Popular Mechanics on iBike Dash by Jeremy Repanich

By Jeremy Repanich, Popular Mechanics

5 Personal-Sport Technologies to Help You Get Stronger, Faster and Better
 

The statistical revolution is changing the way pro sports are played and watched, but it's also changing what we know about athletes. By measuring g-forces, breathing patterns, adrenaline and plenty more aspects of athletes and their equipment, these sports technologies go far beyond the old 40-yard dash in measuring a player's prowess. And they're not just for professional athletes: Weekend warriors can now receive performance feedback to help them train smarter and get stronger. All you need is a smartphone and plenty of willpower.

 

By Jeremy Repanich

iBike Dash+PowerCycling has a long history of attaching computers to bikes to monitor a rider's performance. The original editions from three decades ago merely clocked speed, which is a crude measurement of effort from the rider, but better than no info at all. The next innovation measured heart rate, trying to get closer to understanding a cyclist's exertion. Twenty years ago, riders began to receive a more precise measurement of their overall effort from computers that measured power in watts. Still, for the average rider, fitting a bike with sensors was an expensive proposition. But now Velocomp has taken advantage of the ubiquity of digital devices to offer a more affordable option—its iBike Dash+Power, a computer that mounts to a bike and uses an iPhone or iPod Touch as a display.

The iBike Dash shows riders their cadence, distance, time, map and weather, and can display workout stats like bikes at the gym do. You can upload all that information to a Mac or PC, and use iBike's free software to chart and analyze the ride.

To create an inexpensive way to measure a rider's power output, Velocomp looked to Newton's third law of motion, according to CEO John Hamann. "The conventional measurement of force and power is to put strain gauges on the rear wheel, pedal or cranks," he says. "Those cost thousands of dollars, and they work very well, but they all work on the theory of applied force." So instead of creating a sensor that measured applied force, Velocomp created one that measured the forces opposing the cyclist, because Newton's law asserts that the applied and opposing will be equal (equal and opposite reactions.). For iBike, Velocomp combined a wind port, accelerometers to measure hill slope and bike acceleration, and a processor to compile those forces. "We just have a small computer head and we're using sensors that are produced by the tens of millions and put into Nintendo Wiis and automotive applications," Hamann says. "So we have very high quality with very low cost."

Combine that data with the iPhone's user-friendly interface, Hamann says, and you've got useful data riders can relate to immediately. "If I can tell how hard I am working then I can learn how to train my body better," Hamann says. "And I'll learn how to manage my body better so I don't overdo it, but also so I don't leave effort on the table."

Read more: 5 Personal-Sport Technologies - iBike Dash+Power - Popular Mechanics


 

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