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I fancy adding some kind of power meter to my bike(s) to add a bit more structure to training instead of just HR. Only ever used power based training indoors so interested to see how it compares to outdoors.
I use 2 bolt SPD cleats on both the gravel bike and MTB. Also both have DUB cranksets. I had no idea power meter pedals were so expensive until a quick search on Google.
Are there any cheaper options out there?
Not for multiple bikes.
FWIW I'm using a Magene PES 505 Base crankset on my road bike after reading some good reviews. It was cheap enough that I could "justify" it as a means of getting power figures through the months that I don't use the turbo trainer.
There are loads of PM Pedals now being made in the Far East now. It's just a question of waiting until they start arriving over here.
The garmin ones can be bought at a discount through various channels - I got mine with some money off buying them through British cycling. You probably only need the one sided ones - or at least that works fine for me.
Pedals are an advantage as they are easier to swap than cranks in my experience. I run one set across multiple bikes.
There are cheaper options. DC Rainmaker has good reviews on these sort of thing.
These are the correct choice:
https://cycling.favero.com/en/shop/assiomapromx2
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2024/02/favero-assioma-pro-mx-mtb-spd-power-pedal-review.html
Certainly not the SRAM dub axs one. I've owned one for 12 months but it's been on a warranty odyssey for 6 of those months.
Obviously no ones fault but mine.
single sided Assioma is what you require. everyone tries to sell you a double, but it’s not necessary. Cheaper than the competitors and good customer service too
I have 2x road assioma, SRM crank and a dub. my gravel PM will be the Assioma SPD next.
My first pair of Assioma MX pedals only lasted a couple of hundred miles. The left pedal developed loads of lateral play. Dealer replaced with new but I've only used them for a few hundred miles. Data and accuracy (compared to Manchester Institute for Health and Performance kit) seemed to be excellent.
Two of my other bikes have SRAM (Quarq) spider based power meters. I prefer the fit and forget nature of those.
I’d go spider based on the gravel bike only as on my MTB I tackle stuff that makes power output fluctuate so I don’t get a lot of insight from the numbers. If you are going for pedals you really need both cranks if you want to understand imbalance in power delivery. At one point I was 45%-55% L/R so trained the imbalance out.
My summary of the powermeters Mrs Yak has been through, fwiw:
Avio Powersense. Cheap, they fitted it to an existing xt crank. Over-read, sometimes wildly, wouldn't work at all in the cold, good support but with the issues, not good enough to train with.
SRM (used) on sram gxp crankset. Very accurate, probably the best. But not well sealed. Died, and fixed under warranty, but the brexit returns faff meant it got lost for a long period before coming back to us. Been good since, but keep it away from water! Rechargable built-in battery - decent battery time between charges. This one is the main workhorse powermeter.
SRAM/Quark spider power meter on a dub crankset. Fine, not as accurate as the SRM but good enough. Well sealed. The issues were that it was run on a hardtail with not quite perfect bb shell alignment, so the bb life was short and the non-drive spindle got fretted. Now , like triggers broom, it is still running with one alu non-drive crank and a carbon drive-side crank on a different bike and all is good. Takes a button battery with a short lifespan (relatively).
SRAM/Quark/dub axle power meter. As above, but neater. No issues yet. Takes an AAA battery - longer lifespan.
A couple of thoughts:
- Worth having a bit of a plan on how you're going to use the power meter before you invest. Have a little think about what kind of training you want to do and have a sense of which local terrain you can do it on. I know quite a few folk who've bought power meters without thinking about how they'll use them and have essentially paid hundreds of pounds to have a number on their garmin they can brag about at the cafe. A structured training plan is ideal, but even just thinking 'I'll do some threshold repreats on that climb once a week' is a good place to start.
- Think carefully about whether you need dual sided. IMO, their real value is if you keep getting asymettric injuries or have a specific reason for adressing imbalances (surgery, injury etc). A 50/50 LR balance is something you can train, but there's not much evidence it'll make you faster unless you're fixing something fairly major.
Best use for power meters is telling you not to go too hard, especially when climbing. For imbalance, I ride fixed and test myself on a WattBike occasionally. I think we like data but I don't think it truly helps with trying to smooth pedal stroke.
I didn't mention but I also broke two Stages crank based power meters. I'd avoid anything added to the crank these days. The Dub is a nice design and I like mine. But I swap my Assiomas between track, best road, road race and fixed wheel bikes all the time - just one pedal swapped as I run a genuine Look KEO pedal on the RHS. I have yet to test the same with the SPD Assioma (gravel and commuter bike) with an XT pedal on the RHS, but if you have two bikes and want to swap, a single-sided option is the best by far (and I used to swap the LHS Stages crank occasionally).
I had the question about the asymmetry. My right leg is noticeably weaker post surgery (confirmed by my physio) but i'm not sure how much, and I'd like to know and then track progress. Using a trainer in the winter just gives me the aggregate for a session.
I guess i need the dual sided for that and have been thinking about the assioma SPD pair
My BiL uses his 4iii power meter to track effort during long events, so rides to a plan rather than overcooking it. It worked very successfully at the Marmotte last year, and it's part of his plan for the Maratona in a couple of weeks
I use a single sided stages power meter but obviously you can't get them any more. Had absolutely no issues with it. I got it because it was on offer and significantly cheaper than the 4iii at the time.
My BiL uses his 4iii power meter to track effort during long events, so rides to a plan rather than overcooking it. It worked very successfully at the Marmotte last year, and it's part of his plan for the Maratona in a couple of weeks
I was looking at the Magene (and other Chinese) spider meters for that reason. Cheap enough to be justifiable, accurate (according to most reviews), measures both sides (as a sum, not individually like pedals). Just need to pick up some suitable 24mm cranks.
For "training" I tend to use the turbo for structured stuff. On the road it would just be a useful data gathering and pacing tool. e.g. If I know my FTP is 250W then I could ride to that on long climbs, or 300W MAP on short ones, or judge how sustainable the groups pace is and whether to drop off sooner and ride up at my own pace or try to hold on. And track how that impacts fatigue on rides, i.e. how many cumulative minutes above FTP do I have to give per day.
I’ve got power2max on my gravel bike on force carbon cranks as I like flats.
Had it for years and it’s great,as said handy to make sure your not overcooking yourself on climbs.
Powermeters are great for pacing yourself.
For training I honestly don’t think you can beat zwift and and a reasonable trainer as you can train all year around and not have to worry about the real world conditions or not having any mountain ranges to traverse or no flat 🙂
My BiL uses his 4iii power meter to track effort during long events, so rides to a plan rather than overcooking it. It worked very successfully at the Marmotte last year, and it's part of his plan for the Maratona in a couple of weeks
I was looking at the Magene (and other Chinese) spider meters for that reason. Cheap enough to be justifiable, accurate (according to most reviews), measures both sides (as a sum, not individually like pedals). Just need to pick up some suitable 24mm cranks.
For "training" I tend to use the turbo for structured stuff. On the road it would just be a useful data gathering and pacing tool. e.g. If I know my FTP is 250W then I could ride to that on long climbs, or 300W MAP on short ones, or judge how sustainable the groups pace is and whether to drop off sooner and ride up at my own pace or try to hold on. And track how that impacts fatigue on rides, i.e. how many cumulative minutes above FTP do I have to give per day.
Anyone know the difference between the 505 and 515 models of the Magene?
I believe one is (ever so slightly) more accurate than the other. For recreational use I doubt it matters.
I was looking at the Magene (and other Chinese) spider meters for that reason. Cheap enough to be justifiable, accurate (according to most reviews), measures both sides (as a sum, not individually like pedals). Just need to pick up some suitable 24mm cranks.
The PES505 Base comes with cranks (and rings if you want). IIRC you've heard that they're a bit a flexy for larger/more powerful riders though?
I have 2 Sigeyi spider based power meters. Had them a few years now and both are accurate and within a watt or 2 of my Elite turbo. As someone has said above I like fit and forget.
I believe one is (ever so slightly) more accurate than the other. For recreational use I doubt it matters.
I was looking at the Magene (and other Chinese) spider meters for that reason. Cheap enough to be justifiable, accurate (according to most reviews), measures both sides (as a sum, not individually like pedals). Just need to pick up some suitable 24mm cranks.
The PES505 Base comes with cranks (and rings if you want). IIRC you've heard that they're a bit a flexy for larger/more powerful riders though?
Any issues with the left crank bolt coming loose? Im not sure I'm convinced by a single bolt to hold it in place. Seems to be a recurring problem
Any issues with the left crank bolt coming loose? Im not sure I'm convinced by a single bolt to hold it in place. Seems to be a recurring problem
Mine has been OK. I've had other cranks in the past with a similar fitting and had no issues with them either.
The PES505 Base comes with cranks (and rings if you want). IIRC you've heard that they're a bit a flexy for larger/more powerful riders though?
Can't remember which brand(s) that was now, but yes there were quite a few photos of snapped cranks, reports of them being flexy and one review where the pedal threads had been drilled perpendicular to the crank (which angles out to clear the chainring/chainstays), rather than parallel to the BB axle! Concluded I'd rather just buy some SRAM Rival / Force cranks but the bundles are at least a cheap way to get some spare chainrings.
I'd been looking at reviews of both the in-house cranks from the power meter brands and the 3rd party ones they frequently come with e.g. the ZRACE knock-offs of Rotor cranks. Which is a shame because IO think the ZRACE cranks would look good polished on a singlespeed!
Any issues with the left crank bolt coming loose? Im not sure I'm convinced by a single bolt to hold it in place. Seems to be a recurring problem
It has apparently been a problem for some. It's different to a hollowtech 2 in that you have to tighten the main crankbolt, it's not just a preload thing. So perhaps some non-instruction readers didn't appreciate that. I have one and its been fine, but still early days with it.
A couple of people on this thread were discussing Magene products. Just FYI, there's an article in DCRs site about Magene having recently decided to concentrate on the Chinese market and withdraw from all other markets...
So, presumably, you're gonna have to take your chances on AliExpress....
I'd seen something similar elsewhere although I don't think it applied beyond the turbo trainers? I wonder if this is part of the continued fallout from the Zwift/Wahoo spat over trainers a few years ago.
DCR does say the P515 isn't affected (until I guess unless Wahoo choose to stick a label on it and charge £500).
And to their benefit, Magene do have the advantage of a 1.4billion strong domestic market with a booming middle class, it could just be they can't meet international demand as well
I am tempted by a Magene spider TBH, but my only issue with that and seemingly all other Spider based power meters currently available, is that they all seem to be 4-bolt asym' 110mm BCD only, meaning the smallest ring I could use with them would be 34T (?) and I've gotten used to 46/30T on my Gravel bike now, I could probably cope with a 48/32T setup, but it's a compromise I'm not really willing to make now.
A Spider with 110/80mm BCD for (2x using) Gravelists would be great IMO, but it's probably a niche too far for the manufacturers, when there are other options (LH arm, pedals, etc), and sub-compact 2x just isn't that fashionable/common now...