A Cyclingnews special sponsorship feature
PowerTap slims down and beefs up
By Cyclingnews staff
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PowerTap is one of the leading power measuring devices for cycling and in a short time has totally revamped its product to become very reliable, light enough to race on, and partnered with detailed software for training data analysis. With the computer already on the market, the new PowerTap SL hub will be available in a couple of weeks, along with the totally redesigned software.
History
With cyclists using power measurement more and more as a training tool these days the demand for a product that is not overly expensive but that is reliable, is increasing. This was the concept that cyclist and industrial engineer Gerhard Pawelka had in mind when he came up with the concept of the PowerTap in late 1997. He was familiar with the SRM and wanted to create something similar but cheaper and just as accurate. Hence the PowerTap was born by the Tune Corporation.
Rather than measure the power from the cranks, as is the method with the SRM, Pawelka decided to put the measuring device into the rear hub of the bike making it fundamentally and practically different from the competitor. In theory and in practice the product worked very well...until it was subjected to water.
Tune Corporation released the PowerTap to the market but decided to sell it the following year. Graber Products, now known as Saris Cycling Group, purchased Tune in late 1999 and made changes to the product right off the bat by sealing the unit better, hence improving its reliability. Since then they have redesigned the computer receiver wire, totally redesigned and lightened the hub by 160grams and designed new software.
Floyd Landis: A PowerTap user
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The PowerTap has been used increasingly amongst athletes over the past couple of years and its recent developments of reducing the weight of the hub and creating the new software aim to increase the products adaptability.
"In reducing the weight we wanted to get past the idea that the PowerTap is a training tool," explained PowerTap product manager Jesse Bartholomew. "With the hope that people will start to race on them. Now the hub weighs 416g, only 66grams heavier than an average racing wheel hub."
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As well as their own engineers, Saris have also enlisted professional athletes to test the PowerTap, most recently their sponsored athlete Floyd Landis. "He loves it," said Bartholomew, "He has always used one anyway, he just used to buy his own."
Landis is valuable for the development of the product and gives his feedback from racing and training. Landis uses the PowerTap in training out on the road and now with the weight reduction, also plans to use it in some races next year. "I've been using it for about four years," he said. "The improvements they've made lately have been great, especially the weight. They've made it quite a bit lighter. I'm really happy with everything about it. The displays on the computer, everything. The nice thing about it really is firstly the simplicity of installing it and also being able to swap it from bike to bike. If you have a couple of different bikes, say a time trial bike and a road bike, all you need to do it swap the wheel over. You can also get the hub built into any wheel you want to."
Using Carbon fiber in the hub has the advantage of not only lightening the system and looking aesthetically good, it also allows very reliable tranmission of the data from the electronic package that is now housed completely within the hub shell making it even more resilient to the weather.
What are the advantages of the PowerTap according to Saris? One, says Bartholomew, is the flexibility. "You can remove it easily, which is great in that it lends itself nicely to a coach who wants to lend it out to athletes. Another advantage is the value. It is easily half the price of our largest competitor. Our PowerTap SL goes for $1300, has an accuracy of +/-2%."
One of the big worries with power meters is calibration, but with the PowerTap says Bartholomew, "you really don't need to calibrate the system very often. Perhaps once every couple of months," he added. "it calibrates itself at zero load or whenever you are coasting. It is programmed to do that so that you don't have to worry about it."
In a couple of weeks Saris will release their new PowerTap software. The product has always come with software but now it has been totally updated using the help of Dr Allen Lim - Head Physiologist of the University of Colorado, Boulder.
"The thing with power meters," says Bartholomew, "is that the technology is still new so in the last few years we have learned quite a bit. We have worked closely with Dr. Lim so that when we designed the software, we would be able to guide the cyclists as to what's important but also let them use the functions the way they choose. For beginners the software gives them markers and lays things out for them. For more advanced users they have the option to analyse the data in more advanced way."
