Dear Bob
I’ve been racing for a number of years now and being a family man I’ve tried to keep my training to a set schedule so as to be able to give a lot of regular time to my family, which is something I consider important. Last weekend I was thirty minutes into my planned 5 hour training ride when the display on my Powertap power meter kept cutting out forcing me to head for home early as the training session was wasted. As I approached my house I noticed my cousin’s car on my driveway and the front bedroom curtains closed, even though it was only midday.
Upon letting myself into the house I could hear all manner of moaning and groaning coming from the upstairs which I found confusing. I headed into the hall and up the stairs where there were men’s and women’s clothes discarded on the floor. The noises coming from the bedroom were unmistakeably those of my wife in the throes of sexual ecstasy and although the bedroom door was almost shut I could see through the crack in the door as my wife was straddled naked over my cousin passionately riding him, completely oblivious to anything else.
I was so shocked at this sight it felt like I had become paralysed on the spot, I managed to avoid the desire to burst in and do something that may have put me in court before a judge and instead took myself quietly downstairs trying to work out what was going on and what to do. Eventually, in my state of confusion I thought it would be best to pretend I had never seen it and went back out to my bicycle and stayed out for another 4 hours trying unsuccessfully to figure out a way of confronting my wife that wouldn’t lead to the immediate breakup of our family.
Upon returning home my cousin’s car was gone so I pretended everything was normal and my wife greeted me with a kiss as she always does while watching television in the lounge. I’ve got no idea if this was a one off or if its been happening for a long time. I need to get it resolved but at the same time I still love my wife a lot even though I’m repulsed by the thoughts of her with my cousin.
J, London
Dear J
I’d just like to tell you that I’m sorry to hear of your misfortune, this is a hard thing for anyone to deal with. Primarily I would suggest you check the location and orientation of the Powertap receiver on the chainstay as this can cause problems as well as ensuring that the batteries in both the hub and CPU are fine. ‘Data drops’ can also be caused by some old versions of firmware in the Powertap CPUs which need to be upgraded to the latest version. This is an easy procedure to do by getting in touch with Powertap direct and should hopefully ensure you don’t have any more wasted training sessions.
All the best
Bob
Filed under Knowledge by on May 8th, 2009. 
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
Filed under Knowledge by on Apr 23rd, 2009.
