I have a stages on my gravel bike. I think it is "good enough" but not great. It didn't work well for some reason on my wife's TT bike (it would show 0 or very low numbers, even when pushing a steady pace around FTP) and rather than sell it i I figured I'd try it out. So far i haven't seen too many drops. With as cheap as you can find them, I think the Stages is a good option. It takes just a few minutes to swap the crankset to another bike if needed. P2M would be a decent option too.

Pedals are an ok option, but not great. I've done all my gravel racing up to this point in road shoes. Even races like landrun, that had miles of walking through mud. Typically i don't see people running through the mud anyway, so you don't lose much time if any because of cleats. Next year i think i'll try a road shoe that takes mtb cleats instead for muddy races, since it should be easier to clear mud from the bottom than a MTB shoe with lots of tread for the mud to pile up in. Probably won't save me much time, but some comfort while walking.

I run my Quarq on both road and CX bikes, swapping between the two when need be (not terribly often and quite easy). I would love to have something pedal based. Then I would just ditch my road shoes and ride my much nicer MTB shoes for CX, road, and MTB, but no such solution exists. Not really positive that it *should*, either, given the pedal strike potential of MTB riding.

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

 Stages is not a real power meter, not to mention the heart rate strap.

Crank spider based. It's not even a question. What is the bottom bracket standard on your gravel rig? If it's BB386EVO, I recommend the new Quarq DZero. I've just installed mine on my 3T Exploro, and let me tell you it is some hot crank. I originally purchased the p2m but returned it because I couldn't think of a single reason to choose power2max over Quarq and the inverse is not true. Quarq offers numerous advantages at the same price point.

Pedal based is an exceptionally poor idea in general but even more so for any sort of off-road terrain. Maybe if you don't care about data integrity and only ride on wood chip paths on sunny days with the other Fred's and Sally's, sure, go pedal based. But if you're like me and you're taking your gravel bike on tough, rocky terrain, launching over the bars, pedal striking like a mad man, unclipping frequently and falling off the thing with full abandon, as one should! -- and through all that you want performance data that is more science than art -- well, spider based it is.

They should pay me for this.

It's BB30, compact, 50/34. Does that change anything?

No. But just to clarify, your bottom bracket standard is BB30; your crankset is a compact 50/34. You can choose crank gearing, crank arm length, chainrings, etc. that you want if you go with power2max or Quarq, because you'll need a whole new crankset.

I would recommend choosing a GXP Quarq with a BB30 to GXP BB converter jawn. This allows you to run the crank on the vast majority of frames -- if you ever get a new bike, for instance -- and also protects the resale value for the same reason. BB30 cranks are a bit of a liability IMO.

Another thing you'll want to think about is 1x. My current view is that 1x is the ticket for cx/gravel bikes. Front derailleurs are for road bikes and road bikes only.

Any regrets or lessons learned a year or so later? I'll be building up a gravel bike soon and am trying to figure out if it will be worth it to put a power meter on it. I like the idea of a 46/30 double crank with a 11-32 or maybe the new shimano 11-34 cassette which I think would work well both on and off road but it doesn't really seem like there's any spider based power meter that will work with one of those cranks. My only option if I were to use one of those cranks would be a powertap disc hub since I'm planning to use spd cleats but since I want at least 2 wheelsets that would get expensive.

Of course I could go 1x and then power2max or quarq would work but would probably require swapping chain rings and/or different cassettes on the different wheels to get reasonably tight spacing for the road and the low range needed for off road and touring. 1x would be more appealing if sram or shimano came out with a 12 speed system that would work with road shifters which it seems like might not be too far off but I'm not sure I want to plan around something with an unknown release date.

Easton EC90SL crankset with the Cinch power meter spindle. You can run it with single or double rings and it is insanely light.

Best,
Chris.

Sorry, forgot to mention that left only = waste of money IMO.

That crank also appears to be 110 BCD which means the smallest ring for a double would be 34 tooth.

I am really glad I have a power meter on my gravel bike, if that's what you're asking. I am really glad I chose Quarq DZero (for all my bikes), all of which have worked flawlessly and measured accurately, even and especially after ring swaps. I am really glad I chose 1x. I have two rings (40T and 46T) and two cassettes (11-36 and 11-40). For over 95% of the riding I do on this bike, 40T and 11-36T is fine. There are edge cases of ultra endurance and/or ultra steep climbing where I need that 40-40 gear, and there are edge cases of pure road uses (fast/hard/volatile group rides with descents) that I need the 46-11. I've also tried the 11-32, but I've never found the smaller gaps relative to the 11-36 to be meaningful enough to swap that cassette on, and the 36 as a bailout gear is useful regardless of which ring I have on the front.

It's a 1x world -- and increasingly more so. With 3T's 9-32 cassette, you can get the entire range of your 2x setup (or more) with totally reasonable cog spacing. Why you would go with a 46-30 at this point for a gravel/cross bike doesn't make any sense to me honestly

With a 46/30 and 11-36 cassette I can get 502% gear range with not totally atrocious gaps. You can pretty much match that with 1x using an e thirteen 9-44 cassette but the jumps are ridiculous. But as you say the better option may be to swap cassettes and chain rings for the specific application. I'm so used to riding with power now I think I would feel naked without it.

I've got a stages PM for my cross / gravel bike. It's simple, and I can use any crank ring size I think is appropriate (let's be honest though, I spend my cross season in 34t up front.)

Some may worry about he accuracy of stages and the left only issues. But in all honesty, cross is more like a rodeo than a road race and my power is all over the place anyway. I don't think there has ever been a moment in a cross race that I've taken a moment to look at my computer / power. Actually, that's not true; Sometimes I check my clock to see if the race is finally over;).

So, I have finally decided to get on the trend and have ordered an Open U.P!

I’m struggling with crank choice though. I would like a power meter for it so am looking for some advice!

I love the DM mounts for ease of changing rings. And at the moment I think the only choice there is is the Easton cinch. This comes with a spindle single side power meter. My first question is wether this power meter is any good? Secondly will it fit! I believe the open has a B.B. shell of 86/46mm. And the Easton (if I go for the OPM1730129) is 92.1mm. Is this too much of a gap?

The other option I have is with Rotor. They are changing all their power meters and rings to their own DM. So I could go for the single INpower or double 2inpower. Any thoughts? I would have to wait for the single cross specific DM rings though as they are currently unavailable.

Or I go for a standard crank and something like a Power2max.

Have I missed anything?

Thanks in advance!

The new DM versions are pretty slick. They've pretty much made the transition already. You can find the older 2INpower and INpower with the 5-bolt spiders here or there but it's pretty much DM from here on out. They also changed up the pricing with the INpower at $799 sans rings. This makes it's a bit more compelling whereas before, there wasn't as much of a price difference between the two so more folks seemed to be opting for the 2IN. But that gets you into the single vs dual-sided debate and as this thread alone indicates, there are some strong opinions on that. :) Hopefully we'll see those CX rings soon...I know they're working on it.

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Power Meter City
Your Power Meter Specialists

Hi, what did you end up putting on your Open? Looks like you had listed the mtb spindle length for the Cinch but it also comes in a road spindle.

I have been happy with Stages FSA 46/30 on my Kona but looking at an Open frameset and learned that the Stages won’t work so now thinking about the Easton.

How do you like this setup? I was thinking of going this route on my cross/gravel bike. East to swap from single to double?

I've been using a P2M NG Eco and it has been bullet proof. When I hose down the bike after rides I try not to spray directly at the battery port but I do wash it and I haven't had any issues

I ended up with the Easton Cinch and crank with an Absolute Black chain ring.

Super happy. Fitted easily onto the Open and has been super easy to use and gives me all the info I need.

Also very easy to change rings depending where I’m riding.

I was also looking at the Rotor but the rings were not available at the time I finished my build. And I didn’t want to wait any longer.

Regards

Phil

I'm not familiar with Open so I can't say if this will work with it, but I recently bought a gravel bike and added a power meter so I thought I'd toss my two cents in. I went with the Quarq D-zero and a Wolftooth chainring and couldn't be happier. The "it just works" factor is pretty high for me and I have had zero issues so far. The only disappointment is that it reads a little lower than the Stages single sided unit I had before!