I am pretty new to triathlons and I only have a certain amount of funds, so should I buy a power meter or some aero wheels for my new tri bike?
buy a powertap wheel and an aero jacket. done.
Powertap and an aero helmet.
Both (eventually) 
You don’t need a PM to guide improve fitness. Many have done without, but I have liked having a PM over all things that I have purchased for training. I am one of those that needs a little more guidance in building that engine and without having a coach I can see post ride if my training was actually a decent effort or just “felt” good. I call my PM’s truth meters as to whether I am really hitting the training targets or just deceiving myself with how the session felt.
You can always buy speed, but building that engine to push that bike is a lot more challenging. Which order you decide to do it seems like a personal choice. By the way I owned my first power meter for a year before I really committed to changing my training structure so if training a certain way isn’t in the plan the power meter then is not a good purchase. It was during that time of just posing with the power meter and looking at the data post ride that slowly began to influence how I viewed my lack of commitment to training and pointed out my flaws while training. In my case it was helpful to find out that I was a slacker while training.
If you get a powermeter you will get faster quicker. Which means you will end up riding with faster friends. Usually faster friends have nicer toys (wheels) they will let you borrow.
Powertap hub in a training wheel w/a cover. Used 60-90 front wheel. Can probably get this setup for the cost of a new set of race wheels. Best of both worlds.
“new” thinking will be powermeter (if you can have only one)
let me tell you though - plenty of fast guys around in the old days never had powermeters and did just fine.
Kinda depends on your current wheels - if they completely suck and you have the capability to suffer in training AND, the discipline to go easy, AND the gift of good pacing (for races) - then you don’t need a powermeter; then I’d go with the wheels.
Otherwise everybody (and their brother) here on ST is gonna say powermeter.
Full disclosure - I have an ancient Polar (the chain tension one) and only use it to read data AFTER training, and it’s on my training (not racing) bike. I do OK in races.
“new” thinking will be powermeter (if you can have only one)
let me tell you though - plenty of fast guys around in the old days never had powermeters and did just fine.
Kinda depends on your current wheels - if they completely suck and you have the capability to suffer in training AND, the discipline to go easy, AND the gift of good pacing (for races) - then you don’t need a powermeter; then I’d go with the wheels.
Otherwise everybody (and their brother) here on ST is gonna say powermeter.
Full disclosure - I have an ancient Polar (the chain tension one) and only use it to read data AFTER training, and it’s on my training (not racing) bike. I do OK in races.
An experienced athlete in any sport…swim, bike, run, trail running, XC skiing, speed skating, snow shoeing…they all know their body and can manage their paces. I raced for something like 24 years before I got a power meter…once I got the PM, my best results did not change at all. The only thing that changed, is I had a “stupid meter” to hold me back and this made getting good results a slightly more frequent occurrence. It also made training on hard days more interesting, but I only like training with power 2 days per week (if that). The rest of the time, it is more fun to train on feel.
Do you like math and graphs and downloading data every day? Or do you have a coach who does?
I’d say neither. There are better things to spend your money on if you have limited funds, like anything else.
The powermeter I’d say isn’t really necessary at all if you’re riding outdoors, and especially if you ride with groups that dictate your pace. The main reason I would get the powermeter is if you are planning to do a lot of indoor training. In that case, watt targets become a lot more important/useful since you don’t have any speed/distance feedback. However, you can get most of the benefits of training with power even without a powermeter by using software like Maximumtrainer (free) or Trainerroad. The limiter in that case will be that without a powermeter you obviously won’t get power metrics on race day, which is why something like a powertap wheel or other powermeter can be very helpful if you’re doing mostly indoor training and then plan on converting those numbers into useful data for race day.
But if you’re training mostly outdoors, I’m with Dev above - I’ll bet you’ll just ride and record the power more often than you actually use power targets to dictate your workout, so it won’t be adding a whole lot. My quality outdoor rides have been exactly the same with/without the powermeter. (My indoor rides are greatly improved with it, though - keeps you honest as it’s much, much easier to start inadvertently slacking off indoors, whereas outdoors I tend to find myself exceeding my power targets pretty regularly.)
**I raced for something like 24 years before I got a power meter…once I got the PM, my best results did not change at all. **
I first read this and thought, “Well, duh. You can’t get a PM when you’re already old and expect PRs. You’re old.”
FWIW- I’m not saying it was a good thought. Or right thought.
FWIW2- You’re still kinda old
power
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Power I bought the wheels first but I can not explain to you the importance of power. Borrow race wheels off your buddies.
If you get a powermeter you will get faster quicker. Which means you will end up riding with faster friends. Usually faster friends have nicer toys (wheels) they will let you borrow.
Actually, the exact opposite is true. Race wheels will make you “faster” immediately (for a given power output). The benefits of a power meter takes weeks / months / years to realize. But a power meter has the ability to make you “fitter”, which in turn makes you faster.
ETA - I am not advocating wheels over a PM. Just pointing out that wheels will make you “faster” immediately. Putting a power meter on a bike changes nothing in terms of your speed now, but has the potential to make you much faster over time.
True but the race wheels will only be for racing. So on your bike maybe 4 times a year. Hit the PM hard and you will see results in 3-4 months. So get the PM now, by the time it’s May you should be in better shape and riding with a faster group and able to hit them up for borrowing a disc & 808 by your A race in Sept.
Power meter… you’ll get a better bang for your buck.
Do you like math and graphs and downloading data every day? Or do you have a coach who does?
this is one of the main reasons I don’t have one, and don’t really want one. I like the “idea” of a PM, but in reality, I know that I won’t do the data analysis to actually get any value out of it. I work with excel spreadsheets all day, every day at work. I don’t really enjoy looking at them for fun. closest thing I do to data analysis is to log how many metres I swim each day. that takes about 4 minutes, and I look at the last week to see how many holes I have in the swim schedule.
besides, my bike looks better without a bunch of extra shit hanging off it. and it’s all about how you look.
I got wheel first. Then added PT hub and wheelcover a year later. In retrospect, I should have started with the PT/wheelcover. You can probably add a cheap used deep front for not much more and get it all at once.
Actually, the exact opposite is true. Race wheels will make you “faster” immediately (for a given power output). The benefits of a power meter takes weeks / months / years to realize. But a power meter has the ability to make you “fitter”, which in turn makes you faster.
I’d change “ability to make you fitter” to “potential to make you fitter”. I honestly don’t believe a power meter would make much, if any, difference to my fitness at all. >95% of my riding is done outdoors, and >85% of it is done either in group rides or commuting on a singlespeed. If somebody gave me a power meter I’d certainly be interested in looking at the data after the ride, but it would have very little impact in changing how I train.
If you get a powermeter you will get faster quicker. Which means you will end up riding with faster friends. Usually faster friends have nicer toys (wheels) they will let you borrow.
Actually, the exact opposite is true. Race wheels will make you “faster” immediately (for a given power output). The benefits of a power meter takes weeks / months / years to realize. But a power meter has the ability to make you “fitter”, which in turn makes you faster.
ETA - I am not advocating wheels over a PM. Just pointing out that wheels will make you “faster” immediately. Putting a power meter on a bike changes nothing in terms of your speed now, but has the potential to make you much faster over time.
If his race is next week, I would say yes, get the wheels.
If you go out and get a PM now, by the time the season start, you will be a lot faster. That’s assuming you know how to train with power. Plus, this will give you more time to figure out which wheels you like because you are going to get a set anyway.