Cost of power meters: just a rant

When did you last see someone with tyres slightly slimmer than the rims, except for pro’s doing TT’s with wide rims and 21-23 something tubulars? It wouldn’t even be practical outside of competition.

I did something similar to that for my gravel bike. Ebay’d a Praxxis crank that had barely been used, ordered the ngeco spider and put it all together.

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my last two outdoor rides - a cat5 crit and a group ride. A lot of tire talk pre- and post- ride out here, maybe that’s it? I got the memo within the first couple of group rides, when getting started in 2016.

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Oh. I’ve almost never heard or read anyone talk about it. But yes, if the aerodynamics of the entire package is considered, then it’s certainly a gain. Marginal in most cases, but still a gain.

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Maybe I got lucky with our club, a lot of really knowledgeable people that taught me about training, hydration, tires, and related stuff that I later read about online or in books. My front wheel is 29mm wide, and currently have tubeless Zipp Tangette 25c that are 26.4mm inflated. Before that Specialized S-Works 26c which are 27.9mm inflated. And before that Schwalbe Pro Ones. A lot of us are looking forward to giving the new Conti 5000s a try.

The more I train the less I think they are expensive.
If you buy them used, when you are eventually done with it and have to sell it you will not loose much.
Get a power meter for every bike, swapping them over is annoying

Even leaving aside obviously dodgy products like the XCadey, we haven’t been having the best possible time with cheaper power meters if this forum is anything to go by.
Avio Powersense - accuracy issues, particularly in the cold
WatTeam Powerbeat - Out of business it seems and resulting registration/app issues
IQ2 - Production issues/timetable slippage
Zwatt - Dropped support for Zimanox, some issues with recording the data they want for subscription customers

I have a feeling we’ll get to the sunlit uplands of affordable, reliable power measurement soon though :slight_smile:

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I’m curious what’s wrong with the xcadey and if it’s just a lack of development time. Although, like just about every engineer, I look at it as an easy problem to solve. Then I see all the failures and realize it’s probably not.

$226 for a 4iiii gen 2 105(5800) left power meter, ultegra 6800 for $308 after extra 10% discount

Best deal I’ve seen around, and you wont have to worry about accuracy issues.

According to GP Lama Xcady are as accurate as any other single sided power meter. The problem with them are non existing service and that they seem to have used Ant+ without the mandatory licenses.

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Hi, just purchased a 4iiii 105 crank off probike for £180 delivered, out once great kit. I’ve a p2m on my good summer bike, dual side, I can amend the power transfer on the 4iiii as well, as I know my left side is not as strong, 49%. Between it and the stages, reviews better on 4iiii.

Carbon wheels look good, I’ve 50mm prime black on summer bike and zondas on my winter. I prefer the zondas but the look and the sound from the carbon wheels is great. Performance I’m not soo sure. Hope this helps

There’s also just been a big price drop on the Stages powermeters from what i hear.

Indeed:

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But the price drop is down to… what the 4iiii have been at for a while now. So while it is a drop for Stages, it isn’t a drop for powermeters in general.

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The things with power meters is they only cost about $100 in parts to make, but the R&D cost is huge, so payback is a long term thing for what is essentially a niche product.

Ongoing support / customer service is the ongoing killer. R&D is an upfront cost (pretty much).

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I’ve bought a few used PMs cheap. Here are some findings:

  1. Old PMs work fine! They can be found cheap, though they may be ANT+ only. Only a problem for Zwift/TR
  2. Shimano crank arm PMs are a commodity item. They market knows how to price them. Unless there is a sale, you’ll find one at the right price pretty quickly. They are all cross compatible for the most part. Stage gen1 kinda sucks.
  3. Non-Shimano - best deals are on Power2Max and Quarq units. Both P2M and Quarq use SRAM cranks, though they both have additional fitments (specialized, rotor, cannondale, FSA). Both are good units, with the P2M being more robust than Quarq from what I can tell.
  4. Note SRAM uses two different bolt patterns 3 bolt or 8, but the same interface for GXP and BB30. Rotor uses a different BB86 and BB30 interface.
  5. CL, Ebay, and message boards will get the unit priced high or wrong. Ebay is OK for pretty old ugly units.
  6. Facebook, yes facebook, is the best place to find deals. The trick is to search for PHOTOS in FB then filter for the current or past month. You’ll find some signal
  7. A trick for spider PMs is to find something with the wrong or ugly fitment, but right BDC specs, then swap out the odd parts.

By finding an ugly PM on Facebook by searing photos, I found an ugly Sram S975 (quarq) BB30 for $200. Sold the rings for $40, my current spider for $20, and the ugly BB30 carbon crank for $65. After cleaning up the Quarq spider and mounting it on my existing Force 1x crank, I had a working PM for $75. Only issue after a year was that the quarq battery tabs, need to be re-bent every now and then.
I had a $175 experience with a P2M rotor 3D24. It was issue free.

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And whilst it’s $299 it’s still £299 so there is still a premium over 4iiii.

I don’t know how they do it but my current 4iiii ultegra came from probikekit, and with a referral discount code it only cost £220. I sold a used 105 spec version on eBay for more than that!

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Spent $1800 on my Power2MAX NG Power Meter

The Spider (Power Meter)
The Crank Arms (Campagnolo Super Record)
The Chain Rings

That was over 3 years ago and I can safely say, best $1800 I’ve ever spent as the data gathered has turned me from a Serious Weekend Club Rider into a Cat 4!

That and following Coach Chads Strength Training!

The Data you get from a Power Meter will give you an insight into who you are and where to go from that after just one season.

If your goal is to be better… a Power Meter is the Truth!

Not sure if troll or serious :smiley:

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