Power meters on road bikes

The bike in the diagram is the same model as I ride. It is the best fit and feel for a road bike that I have ridden in the past several years. Started with an entry level Cannondale R700, then tried Italian with a Bianchi 1885, briefly used a Surly Cross-check for a New Zealand bike tour, rode a full carbon Bianchi 928 for a couple of days, and finally bought a used Lemond Tete de Course from eBay. The combination of titanium and carbon produces a very comfortable ride. Together with my Brooks B-17, never need to use bike shorts, and saddle sores are a thing of the past. All the previous beasts were sold to engineers on my team and we train together a few times a week as a team-building exercise.

I like testing out new bike gadgets--it appeals to my engineering mind and the lack of a car in HK together with extremely low personal taxes (15% is the maximum tax rate), I have enough funds to satisfy this expensive hobby. About a year ago, I tried the iBike unit. It mounts on the handlebars and measures the power by measuring the wind resistance and subtracting the bike speed. Although cheap, I found the unit to be very difficult to use and seemingly un-accurate. For example, wind speeds were displayed as almost double or triple the actual wind speed (there is no way I can pedal 30 kph in a 60 kph wind). The power readings were also erratic. In the end I stopped using it as it was quite large and not the most attractive thing on the handlebars. I then tried out a PowerTap wheelset on my Lemond Tete de Course. It worked wonderfully until I was caught in a heavy rainstorm and it has now ceased to function (I did remove the cover and replaced the internal batteries, but the unit still doesn't respond).

As for the Ergomo and the SRM, they are not only prohibitively expensive, but also require more advanced mechanical knowledge to install. Plus, I am perfectly happy with my current bottom bracket and crankset--both work and from my short experience as a cyclist, if your BB + cranks work, do not replace them or try to fix them. I have heard bad reports about the Polar unit regarding installation and accuracy (though it is rather innovative in using the frequency harmonics of the chain in order to determine torque and therefore power). Will most likely test out the Quarq unit next for two reasons: minor modification to my existing setup (already have Dura-Ace spider arm cranks) and it uses open source software. This means I can go in and make any modification I want to the system, customizing to my needs. The combined setup (computer + torque unit) is rather expensive, but it uses an open wireless standard so it can conceivably work with other bike computers, like the upcoming Garmin 705. I also used the Garmin 605 unit. It was pretty good and fairly robust; except I could never get it to recognize its own speed and cadence sensors (apparently a common problem).

As one can see from the bike diagram, there are several locations on the bike for measuring power. There are still several locations left for a set of enterprising individuals and I will explore each location in upcoming posts.

Web-links:
1. PowerTap: Can purchase from www.jensonusa.com
2. Polar: Amazon.com offers best prices
3. Ergomo: eBay has best prices
4. SRM: eBay has best prices
5. Quarq: Product will be released in December 2007
6. iBike: Can purchase from www.speedgoat.com

Lung Infection & Non Rectangular QAM

Seemed to have contracted a nasty lung infection on 29 September. Had to stop training and been off the bike ever since (with a 3 day exception in the middle of the month averaging 20-30 km). None of the doctors have been able to figure out which bacteria it is; except that it is not one of the common ones. Zithromax seemed to help a little bit last week, but started regressing again when it wore off.

While staying at home for some people may seem like a vacation, it starts to feel like jail for awhile. After starting and completing Command & Conquer (Tiberium Wars), gained enough mental facility to consider an interesting problem somebody posed to me at work. It has to do with constellations and QAM. For QAM, engineers use 4, 8, 16, 64, .... QAM for signal modulation. The friend was thinking of using hexagonal tiling instead, but some group published a paper last year. I suggested to use a Penrose Tiling. It uses quasi-five fold symmetry and initial results does show that it is more efficient than other symmetries (assuming the size of the n-fold polygons are the same with elements at the vertices). In terms of the inter-element spacing, n-fold polygons with smaller n are more efficient (completely logical). There is probably some horribly complex math that can be done to prove all of this, but Apple Keynote worked fine enough for me. What's interesting is how everything works in circles....The 5-fold symmetry is a problem I spent a year doing at UCSC when working on my thesis: 3D Visualizations of Quasi-Crystals (published a couple years later in a Physics journal).

For more information on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrature_amplitude_modulation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation_diagram

NZ Cycling Tour Day 3: Westport to Reefton

The first 60km was very nice, next to the Buller Gorge. It reminded me of my hometown in Colorado, near Durango. The hills were easy to medium grade (have discovered hills are better than flats for back and a** cause can get out of the saddle more). One thing to watch out for at Buller gorge are the sand flies--they are on your legs within 5 seconds of stopping. Fortunately I brought insect repellent and it appeared to work. Quite hot on this inland bike ride, leading me to strip down to just layers 3 & 4. The worst section was the 30km of flat straight-aways between Inangahua Junction and Reefton (a rather boring gold mining town with lots of trucks rumbling through). Arrived in Reefton, took a shower, took a nap, ate a boring dinner, watched TV, and slept fitfully (room was right next to a main trucking throughfare).

Spent some time fixing my bike seat that was giving me a sore. Final solution was to wrap my neoprene rain booties on the seat and tied into place with my spare inner tubes.

B&B Web-link:
Quartz Lodge

Trip Stats:
90 km; 3 hours 45 minutes

NZ Cycling Tour Day 2: Punakaiki to Westport

Another day of fine sunny weather, wearing layers 1, 3, and 4 (t-shirt, Assos Air Element, and Rainjacket). Consumed 2 bottles of water, 1 apple, 1 candy bar, and 1 granola bar. First 2-3 km was up a hill, followed by a winding descent to the ocean. The ocean-side cycling then continued to kilometer #15, the start of a steep 5km hill, then followed by a series of short steep up/down hills. After turning off Route 6, it was a 14km mostly flat road through cow country. Arrived at the B&B a short time later. After showering, drinking with the hosts (a pretty cool gay couple where one was a early-retirement computer nerd and the other a surfer/martial artist who loved gardening and was an excellent cook), I went on a 4-5 km tramp next to the ocean along Cape Foulwind and watched a local seal colony. After tramping back to the B&B, took a 1 hour nap and fiddled with the bike seat--it was making my a** sore during the ride. It was one of these contoured seats that is fine during a 50km ride in HK, but on these NZ roads; my a** was taking a beating--will switch to Brooks when I get back to HK. Finished the day with a delicious home cooked meal followed by excellent conversation.

B&B Web-link:
www.capehouse.co.nz

Trip Stats:
57 km; 2 hours 36 minutes

NZ Cycling Tour Day 1: Greymouth to Punakaiki

Woke up at 0630 (groggy) and ate a continental breakfast. Took off the pedls and covered the chain (required for the train). B&B owners dropped me off at the train station around 0745. Took about 5 minutes to collect the tickets (bought them before on the web) and drop off the bike at the luggage car at the end of the train. {According the the B&B owner, the lines at the train start at 0800 when the tour buses arrive.} I sat across from an older (50s) lady from Australia who proceeded to talk for the next 4 hours on the journey to Greymouth (NZ's west coast). I did pick up some interesting vocabulary from her, in particular "pleather", used to describe fake leather.

The scenery along the train journey was spectacular with narrow bridges over gapping chasms and massive rivers flowing into the horizon. Unfortunately, the waterproof Olympus camera was not adept at capturing moving targets. In other parts, mountains would just rise out of the flat landscape, as if some mighty giant just placed them here and there. On the other side of Author's Pass, the vegetation changed from pine trees to rain-forest ferns and palm trees; though the air temperature remained at a balmy 18 degrees C.

I arrived in Greymouth at 1245. It took me another 30 minutes to retrieve the bike, get geared up, fill my water bottles from the train station bathroom and do final safety checks. I then walked the bike up to the bridge crossing the river (within eyesight of the train station), rode over the bridge, turned right and followed the signage to Punakaiki. Punakaiki is about 50-60 km up the western coastline and is famous for some unique pankake rock formation and being well outside the cell phone grid. The first 5-10km were flat and easy until the road reached the ocean. The next 40km was a series of undulating hills that were short and steep. The last hill before the B&B was at least 2 km long with a not insignificant gradient. The ride was very enjoyable along the road rated one of the top scenic roads in the world, with most of the road right next to the ocean.

Next time I will bring a more comfortable saddle, like a Brooks B-17, rather than this cut-out anatomic saddle, which is already giving me a painful saddle sore. New Zealand roads are much courser than HK roads. Went and walked down to a local pub for dinner (not much choice in Punakaiki).

Rough costs (NZD):
Train Ticket: $145; Christchurch Dinner: $15; Punakaiki Dinner: $35 (was hungry)
Green Thai balm was very handy for lower back pain.

Trip Stats:
48 km; 2 hours 6 minutes; 4-layers: T-shirt, Assos Jersey, Assos Air Element, Rainjacket

Punakaiki B&B Web-Link (though the owners are now trying to sell):
www.therockshomestay.com

Complete photo-log:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8048972@N06/sets/72157600168286878/

Arrival in New Zealand: Christchurch

After 2 months of planning and training, finally arrived in Christchurch where I would first spend a night and then catch the Tranz-Alpine to Greymouth for my first day of cycling. The photo shows my luggage for the next 7 days on a bike. Exactly 8kg of stuff, including all clothing, rain-gear, tools, tires, tubes, and snacks. Everything fit into two bags--one on the rear of the bike behind the seat, the other on the handlebars. I decided I would rather pack light and use a large seatpost bag, rather than panniers; which helped me maintain speeds of 25-30 kph all day. The bike is a Surly Cross-check--nice sturdy and comfortable steel framed bike. I have mapped out my entire course using google maps and have reserved B&B's all along the way. I brought the bike here in a sturdy bike-box, which the owners of this B&B have kindly offered to let me store it with them for a week. Their B&B is very nice, and they offer free rides to/from the airport and train stations. As a special bonus, the B&B is located next to a large shopping mall with a pretty good bike shop within 5 minutes walking distance.

Christchurch B&B web-link:
www.anselmhouse.co.nz

The entire tip photo-log:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8048972@N06/sets/72157600168286878/