Yes, no and maybe.
First, it all depends on what you’re hoping to achieve with your cycling. Commuting to work? Buying groceries or wanna-be racer?
The majority of amateur cyclists don’t need to know. If you’re trying to improve your times, get some KOM/QOMs on Strava, it may be a metric you will know more about, but does it help in any way? No, it just is another way of saying your power output.
It’s a number, nothing more, nothing less.
But I said yes above, didn’t I? Ok, so this is why it can be a metric that shows your power is very good on the bike and if you’re competitive like me, this is a good thing. It is also a metric that can be helpful if you are tiny also like me.
400 watts isn’t always 400 watts
400 watts / 95kg = 4.21 watts per kg.
400 watts / 44kg = 9.09 watts per kg.
Notice how the total watts stay the same, but obviously, for the lighter rider the watts per kg are higher? So this is an example where the watts per kilo are more useful than the total watts. Does it mean anything more? No, not really.
If you are hoping to be the next hill climb champ, the next TDF winner then higher watts per kg is going to be your goal in life. It means you’re going to be faster uphill. On the flats, on the downhills? The weight difference matters less and for downhills is a disadvantage if anything. (physics is fickle)
I like to say my watts per kg as the total number can be smaller than many men who are double my size, but given my SIZE my number is the same or higher.
For the avg club rider, it really is just useless numbers or bragging material or a mixture of both.
If you enjoyed this post pay it forward
http://buymeacoffee.com/Sexandtheswiss
http://ko-fi.com/sexandtheswiss