Overall Impression: I am loving it and would definitely buy this again. There are limitations to this but for my purposes and at the price I paid, I think this was a great purchase.
The good things:
1. Your response and support on the forum is honestly phenomenal. You were very attentive to my questions and responsive to my almost nonstop posts so I really appreciated it and it made me happy to have bought the device from a company that obviously cared.
2. It works. After a lot of tweaking, I have gotten to the point were I can tell that the power values consistently reflect my HR trends, and my subjective effort regardless of whether I am on a slow climb, or a fast descent and regardless of wind conditions.
3. For someone nerdy like me it is really nice to go through the data, and also to tweak the settings to get the machine to work just right.
4. There is a lot of potential data to mine through
The bad:
1. The calibration. Honestly I thought this part was horrible. Calibration rides never got it right for me and I think its partly because I am in a windy area. On a short calibration ride, one wind gust would probably screw things up? Then I never knew how to start another calibration ride if I wasn't happy with the one that was finished and was far from a computer. Regardless of what I did or what the true reason was, the calibration rides just didn't work. It seems many on the forum had similar experiences but I quickly learned that I didn't need it to work. I got my settings right by changing them manually when looking at lap data from a park loop and looking at out and back rides.
2. The mount: There are way too many possible positions on the mount and even placing it as far forward as possible still didn't ensure reproducibility. I eventually used your advise of just keeping the device on my bike and never taking it off. I wash my bike with the device in place now.
3. The manual/ instruction paperwork provided were very limited. They did not address important things such as for example the ability to click the button several times to shut the powerpod off. There are other things as well that aren't even included in isaac. For example, when I started off I thought that the average wind speed was an average over time. So I was expecting that unless there were disproportionately bigger climbs when the wind was a tailwind, I would spend more time in the wind and should adjust parameters so that the average wind for an out and back or lap is positive. Then I find out from you that average wind is over distance ==> it will be 0 in a lap or out and back when the wind speed doesn't change.
4. Fixing angles when the device moves using check calibration. Often times, I had the device move around from its prior position. Powerpod somehow compensated for htis quickly in my ride and from several minutes onwards the power values returned to normal. however when I would go back, use the check calibration it would predict parameters that were out of range and could not be sent back to powerpod. I think this is a problem because if I do a calibration in that position I get parameters that work. Its not clear to me why the powerpod somehow comes up with parameters to fix the issue within minutes of my ride, but those parameters can't be saved after going through the check calibration?
5. Rapid changes give weird numbers. When changing from decent to flat, or decent to climb, or climb to decent etc the numbers are crazy for one or two readings. not sure if this has to do with different sensors having different sensing times? ( slope is still considered something different when acceleration is already updated or vice-versa?). This also happened to an extreme with some wind gusts and was annoying.
6. Combining with data from a cycling computer is hard and didn't work. My cycling computer usually started recording earlier than powerpod because I always checked that my sensors were working before turning powerpod on. The problem was that the data could be shifted. My cycling computer file may be a few seconds earlier than powerpod. And these things can change if when I pause my ride it pauses on one of the machines earlier than the other. A solution could be to manually move the data, or to have isaac match the timing based on heart rate or cadence etc ( since both are getting this info from the same source). It didn't seem to be doing that matching and so combining with my cycling computer data was useless.
Suggestions:
1. For calibration:
- Give specific instructions in your manual and guidance about good practices to manually tweek calibration after a ride. The stuff I used and mention here helped me but I am sure you have other tools or principles you use and it would be nice to see those written in the manual. I used laps around a park and out and back rides with tweeking values to get my gravity 0, and wind 0 for most laps. I liked laps because the short time meant that wind conditions weren't likely to change much and because it almost gave you multiple samples to test and confirm on. I also manually looked at out and back rides but paid much more attention to the end of the out and the first part of the back since the timing was so close that the wind conditions were much more likely to be similar. I found this worked better for me than the check calibration button.
- Use coasting instead of or in combination with the out and back: Coasting would be great to use because it is the gold standard. Even calibrating against a DFPM is only as good as the DFPM but when coasting there is no question that the power is 0. I saw that there was a coasting section in isaac but not much explanation is given in the manual and I did not know how to use it.
- Option to see the calculated power during coasting instead of the forced 0 output from powerpod. I think this would be super helpful to do manual calibrations when I know that I did not use the brakes on a decent. So when my cadence meter goes to 0, the powermeter is forced to show a power of 0. It would be nice to instead see what power wouldve been calculated in order to get a sense of how good my parameters are. So for example if my calculated power for coasting down the hill and having x acceleration is + 10 or -10 .... Im not worried... if its -50, maybe I was on the breaks a bit ..... but if my parameters calculate a power of 70 when coasting then obviously regardless of what i thought my calibration needs adjustment and is way off.
- Have ISAAC highlight areas of similar stable heart rate: So gravity was much more quickly and easily calibrated than wind. I got to a point where I really trusted my power values on a slow climb but wasn't sure about similar power values on a flat. If ISAAC could see my average heart rate and power on a climb and identify flats or descents with similar heart rate, I would be able to see if the power values were similar to those of a climb with similar heart rate.
2. Allow for adjustment of CdA: An option that adjusts CdA to a drops position on all decents > slope x would be nice. It would be optional but may help many of us. Even nicer, you can have certain sensors that can be worn/ attached to bike in order to estimate when your position is changed to drops ( perhaps sensing distance between chest and the powerpod for example... when its smaller then you are on drops and you switch to the lower CdA).
3. Print more detailed instructions, and the isaac manual or a reference to it in the package. I didn't even know there was an ISAAC manual. A lot of questions I asked you on the forum couldve been avoided if I saw the isaac manual first. ( Maybe you provide more detailed manuals but my package was limited because I got a refurbished product?)
4. Design a mount with very specific limited possible positions. It would only allow positioning at angles a, b, and c. Then I would keep the mount in place, remove powerpod, and be able to return it and mount in angle a consistently.
5. Show what gears I was in: Knowing cadence and speed should make it easy for you to figure out what gearing ratio the rider is in. Then if the rider puts in information about their cassette and chainrings you can provide the exact gears they were in based on their gearing ratio and the next gearing ratio they shifted into etc. Also, you would be able to tweak the settings for the wheel circumference to a more exact number based on their cassette and true gearing ratio.
Review and Suggestions
Re: Review and Suggestions
Wow, thanks for the long post!
Good...
First, thanks for your kind comments about forum postings. We do try to be responsive, even when we have to disagree...
Yes, PP does work!
The bad:
1. Calibration...it would be interesting to compare your calibration ride data with your manual tweaking, to see how much of a difference there is.
2. Mount...I'm not sure what the issue is here. Could you provide some photos?
3. Manual/instructions is really difficult. For years we provided extensive, detailed documentation. We got hammered (by DC Rainmaker among others) because our documentation was too detailed. We have moved to short instructions and YouTube videos, which seems to work for most people.
Most people don't think about the intricacies of how our devices work, nor should they have to. If you do want to try manual adjustments then we provide the means to do it. But you have to be careful; the instructions do say that...
4. Fixing angles...what's going on is that, on different rides, your PP is positioned at an angle substantially different from where it was when it was calibrated. Yes, PP does automatically readjust its internal settings, but if the angle is too far off, then Isaac won't accept the huge change. The easy fix is this: attach PP to your bike according to the instructions, do a cal ride, then whenever you remove it, reattach it at nearly the same angle, by following the instructions.
5. Rapid changes. What kind of bike are you riding? If an MTB, when the front fork is not locked-out strange things can happen for a moment when these kinds of transitions are made.
6. File merging: I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish here. Isaac uses speed data for matching different ride files and it works really well.
Suggestions:
1. Most customers are not data tweakers...this is one of our lessons-learned after 15 years. Providing data-tweaking instructions as general information does, in our experience, scare and confuse people rather than help them. Too often the tweaked profiles cause more problems. Isaac manual does include a lot of hints about what to do, for interested parties. And the forum also has lots of posts.
2. Our original products used coast downs. It took us 3 years to learn, the hard way, that coasting is NOT the gold standard for most people. Customers screw up the coast down process, causing lots of subsequent problems.
3. HR is not a reliable metric. HR varies from day to day, and even within a ride. HR shows trends but is not a reliable way to predict what is going on moment to moment
4. Some people go into tucks on descents, some do not; therefore, slope based CdA change would be unreliable. Proximity sensors might work, but they add product cost. Given the trends in PM pricing these days, making PP more expensive would not be a smart move...
5. You're correct that Isaac manual provides a lot of insight into PP operation. But, again, most people aren't data geeks, and Isaac (while helpful) is not necessary for product operation.
6. We already provide gear ratio information (see Isaac "Show" button), and you're correct that, if as inputs we also had the front and rear gear sizes, we could figure out which gears you were using. For how many people would this be valuable information? We don't know...but I think this is the first time in 15 years someone has made this particular request...
I can see that you are really learning a lot about your PP. It is a pretty amazing device, has lots of extra features, and lots of capabilities that can be explored.
I used to go into stereo stores and ask to see the BACK of the amplifier...I wanted to see what kind of flexibility I could harness. But that was me, and I am in the minority. Most people want the simplicity to turn the stereo on and then set the volume level. The rest is not critical.
Most people want to ride their bikes...
Good...
First, thanks for your kind comments about forum postings. We do try to be responsive, even when we have to disagree...
Yes, PP does work!
The bad:
1. Calibration...it would be interesting to compare your calibration ride data with your manual tweaking, to see how much of a difference there is.
2. Mount...I'm not sure what the issue is here. Could you provide some photos?
3. Manual/instructions is really difficult. For years we provided extensive, detailed documentation. We got hammered (by DC Rainmaker among others) because our documentation was too detailed. We have moved to short instructions and YouTube videos, which seems to work for most people.
Most people don't think about the intricacies of how our devices work, nor should they have to. If you do want to try manual adjustments then we provide the means to do it. But you have to be careful; the instructions do say that...
4. Fixing angles...what's going on is that, on different rides, your PP is positioned at an angle substantially different from where it was when it was calibrated. Yes, PP does automatically readjust its internal settings, but if the angle is too far off, then Isaac won't accept the huge change. The easy fix is this: attach PP to your bike according to the instructions, do a cal ride, then whenever you remove it, reattach it at nearly the same angle, by following the instructions.
5. Rapid changes. What kind of bike are you riding? If an MTB, when the front fork is not locked-out strange things can happen for a moment when these kinds of transitions are made.
6. File merging: I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish here. Isaac uses speed data for matching different ride files and it works really well.
Suggestions:
1. Most customers are not data tweakers...this is one of our lessons-learned after 15 years. Providing data-tweaking instructions as general information does, in our experience, scare and confuse people rather than help them. Too often the tweaked profiles cause more problems. Isaac manual does include a lot of hints about what to do, for interested parties. And the forum also has lots of posts.
2. Our original products used coast downs. It took us 3 years to learn, the hard way, that coasting is NOT the gold standard for most people. Customers screw up the coast down process, causing lots of subsequent problems.
3. HR is not a reliable metric. HR varies from day to day, and even within a ride. HR shows trends but is not a reliable way to predict what is going on moment to moment
4. Some people go into tucks on descents, some do not; therefore, slope based CdA change would be unreliable. Proximity sensors might work, but they add product cost. Given the trends in PM pricing these days, making PP more expensive would not be a smart move...
5. You're correct that Isaac manual provides a lot of insight into PP operation. But, again, most people aren't data geeks, and Isaac (while helpful) is not necessary for product operation.
6. We already provide gear ratio information (see Isaac "Show" button), and you're correct that, if as inputs we also had the front and rear gear sizes, we could figure out which gears you were using. For how many people would this be valuable information? We don't know...but I think this is the first time in 15 years someone has made this particular request...
I can see that you are really learning a lot about your PP. It is a pretty amazing device, has lots of extra features, and lots of capabilities that can be explored.
I used to go into stereo stores and ask to see the BACK of the amplifier...I wanted to see what kind of flexibility I could harness. But that was me, and I am in the minority. Most people want the simplicity to turn the stereo on and then set the volume level. The rest is not critical.
Most people want to ride their bikes...
John Hamann
Re: Review and Suggestions
As far as mounting angles of the PP go, mine is mounted to Garmin (after market) out front mount, with gopro mount underneath. I use these mounts on all 5 of my bikes, and move the PP between them with 5 different profiles, on the PP lite.
I simply lineup the PP using a camera flash mounted , bubble level , using the PP logo as a guide. My PP numbers are constant as possible, on all 5 bikes (road). KB
I simply lineup the PP using a camera flash mounted , bubble level , using the PP logo as a guide. My PP numbers are constant as possible, on all 5 bikes (road). KB