the Powertap has been fine for me. I had one flaky day where it ate batteries like crazy. I REALLY like that I can switch it between all my road and cross bikes. My coach prefers the SRM, but couldn't justify me spending the extra $ on it.

It is heavy, you don't want to race with it (though I did).

Check out ergomo (www.ergomo-usa.com), cheaper than SRM and equally precise.
I recommend you to search the web before buying any power meter device, you have to take into account hom many miles before being refurbished, or if you have to perform any operation before every ride (I think you have to reset the powertap before each ride), what data does it record, and how does it record it. Read a lot before buying!!
If you want to get a Power Tap Pro ebay is a good place to do so!

They didn't exist then. Merckx tried to win every race, but his apprenticeship was good. He never raced more than a 4 day race when amateur. As a pro, he didn't ride the Tour until he had cut his teeth on the Vuelta.

Physiologically he had great gifts, the most important being his recovery under extreme effort and his ability to suffer. When he broke the Hour record in 1972 he did tests in Turin. To that date the only athlete tested in any sport who had a faster recovery rate was the great Czech runner Zatopek, but Eddy confounded them with the amount of lactic acid in his blood. Apparently he could ride with it at abnormal levels.

The other thing i remember reading as a kid was that when he was coming through as an amateur, if his HR was say 10 bpm higher he would not train or train lightly the next day.

He was not pretty on a bike, but what panache with the way he won.

Should have said Giro and not Vuelta. He only rode the latter once (1973). He had already won the Tour 4 times by then.

[quote="spaniardclimber"]I am my own coach, and I don't have that much time to ride so I want to take the most profit of it. If by training by power for 4000 km I could reach the same performance as I would by just riding hard but putting in 8000 km, I wouldn't doubt it, I think training by power is the next step.[/quote]

hehehe ..... yeah right !

When you train using a hr-meter you can also train your power if you do it right. Absolutely no way you can train half as much when using a powermeter. For absolute professionals, maybe they can improve just about 1% by using such devices.... and they have a whole medical staff to interprete (dunno if I spell this right) the data and make their training schedules.

I see so many people with top-hr-monitors and all they use it for is downloading the data to their pc and just look at the data and that's it. They don't get the point that you have to interprete these data and do something with it. Just looking at your hartrate monitor or powermeter doesn't mean that you're training with it !!!!!

IMO, better invest in something more worth for your money!

Resetting it involves holding two buttons on the front, no different than any other cycling computer that you zero out before each ride.

I do agree about researching on the web as to which is best for you.

I didn't mean that with power you can achieve the same performace training half the time, I just wanted to state that I prefer quality vs quantity.
I agree you have to know how to 'read' all the data the power meter gives you...thats why Im reading everything about power training that Im finding in the net.
And Im also sure that power meters are the next step in training...but just my personal opinion...

I think Fe is skirting the issue that I also brought up. The fundamental issue of tools, and which is best to use.

If you already don't have a lot of time to ride, then why would you want to sit in front of a computer for hours and detail out a single workout. The time you spent analyzing the data could have been used to train more. As I said, and Fe implied, there really is just too much data for any single athlete to deal with. But if you think it's going to help your preformance, please go ahead and try. Having an expensive gadget is always a good motivation to ride harder/more/faster. It's the bottom line that matters, and if you have money and it help you get motivated to ride fast, then do it. Buy it.

Costs... USD
$1770 SRM
$1280 ergomo
$700 Power tap
$650 polar

There was a review in Velonews some time ago. I can't remember which issue it was, but there was a short summary and rating of each of the major power tools.

Again, I would make the suggestion to use power in a benchmark test, such as with a trainer. It's simply more cost effective for the gains. Good trainers with power measurement start around $380 for the Tacx Flow.

Good luck to Spanishclimber, and I hope he finds great improvements with his new tool. I certainly think you are going to get the most out of your body and equipment givin the money and time that you have. You're a smart guy.

This is an issue brought up on a coaching forum, you might be interested in what the pro's have to say about this subject.
http://www.bicyclecoach.com/phpBB2/view ... f5210e485d

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Toys-R-Us

I have been training with a powermeter for nearly a year and a half.
It`s by far the best way to quantify your training.

whoa, hold it. That's an interesting statement. I will say that yes, if an athlete does not understand the concepts behind, and have a thorough understanding of training principles, etc, then there may be too much info. On the other hand, have you LOOKED at how or how much data is displayed? Even if you want to boil it down to simply "how much time did I spend at each power output", it's there in 1 quick step with a Powertap. That alone can be worth the 30 seconds you might have instead spent training.

I'm not currently training with mine as I am in my earliest base phase, and going by HR (and knowing my body) is fine right now. However, as soon as I get through my base phase, the Powertap goes back on so I can ensure I'm maximizing my time. I can tell you that my climbing drastically improved last year, and a lot of that had to do with some very specific power workouts. This year I am coaching myself again, and I'll still be using the PT.

On a lighter note, the same comment could easily be made about anyone reading forums looking for lightweight gear so they go faster. Spending that time training would help more.

All of Armstrongs training is based on power and HR. His coach (Carmichael) sets his schedule up based on both of these factors. Training be one or the other alone is not the way to go. The best system is to use both to tailor your program.

Power and HR training is also now recognized as the best and most advanced way to train. It maximizes your efforts and abilities.

I have friends that have used both the powertap system and the polar system. All agree that powertap is far better than the polar system on accuracy and reliability. Haven't seen much on the two other systems.

Total agreeance. I am sorry but cycling is just not fun once you start looking at all the numbers and start worrying about them. Learn to listen to your body and It will reward you.

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Fighting Blue Hens

That is true if you're a recreational rider. If you complete, analyzing the data and using it to train better makes the difference of being first or second.