Why are power meters so expensive?
 

I can pretty much buy a Concept 2 erg with monitor for the about the same as most power meters and less than some.

Based on how the Concept 2 works it seems like it is pretty much a powertap. Am I missing something?

A microeconomics lesson about product pricing?

market pricing and quantity sold is defined by their intersection. either the green curve is moving too far to the right due to increasing consumer demand, or the purple curve is too steep due to high manufacturing cost. my high school level 2cents.
http://i.investopedia.com/inv/tutori...economics7.gif

There is always the "what the market will bear" approach.

Are you sure the Concept II actually has a power meter?
Based on the product literature I think they're calculating power from a resistance curve. Similar to a fluid trainer. That approach works great indoors when conditions are controlled. And its completely and utterly useless on the road.

A cycling power meter is expensive because strain gauge installation is challenging and labor intensive. There's a ton of calibration factors that need to be include. The strain gauge itself is dirt cheap, getting reliable data from one is an engineering project.

Right. You take all the R&D which includes the huge labor sum mentioned above and essentially that's a fixed investment. You divide that by the number of units you plan on selling over some period and that's the unit cost you have to recoup. You also need a profit to make the owners happy.

The final price gets influenced by other internal costs plus the impact of competition and other economic factors.

Imagine how large that investment cost is. Then divide that by how many power meters of a particular brand are in use. That gives an idea of why they cost so much.

I bought a used Powertap wheel and all the bits for $200.
Even if it stops working, I still have a decent wheel to ride.

wait for a few more years when the prices go down

There's cheap-ish options out there.

Stages makes an Ultegra left crank arm only in the $600 range if I remember right, Powertab hubs are reasonably priced, and the 4iii is coming out soon if it isn't already (~$400).

Still a lot for what it is, but good compared to the $2k QUARQ

Power meters are expensive because only wankers buy them. Pro's use them because their team tells them too (to help them make the required UCI weight). Sorry but I didn't see Merckx, Induran or LeMonde use them and they were all pretty good without them. When you train, You have to focus on your body and what you want from it, if you are lazy a ****ty power meter will tell you something you should already know. If you think a PM gives you the edge good luck, and don't be pissed when someone beats you to the line without one.

the size and accuracy needed for the strain gauges themselves makes them probably around 20-30% of the cost of the unit.

then the engineering, manufacturing and other materials that go into making it...

human beings don't produce a terribly large amount of force on the pedals (figure between 0 and 1000 newtons assuming a range 100-1400W of 'power' output)

load cells of that size can be $80-600 depending on how accurate you want them.

the higher the accuracy of the reading (which would be necessary to get the finite changes of 1-2W of power change).... the more expensive they get.

also, niche market for the most part.... figure average bicyclist is never going to have one... let's take the US as a small example...

last year there was a reported 11.something million bikes sold with 20" or larger wheels...20% of which were road bikes (primer power meter market)... or 2.2 million or so, even if 5% of those bikes were to riders who use power meters... you're only talking 110,000 units on an annual basis... not a huge market at all, as such... high cost.

Merckx didn't use them because they didn't have them.

Lemond was an early adopter of both heart rate training, and power training. Lemond was one of the first users of an SRM power meter, and helped develop the product.


And a power meter will tell you stuff that your body will lie to you about.

One should be careful of criticizing things with which they are not familiar.

This just in, the top .00000001% of athletes are faster than the average Joe without training crutches

In other news, we landed on the moon



But seriously, not everyone is the same. Saying that because certain pros don't use or do use this, that, or the other thing means that nobody does is ********.

I have rides where my average speed for a given heart rate is WAY faster and it's due to wind. This top effort isn't because I had a good day, it's because I had a tailwind. With a power meter, you can train for a given power output, not heart rate or speed. Power eliminates environmental factors like wind.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=440978

YOU guys seriously think that without a "power meter" you will never become a world champion or gold medalist? Hard work and determination will get you a spot on the national team. I raced as a kid when LeMonde and Indurain were in battle, I used HM as a benefit for sure but I learned from a great coach how to pedal efficiently and how to use tactics in a race so the PM for me is a toy, ask any pro! what a PM tells me is stuff I can already feel.

i usually notice when their is a wind and take it into consideration. it's easy enough to tell, i know i'm going much faster than i should for the amount of effort i'm putting out. i factor in terrain too.

Threads like this are hilarious to me

"Because *I* don't ride a carbon fiber bike, *YOU* don't need to either"
"Because *I* can manage with a 9 speed cassette, *YOU* don't need an 11 speed one"
"Because *I* don't own guns, *YOU* don't need to either"
"Because *I* don't have a big house, *YOU* don't need one either"
"Because *I* don't own a fast car, *YOU* don't need a fast car"
"Because *I* don't use a power meter, *YOU* don't need one either"

Transparent trolling is transparent. A little subtlety will go a long ways for you, Grasshopper.

How do you really feel, though?

BTW, Pioneer make the best PM available, as they collect their data from various angles of the pedal stroke....
********************??? | HOME | ********** **********??

Like any other cyclist... Tired ans exhausted..... If you wand specifics regarding training effort.... hmmmmm

I don't expect to win a gold medal or world championship. My goals are a little more modest: Cat 3 podium; help my teammate win the M3/4 omnium at Red Kite; maybe another Mt. Diablo 1-hour t-shirt. I use a power meter because I have a full-time job and family so I have a limited amount of time to train. 12 hours is a big week for me. A power meter is a tool that helps me maximize my limited training time. It also keeps me honest on recovery days and gives me a reliable kcal estimate for weight control purposes.

All things considered, no one really "needs" those things. They are ****ing awesome to have tho.