I just asked the same question - sort of.

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...F_P6971512/#p6971512

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"They know f_ck-all over at Slowtwitch"
- Lionel Sanders

What do you mean by "best position"? The one that is most comfortable, most powerful, fastest, or some sort of combination?

A power meter would certainly help attribute numbers to your training and provide guidance. Purely finding the position the generates the most power is only part of the battle though. Finding your optimal spot where you reduce drag, are decently comfortable, and don't sacrifice too much power is key. That will lead to faster bike leg splits (and hopefully running well after T2!)

It’s an aerobic sport... find the most comfortable and aerodynamic position and train your body

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Pedal like the pros. They push down hard on the down stroke and recover over the rest of it.

You can use your PM to track training. You don't have to look at it during the ride.

Best use of the PM is aero experimentation, if you want to go fast. I'd suggest using the CdACrr app with the airspeed gauge. Cheap and it works.

No. Power is one of several variables in the equation of speed. Your body will adapt to your position. The air will not.

Had a tri coach tell me a while ago that he and other coaches he worked with analyzed bike fit by looking at the rider’s power file. “Thinking in isolation and with pride ends in idiocy”, I think Chesterton said.

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)

A power meter will not only help you find your best position. A pm will also help you

- Track your progress

- Tell you when to back off

- Pace you in races

- Tell when people are lying about their FTP

- Lower your taxes

- Smoothen your skin

It will be pretty challenging to use it to improve your power through your position and pedaling technique. Your body takes time to adapt to different positions and it will be hard to differentiate the change in power from different positions vs. the changes in fitness over time. Also, it will take a long time to train yourself to use a different pedaling technique and most studies have shown that your self selected pedaling technique is generally the most efficient; in fact, attempting to alter your pedal stroke can sometimes actually reduce your efficiency.

You can very definitely use a power meter to assess the aerodynamics of your position so that you go faster for the same power output. The most common method for this is called the Chung method, search "platypus" on this site. It can work quite well but requires patience and very good attention to detail, and for whatever reason, very few cyclists & triathletes actually use it despite a lot of chatter here about it. I've talked with a prominent local cyclist about the Chung method and he said that in our entire major metro area there were only a handful of people using it.

I have found that on the trainer I can definitely quantify the power loss in the aero position vs. riding on the basebar. But again, there's a complicated tradeoff between power loss and aerodynamics, and it can also be affected by long term adaptation.

But lots of good reasons to use a power meter as a training tool if you use it properly.

Damn, a renaissance man right here on Slowtwitch!

Good looking, too!

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)