Hi!

I have a Powertap Pro built into a Bontrager Aura5 wheel. I've only had it a few months and only recently started using it properly with Trainerroads.

Some days, it's fine. I zero it after a warm up and the readings stay consistant. Some days it drifts downwards. eg I could be pushing a steady 200 watts and the power readings drop gradually. I thought I just wasn't working hard enough but it does drop to Zero! So I rezero it and then I get very high readings for a bit and it drifts back to zero.

The calibration numbers vary between 1600 and 1900 and seem very inconsistant. After about 2 hours of trying to get it to give a steady reading, I gave up rather frustrated. My Kurt Kinetic trainer with inRide does give me numbers to compare it to and the values drift down to zero whilst I maintain a steady effort confirmed by the inRide.

What am I doing wrong? It's being read by my Garmin 800 and by Trainerroads via a Garmin ant+ stick and both show the same numbers.

Thanks very much. I don't live near a Powertap dealer and didnt want to send the whole wheel off if I can fix this myself.

I haven't tried changing the batteries yet but will give this a go today

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Changing batteries made no difference. If I warm up then calibrate, it gives figures of about 1800. If I do nothing but recalibrate it again and again, the number comes down each time till it settles at 1550ish. O guess the opposite happens as I pedal as it would seem to fit in with the wattage dropping as I pedal - ie that it's requiring a higher and higher calibration number but as I'm pedalling and not recalibrating, the wattage just drops gradually instead. I guess I need to send the whole wheel off somewhere to sort this out???

PowerTap G3C issue with Garmin Edge 500 I am seeing strange activity on this set up. Some Rides the Watts and Cadence register correctly and then on a ride the Watts & Cadence will go to zero. I've put a fresh 2032 battery in the hub and the hub is on the latest firmware and the Garmin is on current firmware. I am starting to troubleshoot this. any Ideas?? Thanks!!

I have a garmin edge 500 w/ the latest firmware and also a Powertap Elite+ that was rebuilt last year with upgraded components and firmware. I'm not sure if it has the same G3 parts though. I was wondering if I should be doing a re-calibration through the garmin headunit during the middle of my ride. I am religious about doing a calibration before I start my ride but this is usually done inside my house before leaving. Sometimes there is a decent amount of change in temperature, especially during the fall and winter, from when I calibrate indoors to riding outdoors. Should I be doing a re-calibration through the garmin maybe 15 minutes into the ride? Or does it do this automatically while coasting?

Taking yesterdays ride as an example. I calibrated the powertap inside my home and got a 515 reading back. I went off on my ride and after about 45 minutes of riding, I noticed that my power looked a little low while riding up some hills. When I got to the top of the hill, I did a re-calibration and got back a 518 reading. After that, it looked like my readings were a little more consistent with what I was expecting.

Should we be doing more re-calibrations when we have changes in temperature? I don't think powertap's support auto-zero correct? In my example, was I probably outputting more power than what was displayed by my Garmin up until I did a re-calibration?

Powerbeam Pro calibration protocol

Hello - I just changed over from a Computrainer to a CycleOps Powerbeam Pro trainer which is much easier to manage for so many reasons - standard power cable, wireless control, quieter, smaller, easier to swap bikes in & out, Joule headset etc.

Anyway, I wonder if other Powerbeam Pro users can share their experiences with calibrating the unit. Do you just leave it on the factory default or do you do a roll down calibration each time prior to use or some other interval?

BTW, I am using the Powerbeam Pro with Trainerroad.com if that has any bearing on the calibration methods to use.

Thanks

Can customers in the US send wheels to your facility directly for service? Why is it that in Canada, Orange Sport and Lambert insist that I go through a bike shop?

I have an older wired power tap, and updated my computer to the newest mac OS 10.9. How long before power agent will be able to talk to my LYC again? and is there another way to get my data off the LYC without using power agent?

Thanks

Chris

We have a work around. Email or call our customer service team for instructions:

support@powertap.com

1-800-246-5975

You could also try the Training Peaks Device Agent in the meantime.

Jesse,
Perhaps you can offer me some help here. I have 3 powertaps, one on each of my bikes and love them. One of them (the first one I purchased in 2011) is not transmitting data anymore. I have changed batteries, tried different computers etc, all to rule out an issue with other parts of the equation but the PT is the constant.

I emailed support and they told me to send it back in to them and it would cost me $350 to get it repaired. I cant believe that its "normal" behavior for the PT to die within 2 years of being used. It would be really disappointing to have to spend all that money to get it working again, not to mention the labor involved with removing it and rebuilding the wheel again too.

Is there anything else that can be done? Can my local Cyclops dealer perhaps do the work on fixing internals without having to send it in and take it all apart etc?

Thanks for your help!
-Shane

Bought a new floor model PowerBeam Pro early this week and it finally arrived today. I got the model with the VT software and no head unit. I seet everything up, loaded the VT software, created an account and did a short ride. Seemed really hard.

I then Logged onto TrainerRoad because I read that TR could take control of the PowreBeam and since I didn't have the Joule 3, I thought that would be a nice training solution. I got everything set up on TR and started a FTP test. I was interrupted and stopped part way through. Saved everything, closed out and unplugged the PowerBeam.

A couple hours later I decided to pair the PowerBeam to my 310xt Garmin to act like a power meter. I turned on the Garmin, created a new bike profile and went over to the Powerbeam to pair it. I successfully paired the speed/cadence sensor but it would not find the PowerBeam. I started up TR to make sure the Ant signal was working and TR could no longer find the trainer. WTF, three hours old and no signal from the unit. I unplugged and plugged it back in but still nothing.

Pretty effing pissed at this point. Long frickin weekend and no support.

Any troubleshooting ideas?

I checked my Garmin and didn't see a auto-zero option. I think this was an available option in the older firmware versions but no longer there in the latest versions. Do you know under what conditions will the system do a auto re-zero?