Andy in Tokyo
Maximum Pace
- Dec 16, 2012
- 605
- 824
Right then, having been out for a couple of rides with the Stages power meter I thought I'd share my experiences so far.
Installation
In a word, eeeeeaaasy. It was just a matter of replacing the left crank arm. The only issue I had was that the Ultegra crank arm is fitted with a plastic screw-top cover thingamawotsit to protect the BB, and of course you need a special tool to unscrew this because... well, because presumably Shimano can squeeze more money out of you that way. I applied the age-old method of ramming a handful of allen keys into the hole and twisting. I then swapped in the Stages crank arm, retightened the bolts, and screwed the BB cap and pedal back on.
Setup
The initial setup was also dead easy. With a Garmin Edge you need to go to the bike settings page and have it search for an ANT+ power meter. It takes a jiffy. The Stages also measures cadence, and interestingly you don't need to do anything to get this working: it automatically replaces whatever you've been using to measure cadence previously (in my case, a magnet on the left crank arm).
Before heading off on a ride for the first time you need to calibrate (zero reset) the power meter, as the forces applied when bolting it to the bike and attaching the pedal alter the Very Fabric of The Crank Arm's Existence. To do this, you put the crank arm in the six o' clock position and hit the "Calibrate" button on your Garmin. And... that's it. Stages recommend that you calibrate it before every ride, but from what I've heard from other users, this isn't really necessary. You don't need to adjust anything for temperature, either, as it does this automatically.
Left leg only
Not having another power meter to compare the Stages to, I can't tell you how it fares against the competition (but if anyone would like to lend/gift me a PowerTap for comparison purposes, I'd be happy to post the results here). Obviously, with it being a left-crank power meter, it only measures power from the left leg. This could be an issue if you are worried about having a left-right leg imbalance and want to correct it, but I imagine most people don't really care about this. I know for a fact that my left leg is weaker, but actually I'd rather my power was taken from this leg, as it means I'm more likely to train harder.
FTP tests and all that
So far I've tried to do a number of power tests to get a better idea of where I am in terms of fitness, and to see how Stages matches up to Strava's wattage calculator. After buying and reading through bits of Training and Racing With a Power Meter, the benchmark tests seem to be 5-second, 1-minute, 5-minute and FTP (20-minute or 1-hour) intervals. I did a 20-minute FTP on my first ride, and several 5-second intervals on my second. I didn't really manage to get a good reading for the 1-minute and 5-minute intervals as my pacing was terrible: I either started off too hard and almost spewed up my brekky halfway through it, or I didn't push hard enough and ended up with a result that I knew wasn't my best.
Stages power vs. Strava's guesstimate power
Unsurprisingly, Strava's guesstimates are often way out compared with the results from the Stages, often under-reporting the actual power for short efforts and being quite variable for long ones. For example, I usually start my rides with a 20-second blast up a short 7-8% gradient hill. I've done this a million times so have a good stock of results I can look back on:
As you can see, for similar times (under identical conditions), Strava was showing 200 watts less than Stages. If we compare this to longer, endurance-type sections, Strava was closer to Stages, but on the whole Strava was overestimating my power output:
This is not surprising as all Strava has to go on are gradient, heart rate and speed. Plus these Strava efforts are all along the Arakawa with massive tailwinds, and as we all know, with a decent enough tailwind even Jenson Button's dad, Benjamin, could average 30kph along there, and he has a terrible anti-ageing disease.
Anyway, in short, for me, Stages seems to show that I'm stronger at short sprints than I thought I was, and the opposite for time-trial type efforts.
Assessing yourself
What's really interesting – and also a bit depressing at the same time – is that you can see exactly how you match up against others, even if you've never ridden together or ridden the same courses. For example, I found that Cav can easily sustain 1,000 watts for 21 seconds:
Whereas, if I really try, I can squeeze out just 804 watts over the same length of time:
(I still reckon I could have him, though. It's just a matter of making a strategically timed "Yo mamma..." comment.)
The ability to see exactly what you're body was up to lets you truly see if you're getting stronger or not. A faster time on your favourite stretch of road might reflect this, but outside factors, such as a tailwind or riding in a paceline, mean that it's really not reliable for flat conditions. Hill climbs (like Shiraishi) are a different kettle of fish, I suppose, as wind and drafting play little part in your ability to get to the top. I haven't tried the Stages on a hill climb yet, so it'll be interesting to see if keeping my power at around my FTP will really help me get to the top quicker, and whether Strava's guesstimate is closer to my actual power output.
Would I recommend the Stages? It's early days, but so far yes, I would. If you're serious about getting stronger and faster, and you really want to know how your body is responding to the training you're putting it under, then it's great: it's cheaper than most of the other power meters, it's easy to swap onto other bikes and its readings are consistent. If, on the other hand, you want your bike to look the shiz and to go a bit faster without any added effort, get a pair of aero wheels. Actually sod it, get both – you know you want to anyway.
Installation
In a word, eeeeeaaasy. It was just a matter of replacing the left crank arm. The only issue I had was that the Ultegra crank arm is fitted with a plastic screw-top cover thingamawotsit to protect the BB, and of course you need a special tool to unscrew this because... well, because presumably Shimano can squeeze more money out of you that way. I applied the age-old method of ramming a handful of allen keys into the hole and twisting. I then swapped in the Stages crank arm, retightened the bolts, and screwed the BB cap and pedal back on.
Setup
The initial setup was also dead easy. With a Garmin Edge you need to go to the bike settings page and have it search for an ANT+ power meter. It takes a jiffy. The Stages also measures cadence, and interestingly you don't need to do anything to get this working: it automatically replaces whatever you've been using to measure cadence previously (in my case, a magnet on the left crank arm).
Before heading off on a ride for the first time you need to calibrate (zero reset) the power meter, as the forces applied when bolting it to the bike and attaching the pedal alter the Very Fabric of The Crank Arm's Existence. To do this, you put the crank arm in the six o' clock position and hit the "Calibrate" button on your Garmin. And... that's it. Stages recommend that you calibrate it before every ride, but from what I've heard from other users, this isn't really necessary. You don't need to adjust anything for temperature, either, as it does this automatically.
Left leg only
Not having another power meter to compare the Stages to, I can't tell you how it fares against the competition (but if anyone would like to lend/gift me a PowerTap for comparison purposes, I'd be happy to post the results here). Obviously, with it being a left-crank power meter, it only measures power from the left leg. This could be an issue if you are worried about having a left-right leg imbalance and want to correct it, but I imagine most people don't really care about this. I know for a fact that my left leg is weaker, but actually I'd rather my power was taken from this leg, as it means I'm more likely to train harder.
FTP tests and all that
So far I've tried to do a number of power tests to get a better idea of where I am in terms of fitness, and to see how Stages matches up to Strava's wattage calculator. After buying and reading through bits of Training and Racing With a Power Meter, the benchmark tests seem to be 5-second, 1-minute, 5-minute and FTP (20-minute or 1-hour) intervals. I did a 20-minute FTP on my first ride, and several 5-second intervals on my second. I didn't really manage to get a good reading for the 1-minute and 5-minute intervals as my pacing was terrible: I either started off too hard and almost spewed up my brekky halfway through it, or I didn't push hard enough and ended up with a result that I knew wasn't my best.
Stages power vs. Strava's guesstimate power
Unsurprisingly, Strava's guesstimates are often way out compared with the results from the Stages, often under-reporting the actual power for short efforts and being quite variable for long ones. For example, I usually start my rides with a 20-second blast up a short 7-8% gradient hill. I've done this a million times so have a good stock of results I can look back on:
As you can see, for similar times (under identical conditions), Strava was showing 200 watts less than Stages. If we compare this to longer, endurance-type sections, Strava was closer to Stages, but on the whole Strava was overestimating my power output:
This is not surprising as all Strava has to go on are gradient, heart rate and speed. Plus these Strava efforts are all along the Arakawa with massive tailwinds, and as we all know, with a decent enough tailwind even Jenson Button's dad, Benjamin, could average 30kph along there, and he has a terrible anti-ageing disease.
Anyway, in short, for me, Stages seems to show that I'm stronger at short sprints than I thought I was, and the opposite for time-trial type efforts.
Assessing yourself
What's really interesting – and also a bit depressing at the same time – is that you can see exactly how you match up against others, even if you've never ridden together or ridden the same courses. For example, I found that Cav can easily sustain 1,000 watts for 21 seconds:
Whereas, if I really try, I can squeeze out just 804 watts over the same length of time:
(I still reckon I could have him, though. It's just a matter of making a strategically timed "Yo mamma..." comment.)
The ability to see exactly what you're body was up to lets you truly see if you're getting stronger or not. A faster time on your favourite stretch of road might reflect this, but outside factors, such as a tailwind or riding in a paceline, mean that it's really not reliable for flat conditions. Hill climbs (like Shiraishi) are a different kettle of fish, I suppose, as wind and drafting play little part in your ability to get to the top. I haven't tried the Stages on a hill climb yet, so it'll be interesting to see if keeping my power at around my FTP will really help me get to the top quicker, and whether Strava's guesstimate is closer to my actual power output.
Would I recommend the Stages? It's early days, but so far yes, I would. If you're serious about getting stronger and faster, and you really want to know how your body is responding to the training you're putting it under, then it's great: it's cheaper than most of the other power meters, it's easy to swap onto other bikes and its readings are consistent. If, on the other hand, you want your bike to look the shiz and to go a bit faster without any added effort, get a pair of aero wheels. Actually sod it, get both – you know you want to anyway.