Ok, so you have decided you want to spend a bit of money on your bike, and you have decided a power meter is the investment you want to make.
Well done, you made a great decision.
Now, there are a lot of options, whats right for you?
Budget
You can spend $500 USD on a power meter or $3,500 on a power meter.
What extra do you get for your money?
Typically the more expensive power meters will be more accurate, they will claim accurate to 1% the cheaper products may be accurate to 2 or 3%. The more expensive products will also measure power from both legs, cheaper products may do one leg and double the figure.
Question?
Do you need minute accuracy or are you a weekend warrior looking to improve, this usually answers your question.
Types of Power Meter
Typically these days power meters come in 3 variants:
- Pedal
- Crank arm
- Chainset
Each of these from top to bottom gets more difficult to install, with pedals being very simple with a wrench or allen key, a crank arm usually needing a few more bolts and maybe a special crank bolt tool ($2 USD) and finally the chainset being replaced.
In my opinion for people reading his article a crank or pedal based power meter is the way to go, they can be easily swapped between bikes, and take 15 minutes to fit. You can also replace the batteries quickly and easily.
Brands
I will cover off the major brands and their costs:
| Brand | Type | Description | Cheapest USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stages | Crank based | Left or both crank options, used by team Sky | $500 |
| 4iiii | Crank based | Left or both crank options | $550 |
| Pioneer | Crank based | Left or both crank options | $390 |
| Powertap | Pedal based | Pedals or Chainset or hub | $625 |
| Garmin | Pedal based | Pedals | $700 |
Which one?
Ok, I have had a Stages for 4 years. Its not been perfect, the one I had was one of the first ones and credit to Stages they replaced it under warranty when I had an issue with a newer model.
I have a friend who has had the Powertap pedals and the Garmin pedals and loves them both. I also have a friend with a Pioneer who doesn't complain.
All of the products are solid.
To give a final opinion I think pedal based power meters in their latest releases are probably the best solution, were I to buy a power meter today I would probably buy the Powertap pedals due to their low cost compared to the Garmin product and their ease of swapping between bikes.
