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MTB trickle down??
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
some interesting new enhancements to the data that can be collected using Garmin's Vector power meter pedals, Garmin claim platform offset can be used to improve bike fit, peddling efficiency and potentially prevent injury! The current design makes these pedals too vulnerable for MTB but it'll be interesting to see how long it takes for this tech to trickle down to MTB?
Gotta love tech toys 
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The power meter market has been exploding in the past few months, and there will be more and more options suitable for MTB's.
And while the average consumer now has access to reasonably priced PMs with all sorts of capabilities, your average cyclist still has no idea how to properly use and train with a heart rate monitor, let alone understand how to measure FTP or what to do about cleat pressure offset.
Even many coaches i speak to say there is little point even measuring L/R power balance in most riders.
As you know I've been scaring people with my recent purchases of power meters for both roadie and 29er.
It seems like there isn't the demand for PMs for mtbs. Certainly they can be picked up more cheaply secondhand than roadie PMs .. when you can find them. Quarq has stopped making mtb PMs.
Put simply you rarely have time to look at the number - the price of failure from inattention to reading the trail is too high, even on fire trails and benign doubletrack.
So I think this will see some people adopt it, but with nothing like the penetration it has in road bikes.
My road bike goes many places it shouldn't, but I find it useful for exploring and covering the black top in a hurry to get to the good places. It has a stages power meter and I have no trouble reading power figures on fire road and the odd singletrack climb. That's where I find it most useful, on the climbs. For someone doing solo marathons and 24 hour races it would prove invaluable to gauging their effort. Training with a power meter isn't that hard once you get your zones sorted and improvements come quick, hell, they'll even indicate if you need time off.
There's some interesting new products coming out of the eurobike show and cheaper user installed pm's have got me very interested. When I can afford one for my mtb I'll be set.
My heart rate training consists of; when I can hear my heart beat echoing throughout my (somewhat vacant) head I then back off a bit? So I'm doing the heart rate monitor training thing wrong?
I have been thinking about a power meter on the roadie though, if only to prove my long held suspicions that I'm generally a lazy rider, ride well within the wrong zone (leaning to the easy scale) and hide in random bunches whenever I can..
A power meter that can indicate when you need time off?
What an awesome idea! it’s really only a matter of time before someone will invent one that not only can tell you that you need time off the bike, but can tell you that you’ve had one beer too many, bugs you to mow the lawn, take out the garbage and can you please stop farting in bed.. I wonder what they would call such an "amazing" device?
Quarq now make an XX1 power meter but it is a bit expensive.
But I wonder if you could flog'em on the Forum...