Cycling Power Calculator | CycloCompass Performance Cycle Coaching

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Cycling coach and amateur road racer (also a physicist, an economist, and currently studying dietetics). Winner of the 2023 Hungarian amateur road cycling championship.

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Cycling power calculator

This little tool will let you play around different rider, equipment and environmental data to get an idea about how much power you need to send through your pedals to maintain the desired speed, and will also tell you how much is spent to counter aerodynamic drag, gravity, rolling resistance and drivetrain losses. In the second part, you can check how a change in weight and/or CdA affects the results and see both the original and the updated values on the same plot. If you would like to have control over even more parameters, the Advanced Cycling Power Calculator is the tool for you. Have fun! : )

I. Initial data

Rider height:Rider height is only used to estimate frontal surface area, that is later used for CdA estimation. Be sure to check the tooltip for CdA offset, too.		cm
Rider weight:Rider weight without clothes, equipment etc. Used to calculate the power that is needed to counter gravity and rolling resistance, and also to estimate frontal surface area, that is later used for CdA estimation. Be sure to check the tooltip for CdA offset, too.		kg
Bike type:Select to estimate CdA for bike type.
Manual CdA offset:CdA stands for drag coefficient (Cd) times frontal surface area (A), and is a key contributing factor to drag. While the tool is making an educated guess on your CdA, it is clear that this factor varies a _lot_ through bike types, rider equipment and time spent with aero testing. Therefore, more advanced users have the option to offset their CdA to reflect the data they have from testing or on a statistical basis. Use negative values for aero gains.

Bike&accessories weight:Weight of the bike and all carried accessories, like bottles, bottle cages, computers, computer mounts, bags etc.		kg
Headwind:See the effect of direct headwind. Use negative values for tailwind.		km/h
Grade:Grade of the slope in %. Divide the elevation you gain by the length of the segment, then multiply by 100%. E.g. if you gain 50m elevation while cycling 1000m, it will result in a grade of 50/1000*100%=5%. Use negative values for downhill.		%
Show speed till:Adjust the speed range to plot between 0 and this value.		km/h

II. Check the effect of changes

Here's your chance to see how much the results change with gaining/losing weight and/or having a better/worse CdA. The second data series uses dotted lines. The third plot is the difference between the dotted "Needed cycling power" value and the solid line counterpart. This means that when the value is positive, the "dotted cyclist" need to put more power through the pedals to maintain the given speed.

System weight difference:See how a weight difference affects the different components of needed power. Use negative values to indicate a loss of weight.		kg
CdA difference:See the potential gain/loss in aero drag and needed cycling power by updating this value. Use negative values for aero gains.