Power Pod <-> Footbike Compatibility
Posted: Tue May 05, 2026 1:55 pm
Dear all,
I am not a cyclist in the classical sense but riding "footbikes" - which are basically scooters with a setup very similar to roadbikes (28" carbon wheels, etc.).
To give you an impression how it looks like, I have posted an example picture:
My intention has always been training by power as I was used to with my road and mountain bikes but for Footbikes no solution was available. I scouted the internet and stumbled over the Velocomp PowerPod. It sounded reasonable and I expected it to work also on a footbike as it is simply mounted on the handlebars. So I ordered one and set it up according to the materials provided and did a calibration / test ride.
However, I realized that the power readings the PowerPod provided were all over the place, rather following a wave movement with frequent "zero" readings for a couple of seconds. I tried a factory reset, setting up everything from scratch again but no luck - the readings behaved very similar to the first calibration ride. For your reference, I have uploaded the .ibr-File from the first calibration ride. All metrics worked just fine but the power readings really miss a stable reading (even when using 10s averages on my Garmin Edge 1050). On a side note, it was very windy today with gusts of up to 25 miles per hour. Maybe this has contributed to the outcome but I suspect that the PowerPod - for whatever reason - isn't able to provide accurate / stable power readings for footbikes? I don't care about the absolute numbers (these are clearly understated as footbiking is far less efficient than cycling), but whished I could have more stable readings relative to my actual effort.
Any thoughts or guidance from experienced PowerPod users / experts would be highly appreciated!
Kind greetings from Austria!
Christian
I am not a cyclist in the classical sense but riding "footbikes" - which are basically scooters with a setup very similar to roadbikes (28" carbon wheels, etc.).
To give you an impression how it looks like, I have posted an example picture:
My intention has always been training by power as I was used to with my road and mountain bikes but for Footbikes no solution was available. I scouted the internet and stumbled over the Velocomp PowerPod. It sounded reasonable and I expected it to work also on a footbike as it is simply mounted on the handlebars. So I ordered one and set it up according to the materials provided and did a calibration / test ride.
However, I realized that the power readings the PowerPod provided were all over the place, rather following a wave movement with frequent "zero" readings for a couple of seconds. I tried a factory reset, setting up everything from scratch again but no luck - the readings behaved very similar to the first calibration ride. For your reference, I have uploaded the .ibr-File from the first calibration ride. All metrics worked just fine but the power readings really miss a stable reading (even when using 10s averages on my Garmin Edge 1050). On a side note, it was very windy today with gusts of up to 25 miles per hour. Maybe this has contributed to the outcome but I suspect that the PowerPod - for whatever reason - isn't able to provide accurate / stable power readings for footbikes? I don't care about the absolute numbers (these are clearly understated as footbiking is far less efficient than cycling), but whished I could have more stable readings relative to my actual effort.
Any thoughts or guidance from experienced PowerPod users / experts would be highly appreciated!
Kind greetings from Austria!
Christian