Peter2290

I'm definitely picking up a pair of these come spring, especially with the price drop. It's a no-brainer at $650.

OUGrad05

That may be a great option.

Johnny Rad

Seattle Forrest

For $150, you can write 300w on a piece of paper and tape it to your stem.

jadocs

Sy Reene

I just installed a Campy record of this last week, connected with a garmin 520. Works fine.. eyeballing the readings, seemed very consistent with my Elite Direto trainer's readings.
Question.. do people using these run their calibration after getting the bike to ambient riding temperature? ie. can I calibrate in my living room before heading out for a ride in 40 degree weather, or better to calibrate once it's outside?

jadocs

Sy Reene

Thanks, makes sense.

jadocs

colnago62

srode1

I have Pioneer, Power2Max, Powertap hub wheels (2 sets) and Vector 3 pedals. They all work great, I haven't had any issues with any of them. The only thing I have had and got rid of was Stages single sided crank arm. For me with a significant left/right imbalance, that single arm set up just didn't work. I lost one battery door cover for that one too. The quirk with the Vector 3 is dropping the cadence and having an occasional power spike but on average it is very accurate so they work ok for me. What you choose is really dependent on how many bikes you have and how you use them. If you only have one bike, and only want one set of wheels, the Powertap wheels can be found used really inexpensive. If you want really advanced pedal stroke analysis the only 2 places to get that are Pioneer and Vector PMs. For gravel and off road etc, the Power2Max is the way to go IMHO. If you have multiple bikes and only want to use one PM, the Vectors are a great choice, easy to move from bike to bike with no set up required. I suppose the Powertap pedals are the same but they are way to heavy for me, and battery life is short so I personally wouldn't consider them. I bought the Vectors to take on trips when renting a bike like going to Europe to ride for a week. If you have the same bottom bracket across multiple bikes, it's pretty easy to move any crank based PM from one bike to another in a couple minutes.

NoWhammies

Santa brought me a 4iiii Precision for Christmas. It is a left side arm crank. I have only done one ride with it since the 25th as the weather here has been poor and I tend to keep my bike inside when it is raining, snowing, icy roads, etc. For the one and only ride I've done with the Precision, I have no complaints. Worked great out of the gate and gave me what I was looking for.

There are pros and cons to use a left side crank versus a full on system. But for me and for what I'm looking to get out of my training/riding, the Precision is the best tool.

Afdica

Which model did you get?? Precision= battery or Podiiiium= rechargeable?

superdex

anyone looking at picking up these? https://www.iqsquare.com/ ? Would like to see some DCRainMaker love or some review before diving in, but the product seems pretty interesting ...

redlude97

the increase q-factor would be a non starter for me

Bif

Same here. Powerpod works great for way less money. Lots of low IQ folks don't understand the difference between a DFPM and a powerpod and therefore are under false assumptions that math and physics don't work anymore (watch their responses to this).
Not True.

Newton's rules are still in effect.

jadocs

For $26 more dollars ($399 for BLE/ANT+ PowerPod), I purchased a Stages Gen III non drive side power meter, so not sure on the way cheaper comment. While I agree that math and physics work, doesn't consistency in the environment determine the degree of accuracy (rough vs. smooth roads, etc...)?

NoWhammies

Precision. I looked in to the Podium, but after asking around here concerning the lifespan of CR232 (or whatever the quarter sized battery is) I figured I'd be ok not going the rechargeable route.

Seattle Forrest

I calibrate mine down on the street. But ... if it's 70 inside and 40 out, it's not like I'm going to wait around for several minutes for the bike temp to come down. And leaving it outside unattended is a recipe for a stolen bike.

Voodoo76

Do your warmup, 15-20m outside to get everything acclimated then re-zero before starting intervals or harder work where you want accuracy. The difference due to temp is pretty small so being off a couple watts warming up is no big deal.

I would second the idea of looking for a used SRM, very well built and proven over time. And if you are handy with a soldering iron battery changes are a breeze. I've had 2 P2Max, currently running one on my TT bike, and see no difference between that and the SRM. Good customer service and you are buying direct from them.

mgopack42 

I had the PowerPod for a couple of years. it is great as a rough idea of your power. when i started doing intervals outdoors, i found that ambient wind would really mess with the power readings ( it is windy here). so i went with the PowerTap P1s. never looked back. Yes they are clunky, yes they are heavy (so am I), Yes they use a funky cleat. what i do like is that they use a AAA battery instead of a micro USB charging port, or button cells. I cant tell you how many times i have had perfectly good electronic devices fail because the USB port failed, rendering them impossible to charge... pedal based PMs are way to expensive for that risk.

logical

I picked up a Ultegra 6800 non-drive side Stages Power meter for 300 recently. If you watch their cosmetic blems/closeout section they often put up popular sized pedals (170, 172.5) for sale all the time.

Psimet2001 

Thanks for the link. In general i find DCR to be a little too harmful to the market. He is one of the only people out there that is doing that level of reviews and unfortunately that means just about everyone in the enthusiast market follows what he says 100%. Sometimes his judgement can really come down to opinion and that opinion can cost actual real market share and jobs in the industry. Meh - I guess that is true about every industry and product though. With this in mind I noticed he isn't really one to make a solid opinion on any of these other than the ones that just suck.

I was heavily into the early power market. We became established as a company BECAUSE we built and sold Powertaps. There have been too many options that have jumped out there with no one at any real advantage. I also never get asked about power anymore. Ever.
It's been a big enough change that Powertap admitted to me a few years ago that the drop from a lot to nothing in sales of powertaps wasn't unusual and all of their dealers were doing the same. They knew they needed to drop price. Unfortunately their costs didn't drop at the same time for them so they basically set up a model that just doesn't work for them to have dealers. They just need everyone to go direct.

I occasionally still get asked and I usually respond "meh - pick one. doesn't really matter. just make sure that's the one you use all the time and your training will still be just as effective." It was nice to see that out of all of his reviews and data he is basically saying the exact same thing.