Aventon invited me to a pre-launch press briefing on its new Level.3 commuter e-bike in Long Beach, California. The Level.3 has several significant upgrades from the Level.2, including increased range and an adjustable suspension seat post, but the greatest upgrade is the Aventon Control Unit (ACU).
The ACU is a proprietary technology that incorporates 4G, Bluetooth connectivity, and GPS tracking. It enables a host of security, convenience, and personalization features. The Level 3 isn't the first Aventon model with the ACU; the Abound SR utility and cargo e-bike was the initial ACU-equipped e-bike.
Cyclists, listen up — there’s a new app for your smartphone that claims to record your cycling power. Meet Fitif Power!, a power meter app developed by the Madrid-based Capitán Nugget team. The app purports to help you estimate your bike’s effective power while you’re in motion, all without the need for any extra gadgetry or software. Now available for Android as well as iOS, the app may just be one of the cheapest ways to monitor your power while cycling.
The app claims to gather data from sensors built into your smartphone, like your GPS, barometer, and accelerometer. You can also connect the app to a third-party heart rate monitor via Bluetooth, and the Capitán Nugget team recommends that folks also link a Bluetooth cadence meter to the app. The addition of these two tools (which you’re likely already using during your ride), should give you a more accurate power data reading.
Using all these data inputs, Fitif Power! promises to estimate your average power every 15 seconds. This, the team says, should reflect the work that you’re actually doing during your workout. And while most cycling computers give users the option of seeing power results every 3, 10, or 15 seconds, Capitán Nugget provides a single, straightforward estimate. That said, the team is also working to offer shorter time interval readings as well.
In order to truly take advantage of the app, you’ll have to do a bit of setup. Before your ride, cyclists are asked to manually input certain parameters, including the surface they will be riding on, the type of bike they’re riding, crank length, type of tires, tire pressure, type of pedals, and the total weight of the cyclist and bike. The more accurate these inputs, the more accurate Fitif Power!’s output.
The app, originally launched in October 2017 for just the iPhone, has come quite a long way in making power metering more affordable and accessible for folks in the cycling world. You can now download the app for free from the Play Store. Your Android device must be running Android 5.0 or later in order to make use of the app.