You could also go with Power2Max and swap it from one bike to another. Takes the same amount of time as Stages.

Another option to consider is the Power2Max meter on a Rotor 3D crank. The Rotor 3D uses the Shimano spindle and BB, which means you can keep an Ultegra (or Tiagra, even - any Shimano Hollowtech II crank will do) crank on one bike and the powermeter on the other, and swap just as easily. A better powermeter (since it doesn't measure just one leg) with the same flexibility and pretty much the same price, and the end of it.

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ZONE3 - We Last Longer

I own Powertaps and they are great, but If I were starting today to buy things, I think I would do exactly this. Powertaps are fantastic but stages gives you more flexibility in wheels and cranks without the SRM type prices. After reading the full DC Rainmaker review, I'm sold on Stages.

The Stages crank arm will set you back about $700

It would be kinda cool if Stages would come up with a dual arm model that measured each one independently. Looks like Garmin is trying to do the opposite...

If you don't actually care about knowing when your new 20 minute power record is actually a record or not, or care if you are pacing your TT perfectly or just kind of OK, or doing your intervals spot on or just close, and don't intend to do any field testing of your position or equipment, then yeah, stages is nice.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

I'm not sure I understand this...how would another power meter be any different (I'm relatively new to the whole PM thing)?

From what research I've done stages seems to be comparable to a quarq/powertap in terms of accuracy.

You're going to get what you pay for.

PowerTap is a level of reliability and accuracy that you won't find in other solutions (except for SRM). Never heard so many guys bitch in the group rides on Saturday's than those using Stages or Garmin power meters. "Lost my power again, but Garmin service is awesome and they are going to have a new pod back to me in 5-7 working days!".

I've owned 4 generations of PowerTaps over the years and whenever I am faced with the decision to switch to some new solution I always buy another PowerTap. It's a solid product.

Stages only measure one foot's power. This means they have to guess how much power the other leg produces. SRM, Quarq and Power2Max measure it at the crank spider, and Powertap at the hub, which means they basically sum up total power sent.

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ZONE3 - We Last Longer

I have a Stages that I swap between my TT and crit bike. For me, it's good enough for pacing. I have recently replacing my power tap wheel set and have a set of Reynolds Assaults for sale with a G3 hub. PM me if you're interested.

i ride with 4 riders that use garmin. all love them and had no issues. all 4 had other power meters. i actually do have a power tap and it was a total pain in the ass.

vector has been wonderful for me.

I have the Garmins on my road bike and Quarq on my tri bike. (It's a long story). Never a lick of trouble with the Garmin. The Quarq is being packed up and reshipped back to Quarq for the second tme in a month. My lbs had instructions to tell them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine (5th trip to Quarq in 3 years for repair or replacement). The Garmin is being put on the P3 right now.

DC Rainmaker (who is pretty much the most thorough reviewer you are going to find) talks about Stages in comparison to the others and pretty much thinks the same thing

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/...s-review-update.html.

I think they initially had some problems with the first gen, many of which were corrected. He talks about these issues in his review and how they have addressed them.. The few folks I know who have them love them.

You have to decide where you need/want flexibility.

Powertap is fantastic -- particularly on a budget -- but seriously limits your wheel choice. Some really want to be able to switch between several different types of wheels without buying multiple power meters. If all you need is a training wheel and want a disc for racing you can still do it -- just by a $100 wheel cover for your powertap. But it's still a bit of a pain. And if you want to move it between bikes, you will either be always stuck with the same cassette or be forced to do cassette changes. Not difficult but becomes annoying sometimes...

SRM is fantastic but seriously limits your wallet. It also requires moving a full crank (not just a crank arm) between bikes if you want to use it with more than one. And both bikes will need the same bottom bracket standard (or adapters) and will have to same the same size big chainring -- unless you want to be changing rings or adjusting front derailleurs just to move it to another bike.

Quarq is by all accounts a great power meter but seriously limits your crank choice. You'd better be sure you are OK with just their cranks. You can forget about Shimano cranks. And the whole bottom bracket/chainring issues apply to them as well.

Garmin seems pretty good but now you've limited your pedal choice. Their prices seem to be dropping a bit. They also appear to agree with Stages that one-arm power is good enough for most people with their new, Vector-S one pedal option. Certainly install requires more care so moving between bikes has that requirement.

Don't know too much about Power2Max -- I'm sure it's wonderful -- but you still appear to have most of the the other limitations of cranks that you'd get with SRM/Quarq

Stages somewhat simplifies the thing about moving between bikes -- if you have the same type and length crank on each one that is. If not, there goes your portability. The price point is good. The weight is minimal. But then there is the accuracy question.

Read the review. DC Rainmaker seems to think -- and his data seems to back it up -- that the Stages data tracks excellently with Powertap. In terms of sheer accuracy, Powertap and SRM have long been regarded as the "blue chip" units so that is good enough for me. I don't think I would consider it good enough if I were the type of cyclist who needed very accurate data for my 15 second sprint power. But for everything from racing tris to pacing long rides to 20 minute FTP tests, you are going to end up within a few watts of a good Powertap. As many have pointed out on this forum, it's not so much the abolute power reading of a power meter as it is how consistent it is over time that will allow you to get full benefit out of it.

Plus as DC Rainmaker noted, the Stages is the only one to automatically adjust for varying temperatures (Read the bit out the climbing he did in varying temps).

Just thinking about it, the idea of just doubling left crank power doesn't seem very good. But the data seems to disagree. I would love to see stages come up with a two-crank-arm version that accurately measures each side.

For the past few years I've used Powertap and loved it. I still do. I put my disc cover on and race with an aero front wheel and like it. But my older racing wheels (which I much prefer) fell into dis-use as I found I wanted power in my races. And I have a couple of sets of fantastic light/strong Shimano DA wheelsets whose rear wheels get no use that I would like to ride on and still have power. I have several bikes with the same size Shimano cranks.

So for me Stages checks a number of boxes. You need to figure out what matters to you.

>If you don't actually care about knowing when your new 20 minute power record is actually a record or not, or care if you are pacing your TT perfectly or just kind of OK, or doing your intervals spot on or just close, and don't intend to do any field testing of >your position or equipment, then yeah, stages is nice.

OK, now I'm just going to start posting hater-gon-hate gifs.

Just curious...why do you say this?

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Because none of the Quarq models I can see offered are for Shimano cranks. They're owned by SRAM. Am I missing something?

My power tap has been rock solid since I bought it 4 yrs ago. And the CycleOps folks have some of the best customer service of ANY business I've ever dealt with (email responses within minutes). If you don't like getting your hands greasy switching your rear wheel that might be a problem though.

No your not missing something. I was just wondering if you had a preference for Shimano cranks.

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I do have a preference for Shimano cranks. Mostly because I run full Shimano gruppos. Other parts -- SRAM and FSA work fine, of course and I've swapped them in from time to time.

Yeah I agree with you about keeping everything the same even though it works with SRAM or FSA cranks. I wish Shimano would make a power meter!

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On the one hand, I would like to see Shimano buy stages and then do what I suggest -- make a two-arm version. On the other hand, if they did, then Stages would probably become a Shimano-only power meter and I sort of like that they are system-agnostic.

As much as double sided power is useless in a sense, this could be a good idea for Shimano/Stages.

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Well I guess more useful in the sense that it would eliminate all the accuracy objections people have to merely doubling left sided power. An uber-conservative company like Shimano would be all about the accuracy thing, I think. Again, they could do the opposite of Garmin and offer it as an option.

If you get a crankset power meter and are going to swap it more than a few times a year. I would very much recommend going sram. I've used both quarq and stages and can swap out the sram crank in about two mintues. Shimano on the other hand is a pain and I've found the bolts have a tendency to strip. You also need to be careful with the torque on the shimano cranks at least for stages or the reading will get thrown off.

>On the one hand, I would like to see Shimano buy stages and then do what I suggest -- make a two-arm version. On the other hand, if they did, then Stages would probably become a Shimano-only power meter and I sort of like that they are system-agnostic.

Sort of agnostic because they don't (yet) work with carbon cranks, which eliminates a good chunk of the SRAM and Campy cranks, among a lot of others. I just a have an ego problem with sticking a Rival crank arm on my gorgeous Red crank.

I'd like to see them work with carbon shit. Because carbon.

There's no way to measure strain on a carbon crank arm

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