Buying a powermeter is not always a straightforward decision . Cost is probably the biggest consideration. Compatibility with your equipment is usually next. This leads into how you are going to use your powermeter and whether or not you want to capture race data (which is the best) or not. For example if you buy a powertap wheel and swap it between your road and time trial bike, what happens when you want to run a disk wheel? Conversely is your road and TT bike compatible with the same crank based powermeter you are considering? (I.e. does your road & TT Bike have the same type of bottom bracket that will allow you to swap your crank based powermeter from bike to bike?)
These considerations & others all go into the purchasing process. At FasCat we are coaches & athletes that run into these same considerations for the athletes we coach, so we know how to consult with you about which powermeter is right for you. Its a worthwhile discussion to have. In the meantime, he’s a comparison chart that covers many of the considerations to weigh when determining which powermeter is right for you.
Quarq, SRM & PowerTap Comparison Table
Notice that we have included the Garmin Vector. The Vector is going to be one of the hottest powermeters for 2012. At a $1500 price tag, many are going to be early adopters of this first to market pedal-based powermeter. We are holding our breath and eagerly awaiting our chance to ride and evaluate it’s accuracy, data, and reliability. Until then, the question marks above will stay. It will be extremely easy to put these pedals on an SRM or CinQo & overlay the data to compare.
As always, we are available to discuss which powermeter is right for you. And of course we’ll extend our free month coaching to anyone that buys from FasCat. During that free month we’ll include the follow (among others)
1. Wattage Based Field Test to determine your power at threshold and training zones in watts
2. Power Based Training Calendar
3. Expert Analysis of your power data and daily Coaching Feedback
4. We will teach you how to use you powermeter
5. FasCat will provide technical software and powermeter support for the life of your powermeter
