#velocomp

I put on my new pedals and the power meter crank arm so new numbers and better connection to the equipment.

The old Velocomp "power pod" had its flaky moments from time to time. I also learned to not rely on it for many conditions. It gave good numbers on climbing hills and in some wind conditions. In crosswind and tailwinds it was being stupid. It reads speed, and wind and slope and from that deduced watts. Errors in wind speed messed it up. It had cool features like it calibrates itself as you ride. Clever use of differential equations I bet.

More recent versions of the device have pitot tubes obviously to deal with the wind problem. They offer a trade in for old units like mine, but I was tired of the "issues" their system will always have.

The new meter is a 4iiii crank arm thing. On sale from Probike Kit it was 300 ish bucks. It measures torque and RPM and from that gets Watts. Wind direction don't matter. I expected better numbers and I got them.

My average normalized power was 18% better than last weekend over a similar course. My peak was much better, but that's for seconds. Normalized is more representative of the whole ride. I figure all that is from wind drop outs on the old meter.

I could tell from the live data it was working better. Uphill downhill and in between my numbers were consistent with my effort.

I pulled the old thing off and put it in it's box. I found the mount in the third place I checked. I figure I can sell it for $150 ish bucks.

I am not going to go back and revise my old power numbers. I am not that vain. The purpose of these things is to help you while on a ride. It lets you know what is happening and can help you stay out of the red zone.

I did 8 minute hill for the first time and it felt like it. 7:54. I have done much better. One thing about my new Garmin is it calls out elapsed time without any pauses say at lights. So that traffic light on 4rth that I had to slow way down on hurt my time. I would like to be close to 7 minutes flat. My best was well under 7 minutes. I may get there yet.

In related BS the garmin app says my VO2max is up now at 41. It is a derived number, but based on real figures of Watts and Joules and kg and all that. My estimated figure from fitbit is 44 to 48. My Pedersen method calculation is 44. Whatever it is pretty good for an old man. Woooo Hoooo I am at least in the top 15% of my age group.

My less formal measure I passed a few more people than those who passed me. That included two young ladies who passed me in Stanley Park. They weren't that fast so I waited for a gap in traffic and passed them back. Dropped em to! I passed a couple of people on Ebikes. To be legal the motors have to be limited to 25 kph. Ha!

When I booked my ride in the spreadsheet I found I should have done 80 ish km to stay on budget for July. I have one more weekend in July and will need about 100 km on Saturday to make the same as last year. I can do it just takes more time. That is a 4 hour ride.