Power Meter Recommendations?

I highly recommend Quarq. I have 3 on my bikes and my wife has 2 on hers. In general, crank based power meters are very good, only draw backs are that you need to have the same BB standard on your bikes if you intend to move it from bike to bike and it takes a few minutes to do so (less than 5 minutes, but still...).

Virtual power will always be off... but what matters is if it's consistently off the same. I.e. if you're always 10% high, then it doesn't matter as you can still effectively train with power. The problem you will have with virtual power is when it's not consistent... that's when you really struggle to use it as the tool its designed to be.

I'm personally a big fan of the Stages power meters, as well as the Garmin Vectors. I've personally used both, and appreciate the simplicity of each, and the ease of transferring them from bike to bike (the stages can be a bit tricky depending on crankset preferences). A powerTap hub is also a good option, but could leave you without power if you have it on a "training" wheel that you don't normally race on. Logistically, the Vectors are the easiest in my opinion, you'd just have to convert all your pedals to Look keo stye: not a big deal if you ride Shimano SPDs, but more of an issue for the many folks on speedplay pedals.

I have Shimano 105 pedals. How do you convert them to the look;keo style? I can always look it up on youtube I guess but figured I would ask.

So the Vector power meter would replace your existing pedals, you would just have to switch to cleats on your shoes from the Shimano SPD-SL style cleats you have now to Look Keo cleats (which are included with the pedals). The functionality of the cleats are essentially identical, just not compatible with each other.

thanks and that makes perfect sense.

I wavering back and forth between Stages(105 5800) and CycleOps P1. If I go stages that money for a set of wheels. If I go pedals, I'll get more data.

Would like to hear how things turned out.

I'm a TrainerRoad virtual power guy too, and just picked up a used SRAM Red/quarq power meter.

From the TR podcasts and what I read on DC Rainmaker, my impression is that all of the major brand power meters now are pretty solid products, all have slightly different pros/cons, and their own mix of conveniences/inconveniences, but basically all of them do the job well.

If it was important to me to have power on multiple bikes, I would have gotten pedal based power meters, probably PowerTap.
Not sure I see much advantage to the double vs. single sided power meters.

What pushed me toward the Red/Quarq was mostly circumstantial:
1) got a good deal
2) don't feel the need for power on my MTB or commuter
3) {confession} I like the looks of the one-generation-ago SRAM Red graphics
4) {confession} I've been using MTB style shoes and SPD pedals/cleats for years, and wasn't eager to go shoe/cleat shopping to be compatible with pedal based power

Others may differ, but my impression is that nobody really knows what to do with the extra data at this point and I'm not convinced they ever will.

I'm a pretty strong believer in the TrainerRoad people and their program. Their overall take seems to be that power is the most important metric, cadence is helpful, HR has a few legit uses but mostly over-rated, and the all the other stuff like right-left balance and smoothness etc are basically interesting curiousities but not much practical application. On their podcast one time they had some examples of really high performing cyclists whose pedal dynamics data is "bad;" so maybe doesn't predict much about actual performance or how you should train.

Would be curious to know if anyone has additional insight to this.

FWIW, I have PowerTap P1s, SRAM RED Quarq, and Kickr SNAP. The P1s and Quarq are almost dead on to each other and both are higher than the SNAP by a considerable enough amount that I use them for power over the SNAP for TrainerRoad.

The only reason I have both is that I have P1s to swap between my roadie and TT and the bike I bought had a Quarq. No reason otherwise to have both and I have the Quarq for sale.

Powertap C1.......paid $700, but got a $250 gift gard back from Art's Cyclery earlier this year. So far, I've been completely satisfied with it, but it's may first foray into the powermeter world. Seemed tough to beat for a net cost of $450.

I'm a fan of the quarq as well; but if it's a little pricey my 2nd choice is Stages. It's a big finiky depending on the placement of the head unit; like for my road bike I had to put the garmin on the step and not out front, but on the MTB it was just fine out front. But, for the price I'm OK with that little detail.

On clearance sale from Stages I think it was less then $400 so not too bad!