Hexsense

@R-M-R: side note: I believe you see picture of bikes I sold. Not what I ride. My actual riding bike has a more level levers (approx 50 degree from vertical) and lower handlebar than bike I sold in my gallery. But still, thank you for making all the good comments.

@R-M-R: Great analysis, thanks. Overall, I'm just against the idea that raising the headtube (and thus frame stack) universally is the safe answer. Raising the bar via spacers or stem or bar rise is safe. Raising the frame stack height can cause safety hazard for people who use the same frame but with bar lower than the head tube. Still, I agree that on average, L and XL bike riders need bar raised, not lowered so your proposed increased frame stack height make sense. But perhaps just leave S and M geometry alone for people who need the bar low?

Categorize me in low bar XC camp then. I use low bar but not because of weight distribution reason. It's for comfort and efficiency. My bike is a short travel analog bike. Since it isn't e-bike, pedaling is important so I set up my position to optimize pedaling efficiency. I cannot put out power as efficiently if I sit up right compare to if I lean over a bit. So I have to lean over regardless of bar height. With tall bar I have to bend my elbow a lot to absorb the close proximity between my shoulder and the bar. That waste energy. Lower bar make the position more comfortable by relaxing my elbow slightly more. For me, riding bike size medium. Bikes are already too tall. For people needing tall bar, please just keep using spacers riser stem and bar. It only cause you a bit of inconvenient to raise the bar. But when the headtube is too tall it cause me SAFETY HAZARD to lower the bar below head tube level. You may have heard of bar to top tube collision causing damage to bike top tube. Well, in my preferred riding position I even have stem to head tube collision which is worse than bar strike. So please. Keep bike headtube short. Raise the bar if you need it via any of the method in the poll but don't cause more safety hazard for people needing low bar by increasing frame stack height.

@R-M-R: Hell no. I ride medium with FSA-SL-K Drop stem and Canecreek Slamset headset to drop my bar below headtube level. There is no safety concern to raise the bar. But bar strike and in my case, even stem hitting the frame is an issue to lower the bar below headtube's top bearing. In short, keep it low only make it inconvenient to some people. But making it too tall create safety hazard for people that need lower bar.

@itslightoutandawaywego: Pedal power meter definitely sense force. But that doesn't calculate into power unless the crank rotate. For pedal based power meter, Power = force from pedal sensor x crank arm length (which you set from app/head unit) x rotation speed (cadence). Force was read but cadence is 0 so the whole term is 0. There are even many more strain gauges on the pedal to cancel out "ineffective" force from the power calculation as well. Because you wouldn't want the force that push the pedal side way to register as power, for example.

@n734535: Another explanation of why force that doesn't spin the crank doesn't register as power number. What if you made a crank based power meter that read force into your power number. If you stand still on the pedals, there would be force acting on the pedal all the time by your weight, right? Does that mean you put power through the crank all the time even when you stand still? No. Right? Because that'd become a useless measurement instead of representing how hard you work. Therefore, Power meter measure what it does which is effective power that propel the bike. By design.

@n734535: Power that power meter try to measure is the result of effective power. That is torque (force x crank arm length) multiply by RPM of the crank rotation. As you press straight down on both cranks at the same time when cranks are parallel. There are force going downward. Those can create torque on each crank arm but they cancel each other out. Thus no spin and therefore no rotation speed (rpm). Pedal based sensor certainly can feel this force. But it won't add that towards the power number. It'll just record that you have very bad torque effectiveness.

@n734535: Have you tried pumping with chain removed :) On a serious note. Unless you remove the chain. It won't be exact 0. There's still force transfer through it. But that low power number feels way more tiring than actually pedaling a bike normally for that wattage.

Next time test with equal heart rate rather than equal wattage. if you pump the bike using your legs on pump track without actually pedaling. The power meter read 0 watts because you didn't generate any torque through the drive train. Yet you clearly made some work pumping the bike that can make you get tired. Part of energy lost through suspension is that way too. Your body work harder for some movement which doesn't register as power through the drive train. So, at the same watts read at power meter, lockout may require lower heart rate.

Rear suspension don't need one. Anti-squat already take care of it if you have a bike that pedal well. Front lockout only is detrimental on a climb if you don't also lock the rear because it make the fork even more taller than rear end of the bike on the uphill. I only lockout or firm up my front suspension on flat land sprint. Not a climb.