, while it may suck for true power, it's a truly amazing little device with some great software on board for reading the environment around you while you ride.

I read an article on it a while back and it sounded like it was w/in a couple % on CdA calculation vs. a wind tunnel. Even with that error, all you need is relative comparison to various positions and equipment.

I have had a generation III iPro for about two weeks now, so I will give you my take on it so far. I do not really do any racing, so I was looking at it more as a ride analysis tool than anything else, so I really like some of the features like wind speed, gradient, etc. I do the occasional time trial and triathlon, but that's pretty much it. I have put together some power based training to improve my performance, but that wasn't the main reason I bought it. I decided on the iPro largely because I wanted to try something a bit different, and even though it is a bit pricey, it is less expensive than some other options, and had some of the aforementioned features that I liked. I realize that it is not a power meter, but rather a complex computer that does a decent job at calculating power relatively accurately. Based on some comparisons I read, the Gen III is within a few percentage points of accuracy of some of the major power meters, which is perfectly fine for my needs.

All of this is largely dependent on a proper setup, which was not nearly as complicated as I thought it would be. You weigh everything, enter your height, do a tilt calibration, etc., etc. The key things that have to be done are the 2 mile out and back calibration ride and the coast downs. The initial setup asks what position you normally ride in to estimate the wind resistance, but if you do the coast downs, it overrides this and the computer figures out the actual numbers for your riding. When I did this, I did three or four, on flat ground, and tried to use pavement that was about the average of road condition that I ride on.

So far, I have done 7 rides with the iPro, and I have been pretty happy with it. It has given me pretty good information when I am riding, and great info afterward. The software is really great and fairly easy to use. It has a lot of neat features that I am still wrapping my head around, but it has exactly what I was looking for in that it allows me to easily analyze specific segments, like steady efforts of climbs. One thing that I have noticed that was supposedly a problem with a lot of the earlier issues was vibrations and wind.

I have not been able to see any really unusual spikes or weird readings that could be caused by wind, and two of the rides I have done have been very windy, with 20+ mph gusts, both head and cross wind. You can tell that the wattage goes up when you are hammering into a head wind, but it seems to compensate pretty well for brief gusts, and it hasn't been giving me any crazy or inconsistent readings in varying wind conditions.

I have had no problems with vibrations, and I have ridden over a few bad stretches with quite a few potholes, cracks, and broken up segments. I am not sure how that was messing with the earlier ones, maybe screwing with the tilt sensor? So far, it has not been an issue, even though I have hit quite a few jarring spots on the road. I have only had one weird spike out of all seven rides, and it showed up as a very brief (20-30 second) segment where I made 800 watts. I am pretty sure that never happened to say the least.

There are a couple of problems I have with the iPro. First is the issue of changing positions. While I certainly do spend most of my time in the hoods, I like to stand up from time to time. Based on the software, this shouldn't be an issue on major climbs since the resistance is coming from the slope and the rolling resistance. If you are a really strong rider, and you are going fast enough for wind to be a bigger issue, then this could present a problem on climbs. I am not that rider. However, this is a problem for hammering up shorter hills where you just stand up and mash. Again, for someone like me, the discrepancy isn't huge, and isn't that big of a deal, especially for what I am trying to accomplish. For a serious racer though, this could be an issue.

The other major problem is the downhill wattage calculation. After reading their website stuff again, I think I am more confused on how it calculates wattage going downhill. There are times when I am pedaling downhill and it is registering 0 watts, and other times when I am not and it gives me small trace numbers in the double digits. All in all, it's a little odd, and this is the only major issue that I did not think about before purchasing the unit.

One last thing, the customer support is awesome. I had a few issues with getting my iPro to connect to the computer, and their tech support were really pleasant to work with, incredibly patient, and most importantly, easy to get on the phone.

All in all, I am happy with my purchase. I also realize that this is basically an advanced cyclocomputer, and it isn't a real power meter. For me, that's fine. I can get a lot out of my ride data, the power readings are supposedly accurate enough that I can get some training value out of them, and it gives me a ton of other great information about my ride. However, I am not a serious racer. The few races I do are solo rides that are sustained efforts mostly in the same position. I don't really have any need to measure very short peak wattage for sprints, and don't need to measure my wattage in a group ride scenario. Both of these would present big problems for the iPro.

Nice review. I think it is a great training tool as long as people realize the limitations of the unit. I might pick up the cheap version just to get real-time power estimates (I want a new cyclo-computer anyways).

Did you consider the wired PT, complete wheel, for $659 from Competitive Cyclist?

But the cheap version really isn't a training tool. Being able to see your current power, with no ability to put it in Cyclingpeaks WKO, or similar software, is not going to be useful for training.

It's essentially a toy. If you want an actual training tool, the cheapest options are a used PT, or the competitive cyclist deal.

I think the wired PT from CC is a great deal if you have a dedicated training bike (or just one bike for everything) but it is a hassle if you constantly move things around between different bikes. Plus, you know the OCD in all of us will require a matching front wheel, so add that to the cost :) On top of that is the weight factor (the rear PT wheel alone is listed as 1,240g).

So in short, I think iBike can be a great training tool with less hassle and more flexibility than a wired PT.

You have a good point. But consider the fact that even the cheapest unit allows you to do FTP tests and display the data. At the very least, you could see if you are improving or not by keeping track of your progress that way. Then you can upgrade to the full version if you think you need to store and analyze the data.