Cycling Power Meters
Cycling power meters are one of the great modern inventions for training on the bike. They allow the rider to measure their power output while riding. They do this by measuring torque using strain gauges mounted in either the cranks, bottom bracket or rear freehub and by combining it with current velocity and using this to workout the power being applied. Some cheaper modern units work in a different manner by measuring opposing forces such as wind resistance, inertia, rolling reistance and combining these to come up with a less accurate power estimate.
Commercial cycling power meters have been available since 1989 but their high cost put them out of reach of most cyclists. Cycling power meters have become more popular in the last 10 years as the cost of production has decreased making them more affordable to general athletes looking for effective time efficient ways of increasing their fitness.
In addition to measuring power most bike power meters will also record and display heart rate, riding speed, distance covered and duration. By combining all of these an athlete gets a lot more out of a training session that if he just had a single feedback such as heartrate or speed.
Why is this? Well imagine if a rider is under the weather – his heartrate is going to be affected by this. If it’s a windy day then likewise his speed is going to be effected. If he measures both heartrate and power the correlation between them can be much more informative.
Cycling Power meters provide virtually instant feedback to the rider through a display unit mounted on the handlebars of the bike. Wattage is measured immediately and the actual power output is displayed. Heart rate monitors measure the physical effect of exercise effort and this is subject to a lag in the body – make an effort and it takes a few seconds or longer for your heart rate to climb. Therefore a cyclist doing interval training sessions using a power meter cn see instantly when his power output has reached say 350 watts rather than waiting for his heartrate to hit 180bpm 10 or more seconds later.
Additionally as a training session progresses a rider’s heartrate may stay the same but do to fatigue power may be decreasing – using a powermeter in conjunction with heart rate monitoring will record this point for further analysis
Example First Power Meter
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Filed under Knowledge by on Apr 23rd, 2009. 
