Wednesday, August 6, 2008

More praise for the PT

Yet another reason to get a power meter, if you dont already have one. I'm still tweaking the new position and its great to have the PowerTap to get immediate feedback. The PowerTap is useful in this regard because the best position on a time trial bike is the one that allows you to go the fastest. This seems like a simple concept but is actually quite difficult to consistently quantify due the many variables that go into speed. These include wind, humidity, barometric pressure, incline, equipment, power input (how hard you are working), and aerodynamics of the bike/rider system. Because of all these variables, it is almost impossible to simply make a change in your position, go ride it, and determine whether or not it was faster by just looking at speed alone. However, what can be done is have someone who knows a thing or two about aerodynamics put you in a position that "looks" aero and then tweak that position out on the road using the power meter. It really is amazing to see how much moving the seat a couple cms up or down, forward or back, can drastically change power output.

So what does all this mean? Well yesterday's 2x20 showed some improvement over the last couple of weeks, meaning the new position is getting closer to being final. Once that occurs, I should have the same power output with less drag which means more speed. And as Maverick (and Goose) said, "I've got the need... the need for speed!"

No comments: