Power Taps et al

You need the device, powertap, quarg etc plus a head unit to recieve the data. For alot of information head to dcrainmaker.com and look under power meters he explains everything

If all you care about is indoor power, you can get a power-meter trainer, which is vastly cheaper than power-meter crank/wheel/pedal/magicwindthing.

Something like this:
http://www.cascadebiketrainers.com/product_detail/5/cascade-fluidpr...
or
http://brandscycle.com/product/cycleops-fluid2-power-trainer-kit-18...

My first question would be: Do you already have a trainer?

You can go as cheap as a speedometer to your real wheel or an ANT+ Garmin GSC-10 cadence monitor to a Computrainer. It's hard to give a concise answer to a vague question. I would say the "minimum is an old laptop, Free download of Golden Cheetah v3 and a Garmin GSC-10. That will give you virtual power and enough to decide if power works for you.

What you need if you want power:
A power meter
A device to receive the power

Most power meters send via the ANT+ protocol. This is a common protocol used by most manufactures. I think Polar is the only major one which likes to do their their own thing. This means you can mix and match ANT+ HR monitors, power meters, etc to head units. Not all head units support all devices though. My Forerunner 405 works with a Garmin cadence sensor for the bike (it's a running watch) but does not work power meters. With that, you'll need a head unit to get the power. The most common ones are either a triathlon dedicated device (Garmin 310 or 910. 310 being way cheaper but both support swim/bike/run settings) or a bike only computer such as a Garmin 500 or 800. For me, I went with a 910 since it's has a bigger screen and does some neat pool tracking.

As for the power meter, you need to decide your price point and what matters to you. I WANTED a Stages power meter ($~700 - DC rainmaker Review) but it won't fit my bike. Grrr.... So my power2max one is on order and should be here next week. You can also go with Power Taps as well. Power Taps are at the wheel while crank based ones are on the crank itself. For me, I wanted something I could use on trainer, outdoor trainer wheel, and one day race wheels. For a Powertap, you're locked into one wheel. Crank solutions are more expensive (Power2max starts at $1000 with cranks), unless you get a Stages and have a crankset already they support, but I can use it for all my rides without having to worry about it. For me, I just couldn't find a used crank one with the length and gearing I wanted, so I bought new. It's not a cheap thing and I've been on the internet for weeks tearing myself up inside trying to decide if it was worth it. Now that I hit the button, I can sleep better at night :P ....still hoping it's worth it though but I'll have 4 months to get it sorted out before my main IM training starts again. Luckily power meters seem to have a high resale value if I were to ever need to sell it.

Edited by Blastman 2013-11-10 10:44 PM