Woah...

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

Well that may be very depressing.

Well, this might explain why the G4 hub, which was previewed back in July, still hasn't hit the market.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Yeah, in a nutshell once the acquisition winds started swirling late last year, PowerTap paused development. The good news is talking with Jim at Quarq, they absolutely plan to bring that to market. He noted it's one of the key reasons why they acquired PowerTap.

Timelines are of course up in the air now, and there's likely some tweaking that SRAM will want to do (primarily around compatibility it sounds like), but that project isn't likely to die or anything.

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My tiny little slice of the internets: dcrainmaker.com

Maybe Zipp wheels will now finally come with decent hubs.

My first Powertap hub from 2008 is still in operation, after years of year-round riding in Chicago no less. Sold the wheelset to a friend who is still riding the wheelset. Incredible.

I purchased two sets of Zipp NSW wheels (404s and 808s), both have had a hub fail (front on the 404, rear on the 808 just yesterday, and I have my first race of the season Sunday). Zipp has been great about servicing, but seriously, what a PITA. Now I'm racing on a flat windless course this weekend on a set of 404s like a pansie.

I’m rolling a pair of Zipp 303 circa 2013 without any issues whatsoever ... then again it could be the Powertap hubs I have in them. ;-)

No more Hed Cycling products with PT hubs I guess

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

my PT hubs never lasted long before requiring bearing replacement and only reason I stuck with them for a while was that it was local to me.

Sad to see..... I always enjoyed having support just down the road.

'08? peeshaw!

I have a 2003 wired PT still going strong. I just moved it to my road bike after 15 years, and bought an SL+ for the TT.

I didn't even know about that! Other than the rechargeable battery I'm not seeing how this is an upgrade for road/TT... not even a non-disc model. Never liked straight pull spokes.

Happy to see PT will still be manufactured in the US

i couldn't get jim to give much up. i guess the one piece of news i got from his is that they aren't planning to fold powertap into quarq, and disappear the powertap brand. i was at sea otter when this went down, and didn't have time to write about it (i just have my analysis up today). but - tho i may be wrong - i think this is about the hub. more than the pedals.

the last time i polled this we got about 1,250 respondents, and half said they want their PMs in their pedals. meanwhile 4 percent said they wanted power in the hub. but i suspect jim thinks that the hub is a dandy place for power, and i'd love to see what jim and the guys at zipp come up with. i can tell you that if PT took a centerlock rotor, that would be my choice. and, i'd be surprised if they don't offer it to other wheel makers.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

People have very different experiences on that score. The Pro and SL generation were very sensitive to having correct tolerances, plus QR pressure. My current SL is rough and tight just holding it in my hands, but if I clamp the axle with a QR it's smooth. Don't know if that was changed for the G3s.

Here's my take on why SRAM may be more enamoured with Powertap's hub power meter than the pedals which consumers currently seem to prefer:

Hub based power is what's needed for a potential .cda meter to really work properly. Pedal- and crank-based power meters are better for measuring your physiological effort, but variabilities in drivetrain efficiency make them a relatively poor data source for the .cda equation. .cda equation doesn't care how hard you're pushing the pedals, .cda equation cares how much of that effort is actually going to make the wheel turn.

I could see a future where high end bikes have both a crank and a hub based power meter. The crank meter is used by the athlete to gauge effort, the hub meter feeds the optional aerowidget, while the delta between crank and hub is constantly monitored, and feedback is given to the athlete regarding the drivetrain loss. This might help them to evaluate which gear combinations are most efficient, as well as when drivetrain maintenance is required.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Interesting concept. With hub and crank PT, you could keep track of maintenance requirements and measure your drive train losses. Those are 0.1% problems, let alone first-world problems.

I'm surprised so few people would want hub power meters per survey. It's my preference. I mainly train indoors and don't need two power readings at once.

Personally I have 2 road bikes and a TT bike that I ride outside and would like power on, and 4 different sets of wheels as the bikes are a mixture of 10 and 11 speed, and I have both training and race wheels in both 10 and 11 speed.

So although I fully recognise that pedals are an imperfect place to put a power meter, for me it's far and away the best solution. Consistent power readout whatever I'm riding, and only one power meter to buy, maintain and charge vs 4. Plus as an added bonus I can take them with me on the occasions when I ride a hired or borrowed bike, which is typically a few times a year.

I already have to keep track of the fact that my trainer gives different (though consistently different) readings from my pedals, my outdoor power is higher than my indoor power (even allowing for power meter variance) and that my road position power is higher than my tri/TT position. Life is complicated enough without having any more power meters!

I used to have Speedplay pedals (which I love) and bought the Vector on a Black Friday sale. So now I have switched over to that and I can only see myself going with a pedal based powermeter (please Speedplay). I love the fact I can take them off my tri bike and switch them to my road bike in 5 minutes. Crank based power meters are too expensive to buy per bike, so I agree with you and I had a PowerTap Hub (Elite+) which I had a blast with but it doesn't hold a candle to the pedals despite them not measuring oval rings correctly (come on Garmin). To make my long story short.....I agree with you.

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"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

If you have 2 bikes and 4 wheels, it makes sense to go with pedals.

I second that if speedplay came out with a power version of their aero pedals, I'd consider that too.

Reckon most people who are serious enough to be training with power have at least a couple of bikes and wheelsets. Certainly all the roadies I know tend to have a race bike and a winter/trainer bike, and nearly all triathletes have a road bike as well. Suspect my 3 road-going bikes and 4 wheelsets is probably about average, maybe even a bit below!

I wrote Speedplay about 2 years ago I think....asking them about a pedal powermeter and they said they had no plans to do it...but of course even if they did why would they tell some random customer of theirs. Anywho....yes I am eagerly awaiting a Speedplay power pedal.

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"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

What does seriousness have to do with number of bikes or wheels? The latter has more to do with wealth. I race on my P5 with 7.8 and it was perfectly fine when I trained outside pre-smart trainer. The only other bike I need is my MTB, which I ride around town and to commute. I'd rather fully invest in one really good bike than 3 mediocre ones and there isn't much of a need to measure power outside of training/racing. I don't care if I push 150W or 300W on my way to the grocery store even though I consider myself serious about racing.

The only way 3 road bikes and 4 wheel sets are average is if your sample is from a wealthy area, or if you let people count the dusty Schwinn that's in the attic. The people in the 3 tri clubs I've been exposed to have 1-2 bikes and 1-2 wheel sets, including the regulars to Kona

Maybe it depends where you live. I'm in UK, a lot of the roads around me aren't particularly suitable for tri bikes (twisty, hilly, traffic, etc) so most triathletes have a road bike. And the weather and roads get bad enough that most people also have a winter bike and training wheels (and tires) that are better suited for wet weather, winds, potholes, and crap on the road.

By "serious" I just meant somebody who wants to be able to ride year round in different conditions and also different types of riding e.g. Group rides, road races, tri/TT races. I.e. Not the casual rider who only goes out in nice weather and doesn't race.

You are way overestimating the accuracy and precision of these things...