This content was produced in partnership with Upway.
It wasn't too long ago that e-bikes were a rare sight, but all of that has changed, and rightfully so. Electric bikes are all over the road these days, and there are many brands either venturing into the technology, to launch their own versions of the sustainable transportation option or reiterating existing and traditional designs. From Aventon to Schwinn, or RadPower to Momentum, with so many opportunities, the prevailing question is, where do you go to find the best deals and the best information about these brands and their e-bike models? The answer is Upway, the number one certified electric bike provider and an official partner to many of the aforementioned brands.
What is Upway, exactly? It's a marketplace, specializing in e-bikes, featuring an inventory that's sourced from some of the best brands in the world. There are American brands -- like Specialized, Cannondale, and RadPower -- and European brands -- like Riese, Muller, and VanMoof. The best part is the discounts, offering up to 60% off retail, for a plethora of brands. Upway is on a mission to make sustainable mobility affordable for everyone. It's also one of the best places to go for a new or pre-owned e-bike, and here's why:
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.