Who loves their power meter?

Go to Powermeter24.co.uk where the prices are much better than the UK. I managed to get a Stages power meter for £150 less than the UK price including free delivery. It's a German company but the web site has a translation.

I very much doubt you'll find second hand Garmin Vectors for a £500 budget.

Your easiest option would be a second hand Powertap wheel, look around and you'll find a good quality training wheel with an SL+ or G3 hub that fits into your price range. There's the Stages crank arm option too if you're happy with the single leg power reading.

Oh and to answer your question, yes I do love my power meter!

I got a used Stages for £450 from an elite racer buddy who used it twice. Lucky deal but keep your ear to the ground. The bottom stages is only £599 so not far off. I know your comment about L/R balance but you have to ask why that's so important...

Agree that a used Quark Riken is also a good bet for the money.

I had a powertap in 2008 and I bet used models of that era are super cheap (I've never checked eBay)

Fair enough, stages is cheaper there.

I got a Vector S (left only) last year for just over £500 (Wiggle pricematched a German retailer). Since I got it, I wish I had bought it ages ago.

Really improving my training, linked up to Trainer Road. Looking forward to comparing my numbers when my race season starts so I can see how to tailor my training. On the other hand, it is a lot of money just to "look at your numbers".

Regardless of what meter you go for, I'd read the Joe Friel Training Bible and the Allen/Coggan Training and Racing With a Power Meter before / ASAP after you get one.

I do like uploading rides from outside and looking at the power data. Especially from races, it really shows you what needs work and is great for pacing.

I got vector about 3 months after it came out whilst in the U.S. on a trip. I was using trainer road virtual power before on the turbo and heart rate out on the road. Turbo I'm training exactly the same way but with more accuracy, on the road I'm pushing myself more using power as I try to hold specific watts on climbs or a intervals. for me I wouldn't go back to not having power but I like having all the data in front of me.

Without a doubt the power meter makes training more exact and hence beneficial, but the real benefit is for the guys who TT and race who can dole out efforts and push themselves closer to their limits.

Pippi brings up a good point - before you buy anything it is totally worth reading what DCRainmaker thinks of it. He gets into the detail on reviews but it trumps most things you'll read by most reviewers out there.

white91 wrote:

I have put this on hold pending a 4iii and the compatability with Sram Red. Hopefully they will actually be affordable, and ultimately drive the power meter prices down! I can see these becoming as common as GPS in 5 years

I think you're going to be waiting a long time. 4iiii are still ironing out the issues with calibration on solid crank arms let alone finalising testing with carbon crank arms. I have a SRAM Red crank set that I was going to fit the Precision to which has been on order since October 2014 to guarantee first shipment. I've recently cancelled it and opted to go down the Stages route. It works, it's here and you can remove it if you ever sell the bike and put the original crank arm back on.

I got a Power2Max classic on FSA gossamer cranks. Put my existing chain rings on it. (£520) http://www.power2max.de/europe/en/Produkt/bestsellers/power2max-fsa-gossamer-road/

The classic design don't have any calibration issues anymore and work identically to the new design, the difference is the new design the battery pod is within the spider, and is slightly lighter. (queried further up in the thread think)

When first brought out the cranks just re-calibrate when you free wheeled but there would be no temperature compensation between freewheeling. Therefore, if you rode constant through a big temperature change you could get drift (say climbing a long alpine col, or taking your bike out from inside). Now each power meter is lab tested a and a drift compensation algorithm is set for each unit. So, basically, if you go up a big mountain and don't stop pedaling it will correct itself using the drift correction, until you stop pedaling and then it will do a full re-calibration (exactly how stages and the new Power2Max works). If you bought before they applied the temperature drift compensation you can send your device back for it to be applied free of charge.

In my price range when I looked were a few options, powertap wheel (~£630), stages left crank (~£600), rotor left crank (~£650), garmin left pedal (£674). Or obviously power2max classic (£520).

I ruled out powertap as it would mean having to choose whether to have it as a race wheel, turbo wheel, or training wheel. Having the power measured in the drivetrain means I can swap wheels.

I ruled out garmin: one leg only and more expensive.

I ruled out stages: battery draining issues, one leg only, more expensive.

I ruled out rotor; more expensive, left leg only.

(I also looked at 4iii, which would have been cheapest, but the lead time was too long and all powermeters seem to have teething issues so...)

Power2Max was the cheapest option, and measured power from both legs. It gives you an estimated split based upon where in the stroke power is being applied (this shows i'm right leg dominant between 2-8% varying on effort and fatigue), it's not true left-right power though as you can make the right leg dominant by pulling 'up' on the left leg and visa-versa.

I've found the powermeter very useful, especially outdoors. Indoors I have a magnetic turbo so can use a calibration for that which is a good estimate. However, the power meter is great for pacing on long steady intervals when you get HR drift. It's also invaluable on short intervals (<3min) where HR lag skews data. I've also found it really great post race / ride to analyse the build up of stress in races, how my tactics effected that, and to devise training sessions which better replicate my racing efforts.