jrobe

https://velonews.competitor.com/2013/...-by-510_297666

Competition is good.

dtrain

Sucks if you just bought one...

hhnngg1

That's a really good price.

I'm curious how the Powertap Pro model is going to be priced (it was cheaper than the G3). I was going to seriously consider a Stages PM for my road bike, but I'd reconsider with lower PT prices.

And yes, competition does wonders for the market.

Now if only CompuTrainer would get on the program (compared to Wahoo KICKR)

gc3

Not to shill, because I haven't bought from him, but per the daily newsletter...you can get one on a Neuvation wheel for $849....

THSdrummer

I like the price cut. Before I hadn't really considered them, preferring to have a crank based power meter for racing and training use. This price point makes it super tempting. It makes me wonder how much money they were making off of it before the price cut if they can cut the price down THAT much.

If they re-released their cheaper option, I'd be interested to see a price tag and possibly pick one up.

Now if we could just get Quarq to cut their price down $500. Maybe SRM would follow suit...

Hiro11

Still too expensive for me. The fact that they can do such a massive price cut indicates to me that there's still a heavy margin on these hubs. The previous price must have represented an astronomical markup. I expect significantly cheaper options to begin hitting the market soon.

canam73

I believe it is just being phased out.

WhyFi

Maybe, maybe not. The G3 design is a pretty different from their previous. The new design could scale better and the lower price may reflect the production savings... but it doesn't necessarily mean that the previous price reflected enormous markup - it may reflect recouping the development costs. In any event, I wouldn't expect a further price drop just because of this price drop.

ovoleg

I am highly tempted to buy the wheel but I already have a Quarq that works with both my bikes. Unfortunately I rather have my commuter bike with this powertap so I don't have to ever swap my Quarq out...decisions decisions.

hhnngg1

I expected that. So in reality, the customer still has to pay pretty much the same price for access to power if they're going new.

Sure, the G3 is a better unit, but honestly, the pro does everything it does, just as well. It just doesn't have the electronics in the cap.

patentcad

I have two Ptap wheels. I like them. The Joule GPS head unit is kinda lame, but they gave it to me free for a busted older Joule 2.0 (exchange), and when I priced the Garmin it was getting a little ridiculous with all the wheel sensors and stuff I'd need for my various bikes, so I just went with it. It works. Ptap hubs really work pretty good.

Hiro11

My point is not that Powertap will continue to lower prices, my point is that the cost of manufacture for these components has probably come down significantly. I expect this trend to continue and wouldn't be surprised to see good options (perhaps not from Powertap) in the ~$250 range in the next year or so.

WhyFi

I'll eat my oldest chamois if we see a ~$250 device within a year that actually measures power (as opposed to the virtual power devices that measure other metrics and guess at power).

gregf83 

Most likely the drop in price is due to significantly reduced sales and to counter the expected arrival of Garmin's Vector pedals. The market for powermeters isn't that large and I suspect that despite all the recent new entrants (Power2Max, Rotor, Stages, Garmin etc) the market isn't growing much, so the existing competitors will be fighting to hold market share. Ultimately, we will end up with a couple of dominant, profitable, Powermeter companies and the others will fight over the scraps.

kimconyc

I have an "old" PowerTap SL+, which is pretty great. It's pretty impressive how prices are coming down as demand for power meters is increasing a lot from just a few years ago (competition anyone?), making them affordable for the enthusiast cyclist.

Now they just need to figure out how teach people to interpret the data better because humming along at 250W and realizing a pro would be doing the same thing at 350W is futile and doesn't add any more value or information than riding without a computer OR a powermeter.

Hiro11

We'll see. The lower the prices, the more demand we're going to see. The more demand, the more competition and volume efficiencies we'll see. I'll bet Garmin's pricing is going to be very low compared to current offerings. I'll also bet that huge volume, low price companies that make reasonable good products like Novatec already smell an opportunity to seriously disrupt this market.

WhyFi

My point was that it was unlikely that they could drop their pricing that significantly based solely on outside factors - there had to be some internal efficiencies allowing it as well.

achoo

Garmin's pedals? They seem to have fallen off the edge of the Earth. At this point, I'm beginning to think I'll be surprised to ever see them again.

revchuck 

Greg - I disagree that lower prices reflect reduced sales/demand; I'm pretty sure sales have been increasing, and demand has been solid among racers and others wanting to improve their performance. Now that prices are coming down, more people will be buying powermeters, which will bring market pressure to reduce prices further.

A big chunk of the buyers will be guys like me - older, have the money, and recognize the need to train smarter (the older you get, the more important this is). I've already had my Powertap for over a year, and it's a huge help.

Bacciagalupe

While your skepticism is warranted, they're apparently in mass production and will be shipping in Q3 (September).

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/indus...ass-production

gregf83 

I meant reduced sales for PowerTaps specifically, not the overall powermeter market. I think the market for power is increasing but still relatively small. If Saris's sales of PowerTaps weren't going down it's very unlikely they would have taken such a dramatic price cut. It's also possible they overbuilt and have excess inventory on hand.

revchuck 

Greg - Got it. My perception is that they must've amortized their investment and could reduce prices based on that. Equally likely is the reaction of "Oh *****, we're gonna price ourselves out of the market at the level we're at now with all the new competition!"

gregf83 

Hard to say without knowing their inventory levels and sales numbers. If they're sitting on a pile of inventory and need cash it doesn't matter what their costs were.

It's also possible they significantly reduced their costs in the past couple of years in anticipation of impending competition and have been collecting higher than normal margins while they wait for Garmin to figure out how to make a powermeter. This recent price adjustment may be bringing their margins back to their normal, sustainable levels.

Personally, I think buying two PowerTaps for roughly the same price as a set of Garmin pedals is a better deal but we'll see what others think.

WhyFi

This is when you have a sale, not when you change your price permanently.

This is exactly the point that I (and subsequently revchuck) was making when you originally responded to me...

gregf83 

Normally true, unless there is also a recognition that the original price is not sustainable.


That's the optimistic explanation, I just don't think it's the most likely. We'll see

The bottom line is it's abnormal for a healthy business to resort to such a dramatic price reduction. It generally indicates a misread of the market.