rpenmanparker 

Is there a head unit (on-bike computer) solution that can cut across different power meters on different bikes and make the data all interchangeable? So if you have one brand meter on one bike and a different brand on another, is there a computer that processes and tabulates the data as if it were exactly the same? Not counting the aspect of left leg only for some crank-based setups. In that case just processing the one-leg data as if it were both. Thanks.

gregf83 

As long as the power meter is Ant+ compatible then any Ant+ compatible head unit will receive the data. Other than the Look/Polar powermeter I think most other wireless powermeters are Ant+ so a Garmin 500 or higher will pick up the data.

Not sure if that answers your question but the data recorded from two powermeters will generally be close but never exactly the same as the powermeters use different techniques to determine power and average power over different time periods. For example a PowerTap reports the power every 1 second, whereas an SRM will average the power over one crank revolution and report that data once per second (might be configurable).

rpenmanparker 

Not talking about accuracy and precision. I suspect two of any single brand/model wouldn't agree exactly anyway. 1-2% makes no difference. No, I mean that the data tables and graphs, whatever, the output is, will be indistinguishable in form and information between the two units.

RChung

Hmmm. It can occasionally be useful that the data aren't indistinguishable in form and information.

rpenmanparker 

Say more, oh cryptic one.

kingfishr

I have a Quark Power meter and Garmin Vector and am using a Garmin 500 to load data to Traning Peaks, WKO+ and Garmin Connect. The data is indistinguishable between the bikes.

rpenmanparker 

Thank you. Exactly what I wanted to know. I love when that happens.

bbbean 

Just upload your data to Garmin/Strava/MapmyRide/RidewGPS/GoldenCheetsh/Trainingpeaks, or whichever app/website offers the detail and analysis you need.

BB

RChung

Greg gave you the effectively correct answer: most PMs on the market today transmit with ANT+ so a standard ANT+ head unit will receive what is being sent, more or less. However, every PM is slightly different so standard protocols like ANT+ occasionally obscure differences between them. Even among ANT+ head units, certain models massage the data slightly differently -- for example, if you pair the same ANT+ PT hub to a Garmin 500 and an 800, the data streams can be slightly different. It turns out that many PM/head unit combinations have a particular idiosyncratic "fingerprint" and sometimes that fingerprint can be handy if you know how to read them.

But those occasions are rare. An ANT+ head unit it pretty much the way you want to go.