New $499 crank-mounted Power Meter to hit market in 2015

[BentAero]

I have all the excuses memorized why I don't have power meter data acquisition. Let me recite them:

A) I don't want to use *your* crank arm.
B) I don't want to lace up a new wheel with *your* hub.
C) I don't want to use *Look* pedals.
D) You wan't how much money?

All those legitimate reasons go out the window if upstart Watteam can actually bring to market what they claim; left and right side power meters that add-on to ANY crank arm with a MSRP of $499.
It sends it's signal to Ant+ devices as well as bluetooth Smart(phones). Additional low-cost sensors are to be available for your other bikes.

If that's case, count me in. Scheduled to ship in Summer of 2015.

http://watteam.com/

The pre-production version shown has an exposed wire that I'm not too keen on, but I suppose some careful application of epoxy could take care of the potential of tearing it off by an errant shoe.

Here's DC Rainmaker's quicky test of the unit, comparing it at the same time with several others units:
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/09/watteams-powerbeat-prototypebeta.html

 

[Rick Youngblood]

Now don't that beat all. Very

Now don't that beat all. Very interesting. A-D are my excuses too. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ratz]

Well if these A-D are the

Well if these A-D are the reasons you probably don't care about left/right power, which means you can use the already shipping product from 4iiii http://4iiii.com/product/precision/ Next shipment will be Q1 2015. Mrs ratz will be getting one of those instead of a stages like I am using. If you want left and right it is the same price as stages and just a little more that Watteam. Those with sub 165mm cranks and a hate of look pedals and heavy wheels will be very happy.. 4iiii is starting to make some nice products..

 

[Rick Youngblood]

Bob, another great choice.

Bob, another great choice. Will be looking for your review, or Mrs Ratz's review. As someone that does not know much about this technology, why get one side, and why get both sides?

 

[ratz]

Left right leg bias.

Left right leg bias. If you are a pro you need to ensure balance is monitored and trained for. For the rest of us, moving up from HR training single leg has come a long way as really is good enough to start with.

In terms of bang for the buck translated to real gains on the road, the best thing to get first is a power trainer. Use in off season and on rainy days to do structured power training, that will give real gains that you can take out on the road.

Then after that a power meter on the bike left side only will let you take power out on the road. Teaching the wife "power" has been amazingly simple on the KICKR. She's learned in a fraction of the time I did without reading the books. If I gave her a power meter for the road now and a workout plan she can go out and do it, that is a direct result of riding structured plans 2-3 times a week on the KICKR

i did did not have that opinion before, but 2 months on the training have convinced both of us of the value.

the accurate ride simulations is an extra perk for none structured training days..


Larry has just recently changed from HR training to Power, he can chime in on how it's helping him getting better results..

Here's a link to a very basic explanation of what a power trainer does in FTP based structured training mode. NOT an expert's document; just some thing I wrote to teach the wife and kids how to use the trainer correctly

 

[Rick Youngblood]

Bob, good explanation

Bob, good explanation thanks.

The power meter interests me and I think it's going to be added to my bike accessory list. And perhaps the KICKR will be too (however, I would like to see a price drop on those SUCKR's).

It seems my bike accessory list never gets shorter only longer!

 

[BentAero]

Bob, I officially hate

Bob, I officially hate you.

Every time you post a simple, well written, informative, instructional piece, it ends up costing me money. Now I'm going to have to buy a kickr as well as a power meter. Then what will I use as an excuse for being slow? Huh? Tell me wise guy, what then?
I suppose I could just use it as a clothes rack...

 

[ratz]

My powers are weakening....

Clearly I'm loosing my touch; Larry bought a Kickr, a Power Meter; AND a 2nd Vendetta. I suspect you are just a few miles further away and therefore farther out of the reality distortion zone.

Here's a trick for those that are considering a Kickr. Email Megan@wahoofitness.com and ask to be put on the Refurb announcement list. When they have refurbs selling for $100-150 off they only email those people that asked to be on the list. The units are usually scooped up that same day. They have both domestic and international announcements. The last one was an Australian announcement.

Seriously though we have a Kickr and a Kurt Kinetic. You have to bribe me to get me on the kinetic and after 30-40 minutes I'm bored stupid. The Kickr is a different world; I'll be doing a 3-4 hour ride on it tomorrow during the football games and I'm looking forward to the ride more than the football.

This summer 52 miles was the wife's max distance; and 25-30 was hard. After 2 months she now can knock out a 35 in 2 hours, with gas in the tank.

http://www.strava.com/activities/233223080

Just beware riding Rick's hills; I had to add a 32T cassette to the trainer to ride his routes.

 

[LarryOz]

My take on the power stuff

Sorry for the late reply on the forum - have been out of town for 4 days. Just back now.

I've clearly been affected by something??? to buy the
KICKR, Garmen Vector pedals and a second V20.
But I suspect most of it was because I sold my BMW, so I had the cash... The other reason, I want to get better and compete at the highest level that I am able to.

Anyway.... I am extremely happy with the Vector pedals.
I really wanted left right data to make sure I was not favoring my left knee (since 3 surgeries), plus since I am running on custom 150mm cranks I could not use the less expensive stages. I also did not like the hub based meters because then you can't change wheels for different occasions. Everything else was way more $.
IMHO:
If you are serious about really developing you power and getting decent workouts you have to follow a structured workout plan that incorporates power, endurance and aerobics. You can do it without a power meter, but oh it's so much nicer (and easier to know you are doing it right) with a power meter.
If you train with power, you also really need to get these 3 books, read them and commit all this stuff to memory.
....
The Cyclist's Training Bible
Sold by Amazon.com LLC
$14.76

Training and Racing with a Power Meter
Sold by Amazon.com LLC
$14.72

The Power Meter Handbook: A User's Guide for Cyclists and Triathletes
Sold by Amazon.com LLC
$10.80
.....
If you had to make a choice between a power meter on your bike or the KICKR - boy that would be hard.
If you had the cash to make an immediate purchase that would help you right now, I would probably pick the KICKR. Since it is winter you will be able to use it more. It will allow you to get serious workouts all the time.
In the ERG mode you can train right at a certain power level, and all the programs now available you will never get bored of riding on this thing. One of the main reasons I am building a second V is to leave one on the KICKR all the time.
Also for bad weather riding year round. I may even consider doing my main power and Aerobic workouts on it year round regardless of the weather. It is that good!
I think it will give you a more consistent workout than on the road.

 

[KiwiGuy]

Power meters with low serial numbers

Hey BentAero

Robert Chung, who you are likely familiar with, quite regularly says, "Don't buy power meters with low serial numbers."

Taking a look at the Stages power meter, by way of example, it seems to me that they have only very recently matured as a reliable product - which is two years on from their release. So I suspect that Watteam is still 3 years away from being something you could buy and know that it is going to be reliable.

Even though Bob advocates for 4iiii (and he really knows his stuff), I'm very sure that it is going to take them a couple of years before most of the kinks are out of their system and they have a really great product.

On the other hand, Stages and Powertap (as relatively low cost options) are already through that learning curve.

Kind regards....

 

[ratz]

Solid Advice

That's a good point Blair and always Solid Advice on avoiding new stuff.

In this case, the 4iiii boys got a good reasonable review at http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/09/4iiiis-introduces-precision.html more promising than some that came before.

Robert Chung is going to have specialized demands for the stuff he's doing. I have run several of his Aerolab tests on both my Vendetta and the Silvio to look at configurations and tweaks. The results give me a pretty good idea of the Cdr and Cda for the bikes. However I'm doing those tests with the Stages power meter; and even in it's high sample rate mode (which eats batteries) the data isn't really perfect for Aerolab (that or my course and technique is sub-par). My virtual elevation graphs never line up as well as others I have reviewed. That's why I haven't posted the results; they just are not good enough to trust. After I do some measured roll-downs this spring I should be able to double check the results.

For road training; the key is that you get consistent results from it; the first 2-4 months with a new power meter you are just going to collect raw data anyhow; while you read the books Larry mentioned. After that you measure your threshold and train against it. Yeah you can compare numbers to others for bragging rights but that's not really the point. Larry's pushing out a lot more watts than I am, but we are both using the devices to train and get quicker, the relative numbers, unless we are racing each other don't matter.

In the end goals matter; I got ok results from a PowerCal for a two years. The data is garbage, below 20-30s averages; but for an introduction that wasn't bad $120 at the time and I think $99 now. Considering that, if 4iiii is even remotely good; at $499 that's an really nice stepping stone up the food chain. I think we'll see more and more of these style devices filling the price void, which is a good thing, very few of us will be buying a $2k+ solution.

But again I do think the power trainers are the biggest bang for the buck.

If you aren't trying to go faster via structured training, or doing some sort of bike analysis, then all these devices should simply be avoided.

Oh and some of the fasted guys don't use any of this stuff.

 

[KiwiGuy]

Interesting stuff Bob

Thanks for your comments Bob. Interesting stuff.

In particular, I had never considered a power trainer before. Now you've got me thinking about spending money I never knew I had to spend. Damn you.

I'm a big fan of Ray's work on dcrainmaker.com. May well be the best power meter reviews around. I agree with what you say about 4iiii (though I'd be shocked if Stages weren't working on their own version of a two crank power meter). I guess it is comments like that below from Ray's first review of 4iiii which for me reinforce Robert's words of advise:

"And I suspect also like Stages, they'll too have some initial teething bumps along the way. All power meter companies do. My testing showed initial promise, not perfection, but promise."

Kind regards...