The Wattage Thread

[AyBee]

okgo said:

Sandersports said:

Never thought of Amazon ... Will keep a look out . ..... @Rob ... Do they run all ok with Ultegra & Dura-ace ?

Yep! Though I use KCNC rings on the front.

Where do you get your KCNC rings from please?

[okgo]

Hmmm, they're the Blade series, BUT the new version I thought were ugly so I went with the old which seem to be quite rare. I think I got them from bike24 which is a german site?

[AyBee]

Thanks!

[Mark83]

Mark83 said:

*noob alert*

I'd like to get more serious and track my progress so looking to buy a power meter.

I saw the Quarq DZero Power Meter Spider. I'm building a bike and fitting Sram Red eTap. My chainset is the BB30 50/34 110bcd with hidden bolts. Is it as simple as removing the chain rings and fitting the spider? Any special tools involved?

I have a Garmin 800 head unit, is this OK to use for would I need to buy a newer unit?

Thanks in advance.

Still no power meter but bought a Tacx Flux, Garmin 820 and Zwift subscription last week. Built up the courage to do my first FTP test. It was 215w. Not sure if that's good or bad. Weight is my weakness though so my power to weight suffers. It has made me want to buy a power meter now as I can now quantify my rides and actually structure some training now have no excuses like weather and lack of daylight.

[Usget]

Mark83 said:

Still no power meter but bought a Tacx Flux, Garmin 820 and Zwift subscription last week. Built up the courage to do my first FTP test. It was 215w. Not sure if that's good or bad. Weight is my weakness though so my power to weight suffers. It has made me want to buy a power meter now as I can now quantify my rides and actually structure some training now have no excuses like weather and lack of daylight.

It's neither good nor bad, it's your own baseline, and it gives you something to aim at. Best thing to do now is to follow one of the Zwift training plans for eight weeks and then see whether you've increased your FTP - the weight will probably start to drop as a natural result of this.

[E65Ross]

I set a new FTP back in April, was 234W and now 241W, I put on a small amount of weight, up from 8st 7lbs to 8st 9lbs so around the 4.4W/kg mark.

Did a pretty hard ride outside earlier on my own, despite being slowed by 3 sets of traffic lights, being caught behind a group of about 20 riders on a narrow lane and a few idiotic drivers I averaged 20.4mph over 30 miles. Considering it's been a pretty tough week I'm pleased with that....slow compared to some of you quick guys but I'm only a lightweight, my bike is pretty old hap now, it was quite windy out, and I wsan't wearing my aero gear (see, I've got the cyclist excuses NAILED ). Only 1500ft of climb but the first 9 miles had 750-800ft of climb in. Fair few strava pbs and an 8th and 10th best of all time.

Am I the only one who finds it hard to match the intensity factor of indoor rides when riding outdoors? I just find things like traffic, junctions etc mean you can never quite be "on it" as much as on the TT....especially since I have a kickr which kinda forces you to hit the numbers.

[Gruffy]

E65Ross said:

Am I the only one who finds it hard to match the intensity factor of indoor rides when riding outdoors? I just find things like traffic, junctions etc mean you can never quite be "on it" as much as on the TT....especially since I have a kickr which kinda forces you to hit the numbers.

I'm the other way around. I struggle to hit the same numbers indoors. It feels 10-15% harder than it does out on the road. Also with a KICKR, so I guess it's down to the rider rather than the kit.

[nacnac]

I can't say I've ever paid much attention to the IF of rides. Let's face it you are training are you going to separately warm up and cool down just to keep it high? Then what happens when you get to some traffic, road works, traffic lights etc? Start taking risks to keep it high?

Surely it's far better to look at the important metrics within your ride? Power PB's, interval trends over various sessions etc

[E65Ross]

nacnac said:

I can't say I've ever paid much attention to the IF of rides. Let's face it you are training are you going to separately warm up and cool down just to keep it high? Then what happens when you get to some traffic, road works, traffic lights etc? Start taking risks to keep it high?

Surely it's far better to look at the important metrics within your ride? Power PB's, interval trends over various sessions etc

Well yesterday, yes, I did do a bit of a warm up and reset the Garmin after

No....I don't take risks for the sake of keeping the IF high....my life/safety comes before the numbers! Always stop at red lights, don't pull out on cars etc...it's just not worth the risk!

[nacnac]

E65Ross said:

No....I don't take risks for the sake of keeping the IF high...

I'm not saying you do but consider you are about to set an all time high IF after 2/3/x hours and then you encounter something which means you will have to soft pedal, will you approach that as rationally as if IF wasn't a factor?

If instead of looking at the whole ride you do efforts separately on sections of road conducive to not stopping you will probably find it more repeatable. Is it not the case that your concerns over IF are effectively long duration power records? e.g. why not just go out on a suitable stretch of road and see what you can do for say 2 hours? You can then warm up and cool down without always having three ride files!

[E65Ross]

nacnac said:

E65Ross said:

No....I don't take risks for the sake of keeping the IF high...

I'm not saying you do but consider you are about to set an all time high IF after 2/3/x hours and then you encounter something which means you will have to soft pedal, will you approach that as rationally as if IF wasn't a factor?

If instead of looking at the whole ride you do efforts separately on sections of road conducive to not stopping you will probably find it more repeatable. Is it not the case that your concerns over IF are effectively long duration power records? e.g. why not just go out on a suitable stretch of road and see what you can do for say 2 hours? You can then warm up and cool down without always having three ride files!

Well I use training peaks so you can easily highlight sections of a ride and that will give you power averages, IF, peaks etc so I don't actually end up with 3 ride files!! I usually just have 1 ride file, but hit lap after the warm up and I'll have average power and NP lap up on the screen.

But you're right, you must take the whole ride into account....I think I came across as a bit "my numbers mean more to me than my safety" in my first post....but even when pushing hard yesterday there was a roundabout near the end....car coming from the right, I MAY have been able to make it, but I didn't, simply because I didn't want to get squashed!

[simonF10]

Gruffy said:

I'm the other way around. I struggle to hit the same numbers indoors. It feels 10-15% harder than it does out on the road. Also with a KICKR, so I guess it's down to the rider rather than the kit.

I enjoy indoor training with trainerroad and the kickr but I too struggle to hit numbers I would do outside. I often wonder if I am getting the best training stress/stimulus indoors as I am not really hitting power I know I am capable of outside.

[BMWBen]

simonF10 said:

I enjoy indoor training with trainerroad and the kickr but I too struggle to hit numbers I would do outside. I often wonder if I am getting the best training stress/stimulus indoors as I am not really hitting power I know I am capable of outside.

Is it because the kickr measures power after the drivetrain so includes those losses?

[nacnac]

Getting back to the original question here, there are two factors at play. Assuming all other things are equal, is it "easier" to have a higher intensity ride on a trainer then the answer is a clear yes. No junctions, traffic, hills etc all playing their role in slowing you down.

I suppose the other question is "can I develop the same power on my trainer as on the road?" and there are a lot of resources over this so go search for more information. A brief summary would be; yes, for many people due to the different muscle recruitment and the difference in kinetic energy the flywheel has compared to on the road there will be a difference in power.

[okgo]

Generally its lower indoors than out (power production) because of lack of inertia, heat build up, and generally mental fatigue of it.

[E65Ross]

I find absolute peak power (ie the max power you can possibly produce) is definitely higher outdoors, simply because you can swing the bike and really hold on, as it were. I find doing interval sessions or long intervals there's no way I can match what I can do indoors, simply because of traffic, junctions, changes in gradient and so on.

Must admit, I'm bloody loving riding in this sunshine. Time to work on those razor sharp tan lines

[okgo]

The point isn't about traffic and stuff its about perceived exertion for a given power. If you had a road with no interruptions it would be very unusual for you to produce more power on the turbo really for all reasons listed.

[Mark83]

Usget said:

Mark83 said:

Still no power meter but bought a Tacx Flux, Garmin 820 and Zwift subscription last week. Built up the courage to do my first FTP test. It was 215w. Not sure if that's good or bad. Weight is my weakness though so my power to weight suffers. It has made me want to buy a power meter now as I can now quantify my rides and actually structure some training now have no excuses like weather and lack of daylight.

It's neither good nor bad, it's your own baseline, and it gives you something to aim at. Best thing to do now is to follow one of the Zwift training plans for eight weeks and then see whether you've increased your FTP - the weight will probably start to drop as a natural result of this.

Been riding more and repeated the test last night, up 11w to 226w and dropped 1kg.

[Matt_N]

A bonus and desire to take my cycling up a level means I'm going to delve into the world of power soon, I've also got an aspiration to take up racing next year as Castle Combe is only 15 minutes away.

Currently thinking of a Powertap G3 hub built on an Archetype so that I can swap between turbo and main bike with ease, I run Campag so some other options are limited and expensive!

[anonymous-user]

Spotted this on Dean Downing's twitter feed, thought it might interest a few here



https://twitter.com/TrainSharpDean/status/89641061...