Power meters are measuring instruments that tell you what your legs can do. They measure pedalling power in watts. A few hours of intensive cycling with them will give you a comprehensive picture of your abilities - at least as far as the "engine" is concerned. The data reveals whether you have sprinting or endurance talent or what you are capable of in comparison to other athletes. Watt-controlled training also helps you to get fit on the dot and train what you need in competition.
Power meters are therefore very valuable tools for performance-orientated road cyclists. If you just want to have a look at your wattage values for fun, you can of course also do this. It is exciting to see how the values rise on the mountain and fall in the slipstream. Rather sobering is the fact that your own muscle power is finite and shrinks with the riding time. Whether mountains or wind, whether starting with pasta in your stomach or an empty stomach - the data reveals all of this, and you don't have to be a nerd to enjoy reading it correctly. Until now, however, you had to pay dearly for this fun. Real power measurement was not available for less than 900 euros.
But now Stages, a new supplier from the USA, has broken through this price barrier: The cheapest power meter from the Americans costs 699 euros and is fitted in a Shimano 105 crank. We tested the 200 euro more expensive Dura-Ace version with identical measurement technology. The rear wheel hubs, in which Powertap hides its power measurement system, are now also cheaper: whereas light models cost around €1,200 until recently, the price of the new G3 hub is just under €800. New power meters are also available from Rotor (cranks) and Garmin (pedals). Both can analyse the performance of the legs separately and thus provide new information on what needs to be trained. The test field is completed by the new Type-S sensor from Power2max, SRAM's Red power meter and the new Dura-Ace version from SRM. For the test, we mounted two to four power meters together on a bike and collected comparative data during training on the road as well as during intervals on the roller and with a Kickr trainer. Various Garmin, SRM and Powertap computers were used as computers. The data was stored on all devices at fixed one-second intervals, then read into the Golden Cheetah computer program, exported to Excel for analysis and synchronised there.
An ANT+-capable bike computer is required to display and save the data when training with a power meter. However, more and more training apps for smartphones can also display the power meter measurement data. Click here to test four training apps that can be paired with power meters.
You can find the full article with the test results of these models in the PDF download below:
- Garmin Vector
- Powertab G3
- Power2Max Type S
- Rotor Power
- SRAM Dura-Ace
- SRAM Red Quarq
- Stages Dura-Ace
Downloads:
download
