First power meter advice.
hellar89
Posts: 7
I'm looking to get my first power meter, and im looking to spend under $600 so I'm looking at single-sided power meters. I'm considering getting the favero assioma uno, the 4iiii precision, or stages.
the assimo uno is $519, compared to the stages which are $529 and the 4iiii comes in considerably lower at $360. Everywhere I have look people say that 4iiii is better than the stages but people always seem to talk about stages, and im not sure why. what am I getting for the extra $60. And how does a crank compare to pedals? Other than the ease of use switching between bikes and the upgradability to a duo at some point.
Has anyone had experience with these? Are there any other contenders to consider in that range that I might be missing?
Thanks
the assimo uno is $519, compared to the stages which are $529 and the 4iiii comes in considerably lower at $360. Everywhere I have look people say that 4iiii is better than the stages but people always seem to talk about stages, and im not sure why. what am I getting for the extra $60. And how does a crank compare to pedals? Other than the ease of use switching between bikes and the upgradability to a duo at some point.
Has anyone had experience with these? Are there any other contenders to consider in that range that I might be missing?
Thanks
0
Posts
Stages was the first affordable, cheap pm which allowed many riders to venture in to the world of training by power. However, the first couple of generations of the stages crank arms were unreliable with constant signal drops, and went through batteries quicker than Froome spins. It seems they have improved this some what with the latest models, but it's still a bit of a gamble.
However, stages did show the way and soon loads of competitors jumped on the crank arm power meter bandwagon.
4iiii are cheap, accurate and simple to use, as are most crank arm pm's. Granted they do only provide one sided data though.
Assioma have a very good reputation at the moment and are arguably the most reliable pedal pm. Only issue is it locks you in to one type of cleat.
If you are on a limited budget the 4iiii is perhaps the best value. If you can stretch you should also consider power2max as that has perhaps the best reliability alongside SRM (which are still stupidly expensive - although I'm saving up for one).
What I have come to learn through experience is since the price of power meters has come down it has come at a cost. At some point they will fail. For this reason, make sure you buy from a shop as at some point you will very probably need to claim on warranty.
also if you do go for the favero assioma uno you can upgrade to the duo at a later date if you wanted to which would reduce costs if you did want dual sided later on.
P2M is as close as you can get to double sided, much the same as Quarq and SRM, and worth every penny over 4iiii.
My opinion is that it is fully compatible with Shimano brand bottom brackets (have used mine on three different bikes now) but probably not all shimano-compatible bottom brackets (eg praxis conversion BB).
This is because the Shimano bottom brackets all have plastic collars where the axle inserts, giving scope for it to compress to accommodate manufacturing differences - others do not have this, and with a metal on metal interface there is less scope for manufacturing differences (or FSA axles which are built very slightly wider).
If you are very unlucky, you might have to sand the axle of the FSA to match the Shimano spec. I doubt it though.
But yes, I'd rate a P2M much better than any single-side-then-double-it powermeter.
I only mention L/R balance as some seem to base their purchase on having it. For me, it has little relevance as I'm certainly not going lose sleep over a balance of +/- 4%.
IOW they provide data that splits power data based on the time each crank is forward of the BB and is a contribution from both legs, not the individual power contribution from each crank arm by one leg only.