Agreement of Power Measures between Garmin Vector and SRM Cycle Power Meters

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Abstract
This study aimed to determine if the Garmin Vector (Schaffhausen, Switzerland) power meter produced acceptable measures when compared with the Schoberer Rad Messetechnik (SRM; Julich, Germany) power meter across a range of high-intensity efforts. Twenty-one well-trained cyclists completed power profiles (seven maximal mean efforts between 5 and 600 s) using Vector and SRM power meters. Data were compared using assessments of heteroscedasticity, t tests, linear regression, and typical error of estimate (TEE). The data were heteroscedastic, whereby the Vector pedals increasingly overestimated values at higher power outputs; however, t tests did not identify any significant differences between power meters (p > .05). Using linear regression, Vector data were fit to an SRM equivalent (slope = .99; intercept = −9.87) and TEE produced by this equation was 3.3% (3.0%–3.8%). While the data shows slight heteroscedasticity due to differing strain-gauge placement and resultant torque measurement variance, the Vector appears acceptable for measures of power output across various cycling efforts.

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