Road bike power meter app ride west of Oshkosh, Wisconsin demonstrates the Cykelstrom Bicycle Power Meter App.
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The Road Bike For This Test Ride
I rode a Diamondback Haanjo Comp as a road bike for this ride equipped with a 4iiii Precision Pro dual sided power meter on a Shimano 105 11-speed group set. The speed sensor was a Wahoo Bluetooth speed sensor and cadence information was provide by the power meter. Heart rate information was collected with a Polar H7 chest strap sensor. The smartphone was a MotorolaG6 running Android Oreo and Cykelstrom version 1.36. All of the power meter and sensor data was collected, saved locally and automatically uploaded to Strava with the Cykelstrom Bicycle Power Meter App at the end of the ride.
Road Bike Power Meter App Accuracy
The best accuracy for this ride is emphasized in bold.
| Sensors | Crank Power Meter (Watts avg.) | Cykelstrom (Watts avg.) | Difference (Watts) | Margin of Error (Watts) |
| External Speed and Cadence | 155.27 | 163.01 | 7.74 | +/- 1.64 |
| GPS Speed and External Cadence | 155.27 | 158.60 | 3.33 | +/- 1.60 |
| External Speed Only | 156.10 | 169.33 | 13.23 | +/- 1.76 |
| GPS Speed Only | 156.10 | 164.46 | 8.36 | +/- 1.71 |
Discussion Of This Ride’s Results
I have emphasized in bold the results from “GPS Speed and External Cadence” as the most accurate. When compared to the dual sided power meter, Cykelstrom had a small bias of 3.33 +/- 1.60 Watts which is an average difference of about 2%. Results like these are typical when riding on smooth surfaces like tarmac roads. When calibrated correctly, Cykelstrom provides acceptable power measurements for the the recreational road cyclist.
What If You Did Not Use A Cadence Sensor?
For this particular ride, if you had no sensors and just relied on the internal sensors of the smartphone, you would observe that the bias was 8.36 +/- 1.71 Watts which is an average difference of about 5%. This accuracy would also be acceptable to most recreational road cyclists with the following condition. Since cadence information is not collected in this case, the rider would need to keep their coasting to a minimum. When I ride on the road, I seldom coast and pedal all of the time. This is why the results excluding the cadence sensor are so close to when a cadence sensor was used.
Adding A Cadence Sensor
For best accuracy, I recommend the use of an external Bluetooth cadence sensor. If you would like to learn more about how to add Bluetooth sensors to the Cykelstrom App please visit the article “Adding Bluetooth Sensors to Cykelstrom.”
Strava Activity
Click on the map to visit this activity in Strava.
| Elapsed Time | Moving Time | Distance | Average Speed | Max Speed | Elevation Gain | Calories Burned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
01:36:36
hours
|
01:36:06
hours
|
25.34
mi.
|
15.82
mph
|
23.29
mph
|
437.99
ft.
|
1,090
kcal
|
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