Post a video. Heck, I might post one as well. Unleash the hounds on both of us. I need to validate with ST everything I have done from advice I have seen on here anyways.

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Formerly TriBrad02

Lower does not always equal more power

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

Download and install GoldenCheetah

Load your file into Aerolab, learn to use it and try to estimate your cda that way.

You may learn things such as on big climbs where aero isn't as important, you will see things like if your PM is off.

can you do a pic of full set up? or a video?

post more info, like the actual set up used(with pics) for this as well as what PM you are using and when you last checked its actual calibration(not just zero offset)

I will look at this from a different view point.

What power meter are you using? Are you doing a zero offset before every ride? Any chance you can get on a kickr or computrainer to compare your power meter readings to the trainer? Just trying to make sure that your power numbers are reading correctly.

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blog

In all seriousness...one spacer won't do much. Go down an inch+ or don't bother.

My fitter moved me up a couple spacers in front last year and I got faster.

My flexibility seriously sucks so trying to get lower may just rob me of too much power.

Every winter I take all of my spacers out and 'ride' on the trainer. By Spring I am always ready to put all the spacers back in so I can go out and ride in the real world. For me, and my physiology, lower does not necessarily mean better.


Of course, the caveat needs to be put out there that fitting a bike is very dependent on the skills and biases of the fitter as well as what the athlete's body can tolerate.


Back to the OP, I regularly ride 21-22 MPH in races on 175-190 watts, so there is something off with your setup somehow.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

I use a stages power meter. But I have borrowed some Garmin Vector's to see if it was the stages but I had the same output and speed discrepency. Is there a way to check the actual calibration on a stages? I do a zero offset before every ride. I can e-mail a photo of my setup if you pm me you e-mail.

You make good points about height, flexibility and what an athlete can tolerate.

My point is just one spacer is likely not enough to see a change. I can shrug my shoulders and drop my head more than a half inch to make myself smaller.

Personally for me I can't go much lower unless I get a smaller bike, which is hard for me to do. I would certainly like to try it to see if it would be better but I'm already on a 47 tri bike and 44 road bike.

I find BBS projections to be a bit fast based on the normal inputs. for instance i think the rolling resistance coefficient is way low -- i would start with adjusting that to whatever tires you are using (pretty easy to find the calculated RR of just about every major brand). were you in your race kit? aero helmet?, etc. etc.? i think you need to do a bunch of tests and play with the inputs to get it pretty close. i also find that the VI they use is too low--i would compare your average power to the average power they give rather than use the normalized power

I did a race a few week-ends ago. It was only 12 miles but I was off 40 secs. BBS said I would be 40secs faster. I entered the data using midpack triathlete on the aerobards. If I change it to recreational, it gets closer to my time. So this is why I'm wondering if my position just sucks.

damn you are one little dude. I bet your one aero little enchilada!

I took two more spacer out and focused on getting more aero. I ended going faster than BBS prediction. I was somewhere between midpack triathlete and advanced triathlete on aero bars in BBS. However, I had cheap $20 tires on and bagging cycling shirt so I'm sure I would be closer to advanced.

What is the road surface like and what type of tires are you using. Wind? Power and cda are not the only factors that calculate speed.

My flexibility seriously sucks so trying to get lower may just rob me of too much power.

Flexibility isn't what is keeping you from getting low.

Also, BBS doesn't have an input for CdA? They just wing it?

It estimates your CdA based on inputs, but you can manually specify your CdA on a per bike basis.

I was running a powertap for 2 years and thought i was a superhero on the bike via power training. It wasnt until I got a quarq on my other bike that I realized something was way off, and it was the powertap. as in 20% off. I had nothing to compare against though.

It was my bestbikesplit.com results that really proved it though, they lined up with my quarq efforts.

It was my bestbikesplit.com results that really proved it though, they lined up with my quarq efforts.

That doesn't prove anything unless you know your important inputs like CdA. If it is just a climb then CdA isn't important.

Yeah you're right, however it was just a clue to determine which power meter was right

my wattage and "average triathlete" setup was producing times that should have won the race overall.

I eventually calibrated formally with hanging weights and the qalvin app and my factory quarq was correct and powertap was way off.

Are you really heavy? That's probably it if not then tell your fitter to make you aero and powerful. I avg that much off something like like 100 watts in most conditions I weigh 60kg

You wanna ride sometime jaretj? I live in a2 and roll all over!!!