True cost of Powertaps?

londoncommuter

I'm mulling over getting a power meter to try and keep me honest on solo rides, either a G3 alloy wheelset or P1 pedals. Ignoring the differences in what you get I was wondering how much they'd cost on an on-going basis.

I reckon it's 50/50 whether I get loads of benefit or just have an expensive toy that throws another number onto the Garmin....

How much more expensive it is to own a G3 (if at all)? Powertap seem to advice annual servicing and you're locked into buying bearings, freehubs and rims/rebuilds if thing go wrong or just wear out. Are P1s fit and forget though?

I need some wheels anyway so that's effectively a £100 credit towards the G3 but if they're going to cost loads more over their life then maybe they're a false economy.

Any advice on living with power meters on a day to day basis much appreciated.

arlowood

You could PM marcusjb - he's selling a G3 powertap wheel in the classifieds

viewtopic.php?f=40091&t=13066190

neeb

I have 3 G3 hubs and have had hardly any issues with them. Maybe I've just been lucky. I had one serviced this year (new bearings, calibration etc), at a cost of £95 odd, but that was after 3 or 4 years of use. I've had a powercap needing replacing under warranty (the little plastic bit with the battery in it) and a couple of the hubs developed a weird problem with the cassettes (Campagnolo) snagging on the spokes, but that was easily solved with a slightly longer replacement spacer that fits inside the freewheel (and costs 2 or 3 quid from Paligap).

I've heard others complaining about the torque tubes wearing out and needing replaced at considerable cost, but I haven't had this issue. Maybe the G3s are more robust than earlier PT models.

Basically I've been very happy with them. I like PT G3s, everyone else seems to prefer crank & pedal based systems but if you have 2 or 3 bikes you use regularly you are not going to be swapping the pedals, far less the cranks, every time you use a different bike, and if you shop around G3s are one of the cheapest PMs on the market (certainly the best ratio of accuracy to cost). That means you can have two, so you can have different wheels for different purposes as well as having PMs on two bikes at the same time. It's also just about the lightest PM once you bear in mind that the effective weight is 330g minus the weight of a normal rear hub (so only a little over 100g in effect).

Only problem is that you are restricted to wheels you can get built, and it can be tricky getting hold of certain types of rims (certain carbon ones basically). Of course if a wheelset has standard spokes (as most do) you can buy it new, have the rear rebuilt on the PT and sell the original rear hub as new.

londoncommuter

Many thanks for that. Sounds like they've been a bit problematic but I guess if that's over 4 years it's not too bad.

These would be to go my winter bike which would normally have cheap throw away wheels on though so I'm still not sure how the extra cost stacks up with spending slightly more on P1s.

I guess it's too early to know how much the P1s would cost to keep going and you've got to factor in the extra chance of trashing them with a fall.

steel191964

I have the powerpedals and have no problem with them whatsoever, although the caveat to that is to upgrade the firmware you''ll require an Apple application , apparently an android one is promised but no idea of timline.

napoleond

I've had 3 power taps since 2008, each one of them had to go back at least once for something ranging from new torque tube to new end cap. Actually, last one needed new end cap twice and they sorted that just by me posting that.
Thankfully all warranty stuff.
I now use a Quarq.

neeb

NapoleonD wrote:

I've had 3 power taps since 2008, each one of them had to go back at least once for something ranging from new torque tube to new end cap. Actually, last one needed new end cap twice and they sorted that just by me posting that.
Thankfully all warranty stuff.
I now use a Quarq.

Just as a matter of interest, were the ones that needed new torque tubes G3s or earlier models? Wondering if mine are going to go eventually or if it's either just pot luck or a problem with older models.

Dave_P1

Save your money, and go with some thing else. I had one and the torque tube failed once and then I became suspicious it was failing again so got rid of it. I think the end cap failed as well which was around a similar time to the torque tube.
Paligap (who service it) had such a slow turnaround even though it was under warranty it became pointless having it and I didn't want to own one out of warranty.

neeb

I've always found the service from Paligap very good.

daniel_b

Pretty sure there were some P1 pedals with less than 60 hours use in the classifieds here for around £600. No idea if they are still available.

redvision

I have had the P1's since September and love them.
Simple to install, no fiddling to calibrate them and so easy to use and switch between bikes.

HOWEVER, gutted to say mine have developed a problem recently which I am waiting for powertap tap to authorise a return for repair.
Basically for the last few rides the data just isn't reliable for the first few minutes. It constantly reads 100% balance to the left pedal, with very low power readings fluctuating between 50-100watts. After about 5 mins it seems to resolve itself and the data readings return to normal, but the first 5 minutes ruin the ride data.

From a bit of research this is becoming a common problem and is usually caused by play in one of the pedals, although i'm not sure if this is the cause of the issue with mine as there appears to be no play in either pedal.

Anyway, Powertap provide a 2 year warranty and even though it's frustrating to have an issue like this develop, so far I have no regrets with buying these and still highly recommend them.

NeXXus

Stages?

Barbarossa

Running cost SL+ (5 years & about 25 000miles)

- 2 bearings at £5 each - fitted them myself.
- 5 x 2 batteries at about £1.50 each.

Bought mine 2nd hand about 5 years ago, no problems. Plenty going for not much money on eBay.

napoleond

neeb wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

I've had 3 power taps since 2008, each one of them had to go back at least once for something ranging from new torque tube to new end cap. Actually, last one needed new end cap twice and they sorted that just by me posting that.
Thankfully all warranty stuff.
I now use a Quarq.

Just as a matter of interest, were the ones that needed new torque tubes G3s or earlier models? Wondering if mine are going to go eventually or if it's either just pot luck or a problem with older models.

SL+

neeb

I have a theory that the torque tubes going was more of a problem with the pre-G3s, but could be wrong. Maybe mine have been OK because I can't sprint to save myself so they never get subjected to anything over 800W..

johnny25

Personally I wouldn't spend the cash of a power meter if you're not seriously looking at improving your cycling. Doing solo rides as hoc with a power meter will just generate a load of data which doesn't mean a great deal. Okay, you might get a buzz out of how much power you can create over certain time intervals or going up a hill etc, but that won't last. To improve using power your cycling really needs to be structured and disciplined.

The best use for a power meter is interval training (turbo or road) and you need to be pretty dedicated to get the results. I pushed myself at the start of the year and watched my fitness and power steadily increase over the course of 4 months or so. Then work and family took over and things have nosed dived on the cycling front in the last couple of months. Nevertheless, the power meter pointed me in the right direction and I can see the benefit for training in this way.

Back to your question, I have a set of the P1's. Very good and easy to swap between my bikes. So far no issues and they have been hammered. I wouldn't say they are fit and forget. You need to take care of them. If you do get the P1's, make sure you update the firmware when required to get the best out of them.

neeb

I sort of agree with the above, although one person's structured & disciplined is another's vague and unstructured. At the end of the day the fundamentals aren't rocket science and you can benefit a lot from just applying a little bit of knowledge and common sense.

Basically, find out how much power you can sustain over certain time intervals - 30 seconds, 3 minutes, 5 mins, 10 mins, 20 mins, 40 mins etc. The 30 seconds, 5 mins & 20 mins are largely diagnostic of different metabolic systems - some people will be much better (relatively speaking) at one than another. Once you know what your maximum sustainable power is over a particular time interval you can work on improving it (if you want to). Not surprisingly you do that simply by riding a lot somewhere near what you know you can sustain over that time period and every now and again trying to better it.

But you don't necessarily need to be doing all of your riding within a highly structured training plan to benefit from a power meter. You might just want to better your PBs on local climbs or whatever. The PM allows you to compare your actual effort exactly with your previous attempts, irrespective of wind and other factors. Over time it gives you an almost exact way of tracking your own fitness.