# New to gravel with PM concerns.



## Sweettea (Oct 16, 2014)

Hello, first post! Just purchased a new cross/gravel bike, a Trek Boone, after toasting my road bike in a crash. Trying something new, thinking next years DK200. Anyways, I have some Garmin Vectors sitting in a box that I was planning on using on my Madone, but have concerns with off-road riding and pedal strikes. What are others using? The Panasonic unit looks kinda promising in l/r power.


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## NealH (May 2, 2004)

Why do you need a power meter for gravel or cross racing? Doesn't make sense to me. If you need to pace yourself, just use your HR.


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## brady1 (Aug 18, 2011)

I've often wondered the same thing.

I compete in a lot of gravel and endurance events and have debated the merits of a power meter in events like that.

I've always used my RPE and HR. I'm very tuned in to my exertion level and can almost always guess my HR within 5 beats.

However, I might find a power meter quite useful as a pacing tool, if nothing else, in endurance events.


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

Seems like a good application for a Powertap Hub to me - zero worry about impact. If you don't want a new wheel any crank based or stages would work - I wouldn't use Vector system in that app for the exact reason you pointed out.


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## Sweettea (Oct 16, 2014)

Well it wouldn't be used/useful for cross, if I decide to do a few this year. I would like to use it more for pacing as offroad centuries are a bit more taxing than pavement. The power tap is always something I've wanted to try, but I'd like to have power with both wheelsets.


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## bikerector (Oct 31, 2012)

I would think the type of cleat/shoe required for the vector would give you more grief than the pedal.

No one "needs" a powermeter but you can't deny that they're useful if you're willing to utilize the data it gives you. They're also better for pacing than HR though I think RPE is the best method because there's always the "super human effort" we sometimes get for races we can't simulate in training.

PM's for cross or gravel riding are useful for the same reason they're useful for any other riding, they're more accurate than HR. Especially for cross, you pretty much "race cross" you don't "ride cross", as in you don't spend several days a week training on a cross course to race on the weekend.

For gravel races, I don't see why they wouldn't be just as useful there as they would be for a road race.


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

Stages would be a good option too.


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## Sweettea (Oct 16, 2014)

Stages would be cheaper. I just need to sell my vectors and recoup as much as I can.


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