Bike Power Meters - which one?

Dont forget STAGES crank power meter. Great reviews. Check out http://www.dcrainmaker.comfor some great reviews of all things technology tri related.

Also, Stages and Power2Max and Vector.

Personally, I'm leaning toward the Power2Max, largely because Stages seems a bit over-priced, especially to get a matching Ultegra crankarm. I'm also looking to switch to a compact crank anyway, so Power2Max offers one-stop shopping for me.

SRM seems overpriced, imo, for basically the same functionality.

Stages seems good, and I don't think the left-leg only power reading is an issue, and if it is, that's probably something to work to correct.

Power2Max and the Quarq both seem competitive, but at slightly different price points. It also depends on your bottom bracket and your existing crankset.

Powertaps are going to run the cheapest, but the single-wheel functionality is just hard to get over, and at that price point, you're getting close to a Quarq or Power2Max.

Garmin Vectors seem like a great idea, and will be if/when the price comes down. At $1,700, in Look pedal configuration, they're too rich for my blood. . . .at $1,200, in Speedplay - here's my credit card . . .

Edited by mirthfuldragon 2013-10-08 10:58 AM

You can check all power meter options in this review: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/09/power-buyers-edition.html

It doesn't tell you which one you should buy, but you will be able to see the pros and cons of each option and that will help you make a decision based on your personal "musts".

I'm in between stages and power2max, but that's me. I'm looking for an affordable power meter that I can easily swap between bikes or that I have the ability to use different wheels in one bike.

The different types have pros and cons, I think DC Rainmaker covers that.

I have both a PowerTap and Stages. The PT hub was when I was splurging on aero wheels, and ordering the wheels, the upgrade wasn't much more.

The stages I got when I was getting a new road bike, and happened to need a new crankset (scratch and dent deal) so I used REI points to get the Ultegra crankset that way.

So the stages stays on the road bike, and the aero wheels (with PT hub) stay on the tri bike.

I did try an experiment in the spring, I put the PT wheel on the road bike, so I was running both power meters to two different head units (Garmin 310XT and Edge 500). Did an hour or so on the trainer at different power levels, and plotted everything up. They were within 2-3% of each other.

There was a little more of a split in the first 15-20 minutes, maybe 5%, that may have been due to cross-chaining. I was on the big ring and big sprocket until I was warmed up, then dropped down after that. Since they measure power at the different ends of the drivetrain, any drag there will show up as a difference (pretty sure Stages was the higher value as well)

In short, stages seemed to line up pretty well with Power Tap, so if it's wrong, it's not much wronger than PT