ergomo or power tap?



Bruce Diesel said:
I tend to look at Normalised Power vs. Average Heartrate for similar types of rides in order to track a general improvement - kind of like the PulsePower indicator on the Computrainer. So I certainly would want to keep HR data.

Power is a reliable measure but when you involve it in a ratio with HR, you're reintroducing all of HR's variability. Power vs. time is what you should be looking at since time isn't as fussy as HR.
 
Agreed, I just find it a useful indication of progress to see the trend in terms of HR. I am interested in trends, not instantaneous values. Taken over a reasonable period of time the instantaneous inaccuracies will not have a significant impact.

Guys like Lim (of Landis fame) are looking at power, HR, and RPE to provide a full picture of what is going on.
 
Bruce Diesel said:
Agreed, I just find it a useful indication of progress to see the trend in terms of HR. I am interested in trends, not instantaneous values. Taken over a reasonable period of time the instantaneous inaccuracies will not have a significant impact.

Guys like Lim (of Landis fame) are looking at power, HR, and RPE to provide a full picture of what is going on.

Conconni used to be a really respectable guy too but the HR break point is now pretty much bunk. (search around for "Lim Disassociation point" or something like that).

People measure HR because it's easy to measure. No one has yet, to my satisfaction as an engineer including Lim, shown that outside of a lab setting there is any actionable information to be gained through its tracking.

i.e. only through the use of other tools such as power, rpe and daily rest logs etc, can you postcriptively describe why your HR response was such and such on day X. Under no circumstances has anyone really shown that HR response is usefull in planning or tracking actual fitness.
 
Bruce Diesel said:
I have certainly noticed a trend in terms of average HR reducing as my condition improves.
I don't even have a consistent power/HR relationship on the same day on the same ride, much less from day to day.
 
Alex Simmons said:
I think with these technologies, reliability is always going to be less than perfect, so perhaps pick the one where back up and service is good/convenient for you. I think all the systems (Polar, PT, SRM, ergomo) are all great if set up and used properly. If you are using 1 bike only, then ergomo sounds like a good choice but if you need to ride more bikes, then an extra PT harness and swapping a wheel over is probably the go rather than having to replace a 2nd BB. Depends on your budget I suppose.

I use PT, have buddies using PTs, polar and SRM. I have one PT SL in for repair now, my other one has been getting plenty of wet weather riding this last fortnight (some big downpours lately) and has been working perfectly. My track Pro hub has been fine so far.
Just a follow up - Saris sent me a replacement (new) SL hub. A 2 week turnaround to/from Australia ain't too shabby!
 
Alex Simmons said:
Just a follow up - Saris sent me a replacement (new) SL hub. A 2 week turnaround to/from Australia ain't too shabby!

They did the same for me with two pro hubs I had... brilliant...