Subject: RE: Power Tap v iBike Power Meter When the iBike was introduced a few years ago, the market included SRM (crank), PowerTap (hub), Ergomo (bottom bracket), and Polar (chain). The iBike went a different route with their wind, speed, weight, etc and no actual measurement.
And the reviews at the time ranked them in that order, with iBike at the bottom.
The Ergomo and Polars are now off the market. I'm surprised iBike is still kicking, because all my recent research on power meters it seemed they weren't around at all.
It's probably fair to say the Quarg Cinq meter is considered the best price/performance meter around. SRM is the gold standard with a platinum price. The PowerTap is somewhere in between, with bike-to-bike portability being a big advantage. Garmin just bought the company that was working on a pedal based power meter and it will be out Real Soon Now. That's the "game changer" everyone is waiting for, because rumors had the price below $1000, and with Garmin's large scale compared to the other vendors, Garmin could make power meters at a price point where they're as common as a speedometer.
Reading ibikesports.com, it's apparent they have been working on their technology and now have GEN III. So maybe they've solved the accuracy problem. Have they solved the calibration problem? IIRC, the original iBike required some 10 minute calibration procedure for temperature, barometric pressure, blah blah blah before every ride, and during the ride if there were significant changes in any of those. |