Probably been asked but which Power Meter

mrwibble

Rotor LT for Quarq Riken. I like Rotor cranks a lot and own a set of Q Rings but your opinions would be gratefully received.

Grill

Rotor Power2Max .

danlikesbikes

Guess it depends as there a lots of good systems but all have positives and drawbacks in use.

First you need to let us know 2 things. Firstly I idea of your budget as this will affect you options, secondly how you will be using it. Are you looking to quickly swap between bikes if so power tap might be an option or only on one bike then an SRM system may be better.

Your in a good place though as lots of owners on BR who will give you the plus/minus sides of each model

meanredspider

The DC Rainmaker reviews are always excellent if you haven't already looked. I ended up with the Stages (after thinking I'd buy Vector then an abortive attempt to buy Power2Max) for a host of practical reasons. What I learned is that your specific needs and application have a big influence on what might be best for you. Swapping between 3 bikes (one of which ran disc brakes, one of which ran a std double crank etc) quickly and easily was a big factor - the Stages is hard to beat from that perspective and I wasn't after "pro" levels of data.

rudivoller22

meanredspider wrote:

The DC Rainmaker reviews are always excellent if you haven't already looked. I ended up with the Stages (after thinking I'd buy Vector then an abortive attempt to buy Power2Max) for a host of practical reasons. What I learned is that your specific needs and application have a big influence on what might be best for you. Swapping between 3 bikes (one of which ran disc brakes, one of which ran a std double crank etc) quickly and easily was a big factor - the Stages is hard to beat from that perspective and I wasn't after "pro" levels of data.

Anyone know if Stages are likely to make a rotor version?

intheknowcycling.com

Hate to toot my own horn but think these two comparative reviews I posted recently may address questions in this thread. They integrate individual power meter performance tests from DC Rainmaker, Slowtwitch and BikeReview and add my cost and compatibility analyses under different bike, wheelset and chainring setup combinations for both current setups and upgrade scenarios (to meanredspider's comment).

http://intheknowcycling.com/2014/07/25/ ... cycling-1/
http://intheknowcycling.com/2014/08/04/ ... cycling-2/

I agree with Grill on power2max for Q rings. ROTOR's own L/R didn't do well in independent tests and their L only PM just went through their first in-competition test at the TdF 2014 (using a p2m spider as a baseline on the same bikes no less!) And no, I don't expect Stages to make a ROTOR version. ROTOR would likely have to supply (at a volume discount) and approve Stages putting the latter's PM on the former's cranks and it's unlikely that would happen as ROTOR is trying to establish their own place in the PM market.

mfin

intheknowcycling.com wrote:

Hate to toot my own horn but think these two comparative reviews I posted recently may address questions in this thread. They integrate individual power meter performance tests from DC Rainmaker, Slowtwitch and BikeReview and add my cost and compatibility analyses under different bike, wheelset and chainring setup combinations for both current setups and upgrade scenarios (to meanredspider's comment).

http://intheknowcycling.com/2014/07/25/ ... cycling-1/
http://intheknowcycling.com/2014/08/04/ ... cycling-2/

I agree with Grill on power2max for Q rings. ROTOR's own L/R didn't do well in independent tests and their L only PM just went through their first in-competition test at the TdF 2014 (using a p2m spider as a baseline on the same bikes no less!) And no, I don't expect Stages to make a ROTOR version. ROTOR would likely have to supply (at a volume discount) and approve Stages putting the latter's PM on the former's cranks and it's unlikely that would happen as ROTOR is trying to establish their own place in the PM market.

At the bottom of your review, which I wore out two mice scrolling through, it says "Was this review worth your time?" I can't imagine many people wading through all that, you really need to look at how you review things if you want them to be useful. Formatting them properly into multiple pages would at least help so people can skip through all the guff.

In fact, a simple concise pros/cons/pricing table for each product would be much more useful if you could restrain yourself. You can then put your choices and recommendations afterwards.

mfin

Quarq have great service. Rotor LT is well priced though, if you like Rotor stuff why not.

Can't see Stages bringing out a Rotor arm, it would be odd seeing as Rotor have their own power meters in competition.

intheknowcycling.com

At the bottom of your review, which I wore out two mice scrolling through, it says "Was this review worth your time?" I can't imagine many people wading through all that, you really need to look at how you review things if you want them to be useful. Formatting them properly into multiple pages would at least help so people can skip through all the guff.

In fact, a simple concise pros/cons/pricing table for each product would be much more useful if you could restrain yourself. You can then put your choices and recommendations afterwards.

MFIN, thanks for reading...uh scrolling through my review and for your comments. I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Indeed, I'd like to write less but find many people like the OPs are not as familiar as you are with a category of cycling gear (like power meters and the other categories I've written about) and want to understand all the angles before making a decision to buy one product or another.

While my comparative reviews across an entire category of products are often as long as others around one product in the category, I try to make recommendations near or at the top and then go into more depth for those who want it. But I'll work on making them shorter overall and more useful with tables and the like. I think there's more of that in Part 2 of the review, which I can understand you may not have had the time or mice to read.

Thanks.

stueys

mfin wrote:

intheknowcycling.com wrote:

Hate to toot my own horn but think these two comparative reviews I posted recently may address questions in this thread. They integrate individual power meter performance tests from DC Rainmaker, Slowtwitch and BikeReview and add my cost and compatibility analyses under different bike, wheelset and chainring setup combinations for both current setups and upgrade scenarios (to meanredspider's comment).

http://intheknowcycling.com/2014/07/25/ ... cycling-1/
http://intheknowcycling.com/2014/08/04/ ... cycling-2/

I agree with Grill on power2max for Q rings. ROTOR's own L/R didn't do well in independent tests and their L only PM just went through their first in-competition test at the TdF 2014 (using a p2m spider as a baseline on the same bikes no less!) And no, I don't expect Stages to make a ROTOR version. ROTOR would likely have to supply (at a volume discount) and approve Stages putting the latter's PM on the former's cranks and it's unlikely that would happen as ROTOR is trying to establish their own place in the PM market.

At the bottom of your review, which I wore out two mice scrolling through, it says "Was this review worth your time?" I can't imagine many people wading through all that, you really need to look at how you review things if you want them to be useful. Formatting them properly into multiple pages would at least help so people can skip through all the guff.

In fact, a simple concise pros/cons/pricing table for each product would be much more useful if you could restrain yourself. You can then put your choices and recommendations afterwards.

Slightly harsh, the reviews are lengthy but I like the detail as I'm interested in the rationale behind the recommendation. Agree that a concise summary and conclusion would be good though, with the detail there to dive into.

lambpie

FWIW I have a Power2Max type S for the Rotor 3DF crank - if you already have a crank you just need the power meter and can re-use your existing one.

I've found the P2M totally user friendly and reliable - literally plug and play with no connection issues etc since it was first installed and no calibration process to run through on start up. It's always been really consistent and reliable in terms of reported power.

I was away recently with a friend who has garmin vector and he did a lot of swearing trying to get the pedals to the right tourque and calibrated (he swore enough so they started working).

curium

I've not ready any reviews, etc...

Team Sky are using Stages and it's cheaper than many of the alternatives. Surely good enough?

philbar72

Depends Curium. If you want to measure both legs and cure any imbalances, then no. I'd make the step up to power2max. Lots of users at our club, no issues. Unlike stages/garmin

Grill

curium wrote:

I've not ready any reviews, etc...

Team Sky are using Stages and it's cheaper than many of the alternatives. Surely good enough?

They're using Stages because they're sponsored to and they had to pay for their SRM's. They still train on the SRM's though.

mrwibble

Thanks for the input guys, went for quarq