Thursday, February 07, 2008

Fredcast is Pretty Cool.

My iPod made it through a full trainer session here at home tonight in a single charge, I'm a happy camper. I found the Fredcast Podcast a few years ago and really enjoy that his podcasts are all generally over 1 hour long, which is nice when spinning on the trainer.  I listened to an older one that I hadn't gotten to earlier featuring his review on the iBike cycle computer. It sounds interesting, though I find how it works dubious. If anyone out there has one or knows someone with one let me know your thoughts on it.

Tonights Training: 1 hour, 5 minutes on the indoor trainer at home. 

3 comments:

Kyle Jones said...

I have an Ibike. It works pretty good for the most part. I will have to say on some rides it goes a little off. The one odd thing is that it reads high watts on down hills if I am pedaling. I use it as a training device and if the watts are off I do not really care. As long as it is consistently off the same I know if I am improving according to the ibike.

John P. said...

Kyle, do you have the cadence option? Fred from the Fredcast says that if you don't, you'll get whacky readings going downhill.

Thanks for the heads up on it. I'm thinking of getting a computer and it's on my list for sure.

Kyle Jones said...

I have the new wireless option because it has the new hr. It was pretty inexpensive until I got the upgrade. I honestly like it. It does the job and I can switch it on other bikes. I am not a pro so why do I need a 1200 dollar power meter.

As for the cadence feature you are talking about. When you stop pedaling it shows no power being applied. Which is true. But on a downhill when you pedal it assumes that you are powering the bike. But you can look at the graph when you down load to see that your power is not really that. I like it because it records the temp and amount of climbing you do. The powertap does not do that. I am lazy and do not like to record those details manually. But the Ibike is not a tension gauge like all the others. The other down side is that you have to set it up every ride if you want accurate ride input. And if the temp is below 40 you have to change the battery every 3 weeks or so. I ride a lot outside so if you ride inside it will last longer. In the summer you can reuse the batteries. They now have a trainer option to. Hopefully that answers all your questions. Maybe I will do a write up on the Ibike on my blog.