Powertap (Shimano) wheel + Wheelcovers + race tyres

[IanM]

Yep, would sell you the powertap wheel on its own. And most definitely not sacrilege to use it in winter. That's why it's got heavy duty rims on it, and ultimately rims are replaceable!

How's £375 sound?

[IanM]

Actually, Powertap Pro hubs are going for £405 on Wiggle, so I'd take £350 - obviously that includes rim and spokes too

Have checked brake track, looks good, no apparent wear like in the pics in the other thread.

[CCS]

A few dumb questions:
Assume it is a normal shallow rim?
Shimano 10 speed compatible?

[IanM]

Yep and yep. Ambrosio Excellight rims - rim of choice for MtB's bike for Paris-Roubaix. Will dig link out with more details shortly.

[IanM]

Quick couple of snaps

[Kevy427]

Ben will be having fits seeing just how dirty everything is
CCS will be wondering how something so clean could possibly be disguised in her bike shed

[CCS]

Ben will be having fits seeing just how dirty everything is
CCS will be wondering how something so clean could possibly be disguised in her bike shed

I'll have you know that I actually cleaned my winter wheel the other day. Even took off those muddy, spiky bits and washed them.... in fact, even cleaned the chain (had forgotten that it was gold)... only to then check it and discover that I was in deep need of a new one...

I am now in a great dilemma.... and advice from the massive? Will a power meter really be useful to me on the road bike? Should I save my pennies and focus on getting something for the TT bike, seeing as this is what I will be racing and using on the turbo.
Am I just getting into another of my ridiculous spending frenzies?
Help!!!!

[Jack Hughes]

Ben will be having fits seeing just how dirty everything is
CCS will be wondering how something so clean could possibly be disguised in her bike shed

I'll have you know that I actually cleaned my winter wheel the other day. Even took off those muddy, spiky bits and washed them.... in fact, even cleaned the chain (had forgotten that it was gold)... only to then check it and discover that I was in deep need of a new one...

I am now in a great dilemma.... and advice from the massive? Will a power meter really be useful to me on the road bike? Should I save my pennies and focus on getting something for the TT bike, seeing as this is what I will be racing and using on the turbo.
Am I just getting into another of my ridiculous spending frenzies?
Help!!!!

You are really in the same quagmire as me, given that I have a campag flavour power tap on the road bike, on nice wheels.

My nice wheels (deep section) aren't really suitable for the sort of riding I do (down hills, cobbles, raining and grotty). They were for racing on.
Now I have a nice TT bike, with shimano, they now don't get used for races either.

Which is why only the vectors would really do (campag, shimano independent, chain set size).

You want to train with your power meter.
You also want to race with your power meter. One of the key benefits is to get data on actual performance - so you can control for course/weather). Also helps with pacing strategy.

Now, you _could_ just have a PM on the TT bike, iff most of your specific training is done on the turbo (not an unreasonable strategy), and your road stuff, is more "free form" fun/feel type riding.

This is sort of where I am now, with pseudo power on the turbo, and no power on the TT. I could live with power on turbo and power on TT, but it is fun to have power data for strava segments.

Basically, my cycling appears to have been best in the first 6 months of 2012 (appears, as I didn't race). It has gone downhill since I've stopped using a PM. This may be because I just haven't done so much cycling - 2011 was my biggest year, and 2012 was rained off.

[IanM]

Completely impartial advice:

As JH says, ideally you want to race and train with your power meter. That's why I'm switching to Vector, so I can continue to race and train with power but get the benefit of a better rear wheel at the same time.

Slightly less impartial advice, but still valid IMO:

Race season is 4-5 months away, so you could spend those months training with power using a PowerTap wheel. Then come race season, you can either race on feel knowing what you _usually_ feel like at a given power output after the benefit of a winter training with power, or sell the PowerTap and get something else you could race and train with, and you're unlikely to see much if any depreciation assuming the wheel is still in good condition

If your race bike is campag, then you can get a cassette that fits on Shimano splines but has Campag style sprockets - although this would be a bit of a PITA as you'd need to switch cassettes every time you switched between road and race bike. Or alternatively, and possibly a better plan, get a Campag freehub for the Powertap, and you can switch the freehubs with cassette on really easily, as they just pull out, no need to remove the cassette first. £46 from here - http://www.totalcycling.com/en/Cycleops ... tedKingdom

[CCS]

JH - you do realise that you are not helping by suffering from the same dilemma?!
To a lazy person like me, there is huge appeal in not having to swap things around between bikes (is that a bad reason to spend money). I am thinking that I will need to start spending more time training on the road, given that I am incorporating some longer distances into next year's plans (and even with all the DVD box sets in the world, I will get bored spending more than an hour and a half on the turbo) - so suspect that I will need to spend more time out exploring the home counties. Would a power meter help me to make these sessions more focussed?
Am I overthinking all this, and should I just get my head down and ride as hard as I can, as often as I can? I keep coming back to the 'do I need a power meter at all' question....

I do definitely need some suitable all rounder wheels (or a back wheel at least) for Champ though...

I am obviously not a good decision maker... it's been 2 years since I got the TT bike, and I haven't even managed to standardise on a single pedal system yet...