AeroPod, PowerPod and Newton

I recently picked up an iaero and I’ve been anxious to try it out. I did the whole fast setup then I went straight to a location for the cal ride and coast downs. I did a nice mellow cal ride on a very well paved bike path that was very flat. The cal ride was about 3.5 miles out and back. After the cal ride I immediately did 8 coast downs, 1 of which was messed up. Once again, this was on a very well paved bike path that was very flat, so flat it took a long time to coast down to 8mph. Because of the short distance I was working with on the coast downs I found myself accelerating to 20mph fairly quickly, not so “leisurely” like the instructions say. Anyways, my numbers came close to what the FAQ’s say is a track.

So I went out today for my first ride with my iaero on “calibrated” and being that I’m new to this I’m not sure how accurate this data is. I consider myself a fairly fit guy and I did push somewhat hard on a lot of this ride but my max speed was 65mph?? Not true, my Garmin says 37mph. This could be because I drafted behind another guy for about ¾ of a mile…but doesn’t the iaero adjust for that? Next question is the watts, 1105w max, isn’t that a little high? I was accelerating from the stoplights somewhat hard but I’m no Cavendish. Average of 246w for a 1 hour ride? Does this seem right? Average HR of 161 with the max of 181…I know this is right, my Garmin confirmed it. I have attached my ride file and I was hoping one of you experts can take a look at it and see if everything looks ok? Yes, I bought this book “Training and Racing with a Power Meter” but I haven’t received it yet.

Thanks for all your help,
James

Your ride file has speed spikes, indicating that your magnet/speed sensor isn't set up properly.

Speed spikes will cause watts spikes.

Make sure to have the spoke magnet pass by the black vertical gap of the speed sensor, about 1-2 coin widths apart.

The rest of your setup looks great!

I readjusted the magnet to make sure it was close enough (it’s a Garmin dual sensor) and did another ride today and I’m still getting speed spikes. It seems like if I download the ride and do [Tools] [Analyze Route] it corrects everything and makes the numbers more realistic. Is this something I should always do to the ride file? Maybe my battery is low on my Garmin sensor. Here is my new ride file, does it look ok?

Thanks,
James

Yes, you still have speed spikes.

You might want to try replacing the battery in your Garmin sensor.

In the mean time, you can use the iBike software tool Tools/Remove Speed Spikes in Ride to remove these spikes. It works great, and your iBike file looks fine afterwards, too!