I always like to ask people 2 questions when they're starting a power meter search:

1. Do you typically do all your training/racing on a single bike?
2. Are you comfortable buying used?

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Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
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If you are already thinking pedals, then the Assioma Favero are a no-brainer. These barely have any negative comments unless you look really hard, and even those I suspect were user error. I had a set of PowerTap P1 pedals which I liked a lot. When those were worn out, I considered the P2, V3, and Favero. I am so glad I chose the Favero-- and they are the cheapest.

I know you said you liked pedals, but if you're just concerned about price I'd look at a power2max ng eco. Well within your price range, and then you can use whatever pedal you want, since most power pedals don't have the best clip in/out mechanisms. Also speedplays are more aero :P

Yes Ive been looking into these as well- they are also waterproof which I think is important as I live in NY and train in all types of weather. I think these are my best option. Thanks!

Yes I train on the bike I race with, unfortunately my financial status as of right now doesn't allow me to have a "trainer" bike and a race bike. I have a Cervelo P2.
No, I would like to buy new with warranty if possible.
Thanks.

If you're set on pedals, the Faveros are definitely the move. Personally I think crank based options are much simpler to deal with and if you only ride one bike like I do, then I really think they're the way to go. In your price range, there were a few Quarqs available on discount during the black friday/cyber monday deals, but there are always Power2Max spider based options available under your pricepoint as well. I use a power2max NGEco and even though its not the absolute nicest power meter on the market, it simply works.

Depending on your current crank/chainring setup, you may be able to just pick up a spider, replace it with your current one, and be on your way. https://power2max.cc/...geco-road-powermeter
Or you could get one with the FSA Gossamer cranks for still under $500. DC Rainmaker has pretty much only good things to say about the NG Eco. I just like the cleanliness of spider based power meters, and then if you ever want to swap up your pedals (like how I'm swapping from Shimano to Speedplay right now) you at least have that option.

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Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
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You can also go Favero Uno... nearly half the price, for nearly same precision.

Oh and it looks like their black friday deal is still going on: https://power2max.cc/...ack-friday-sale-2019, free chainrings with any purchase.

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Uh... "nearly the same precision"? Only if you have very good left-right power balance across a wide range of power outputs. This is the case for some people, but not for many others. In my case, when I had the opportunity to run a left-only Stages crank arm in parallel with my Quarq for a few rides, the Stages gave average power readings 10-12% higher than the Quarq. I'm quite left-side dominant at low-to-medium intensity, but get much more balanced at higher output. That's enough of an error to make it useless.

The problem is that most of the people contemplating purchasing a single-sided PM never have the opportunity to find out if they have good power balance, so it's a crapshoot as to whether they will get useful data.

If we want to get technical. It would have the same "precision" but not the same "accuracy". Thanks middle school math class for that distinction!

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actually, it would be both precision and accuracy that are issues. precision would be affected by the variability in L/R balance, and accuracy by the average L/R balance.

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Well each pedal on it's own would be equally as "precise" correct? The left power would be giving the same power numbers whether or not there is a right connected. Though I guess the numbers displayed to the rider would still be less precise.

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Well, certainly useless for estimating CdA and Crr, which require accuracy across a wide range of power.

The side it is measuring would be precise, but there is no precision in the side it is estimating, so the total power precision (the sum of the good side plus the estimated side) could be in the range of ±5% (or worse), depending on how much your power balance moves around based on cadence, output, fatigue, etc.

If your power balance is static in all conditions, then a single-sided PM could be precise but not accurate. But, if your power balance changes based on conditions, then an SSPM would be neither precise nor accurate.

yeah, each pedal or crankarm on its own would have both good accuracy and precision, that's a technical measurement problem that has nothing to do with whether the PM is single sided or not. The issue is in the conversion of the single sided number to a total number based off the assumption that the opposite side is the same as the measured side (affects accuracy) and that the L/R ratio is constant (affects precision)

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I have no idea why anyone even considers the Garmin pedals at all. Even if you discount all the issues they have had in the past, they are still more expensive, heavier, and require you to constantly buy batteries which take careful steps to install properly and avoid said errors of the past as compared to just plugging them in once a week.

That said...I've always used crank based. Even when swapping between 3 bikes (road, TT, CX). It takes me less than a minute to swap, and I only have to tighten and loosen one bolt (SRAM/Quarq style self extracting) instead of two. It's always lefty loosey, righty tighty, and I've found it's always easier to get leverage when loosening a crank than it is to loosen a pedal.

The one main advantage of pedals is if you want to travel and rent/borrow a bike. Way easier to put a couple of pedals in your luggage than it is to take a crank and hope that the bike you're borrowing has the appropriate BB. Pedals also lets you apply them to bikes that may have different chainring sizes. Such as if your road bike has 50/34, TT bike has 52/36, and alternate bike is 1x or 46/36. The main downside of course is that you're stuck with road style pedals. With crank based, you do have a bit of flexibility to use MTB pedals if you want for a CX or gravel type bike. Not totally necessary, but something minor to consider.

I'll echo Ben's suggestion on Power2Max. I had a Type-S on a bike for 3+ years and the only thing I had to do was change the battery 1-2x a year (I just sold this bike). Another Type-S is on my road bike, and I've had that for two years - zero issues. I just got a new tri bike and ordered and NGeco for that one - arrives in two days. They simply do their job, and that's what you want in a bike component.

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Yeah, but who cares about that geeky crap? A handful of dorks that think they can fake speed with a bunch of squiggly lines on a friggin computer screen. Most of us know better, we get our off-the-shelf Barcalounger waste-a-bucketful-of-watts positions from our friendly local neighborhood bike "fitter". Because it's essential that you can be nice and comfy for that Iron distance tri you'll never do.

OK, snark aside, I'm an older rider for whom success means just keeping my power loss minimal from year to year, and the best way to do that is to not get very out of shape in the offseason. That means my critical power (kinda like FTP but more sciencey) varies less than 10% during the course of the entire year. If I switched to a different power meter that read 10-12% higher (as did Stages in my comparison), that would make my historical data pretty much completely useless and leave me wandering around in the dark as to whether I'd actually had a sudden major increase in fitness or was losing my mind or something.

As far as I'm concerned, if you don't use a power meter that's accurate and precise, you might as well save your money and just train by PE instead.

For me, budget folks should just go crank and used.

I got a used Dura Ace 7900 Stages gen 2 for like $150 on Ebay. Just gotta be good at sniping stuff.

Also, to be honest, if you're not a total hamfisted know nothing you can swap a left crank over in the same time as a pair of pedals between bikes. I use the same crank sizes on TT and road now.

I typically don't swap between bikes on back to back to back days. Usually it's only a swap every other week.

This is a no brainier.

Favero uno for under 500. Swaps between bikes super fast and stupidly easily.

Can upgrade to the duo later if inclined but likely not necessary for most. Even if you have a left right power imbalance,.it likely won't matter for.most agers. Heck most agers literally get equally effective training using virtualpower on a fluid trainer which are.often off by 30 to 80 watts and variable across the power range.

Sigh... a number of us presented Mr. Lightheir with tons of data (apparently unsuccessfully) on the limitations of left-only power in this thread.

Annnd, while I don't disagree with that data, I still say most of you are making a mountain out of a molehill..

Again, you do not need 100% perfect data to get awesome training - as I mentioned previously, you can use freaking virtualpower, be off by 50watts or more, but somewhat precise in the offset, and get just as good training as you would with a $1000 powermeter. Yeah, I've done it in my Powertap Hub days where PMs were $1000+.

Bottom line that NO coach would disagree with me on - the powermeter itself does not make you faster. YOU make yourself faster by training harder. The powermeter 'can' help you get marginal gains out of that training better, but it is marginal, meaning not essential. This is also why top coach Matt Dixon doesn't emphasize going all-in on power on his well thought out training plans - in fact, in his Fast Track Triathlete book which came out only like last year (meaning PMs were already cheap), he only alludes to power targets, and his bike workouts are mostly subjectively targeted (hard, very hard, max, easy, etc).

For all you folks who think those 5, 10 watts differing between the Favero Uno and Duo (at varying powers) are so vital to your awesome bike training, you do realize that your daily performance capabilities easily vary by that much just on your current training load, sleep variety, daily activity, etc. ,right?

I guarantee all those folks beating you on the bike course, aren't doing it mainly because they're rocking a Favero Duo compared to your Favero Uno. Even the guy who beat you by 5 seconds.

And ok, if you're trying to break the hour world record, or are a tip top pro who's done all the marginal things already, sure, I'll buy your argument that you absolutely need the Favero. For everyone else, I don't buy your argument that your Favero Uno is holding you back compared to those with a Duo. Not one bit.

Agree 100%. My best gains in cycling came at a time I was using virtual power on the trainer. Establish virtual FTP, do structured training based on FTP, repeat as needed.

I'm also looking into a PM and the 1-sided Favero product is looking real good to me right now. What would I do with only a 1-sided PM, hmmmmm....Establish FTP, do structured training based on FTP, repeat as needed.

I would also highly recommend power2max as well. They are the definition of set it and forget it. And, it gives you greater flexibility in choosing your pedals. I switched to them (from power tap pedals which I also liked) and can’t imagine ever using a different brand for quality and value and ease of use. I really don’t think you need dual sided. I had dual for a year. Once I realized my leg power was literally always within 2% of each, I went single to save money. Obviously not everyone is the same in that regard though. But I do think if your legs vary more than a couple percent you would probably know it without a PM telling you that and just concentrate on evening it out.