carleton

[Below is just 1 man's opinion! I've owned 3 power meters (2 SRM and 1 PowerTap). Other sprinters love their power meters.]

1) If you don't know why you are getting a power meter, then you may not need one. (Not trying to be rude. I bought several and didn't need them.)

2) Power meters are great for measuring pursuit efforts and holding under threshold in order not to pop. For sprinting, to me, they are most useful as a "fatigue meter". Basically, you know what numbers you should be hitting for certain efforts. When you don't hit those numbers, maybe something is wrong (you are done for the day meaning no more good efforts in you, sickness coming, over-training, bad technique, etc...)

EDIT:

3) Also some coaches require their athletes to have power meters on their road and track bikes and they log all efforts (even trainer work). I think they do this mainly to accurately keep tabs on training volume.



So, my point is, if you are going to be diligent about crunching the numbers, then it may be a useful tool for you.