Update 7/12/2013: Please check out my updated review additions to the CycleOps(now PowerTap) PowerCal unit update post here…
I am fairly at how fairly accurate this unit is based on that it uses heart rate and no calibration. It is fairly consistent, so if it is all you are using to gauge your workouts, then it is worth the money. If you are comparing your numbers to more accurate numbers then it will not be totally on the mark.
I have done a side-by-side comparison of this unit with the Kinetic inRide on my Road Machine Trainer(accuracy +/- 1%) and the Powercal is usually about -10-12kw below the inRide for the Avg power for a workout. Not too bad.
One other thing I noticed that when your heart rate doesn’t increase as normal for a given workout(usually a sign of overtraining and time for recovery), then the power measure is affected and the readings are lower than normal. Whereas with a real power meter the power would be more accurate and just your heart rate would be lower.
Now that I have a baseline for this unit from comparing it with my trainer, I can transfer that to my outdoor rides without a very expensive power meter. So if you want power with a little less investment this may work for you.
cycleopsPowerCal
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[…] is an update since my previous gear review post on this product and also the post where I compare the power output versus the Kinetic inRide power. It appears that […]