I am not trying to create any strawman. It just so happens that many people purchase a power meter because they believe that it will help them to improve beyond what they can do without it.CoachFergie said:I already know how hard it is to design a study and currently the hurdles involved at the Ethics approval stage.
Frank, you still try and create a strawman by suggesting that a Power Meter should provide a benefit. A set of scales provides no benefit to the weight loss process only tells you if it is actually happening. A heart rate monitor doesn't tell you if you are fitter or not not (heart rate for a given effort can go down as you become more efficient but can also rise as you learn to tolerate a higher intensity for that duration.
I don't expect my new SRM (well second hand as I don't consider myself worthy of the latest model) to benefit my performance one bit. I do expect it to measure watts.
I performed a test of various shoes using a Powertap and initially found a difference in one brand that you would have expected but when I tested in reverse order found the opposite. I assume the difference was in the heat of the roller on the wind trainer I used. When I tested again with the SRM the difference I found was minimal and well within the margin of error you would expect in that model of SRM.
If I was being funded to perform the tests I would use the erg at the local Uni that has a higher sampling rate and a lower margin of error.
Anyhow, since this is a science thread and since you have said all this perhaps you could tell us then exactly what hypothesis regarding the power meter you hope to test in your study.