As the commercial says, power makes it go. Being able to measure that power on the go enables you to pace your efforts according to your abilities, and according to your training goals.
In my case, it also gave me an excuse to swap to a smaller chainring.
There's certainly nothing wrong with a 46t chainring, especially when paired with a 10-50t cassette. It gives a sub-1:1 ratio on the low end and a blisteringly fast speed on the high end. For my riding, though, I don't really need the blisteringly fast speed on the high end, and I could always use a bit lower gear on the low end when crawling up the hills in the bay area.
I actually planned to go with 42t from the start, but with supply chains what they were I could only find either 38t or 46t. You might think that I'd opt for the 38t to get even lower gearing, but I felt like it might be a bit too low for my tastes. Since going from a larger chainring to a smaller one is a lot easier than the other way around, (taking links out of a chain is easier than adding them back in), I figured it would be prudent to go for the 46t option to start with to see how it felt, and then go from there.
A few weeks of riding revealed that my suspicions were correct, and that 42t would likely be just right for my legs.
Anyway, let's get it on there.
I didn't take a bunch of photos because the procedure is pretty straightforward. Remove the drive-side crank arm, unbolt the old direct-mount chainring, bolt on the powermeter and new 107bcd chainring, and then put the crank arm back in place.
Naturally I also shortened the chain as appropriate, double-checked the bottom bracket preload, and torqued everything to spec.
And I also cleaned the chain, while I was at it.
The power meter paired up nicely with my garmin and with that the job was done. Now all I have to do is go ride it.
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