I have Favero Assioma DUO on my road bike, Magene PES P505 Base on my CX bike, Sigeyi AXO on my XC mountain bike and then I have Elite Direto XR trainer. I used to have InPeak Powercrank, but I sold it to my friend, because after my injury and following two surgeries I unfortunately have quite a significant disbalance. Compared them all against the Assiomas and they all track really accurately against each other, yet when I had the InPeak, I had to scale it up by 2% to get it in line with the other measuring sources (splitted the Assiomas into UNO for that test).
I have/use 3 4iii powermeters on road bikes, 2 Quark and Garmin Rally 2.0 in MTBs. Only issues I've found: Garmin pedals is realli difficult to go over 800 watts, no matter the effort. on the Wahoo Kickr core, I found ERG mode stupid hard, 165 watts is equivalent to riding a 15% up. the rest of the power meters work fine for me, both in circuit and open roads. Only thing I would change is recharging, as changing batteries on 6 pieces of equipment is not cost effective and a pain in the a$$
I have a stages gen2 single side I picked up cheap on fleabay. Only had it a few weeks so still in the honeymoon phase but, once I had overcome the upgrading to a modern BB and sorted the well known battery contact issue, it seems consistent and looking forward to seeing how I'm doing more clearly out on the road. Of course I did have to go out and break the 1000W barrier, but I'm over that now 😂
I picked up a used single sided crank power meter a few weeks ago - spent the winter months on the indoor trainer so I got used to seeing the numbers. Very happy with the purchase so far. A positive surprise is that I am now much more tolerant of riding into a strong headwind as now I see that I truly can be putting in more effort even if it results in a slow speed. Like of course I realised that I *must* be putting in more power if my heart rate is going up but it's still nice to see it for sure. So for me it has been worth it just to compare myself with myself, and makes you realise even more how useless comparing average speeds often is.
Amen. Average speed doesn’t mean anything. My outdoor bike is relatively heavy and not very aerodynamic but my FTP is 4 w/kg whilst people who can afford fancy bikes and aren’t as fit fly past me
Be careful though. I had a single side PM and switched to pedals. My power readings with the single side were 10-20% higher than with pedals. My left leg is stronger than my right I learned with the pedals, inflating my average power on rides.
Assioma Duo are the business. Super easy to swap between bikes if you're fortunate to have more than one. I use mine on the indoor trainer and outdoors for consistent readings. Accuracy is excellent.
I also use Assioma Duo. I've been a bit of a nerd and compared against my Wahoo Kickr. I did the 1 hour FTP test on Zwift using Wahoo Power meter, whilst simultaneously pairing my pedals to my Elemnt Bolt running the same test. I've done this 3 times and its never been more than 3 watts different either way.
I remember one day after a good month or two of training, I swapped my left sided stages pm off my training bike onto my race bike. I calibrated it and it gave a different number than usual, but I thought nothing of it. So I set off for my 3hr hilly loop and felt great. The ride was effortless and I was amazed at the power I was doing on the flats, and up the climbs. And thought "Man 300w's feels really easy up these climbs! I must have got fit all of a sudden. My training must have all come together and my body has finally adapted! Wow this is what it feels like one of those young A graders. This is great!" Then after a few hours I suddenly thought..."Hang on a minute. This can't be right, better stop and check the pm". And lo and behold I'd forgotten to tighten up the 2 pinch bolts on the crank! And it was only staying on with the help of it's shimano safety tag and dust cap! My short stint of being "a good cyclist" was over, and I rode home feeling rather silly at my usual 180 to 200w's :( lol
Hahaha that must have really felt like a hit! 🤣 That said, if you were feeling good you should be focusing on that! Feeling good on the bike is the most important thing 🙌
When I started using power pedals I didn’t know I was supposed to calibrate it before every ride 😅 and I had a goal off hitting 300w for an hour. And went from 240 to 320 very quickly 😅 and got a little suspicious and it was way off. Took me 6 months to beat any off the watt records xD
I thought my power meter pedals showed I produced more power changing from 172.5mm cranks to 170mm. They actually showed the importance of remembering to set the crank length to accurately measure torque. Sigh.
Got myself a stages single-sided power meter 2 months ago. It totally change the game for me. I feel more motivated and consistent with my training because I can see how my capabilities on the bike improve.
I don't have a power meter nor do I planned to get one. I don't race but I do like to ride bikes, so I put the money of power meter into getting an entry level tubro trainner. By doing so, I can ride indoor when weather isn't good and get a stationary platform to dial in my riding position.
Great idea! A power meter is great but certainly not a must have to enjoy cycling. The turbo trainer is a game-changer for those wet weather rides! Enjoy and don't forget join the GCN Zwfit club 👉gcn.eu/Zwift
Nice balanced video (though you could've mentioned the expensive low-fidelity elephant in the room). Many riders claim that you don't need accuracy, all you need is consistency, but they don't know how or even bother to measure consistency. I think that the need for accuracy depends on what you're doing with the data, and there are widely different uses so there are widely different needs for accuracy and precision. Training FTP is one of the least demanding things you can do with a power meter, so a single-sided meter (or a dual-sided Shimano) are probably fine for that. Measuring CdA and Crr are *very* demanding uses, so you absolutely need high-fidelity data for that purpose.
I used Shane Miller/GP Llama's reviews, and replies he gave me to questions I asked him in the discussion section of his RUclips videos, to decide what power meter and indoor trainer to buy. Great guy and he's thorough, precise, and data driven. What more could you ask for? BTW, I have been very happy and impressed with the performance of the Wahoo KICKR V.6 trainer and Assioma Duo Shi power meter pedals he recommended.
The purchase of assioma duo was useful for me. because the distribution between the right and left legs turned out to be more important than the power itself. Now I distribute the load more evenly.
I’ve had the Faverro Assioma’s for 5 years now. They just work and are consistent. Fit and forget. Super easy to swap between bikes if you need to. Support from Faverro is excellent if you do ever have a problem.
I want to get them too. QFactor is a bit wider but I have a mtb crank on my gravelbike so getting the same QFactor on roadbike I'll buy next week should be fine
They really did well to talk about it in a diplomatic way to piss any sponsors of. So if one can read between the lines... Quite suprised about the quality compared to other PM reviews
Most useful way to compare efforts is to use power vs HR instead of power (or HR). There are many external factors such as weather (esp. heat), sleep and nutrition that can affect your readings, so having two values as well as a training diary makes it a lot easier to put the data into context.
Absolutely correct, HR versus Power is an excellent measure which is independent of wind, slope, road condition and bike weight but it isn't independent of sleep and nutrition. If I ride undernourished or having had a bad nights sleep, I can see that immediately in my data, needing a HR of 150 to achieve 150W output over any length of time.
@@geoffnash2609 I find it hard to arrive at a consistent measure of RPE as it so much depends on my mood, the weather, the head wind and temperature and being cut up by passing cars or not.
Single sided pedal powermeter user here. Garmin Vector axles inside Rally XC bodies. Bought so I can both monitor training and make sure I ride easy enough on first days of multi day bikepacking rides (as vectors to begin with). Self assessment and riding on feel only gets your so far when you feel so fit and fresh its easy to do too much too soon. Very happy with them I am too (power meter parts now more than 5years old)
I have a 4iiii Precision 3+ single sided crankarm power meter. It has really helped with my outdoor training. It does read a little higher than my Wahoo trainer, but I don't mind as it is a consistent reading that I accounted for with power balancing..
generally speaking, your power will be higher on the road naturally (heat loss and micro recoveries) . If you wanted to get nerdy, borrow/use two computers or a computer and your phone app. Link one to the trainer and one to your crank and do a session on the trainer and compare numbers.
Albeit, prohibitively expensive. the Rally RS200 is extremely accurate and this is well-documented but again, it’s expensive. The cycling dynamics data is out of this world and I’ve found it extremely helpful.
Awesome video. I have separate power meters on my solo bike and tandem, doing the double-record comparison against a trainer is a great idea and will be a good way for me to compare the meters from the two bikes!
Favero Assioma Duo Dual pedals are the only way to go if you want non faff, instant connection, and dead consistent performance imo.have 3 pairs on diff bikes all read identical.
I agree. For myself, I’d never really done any sport or even exercise until turning 40 so a power meter was a really good way to learn what different efforts felt like and how to pace.
Funny how so far there’s been a heap of criticism in the comments but not many answering your initial question. I own the Assioma Duo pedals and I love em. They are also consistent with my Wahoo Kickr trainer.
I bought a pair of Garmin Vector 3s around five years ago after wanting to see how my spin bike power data translated to that of my bike rides. I found that they are really quite separate and while they are good indications of my general fitness (when I have some), they are best only compared with themselves; other than for anecdotal interest.
great video, I will second one point glanced over in this vid. for 90%+ of riders, all they need to get value out of the PM is repeatability. while it's nice to know how I compare against others on Strava segments, from a training and improvement standpoint, all I need to do is compare where I am now against where I have been historically; the actual number doesn't matter, just need to see improvements or reductions in power. I will share that I have 4 PMs, my cinch PM was 20%high for over a year before I caught it and it messed up all the Strava power curves for that time. Best to keep an eye on accuracy too when using multiple PMs. Anyone know how to easily remove/ignore all Strava PM data from one meter in a single step?
Having used a Power2Max campagnolo PM for years (before the bike was stolen) I can say that aside from the battery running out it was faultless. ANd required NO maintenance whatsoever. I got it second hand and it was worth every penny. I've since used a Stages LH only PM which was frankly not good enough. I couldn't gain any form of consistent numbers. High indoors. Low outdoors. Sometimes in the right ballpark. Even when calibrated. The lack of consistency was really frustrating. Moved to Wahoo POWRLINK now, and they seem to be really good. TL;DR: I do think you get what you pay for.
I love tech and found the watts data so interesting for about three years. It allowed me to get more powerful sprints. I then just started using heart rate more, as it's a better metric to measure my actual fitness and effort levels. It's still fun to see if I hit 1kw on that sprint, but isn't useful for anything other than FTP to me.
I use a 4iiii power meter on my left crank. My Kickr core output is around 10% higher so I changed the scale factor on my 4iiii so it matches my indoor training. Although I still feel that indoor training is harder..
Unless you have a road and gravel bike that you interchange for training sessions. My gravel bike reads 25 watts higher which is frustrating esp if you are tracking data.
Of course it does. Get on a trainer and ride at close to your FTP and then ride at 20w higher and see what happens. Training zones are the bedrock of cycling and if your being told to ride at X and you are riding at Y then you aren't going to get the most from your training.
I stick to the same make and model to maximise consistency across bikes and have tested them against other PMs (indoor trainer etc) I found Rotor PMs reliable and consistent.
I had quite the eye opener when I used to train exclusively on a Keiser m5 elliptical. I could produce 250w on there just before my LT1 for an hour. On the bike I could only do 120w! Had no idea power difference would be so big.
I ride indoors on a Wattbike Atom and outdoors on a bike with a Quark powermeter. Indoor FTP is about 15% lower than outdoor FTP. As I tend to ride outdoors more in the Spring to Autumn it's making my Winter training feel especially effective this year!
After training all winter on the indoor training with its own power meter, i have now started to train outside using my oedal based system. But the difference in numbers is quite profound. Maybe 20 less watts on average. Although I'm aware of the discrepancy, I still struggle to aim for lower numbers when outside
If you're not training, One of the best reasons for a PM is to track calories. Super accurate and consistent compared to the differing ways that garmin, Wahoo and Zwift estimate calorie burn.
Going on my 6th year with favero assioma duo pedals. I’m less concerned with their overall accuracy and more concerned that they are consistent. As I only use one power meter I’m always measuring against the same thing and just looking for improvements over time, or targets for racing.
Does Shimano fund GCN? Is GCN tech independent in its analysis? The reason I ask is that it seems odd not to mention the issues identified by DCR and Shane Miller.
I found the difference between my Garmin pedals and my Tacx trainer was fixed when I put a trainer tire on my bike. The accuracy went from 15-30watts to +/-5watts
For pacing my effort on a ride, that possible 5% inaccuracy isn't important. The power numbers fluctuate way more than that from second-to-second, anyway. That's why the 3-second averaging is common. So my left side only meter is fine for me and very useful.
One thing to watch is getting rogue readings when the battery gets weak. This can mess horribly with your data. I had a Stages dual side for a while with batteries in each crank arm and saw few benefits as my r/l balance was close at about 48/52. Keeping up with the battery changes and the rogue readings was a pain. I’ve single sided Stages now that has been mostly very well behaved and gives me all the insight I need.
Same. My best judge is, every couple of months, I line my bike up on the same 5.5 mile climb (~4.5%) and time myself to the top. The power meter helps manage the effort, but isn't my (sole) indicator of fitness.
I got a 4iiii single sided 105 R7000 model, v3.0, from Merlin and it was £325- less my "Gold" discount and a further £25 off for loyalty points it was £250.... Looked weird on my Sora bike and to keep q-factor even I quickly opted to upgrade the whole drivetrain to 105 when CRC did them for £299... a nice wee nudge to a worthwhile drivetrain improvement and the power meter has been superb. Yes a dual power meter would be good but would have to be one of the newer Magenes (p505??).... never Shimano though, I follow GPLama!!
Since about 6 weeks I have a new bike with single sided strain gage powermeter. The most significant change seems to be that now It sums up my spent calories coming out much lower, compared to the time where Starva / Apple Health used more or less heart rate and data provided by my Wahoo comp.
@@gcntech Not really, but when you do a let say 80 km training, and now - with the powermeter - you "only" did about 6000 kJ, but before you got about 9000 and apple health credited a 200% of movement target, its somewhat disappointing...
Double sided Speedplay. Recently had a bike fit that raised my saddle a little - interestingly that shifted my left-right balance from being consistently 48:52 to being 50:50
After spending years with a single sided power meter and then getting a dual sided one, I can say that the subconscious thing about putting more power into one leg is absolutely true, at least for me. Also it was widely inaccurate when it came to sprints, telling me I could do 1500 watt sprints back when I had an ftp under 200. My advice? Unless you really can't afford it, just get the dual sided one. Alternatively, Chinese brand Magene offers a spider based power meter with crank arms for a similar price as a stages or 4iii single sided power meter. All you have to do is swap your chainrings.
Yes, Assiomas & Stages L. Soon to include the Assioma Pro MX. As ever when using them keep the firmware up to date, install correctly, calibrate frequently especially with changing conditions. Oh, and only use ones that have passed the GPLama & DCRainmaker seal of approval. Simple really.
The important thing with ANY measuring tool isn't that they don't always match with other measuring devices, it's that they provide SOMETHING that we can use to measure our performance. This allows us to then use the "measurement" to develop a training plan and see improvement in the number we use as a measurement. This improvement should translate into faster riding, no matter what we're using. Of course, this assumes you're only relying on one measurement tool. Anytime you try to take numbers from one device to use on another, you're definitely going to have to create what I call a "translation matrix" to ensure the tools can help you do what you're ultimately trying to do, which is become more fit and faster.
IMO, the best value for the money are the Magene meters. A complete crankset for less than the cost of the single sided meters (which I have had terrible luck with) is a huge value.
Four different power meters across four bikes (two P2M, one Quarq, and the trainer bike on the Kickr). Add in the Assioma Duo pedals, and I've used those across the different bikes at times. as mentioned, get two head units, then ride at a steady pace and compare the 3/10/30 second averages. For my stuff, its all within a couple percent at most.
A dual sides crank power meter is only choice for a person like me who was born with disability. It measures my effort quite well with about 64/36 L/R balance most of the time. I have no regret of buying this, it is worth every penny.
Kind of like dynos used to measure the hp and torque of your car or motorcycle. You cannot compare the results to the results done on another dyno and in different conditions. They can be used to measure modification gains or to brag to people who dont know much about dynos…
Exactly. The exact precision of the power meter readings is less important in my opinion to the relative data against prior readings in addition to the "how do I feel" metric. Having a power meter and your heart rate information data can really help you with your own calibration of understanding your efforts. Whether or not the numbers are completely accurate does not really matter.
Why single-sided? You get good spider powermeters for little more than a single-sided crank/pedal system. I am pretty happy with a Sigeyi - which has been demonstrated to be quite precise, is very easy to set up, and add little additional weight (in my setup, just 80gr, considering that 12gr for the cadence sensor can go). Bought it for 378 CHF...
My pice of advice I can give to everyone: don’t forget there is also a calibration mode on zwift. Use it. My zwiftnumberes were for long way higher than my Dual 4iii and Dual Assioma. And I had a hard time on zwift when I figured that out😅 Overall my favourtie are the Assioma Duos, good price, super easy and userfriendly to install. And easy to switch between bikes.
My PM's from my own purchasing and experience. Fyi, I ride shimano groupset. 1) Power2max NgEco. - Consistent accuracy, very long battery life. Calibrates quickly. Paired with rotor 24mm cranks means it works with Shimano chainrings and bottom brackets. - HIGHLY recommended. 2) Tacx Neo trainer - accurate, no need to calibrate. Recommended Note - Power2max and Neo agree with each other consistently 🙂 . 3) 4iii gen 2 left-side only. Accurate and non peaky. Strain guage died after 2 years which also happened to 3 friends and is unfortunately common with 4iiii, Sadly, I can't recommend it. 4) Pioneer left-side only - Difficult to calibrate, inaccurate, extremely peaky with occasional readings in the thousands of watts. NOT recommended.
I had a power meter for a while and then it broke. Couldn’t be bothered to buy another one so I went back to just using a HRM. Then the HRM broke so I gave up with that too. Has giving up on tech it made me any slower? Not really.
I have a duel sided stages and love it, works super well and it is fun to look at all the numbers. I just don't look as good as nerdy Oli doing it though 😢
dual power meter (if the extra money is affordable) would be the better choice, monitoring eventually disbalances / change of balance over the months/years …. which might be a sign for „health“ issue like stability of your back, some nerves
A single sided power meter is great for what most people actually use power data for. I've had both single sided and dual sided meters over the years and single sided is affordable and gives you data to compare efforts and do structured training.
I am not going to to be racing maybe the odd mass participation event or challenge ride with a local club. But I don’t need a power meter, but ooh would I like yes please. Just to geek out and have another column of data / numbers on the Excel spreadsheet I use to keep notes on my rides outside of the Garmin Connect and Strava apps.
My Garmin pedals read quite a bit less than my smart trainer. I had a crash with the pedals but I don‘t think they got hit that hard. Which one would you trust more?
i was getting inconsistent readings from my power meter in the mountains a lot - 1600w on a downhill ... so I took the power meter and head unit of my bike and solved all those problems and made cycling way more fun again - now I look around again instead of down at the little screen while I ride.
I think power meters also struggle with the type of load. Gradients exert a more constant force through the cranks. Cycling on the flat can have larger dead spots in the crank revolution. In my experience different power meters measure or calculate these efforts in a different way. I would like to see a study into this.
Why is it that we can get power numbers generated by e.g. a Garmin sports watch when we go for a run, but need specific meters to do the same for cycling?
I don't think enough thought has been given for this video. This video needs a clarification from manufacturers' respective engeneers. My limited knowledge in physics gives power as: P = | F × r | ⋅ ω If the you change between cranksizes (r) without setting up your powermeter everytime the your power measurement will differ.
I have a quarq, speedplay powerlink pedals and a kickr and they all agree with 3W. (I had a powerhub in the past that was good and a Stages left-side only crank that i had issues with).
first thing to check is your cadence. if that comes from the PM and drops out thenyour power will be wrong. power uses cadence in its calculation. there's also drivetrain loss and mamu other causes not mentioned in the video
I have Garmin XC200's (shimano spd's) and I calibrate them for each bike I use, typically every few rides. I have found that with the same crank length on different bikes, the calibration can be way different. Now this is very odd to me. All my bikes have a 175 crank length but the calibration is different each time. I typically do this in my garage before the ride but the temps do vary quite a bit in the garage. I have seen the power difference it shows on my Surly (steel tube bike) to be far lower than on my Giant (carbon fiber). Of course being the Giant is 19lbs and the Surly 38, that also makes a huge difference. So many different numbers and variables.
The main problem with power meters is that power meters on a pedal, crank, spider or build in into your trainer measure different powers, which can't be compared which each other. A powermeter in you pedal measures the power which presses the pedal down. If that is on the upper or lower part of the cycle, most of this power will not be transferred into power to the drivetrain. The spider measures all the power transferred to the drivetrain, but not the effort off pushing on the pedal when it is already at the bottom of the stroke (standing on the pedals). Build-in powermeters are measuring the power on the rear axis, and therefore not measuring al the losses of the drivetrain. The best measure of useful power you put in your cycling will be given by a spider. The best measurement of the power you put into the bike is measured by the pedals. A powermeter on the rear axis is measuring the force that will be transferred to the road. You can more or less compare the different types of powermeters only if you know your personal average efficiency between the different types.
There are math. algorithms which includes not only the force on the pedal but also position, cadence …. so if one just stand on the pedal, it gives you 0 watt, but I agree, the real watt, bringing you forward, is on the wheel, at the other hand the power of the „engine“ is what is interesting
But why do we, as consummers accept, those differences? I mean, nobody would accept a scale in the bathroom to be off with 5,5 % vs another one right next to it... 1 watt should be 1 watt, as it is a mathimatical unit. Like 1 kg is 1 kg regardless of what scale you are using. I have had a Power2max, Assioma DUO, and Kickr 5 read almost within acceptable range of 1-1,5 %, but then I got a Tacx Neo 2T that was off by 16 %. I had such a battle with Garmin/Tacx to make them accept that their unit was inaccurate, as they claimed, that their machine meassured watts in a different way. (Maybe thats why people weigh less on Zwift, as their scale at home meassures kilogram in a different way, lol!)
This has got us thinking, how accurate are everyones bathroom scales?! We've weighed things on our bathroom scales (luggage) and then done the same at an airport at the check-in desk, you can guess which was reading more than the other 😂
I bought a stages left sided power meter in 2017 but I will upgrade to a double in next yr or two. It seems quite accurate when I compare it with my times and weight up climbs to others on strava . However I doubt my left/right balance is 50:50 so there will be some inaccuracy. I believe(but don't know) my left leg is weaker than my right so if anything it prob under-reads slightly than over-reads imo. However it is consistent so when my power goes up I get faster up climbs and I get fitter. So still is a great training tool imo.
I have a stages LH on my race bike (came with) and always figured my left side was the weaker one--I'm right legged on the whole, and my left knee is the achey one. I just upgraded to a Duo-shi setup, and go figure...I'm slightly biased with left stronger. I.e. results may not be as expected.
@@brannmacfinnchad9056 Good point! Yes funny how we perceive one leg as the stronger but it could well be the opposite. haha Will be good to know for sure though :)
Do you own a power meter? Let us know in the comments 👇
Yes 4, 3 that I made myself and 1 I got second hand.
Favero assioma duo shi 👌
I have Favero Assioma DUO on my road bike, Magene PES P505 Base on my CX bike, Sigeyi AXO on my XC mountain bike and then I have Elite Direto XR trainer. I used to have InPeak Powercrank, but I sold it to my friend, because after my injury and following two surgeries I unfortunately have quite a significant disbalance. Compared them all against the Assiomas and they all track really accurately against each other, yet when I had the InPeak, I had to scale it up by 2% to get it in line with the other measuring sources (splitted the Assiomas into UNO for that test).
I have/use 3 4iii powermeters on road bikes, 2 Quark and Garmin Rally 2.0 in MTBs.
Only issues I've found:
Garmin pedals is realli difficult to go over 800 watts, no matter the effort.
on the Wahoo Kickr core, I found ERG mode stupid hard, 165 watts is equivalent to riding a 15% up.
the rest of the power meters work fine for me, both in circuit and open roads. Only thing I would change is recharging, as changing batteries on 6 pieces of equipment is not cost effective and a pain in the a$$
I have a stages gen2 single side I picked up cheap on fleabay.
Only had it a few weeks so still in the honeymoon phase but, once I had overcome the upgrading to a modern BB and sorted the well known battery contact issue, it seems consistent and looking forward to seeing how I'm doing more clearly out on the road.
Of course I did have to go out and break the 1000W barrier, but I'm over that now 😂
The biggest problem with a power meter is that it provides an exact measure of how much I suck as a cyclist
Nope.
No problem > Just Ride & Enjoy It !
Good luck...
😂 me too!
You can always change the slope. There's no good reason you can't have better numbers than MVDP
Hah! I feel you brother
Sim[ple : Don't buy a power meter until you've watched & understood the Shane Miller / GP Llama or DC Rainmaker reviews & analysis.
I used DC Rainmaker reviews both when choosing my power meter as well as my indoor smart trainer.
Agreed 100%. For any sports tech, really.
This essentially boils down to don’t buy the R92000P, R8100P, or R9100P.
@@weiwenng8096 😂 exactly!
But for PM noobs this is brilliant. Well done GCN
I picked up a used single sided crank power meter a few weeks ago - spent the winter months on the indoor trainer so I got used to seeing the numbers.
Very happy with the purchase so far. A positive surprise is that I am now much more tolerant of riding into a strong headwind as now I see that I truly can be putting in more effort even if it results in a slow speed. Like of course I realised that I *must* be putting in more power if my heart rate is going up but it's still nice to see it for sure.
So for me it has been worth it just to compare myself with myself, and makes you realise even more how useless comparing average speeds often is.
Amen. Average speed doesn’t mean anything. My outdoor bike is relatively heavy and not very aerodynamic but my FTP is 4 w/kg whilst people who can afford fancy bikes and aren’t as fit fly past me
That's great! Often having power numbers just gives a bit more context 🙌 That can really help with motivation!
Be careful though. I had a single side PM and switched to pedals. My power readings with the single side were 10-20% higher than with pedals. My left leg is stronger than my right I learned with the pedals, inflating my average power on rides.
I’ve got the Assioma spindles. Completely changed my training. Love the data it gives me
Assioma Duo are the business. Super easy to swap between bikes if you're fortunate to have more than one. I use mine on the indoor trainer and outdoors for consistent readings. Accuracy is excellent.
Have these on my primary road bike. Very impress for the value!
I also use Assioma Duo. I've been a bit of a nerd and compared against my Wahoo Kickr. I did the 1 hour FTP test on Zwift using Wahoo Power meter, whilst simultaneously pairing my pedals to my Elemnt Bolt running the same test. I've done this 3 times and its never been more than 3 watts different either way.
I remember one day after a good month or two of training, I swapped my left sided stages pm off my training bike onto my race bike. I calibrated it and it gave a different number than usual, but I thought nothing of it. So I set off for my 3hr hilly loop and felt great. The ride was effortless and I was amazed at the power I was doing on the flats, and up the climbs. And thought "Man 300w's feels really easy up these climbs! I must have got fit all of a sudden. My training must have all come together and my body has finally adapted! Wow this is what it feels like one of those young A graders. This is great!" Then after a few hours I suddenly thought..."Hang on a minute. This can't be right, better stop and check the pm". And lo and behold I'd forgotten to tighten up the 2 pinch bolts on the crank! And it was only staying on with the help of it's shimano safety tag and dust cap! My short stint of being "a good cyclist" was over, and I rode home feeling rather silly at my usual 180 to 200w's :( lol
Hahaha that must have really felt like a hit! 🤣 That said, if you were feeling good you should be focusing on that! Feeling good on the bike is the most important thing 🙌
When I started using power pedals I didn’t know I was supposed to calibrate it before every ride 😅 and I had a goal off hitting 300w for an hour. And went from 240 to 320 very quickly 😅 and got a little suspicious and it was way off. Took me 6 months to beat any off the watt records xD
To sum up, Shimano power meters are notoriously inaccurate.
Exactly you definitely don't want a dura ace shimano power meter. That belongs in the parts bin.
Ultegra 8100 on par or even worse 🥴
I've got a 9100P DuraAce powermeter and it's shit around 30W underreading compared to my srm, a kickr and asioma pedals
Yea all I hear is how crap the Shimano crank powermeters are ... and how insane good Favero is... and here the message seems to be the opposite.
@FliskerX the video doesn't mention either Shimano or Favero.
I thought my power meter pedals showed I produced more power changing from 172.5mm cranks to 170mm. They actually showed the importance of remembering to set the crank length to accurately measure torque. Sigh.
Got myself a stages single-sided power meter 2 months ago. It totally change the game for me. I feel more motivated and consistent with my training because I can see how my capabilities on the bike improve.
I don't have a power meter nor do I planned to get one. I don't race but I do like to ride bikes, so I put the money of power meter into getting an entry level tubro trainner. By doing so, I can ride indoor when weather isn't good and get a stationary platform to dial in my riding position.
Haha, you can’t lose! 😂😂😂
Great idea! A power meter is great but certainly not a must have to enjoy cycling. The turbo trainer is a game-changer for those wet weather rides! Enjoy and don't forget join the GCN Zwfit club 👉gcn.eu/Zwift
And my TacX tells me wattage anyways. Ride based on heart rate, indoor train on power.
Nice balanced video (though you could've mentioned the expensive low-fidelity elephant in the room). Many riders claim that you don't need accuracy, all you need is consistency, but they don't know how or even bother to measure consistency. I think that the need for accuracy depends on what you're doing with the data, and there are widely different uses so there are widely different needs for accuracy and precision. Training FTP is one of the least demanding things you can do with a power meter, so a single-sided meter (or a dual-sided Shimano) are probably fine for that. Measuring CdA and Crr are *very* demanding uses, so you absolutely need high-fidelity data for that purpose.
I used Shane Miller/GP Llama's reviews, and replies he gave me to questions I asked him in the discussion section of his RUclips videos, to decide what power meter and indoor trainer to buy. Great guy and he's thorough, precise, and data driven. What more could you ask for? BTW, I have been very happy and impressed with the performance of the Wahoo KICKR V.6 trainer and Assioma Duo Shi power meter pedals he recommended.
The Wahoo KICKR is great isn't it! 🙌
@@gcntech Absolutely! Especially the 6th edition with WiFi. Rock solid connectivity! 🥰🥰🥰
The purchase of assioma duo was useful for me. because the distribution between the right and left legs turned out to be more important than the power itself. Now I distribute the load more evenly.
I’ve had the Faverro Assioma’s for 5 years now. They just work and are consistent. Fit and forget. Super easy to swap between bikes if you need to. Support from Faverro is excellent if you do ever have a problem.
that's great to hear!
I want to get them too. QFactor is a bit wider but I have a mtb crank on my gravelbike so getting the same QFactor on roadbike I'll buy next week should be fine
Good to see you're still rocking the rim brake Pinarello!
If you are using Shimano power meters, they are known to be very inaccurate on the right side
Love how GCN has got so nerdy over power meters. Very well explained, and as far as i can tell, 100% accurate 👍
They really did well to talk about it in a diplomatic way to piss any sponsors of.
So if one can read between the lines...
Quite suprised about the quality compared to other PM reviews
Ollie getting nerdy... no that would never happen 👀
Most useful way to compare efforts is to use power vs HR instead of power (or HR). There are many external factors such as weather (esp. heat), sleep and nutrition that can affect your readings, so having two values as well as a training diary makes it a lot easier to put the data into context.
Absolutely correct, HR versus Power is an excellent measure which is independent of wind, slope, road condition and bike weight but it isn't independent of sleep and nutrition. If I ride undernourished or having had a bad nights sleep, I can see that immediately in my data, needing a HR of 150 to achieve 150W output over any length of time.
3. RPE. Heart rate, power and importantly RPE. Each one is a window into performance. If you want a full picture, use all 3.
@@geoffnash2609 I find it hard to arrive at a consistent measure of RPE as it so much depends on my mood, the weather, the head wind and temperature and being cut up by passing cars or not.
Single sided pedal powermeter user here. Garmin Vector axles inside Rally XC bodies. Bought so I can both monitor training and make sure I ride easy enough on first days of multi day bikepacking rides (as vectors to begin with). Self assessment and riding on feel only gets your so far when you feel so fit and fresh its easy to do too much too soon. Very happy with them I am too (power meter parts now more than 5years old)
Exactly my experience. I use an SRM pm on my road bike and a Quarq on my gravel bike. Quarq is >10W more optimistic
I have a 4iiii Precision 3+ single sided crankarm power meter. It has really helped with my outdoor training. It does read a little higher than my Wahoo trainer, but I don't mind as it is a consistent reading that I accounted for with power balancing..
generally speaking, your power will be higher on the road naturally (heat loss and micro recoveries) . If you wanted to get nerdy, borrow/use two computers or a computer and your phone app. Link one to the trainer and one to your crank and do a session on the trainer and compare numbers.
Consistency is the key right! As long as you can use your power meter for good training 🙌
My 4iii reads lower than my Wahoo trainer 🧐
I’ve compared the numbers side by side on Zwift / looking down at my Garmin
Albeit, prohibitively expensive. the Rally RS200 is extremely accurate and this is well-documented but again, it’s expensive. The cycling dynamics data is out of this world and I’ve found it extremely helpful.
Awesome video. I have separate power meters on my solo bike and tandem, doing the double-record comparison against a trainer is a great idea and will be a good way for me to compare the meters from the two bikes!
Favero Assioma Duo Dual pedals are the only way to go if you want non faff, instant connection, and dead consistent performance imo.have 3 pairs on diff bikes all read identical.
I have two sets of duo and they have been good. Sure some issues but Favero has always taken care of me. I will always buy their stuff going forward.
As you said the consultant readings are what you need, then you know if you are improving or not. Good video.
30 years of riding ... don't have a PM, don't need a PM, will not get a PM. But still love the video ... good info.
I agree. For myself, I’d never really done any sport or even exercise until turning 40 so a power meter was a really good way to learn what different efforts felt like and how to pace.
Funny how so far there’s been a heap of criticism in the comments but not many answering your initial question.
I own the Assioma Duo pedals and I love em. They are also consistent with my Wahoo Kickr trainer.
I bought a pair of Garmin Vector 3s around five years ago after wanting to see how my spin bike power data translated to that of my bike rides. I found that they are really quite separate and while they are good indications of my general fitness (when I have some), they are best only compared with themselves; other than for anecdotal interest.
great video, I will second one point glanced over in this vid. for 90%+ of riders, all they need to get value out of the PM is repeatability. while it's nice to know how I compare against others on Strava segments, from a training and improvement standpoint, all I need to do is compare where I am now against where I have been historically; the actual number doesn't matter, just need to see improvements or reductions in power. I will share that I have 4 PMs, my cinch PM was 20%high for over a year before I caught it and it messed up all the Strava power curves for that time. Best to keep an eye on accuracy too when using multiple PMs. Anyone know how to easily remove/ignore all Strava PM data from one meter in a single step?
Having used a Power2Max campagnolo PM for years (before the bike was stolen) I can say that aside from the battery running out it was faultless. ANd required NO maintenance whatsoever. I got it second hand and it was worth every penny.
I've since used a Stages LH only PM which was frankly not good enough. I couldn't gain any form of consistent numbers. High indoors. Low outdoors. Sometimes in the right ballpark. Even when calibrated. The lack of consistency was really frustrating.
Moved to Wahoo POWRLINK now, and they seem to be really good.
TL;DR: I do think you get what you pay for.
I love tech and found the watts data so interesting for about three years. It allowed me to get more powerful sprints. I then just started using heart rate more, as it's a better metric to measure my actual fitness and effort levels. It's still fun to see if I hit 1kw on that sprint, but isn't useful for anything other than FTP to me.
I use a 4iiii power meter on my left crank. My Kickr core output is around 10% higher so I changed the scale factor on my 4iiii so it matches my indoor training. Although I still feel that indoor training is harder..
I got the assioma duos, very happy with them on all of my bikes
Accuracy doesn't matter, consistency does!
This. Absolute value has little importance, it's the amount and direction of change that usually is what's useful to know.
Unless you have a road and gravel bike that you interchange for training sessions. My gravel bike reads 25 watts higher which is frustrating esp if you are tracking data.
Of course it does. Get on a trainer and ride at close to your FTP and then ride at 20w higher and see what happens. Training zones are the bedrock of cycling and if your being told to ride at X and you are riding at Y then you aren't going to get the most from your training.
I stick to the same make and model to maximise consistency across bikes and have tested them against other PMs (indoor trainer etc) I found Rotor PMs reliable and consistent.
I had quite the eye opener when I used to train exclusively on a Keiser m5 elliptical. I could produce 250w on there just before my LT1 for an hour. On the bike I could only do 120w! Had no idea power difference would be so big.
I ride indoors on a Wattbike Atom and outdoors on a bike with a Quark powermeter. Indoor FTP is about 15% lower than outdoor FTP. As I tend to ride outdoors more in the Spring to Autumn it's making my Winter training feel especially effective this year!
What training have you been doing this year that has made you fitter in summer?
@@gcntech hours, and hours, and hours of zwift (and sneaking out occasionally on the mtb) . Pace partner rides, intervals and races.
After training all winter on the indoor training with its own power meter, i have now started to train outside using my oedal based system. But the difference in numbers is quite profound. Maybe 20 less watts on average. Although I'm aware of the discrepancy, I still struggle to aim for lower numbers when outside
If you're not training, One of the best reasons for a PM is to track calories. Super accurate and consistent compared to the differing ways that garmin, Wahoo and Zwift estimate calorie burn.
Great advice zeroing it before every ride. My last ride was at an average 350W, but I'm pretty sure I didn't push all of them, so something is off...
Yes!I have Garmin v3 duo on my road bike! with Heartrate monitor!
Going on my 6th year with favero assioma duo pedals. I’m less concerned with their overall accuracy and more concerned that they are consistent. As I only use one power meter I’m always measuring against the same thing and just looking for improvements over time, or targets for racing.
consistency is key here, as if they reported wildly differing numbers, that would be far from ideal!
Great video. Spells out very clearly why I simply cannot be arsed to buy one. Just ride ✌️
Does Shimano fund GCN? Is GCN tech independent in its analysis? The reason I ask is that it seems odd not to mention the issues identified by DCR and Shane Miller.
I found the difference between my Garmin pedals and my Tacx trainer was fixed when I put a trainer tire on my bike. The accuracy went from 15-30watts to +/-5watts
For pacing my effort on a ride, that possible 5% inaccuracy isn't important. The power numbers fluctuate way more than that from second-to-second, anyway. That's why the 3-second averaging is common. So my left side only meter is fine for me and very useful.
One thing to watch is getting rogue readings when the battery gets weak. This can mess horribly with your data. I had a Stages dual side for a while with batteries in each crank arm and saw few benefits as my r/l balance was close at about 48/52. Keeping up with the battery changes and the rogue readings was a pain. I’ve single sided Stages now that has been mostly very well behaved and gives me all the insight I need.
I use a Stages crankarm power meter. The most important thing is consistent readings.
Same. My best judge is, every couple of months, I line my bike up on the same 5.5 mile climb (~4.5%) and time myself to the top. The power meter helps manage the effort, but isn't my (sole) indicator of fitness.
same, they seem to be going out of business though, nothing on their website is available.
I got a 4iiii single sided 105 R7000 model, v3.0, from Merlin and it was £325- less my "Gold" discount and a further £25 off for loyalty points it was £250.... Looked weird on my Sora bike and to keep q-factor even I quickly opted to upgrade the whole drivetrain to 105 when CRC did them for £299... a nice wee nudge to a worthwhile drivetrain improvement and the power meter has been superb. Yes a dual power meter would be good but would have to be one of the newer Magenes (p505??).... never Shimano though, I follow GPLama!!
Since about 6 weeks I have a new bike with single sided strain gage powermeter. The most significant change seems to be that now It sums up my spent calories coming out much lower, compared to the time where Starva / Apple Health used more or less heart rate and data provided by my Wahoo comp.
Did you use these calorie counters to moderate your training?
@@gcntech Not really, but when you do a let say 80 km training, and now - with the powermeter - you "only" did about 6000 kJ, but before you got about 9000 and apple health credited a 200% of movement target, its somewhat disappointing...
Double sided Speedplay. Recently had a bike fit that raised my saddle a little - interestingly that shifted my left-right balance from being consistently 48:52 to being 50:50
that's pretty cool that you are now measuring 50/50!
5:35 Never tire of seeing the clip of Ollie typing at 100wpm
Props for learning from your mistakes and having a frame pump 😄
I have assioma favero I have tested them several times against other power meters that are +/- 1% and they are always on point.
GCN Tech, Your videos always make me happy, so I subscribed!
Awesome! You're comments always make us happy 🙌
After spending years with a single sided power meter and then getting a dual sided one, I can say that the subconscious thing about putting more power into one leg is absolutely true, at least for me. Also it was widely inaccurate when it came to sprints, telling me I could do 1500 watt sprints back when I had an ftp under 200.
My advice? Unless you really can't afford it, just get the dual sided one. Alternatively, Chinese brand Magene offers a spider based power meter with crank arms for a similar price as a stages or 4iii single sided power meter. All you have to do is swap your chainrings.
you can do 1500 watts sprint even having less than 200 watts of FTP....
Gonna try these out 💪
Yes, Assiomas & Stages L. Soon to include the Assioma Pro MX. As ever when using them keep the firmware up to date, install correctly, calibrate frequently especially with changing conditions. Oh, and only use ones that have passed the GPLama & DCRainmaker seal of approval. Simple really.
A single sided crank arm can be changed between bikes of same crank length in 5 min. Especially is same pedal type.
Average cyclist so bought an average power metre. A Power pod. Cheaper than most. Does a decent job and didn't break the budget.
GCN Tech, Subscribed because your content is fantastic!
thanks! What other videos would you like us to make?
The important thing with ANY measuring tool isn't that they don't always match with other measuring devices, it's that they provide SOMETHING that we can use to measure our performance. This allows us to then use the "measurement" to develop a training plan and see improvement in the number we use as a measurement. This improvement should translate into faster riding, no matter what we're using.
Of course, this assumes you're only relying on one measurement tool. Anytime you try to take numbers from one device to use on another, you're definitely going to have to create what I call a "translation matrix" to ensure the tools can help you do what you're ultimately trying to do, which is become more fit and faster.
This is an important point, it's all about finding your benchmark 🙌
IMO, the best value for the money are the Magene meters. A complete crankset for less than the cost of the single sided meters (which I have had terrible luck with) is a huge value.
Four different power meters across four bikes (two P2M, one Quarq, and the trainer bike on the Kickr). Add in the Assioma Duo pedals, and I've used those across the different bikes at times. as mentioned, get two head units, then ride at a steady pace and compare the 3/10/30 second averages. For my stuff, its all within a couple percent at most.
Because these are all quality powermeters that just work.
I use speedplay single sided excellent and as I always use these it’s then consistent 😊 Pete 🚴👍
A dual sides crank power meter is only choice for a person like me who was born with disability. It measures my effort quite well with about 64/36 L/R balance most of the time. I have no regret of buying this, it is worth every penny.
Some simple research will show which brands are accurate and which ones aren't. The accurate brands are absolutely accurate to the stated +-1%.
Kind of like dynos used to measure the hp and torque of your car or motorcycle. You cannot compare the results to the results done on another dyno and in different conditions. They can be used to measure modification gains or to brag to people who dont know much about dynos…
Exactly.
The exact precision of the power meter readings is less important in my opinion to the relative data against prior readings in addition to the "how do I feel" metric.
Having a power meter and your heart rate information data can really help you with your own calibration of understanding your efforts.
Whether or not the numbers are completely accurate does not really matter.
Why single-sided? You get good spider powermeters for little more than a single-sided crank/pedal system. I am pretty happy with a Sigeyi - which has been demonstrated to be quite precise, is very easy to set up, and add little additional weight (in my setup, just 80gr, considering that 12gr for the cadence sensor can go). Bought it for 378 CHF...
My pice of advice I can give to everyone: don’t forget there is also a calibration mode on zwift. Use it.
My zwiftnumberes were for long way higher than my Dual 4iii and Dual Assioma. And I had a hard time on zwift when I figured that out😅
Overall my favourtie are the Assioma Duos, good price, super easy and userfriendly to install. And easy to switch between bikes.
My PM's from my own purchasing and experience. Fyi, I ride shimano groupset.
1) Power2max NgEco. - Consistent accuracy, very long battery life. Calibrates quickly. Paired with rotor 24mm cranks means it works with Shimano chainrings and bottom brackets. - HIGHLY recommended.
2) Tacx Neo trainer - accurate, no need to calibrate. Recommended
Note - Power2max and Neo agree with each other consistently 🙂 .
3) 4iii gen 2 left-side only. Accurate and non peaky. Strain guage died after 2 years which also happened to 3 friends and is unfortunately common with 4iiii, Sadly, I can't recommend it.
4) Pioneer left-side only - Difficult to calibrate, inaccurate, extremely peaky with occasional readings in the thousands of watts. NOT recommended.
Suprised there wasn’t any paid promotion in this video from one of the powermeter brands. GCN can still surprise us I guess haha
I had a power meter for a while and then it broke. Couldn’t be bothered to buy another one so I went back to just using a HRM. Then the HRM broke so I gave up with that too. Has giving up on tech it made me any slower? Not really.
I have a duel sided stages and love it, works super well and it is fun to look at all the numbers. I just don't look as good as nerdy Oli doing it though 😢
Do not buy a PM from Shimano. As simple as that. Just go watch some known testers (GPLlama, DC Rainmaker et al.) rip Shimano a new one.
dual power meter (if the extra money is affordable) would be the better choice, monitoring eventually disbalances / change of balance over the months/years …. which might be a sign for „health“ issue like stability of your back, some nerves
A single sided power meter is great for what most people actually use power data for. I've had both single sided and dual sided meters over the years and single sided is affordable and gives you data to compare efforts and do structured training.
As long as it isn't a current Shimano PM, you should be fine. lol
I am not going to to be racing maybe the odd mass participation event or challenge ride with a local club. But I don’t need a power meter, but ooh would I like yes please. Just to geek out and have another column of data / numbers on the Excel spreadsheet I use to keep notes on my rides outside of the Garmin Connect and Strava apps.
My Garmin pedals read quite a bit less than my smart trainer. I had a crash with the pedals but I don‘t think they got hit that hard. Which one would you trust more?
They also cost around 5p to manufacture but retail at around £1000.
Err, they’re not £1,000. Single sided start about £300
Never felt the need for one. Cycled all the European classics, Alps, Pyrenees, Dolomites. No data no problem😂
Are there power meter for flat pedals?
i was getting inconsistent readings from my power meter in the mountains a lot - 1600w on a downhill ... so I took the power meter and head unit of my bike and solved all those problems and made cycling way more fun again - now I look around again instead of down at the little screen while I ride.
I think power meters also struggle with the type of load. Gradients exert a more constant force through the cranks. Cycling on the flat can have larger dead spots in the crank revolution. In my experience different power meters measure or calculate these efforts in a different way. I would like to see a study into this.
Why is it that we can get power numbers generated by e.g. a Garmin sports watch when we go for a run, but need specific meters to do the same for cycling?
I don't think enough thought has been given for this video. This video needs a clarification from manufacturers' respective engeneers.
My limited knowledge in physics gives power as:
P = | F × r | ⋅ ω
If the you change between cranksizes (r) without setting up your powermeter everytime the your power measurement will differ.
I have a quarq, speedplay powerlink pedals and a kickr and they all agree with 3W.
(I had a powerhub in the past that was good and a Stages left-side only crank that i had issues with).
all within 3w is pretty good isn't it? considering that they are all measuring power from different areas. Happy with that?
@@gcntech yes very
Great advice 😊
first thing to check is your cadence. if that comes from the PM and drops out thenyour power will be wrong. power uses cadence in its calculation. there's also drivetrain loss and mamu other causes not mentioned in the video
cost.
yeah most of them cost more than my bike :D
You made us sensitive 🔔 to Alex saying.. However!
I would get one if I could afford it. I enjoy getting into the data for fun when training ,even though I'm not fast or good and I'm never going to be.
I have Garmin XC200's (shimano spd's) and I calibrate them for each bike I use, typically every few rides. I have found that with the same crank length on different bikes, the calibration can be way different. Now this is very odd to me. All my bikes have a 175 crank length but the calibration is different each time. I typically do this in my garage before the ride but the temps do vary quite a bit in the garage. I have seen the power difference it shows on my Surly (steel tube bike) to be far lower than on my Giant (carbon fiber). Of course being the Giant is 19lbs and the Surly 38, that also makes a huge difference. So many different numbers and variables.
How did you determine the calibration is different on each bike?
The main problem with power meters is that power meters on a pedal, crank, spider or build in into your trainer measure different powers, which can't be compared which each other.
A powermeter in you pedal measures the power which presses the pedal down. If that is on the upper or lower part of the cycle, most of this power will not be transferred into power to the drivetrain. The spider measures all the power transferred to the drivetrain, but not the effort off pushing on the pedal when it is already at the bottom of the stroke (standing on the pedals). Build-in powermeters are measuring the power on the rear axis, and therefore not measuring al the losses of the drivetrain.
The best measure of useful power you put in your cycling will be given by a spider. The best measurement of the power you put into the bike is measured by the pedals. A powermeter on the rear axis is measuring the force that will be transferred to the road.
You can more or less compare the different types of powermeters only if you know your personal average efficiency between the different types.
There are math. algorithms which includes not only the force on the pedal but also position, cadence …. so if one just stand on the pedal, it gives you 0 watt, but I agree, the real watt, bringing you forward, is on the wheel, at the other hand the power of the „engine“ is what is interesting
But why do we, as consummers accept, those differences? I mean, nobody would accept a scale in the bathroom to be off with 5,5 % vs another one right next to it... 1 watt should be 1 watt, as it is a mathimatical unit. Like 1 kg is 1 kg regardless of what scale you are using.
I have had a Power2max, Assioma DUO, and Kickr 5 read almost within acceptable range of 1-1,5 %, but then I got a Tacx Neo 2T that was off by 16 %. I had such a battle with Garmin/Tacx to make them accept that their unit was inaccurate, as they claimed, that their machine meassured watts in a different way.
(Maybe thats why people weigh less on Zwift, as their scale at home meassures kilogram in a different way, lol!)
This has got us thinking, how accurate are everyones bathroom scales?! We've weighed things on our bathroom scales (luggage) and then done the same at an airport at the check-in desk, you can guess which was reading more than the other 😂
Even though I’ve a power-meter in my crank, in my commuter, I chose to cycle by heartrate on all other bikes.
Why would you think that your average cyclist would even need a power meter of any sort?
I bought a stages left sided power meter in 2017 but I will upgrade to a double in next yr or two. It seems quite accurate when I compare it with my times and weight up climbs to others on strava . However I doubt my left/right balance is 50:50 so there will be some inaccuracy. I believe(but don't know) my left leg is weaker than my right so if anything it prob under-reads slightly than over-reads imo. However it is consistent so when my power goes up I get faster up climbs and I get fitter. So still is a great training tool imo.
I have a stages LH on my race bike (came with) and always figured my left side was the weaker one--I'm right legged on the whole, and my left knee is the achey one. I just upgraded to a Duo-shi setup, and go figure...I'm slightly biased with left stronger. I.e. results may not be as expected.
@@brannmacfinnchad9056 Good point! Yes funny how we perceive one leg as the stronger but it could well be the opposite. haha Will be good to know for sure though :)