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Power meters - should they be allowed in pro cycling?

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Dec 30, 2010
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well here we go again , talking tech .

All really good points , but :

You don't need the PM's , you don't need race radios , You don't even need carbon fiber bikes .

A steal or aluminum frame with all built circa 80/90's era components was the best combination of weight / ride comfort as man has ever produced.
With the exception of new wheel tech and better tire rubber which enabled the user to train without a lot of flats and gain some extra gearing so we could ride up a mountain backwards or over the ceiling if you will , we all pretty much had it made in the shade.

Power meters are as unnecessary as **** on a nun , with the exception of the distance traveled so you don't cheat yourself after you look at the wrist watch when you get home, in a training ride over the time distance speed calculation that you mentally do anyway .

One of my biggest dislikes of a power meter is the ability for a DS too blurt in your ear that you haven't even maxed out yet and to get your *** moving to catch that break. ( well I am at 150 watts and today I am maxed out ) Sorry to disappoint my DS Guru , but I need too go for a visit with the little white bowl with the tank on top .

Which brings me to race radios , well I already posted what I felt on that topic and they need to go on the trash heap as well .

I don't know what all you people earn but tech talk and everything else aside I believe the bicycle , the racing bicycle and the industry has lost its marbles . The carbon fiber bikes both road and TT have priced themselves out of the market to most that want too take part in this , as a sport individually or as a family sport with goals of licensed racing . The cost is obscene for a family of 4 . each with a road and TT bike so we can all compete on a level playing field .

On the ecological side , The carbon fiber bikes are non reclaimable. AT least the steal and alum. bikes could be 100% recycled , or even repaired fully and repainted .
All this flies in the face of our new motto to recycle and reuse world wide .
The new carbon fiber just adds to the plastic junk that must be gotten rid of .

NOT all is bad , lots of innovation lead to more comfortable seats and shifters which was responsible for increasing participation, for the beginner .
But ridiculous top tube to seat tube heights created in my mind designs that are too stiff and unmanageable in corners especially down hill on wet roads .
Hence all the crashing going on .

I could go on ,, but the industry wants to sell sell sell sell and it will be marketed to death so that you all buy buy buy buy . Thinking you cant ride without all the high tech stuff.
That is how money is made .
 
stainlessguy1 said:
One of my biggest dislikes of a power meter is the ability for a DS too blurt in your ear that you haven't even maxed out yet and to get your *** moving to catch that break. ( well I am at 150 watts and today I am maxed out ) Sorry to disappoint my DS Guru , but I need too go for a visit with the little white bowl with the tank on top .

Your concern on this point is unjustified, since telemetry of data from an on bike power meter/computer is already not permitted during races.
 
stainlessguy1 said:
well here we go again , talking tech .

All really good points , but :

You don't need the PM's , you don't need race radios , You don't even need carbon fiber bikes .

A steal or aluminum frame with all built circa 80/90's era components was the best combination of weight / ride comfort as man has ever produced.
With the exception of new wheel tech and better tire rubber which enabled the user to train without a lot of flats and gain some extra gearing so we could ride up a mountain backwards or over the ceiling if you will , we all pretty much had it made in the shade.

Power meters are as unnecessary as **** on a nun , with the exception of the distance traveled so you don't cheat yourself after you look at the wrist watch when you get home, in a training ride over the time distance speed calculation that you mentally do anyway .

One of my biggest dislikes of a power meter is the ability for a DS too blurt in your ear that you haven't even maxed out yet and to get your *** moving to catch that break. ( well I am at 150 watts and today I am maxed out ) Sorry to disappoint my DS Guru , but I need too go for a visit with the little white bowl with the tank on top .

Which brings me to race radios , well I already posted what I felt on that topic and they need to go on the trash heap as well .

I don't know what all you people earn but tech talk and everything else aside I believe the bicycle , the racing bicycle and the industry has lost its marbles . The carbon fiber bikes both road and TT have priced themselves out of the market to most that want too take part in this , as a sport individually or as a family sport with goals of licensed racing . The cost is obscene for a family of 4 . each with a road and TT bike so we can all compete on a level playing field .

On the ecological side , The carbon fiber bikes are non reclaimable. AT least the steal and alum. bikes could be 100% recycled , or even repaired fully and repainted .
All this flies in the face of our new motto to recycle and reuse world wide .
The new carbon fiber just adds to the plastic junk that must be gotten rid of .

NOT all is bad , lots of innovation lead to more comfortable seats and shifters which was responsible for increasing participation, for the beginner .
But ridiculous top tube to seat tube heights created in my mind designs that are too stiff and unmanageable in corners especially down hill on wet roads .
Hence all the crashing going on .

I could go on ,, but the industry wants to sell sell sell sell and it will be marketed to death so that you all buy buy buy buy . Thinking you cant ride without all the high tech stuff.
That is how money is made .

Even though I don't care that much about the ecological side (in general there are bigger issues IMO, and within the ecological debate there are also way bigger issues), I'd just like to point out that carbon fiber is no finite resource, so whether or not it is recyclable is pretty much unimportant.

Personally I'm still puzzled as to how so many bike manufacturers can exist in the same market. They all build pretty much the same product and while some of course market their product as regional (like Orbea, Colnago etc), there is no real reason why 3 or 4 manufacturers wouldn't dominate the market. It's not a bad thing, but it's puzzling. I mean, there are more bike manufacturers in the market than car manufacturers (somewhat large-scale ones), which tells you that it is probably all marketing and not so much technological advancement. With a lot of R&D cost, economies of scale would have a bigger effect on the competitive situation.

Thus, I don't think it's unreasonable for me to say that advances in technology in the pro peloton are marginal at best.
 
Jul 27, 2009
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Arnout said:
The rev counter in F1 broadcasts is just there for the show, it's not connected to the car. Listen carefully next time and you will see it shifting at different moments than the actual car.

That's probably an issue with the sound broadcast. I assure you the data is not made up.

Similar telemetry is used in the WRC and even local V8 supercars here in Australia. So without getting distracted on individual broadcast issues the technology exists to be able to relay watts data from a bike, the issues would be around having enough pick up points close enough to the riders. Seems a small issue though.

The biggest hurdle would be getting the UCI to approve it. Didn't Vayer get taken off air a year or two ago for doing live watts estimates on the climbs?
 
Jun 12, 2013
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at the giro a few years back, they were able to show data from riders using polar bike computers (heart rate, cadence, speed but not power)
 
Dec 30, 2010
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ya'll yuppie riders .

Alex Simmons/RST said:
Your concern on this point is unjustified, since telemetry of data from an on bike power meter/computer is already not permitted during races.

WELL , I hate to disappoint it was done , legal or not , from a car , via a link and video came to actually watch that part of the race , even though the team car was way back .
There is way to much info relaying during a time trial as well, up to and including how fast to take a corner.
Not impressed .
 
stainlessguy1 said:
WELL , I hate to disappoint it was done , legal or not , from a car , via a link and video came to actually watch that part of the race , even though the team car was way back .
There is way to much info relaying during a time trial as well, up to and including how fast to take a corner.
Not impressed .

well it's not cheating if they all do it.... :p
 
Dec 30, 2010
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not cheating on my rides

Alex Simmons/RST said:
well it's not cheating if they all do it.... :p

LOL , :rolleyes: , I think I will go on a non cheating ride after reviewing all the DNF's from the Canadian RR championships .
No computer , no power meter , no plastics , just to decide whether its a one water bottle ride or a 2 water bottle ride. One banana or 2 banana :eek: lol .
See how many plastic bike people I can collect on the way .:cool:
 

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