I had a local Stages dealer order me a new Stages Dash computer as the reviews indicated it was very focused on helping organize and structure interval training and since I have 2 bikes with Stages power meters I had some faith in company. Many weeks later the Dash finally arrived and it was at a point, that for health reasons, I was limited to indoor trainers ( as I am for the long Canadian winters). I tried everything I could think of to get the Dash to work with 1) my computrainer with Powertap wheel 2) my Tacx Neo trainer. In both cases I could get heart rate(chest strap) and power but not speed, cadence or distance. I contacted Stages and after several back and forth emails they admitted that the Dash is not setup to work with either of my very popular indoor trainers and given that I had power couldn’t I just make do with that. This stuck me as a hugely either naive or just plain non cyclist answer to the problem-who buys a modern computer that doesn’t give distance, speed or cadence-sure there are workarounds like using Zwift but why in this day would any company put out a product without these features functional in a very common training environment.
I also came to realize that the interval feature was only simple to use, and practical, IF you paid them a monthly fee to use their online software.
All in all it was too much for me and made the unit impractical. I did not want to leave the LBS stuck as I had asked them to special order it so I saw it as no fault of theirs. I had them contact Stages and Stages said sure they will accept a return but will charge a 15% “re stocking” fee.
Needless to say I no longer have “Stages” on my recommended list of companies to deal with and suggest great caution if looking at the Stages Dash computer-perhaps down the line if they make what they seem to infer are major changes to the computer but certainly it has huge limitations in its current form.
$100 lesson learned.
Do speed and distance have any meaning on a stationary trainer? You are stationary, after all.
Cadence yes can me a useful metric, but couldn’t you get cadence from your Stages PM?