Stages Power meter / Tarmac

tdougan

Hi All,

More thinking aloud here,

I ordered a Stages FSA power meter back at the start of March for my newly purchased S-Works Tarmac. It was a custom build that I found in a shop. It came with 52/36 FSA Gossamer BB30 cranks + 105.

The power meter still isnt here and it doesn't sound like Evans have any idea when it will be.

It got me thinking, should I replace cranks and change my stages order? I fancy something a little lighter as the reported weight of these Gossamers 900g+. The build is around 7.7kg not heavy so it's not really a massive issue. any thoughts on what cranks I could go to?

ads2k

Maybe change your thoughts slightly... see which Stages is in stock and then buy the suitable crank to match , that's what I did ..

Stages can't seem to make enough, but you might be lucky with some of the bigger stores having a selection..

mroli

I had to wait 8 months for a Rival one, so make sure you find one in stock!

tdougan

Yeah - I ordered the FSA one back then because I though its the matching one - lets go go go! I don't want to settle and go for anything other than stages (hub ect).

Just I can pick up an ultegra crank set for £150 or so, so I was thinking go to that and swap my order (assuming they have those in stock).

will I have an issue with 11spd cranks and 10 speed groupo?

ads2k

tdougan wrote:

Yeah - I ordered the FSA one back then because I though its the matching one - lets go go go! I don't want to settle and go for anything other than stages (hub ect).

Just I can pick up an ultegra crank set for £150 or so, so I was thinking go to that and swap my order (assuming they have those in stock).

will I have an issue with 11spd cranks and 10 speed groupo?

Nope...running 11sp crank with my 10sp Ultegra and everything seems fine..

Grill

Buy Power2Max instead.

mroli

If you're swapping bikes regularly, then the Power2Max looks a lot fiddlier: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/01/power2max-power-meter-in-depth-review.html

I run Sram on all my bikes so swapping it is really easy - I could even ride with it on my fixed gear.

I've not used the Stages that much - but have done a few turbo sessions on one bike and put it on my Ritchey Breakaway for 4 days riding in Croatia in hilly/cold and wet conditions. Has been fine and given me good consistent info. Swapping and calibrating it is dead easy - remove left arm crank (could leave pedal on) and put on next bike. No messing with chainrings or removing crank arm. Almost as easy as a powertap wheel.

Grill

It isn't. Swapping the chainset between bikes is super quick (5 min max) as long as they use the same BB.

mroli

Had a look at it a bit more and the faff is only around the initial set up?

After that, removint it is a bit like the stages, but as the power meter is on the drive side arm you have to take the whole thing out (so a little bit more messy/inconvenient?) Also assumes that you have the same crankset (ie compact or standard) on all your bikes too - for front derailleur height tolerances? Bit more expensive than stages too? Stages smaller and lighter?

But - does measure left/right power (although "estimates" at it), better availability? More accurate?

When I did my research, neither one really trumped the other, so I went for the cheapest option!

Grill

I don't go for anything until it's been on the market for a while (didn't by my P2M until the firmware revision). I still don't trust Stages (loads of water ingress issues), but the same goes for Rotor Power.

I only use me PM on my TT bike as it's useless elsewhere, although I did put it on another bike last year when I was back in the US for a few weeks. Swapping and adjusting the front mech (Q Rings) took less than 5 minutes.

Sure it's abit more expensive, but once you take the cost of the chainset into account for Stages you're pretty much at the same price.

mroli

Grill wrote:

once you take the cost of the chainset into account for Stages you're pretty much at the same price.

assuming you have different cranksets on the bikes you want to use them on...

I think the water ingress problems must be sorted now on the Stages (touch wood) - rode it in some pretty wet weather and it was fine.