imswimmer328 wrote:
Terrible price. I can get a quarq with cranks and chainrings for a little over $800. I can get a power2max with cranks and chainrings for $750. Why on earth would I pay $900 for pedals?
You
can get crank-based PM's for that kind of money. But there are situations where it may not make a lot of sense. Mostly due to Shimano and SRAM trying hard to push us to their OEM-provided PMs.
Like in the middle of COVID I needed a new road bike, and found a smoking deal on a new old-stock bike equipped with SRAM AXS Red. Came with a regular AXS Red chainring - not the direct-mount PM. So my options were limited.
I could:
a) Buy a new AXS Red PM chainring (~$850), try to sell my old chainring.
b) Downconvert to the Force AXS crank (~$850), try to sell my Red crankset.
c) ?
I think it's similar issues for people buying bikes speced with Shimano cranksets. You can either use the Shimano PM system (which my understanding,
still isn't all that great in some ways), or go through the process of buying an aftermarket crank and trying to sell your OEM equipment.
I went with option a), above. And the value of "new take-off" cranks is typically is well under retail value. But if this Wahoo PowrLink had been around at the time, it'd have been attractive as option c) (as a Speedplay user).
I, for one, am glad that Wahoo is providing an interesting option, and throwing a wrench into SRAM and Shimano's attempted OEM hegemony in the PM market. (I'm a huge fan of Power2Max as well).
I wish bikes could be ordered with detailed swap-outs of components, but that's a whole other thread. I've had bike shops do that for me, but my understanding is that it was a gray-market bro-deal situation, e.g. the bike shop taking on the hassle of trying to sell/re-use the take-off parts to get the bike sale, not something that the shop's bike suppliers endorsed.