I am thinking of getting a powertap pro set up. I was concidering an Ergomo, but for a simalar price I get a Powertap pro with a wheel, so I have the benifit of having a spare wheel which is alway useful + you can get new bearings like a normal hub where with ergomo you need the bb replace or repaired at quite a high cost once the bearings go. I would mainly use it for training and some TT (which are really just training for Multisport races). I did think of get a polar power device as I already have the monitor, but one of the main uses would be for turbo sessions and I have heard that the polar readings are not good on a turbo (is this correct?). Does anyone have any comments on why I should avoid a Powertap?
Hello,
I’ve used a powertap, but not the ergamo. The powertap suffers from poor performance when the batteries get low and from the fact that I race with a disk and you can’t get a powertap disk (you can do a homemade job if you want). The benifits are it works great, can be easily changed from bike to bike (as long as they use the same size wheels) and is a company with strong US presence with a long history, so you can expect warrantee service for some time to come.
The ergamo can use any wheels, which for me would be a big plus. The down side is its a lot of money for some thing new and foreign. I’m leary of what happens if they decide to closedown.
A third option is the polar. I haven’t used, but it seems to be the best of both with ther major downside of being finicky to get working correctly. The biggest problem I’ve heard of is that you can get different power readouts for the same power output in different gears.
Shimano and Campy are rumored to be coming out with their own systems. Any guesses as to the cost of a Campy carbon record electronic shift group with power option? May be time to trade in the BMW I don’t have.
Shawn T
You might want to check out this thread and board:
I have been using the Ergomo for 3 weeks now, and although it took me a little bit to fully understand how to use/operate it ( download data, clean screen, etc…), I am absolutely happy with its performance. It is accurate ( as far as I am concerned), I can have race wheels on the bike without loosing my ability to race with power, and the hardware is sound. Great device, and I definitely recommend it. The software it comes with is the best out there, bar none, and you can see everything that matters and then some…
Ciao,
Felipe Bastos
I own a Powertap, but would buy an Ergomo if I was starting from scratch. The software is better, and you are free to change wheels. By all accounts, they are equally accurate.
i know i’m breaking my own forum rule here, but email me before you buy your powertap.
i have 2 powertap units, one of them brand new and never used. one of the hubs is built into a first class training wheel with a front wheel mate. the second is built into a hed alps wheel, by hed, with a front wheel mate. i’m selling the entire shebang, both powertap units, both wheelsets.
paraphrasing r. nixon, “I own the forum, therefore its not against the rules”.
Sorry this is kind of long. I can give you my experience with the Power Tap Pro. I have three PowerTap pro’s. The first one I got two years ago. With that one I have had no problems. It started out as a normal PT then I upgraded to the Pro. I sent it back once for new circuitry. This however I consider my fault, as I washed the hub using high-pressure water. Avoid doing that. They replaced the guts of the hub at no cost to me. Beyond that I have had no problems with that PT.
I got the other two (one for my wife and one as a spare for both of us) this year in March. The first one worked fine for about a month then it started to double power and speed. The second one only worked for a ride before it stopped transmitting completely. Apparently that “batch” had bad torque tubes or circuitry or something. Whatever part wasn’t working was an important part. I sent them back and so far they have both been working fine since.
My impressions.
There are two things that are disappointing about the PT. First the software sucks. For practical purposes (ie training and racing with power) it is unusable. It’s only good for entertainment value. You can find a conversion program for free on the web that will convert PT files to SRM files and use the SRM software. This is a minor pain but the conversion and SRM software works very well. OR you can buy cycling peaks power software, which is better than both programs (PT & SRM) and no conversion is required. It’s pricey at $75. Secondly is that the quality of the hub is poor at best. The non-drive is a cartridge, which works OK but not great, and the drive side is cups and cones that are junk. The drive side is especially bad as it uses a terrible cassette body. Like the software, it works but realistically you need to change the cassette body and cone. The Ultegra body and cone cost me about $50 and some cussing getting it adjusted right.
So am I mad at Graber? Well not really. I have about $2400 invested in the three PTs, plus $75 for software and $150 for three cassette bodies and cones. Grand total $2500-2600. For $2600 I could get one SRM Pro or 2 Ergomos, OR some Zipp Z3 wheels (for my wife) plus a Zipp disc (for me) with tires, which is what I didn’t get in lieu of the PTs.
Pros and cons of the models
For me, the SRM is just too expensive. You get to use a disc with the SRM or Ergomo, but I just use a wheel cover and hope to get similar benefits to a disc. If I rode as a pro cyclist, where wheel changes are a normal thing and I could lose all my power data, a PT might be a problem, but as an amateur I have noticed no inconvenience. You can’t use Rotors or PC’s (I use PC’s) with the SRM, maybe with Ergomo (but you would need a new BB spindle for the PC’s). I didn’t go with the Ergomo because it just came to market when I was purchasing the PTs plus I wanted some redundancy. All of these systems seem to fail at some time or another. Also the 5sec recording of the Ergomo was kind of a deal breaker too.
The good thing is that the Ergomo comes with great software (cycling peaks). However, the PT has the most normal bike computer of all of them. The Ergomo and SRM are a bit on the big side for my taste, but I could live with that. I also really like the ease of installation of the PT, and it’s super easy to switch from bike to bike. It’s also easy to loan to friends that are probably going to ask you about it. Just zip tie the harness and change out the rear wheel and you’re done. I’ve loaned mine a couple of times.
Another somewhat cool feature of the PT is that you can download and run it like a Polar S710 , no altitude, but HR, Speed, Cadence, and time. Some may ask why bother, but for me it has worked well.
My wife was used to the 710 but switching to the PT included new software and downloading ritual, a new wheel, new computer, and a new data set (power). So in this other mode, you have the ability to have HR on the top line, speed on the second, and then cadence or time on the bottom. It gave her some normalcy while getting used to the system. Using the PT in this mode I just attach magnets to her training and racing (rear) wheels and just let her do her thing. This has given her time to learn the software and the functions of the computer while using all the other same equipment, but without the power. On testing days when her coach wanted to know power, no big deal, change out the computer (or adjust the settings), change the wheel and you’re all set. Eventually she will want power, but this has been a good “in between” mode even if we didn’t plan it that way (we were forced due to the hubs not working properly).
Overall I am happy with the PTs. Is it perfect? No. But then again no other Power Meter is either.