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Post by robertsims on Jan 15, 2017 20:30:07 GMT
Hi all, I had a bit of cash for Xmas and some wiggle vouchers so thought I'd treat myself to a 2nd hand garmin 500 (£55 thank you very much) and a HR monitor to help with pacing on TT races. Looking on Wiggle they were about £38 but for about £65 (OK 75 but I had code for £10 off if spent over £50) they had a Powercal www.wiggle.co.uk/powertap-powercal-bluetooth-and-ant-heart-rate-strap/Bizarrely says unavailable now but only bought it last week! Anyway this is a HR monitor that also tries to estimate power. I was fairly cynical about this but had good reviews from DC Rainmaker www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/11/cycleops-powercal-in-depth-review.htmlAnd as had vouchers I gave it a go. Used it for first time today on turbo trainer where I use Kinetic Inride to calibrate the trainer and calculate (by all reviews pretty accurate) power. Well...I was impressed. The HR monitor parts work perfect as I would expect but was surprised about the power calculated by the powercal as well and how well it matched power from Inride. If I was going easy (below about 200w - 80%ftp then it wasn't that accurate but on harder efforts it matched very very well...after about 20-30 seconds as delay in Heart rate reaction. In fact on a 30min TT effort just above FTP the inride and powercal gave an average power just 1w different! Will keep experimenting but certainly for longer intervals over say 2 mins it seems very decent for me at least.
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Post by robertsims on Jan 29, 2017 9:15:04 GMT
Still very pleased. Done a few more rides and similar results to above. The other day I did an hour Zwift ride (using Inride for power) and also tracking it on PowerCal. As above it is bit slow to react to sudden rises and falls in power but overall avg power for ride was about 2W difference. Next step to test is progressively shorter intervals to test when no longer reliable. I reckon good for intervals over about 2mins.
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Post by robertsims on Feb 20, 2017 14:11:04 GMT
Did some v02 intervals the other week and just had a chance to compare power figures from PowerCal to the Inride. I assume Inride is pretty accurate by all accounts.
I did 5x5min intervals and got the following:
Interval 1 - Inride 286W, Powercal - 247W Interval 2 - Inride - 288W, Powercal - 261W Interval 3 - Inride - 287W, Powercal - 263W Interval 4 - Inride - 287W, Powercal - 266W Interval 5 - Inride - 289W, Powercal - 266W
So certainly consistent with last 4 intervals anyway (think heart rate still ' warming up' on first interval if always about 25W under. Make of that what you will!
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Post by robertsims on Mar 7, 2017 13:20:29 GMT
Likely be sending it back! It was working totally fine then last few sessions on turbo it works OK for 30-40 mins then starts to cut out (linked to both garmin and zwift so not the head unit issue). Seems to work ok outdoors but cuts out after while indoors. Tried moving it round etc but no luck. Then if turn it all off and leave it couple of hours it works again (just off then on doesn't fix it). I wonder if gets 'too wet' with sweat when on turbo which breaks it, then when dries out it's OK again. Seems OK outdoors but in this weather never getting anywhere near as sweaty outdoors. Either way not impressed for money so sending back I think and replace with just standard HRM (any recommendations?).
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Post by r0b1et on Mar 7, 2017 16:46:35 GMT
I like my garmin pro one... but they aren't cheap. Washes nicely though, I wash it about every 5 uses.
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Post by robertsims on Mar 7, 2017 17:58:21 GMT
I like my garmin pro one... but they aren't cheap. Washes nicely though, I wash it about every 5 uses. Rinse in sink or in machine?
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Post by r0b1et on Mar 8, 2017 10:12:31 GMT
I like my garmin pro one... but they aren't cheap. Washes nicely though, I wash it about every 5 uses. Rinse in sink or in machine? In the machine with rest of my cycling kit.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2017 11:43:38 GMT
I've been using a Geonaute ANT+ monitor and strap from Decca for >12 months with zero issues. The monitor clips onto the strap with x2 press studs so you can easily wash the strap when needed. I've hand and machine washed it without any issues. I thought I'd killed the monitor when I accidentally forgot to take it off the strap and the whole lot went through the machine. Initially it did not want to play but after drying the monitor on a radiator it has worked fine ever since (>5 months).
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Post by r0b1et on Mar 8, 2017 12:57:03 GMT
I've been using a Geonaute ANT+ monitor and strap from Decca for >12 months with zero issues. The monitor clips onto the strap with x2 press studs so you can easily wash the strap when needed. I've hand and machine washed it without any issues. I thought I'd killed the monitor when I accidentally forgot to take it off the strap and the whole lot went through the machine. Initially it did not want to play but after drying the monitor on a radiator it has worked fine ever since (>5 months). I had one of those for about 18 months... then it died for no apparent reason, and couldn't get another.
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