New Stages Power Meter? Anyone have one yet?
I'm looking into purchasing the new Stages Power Meter, does anyone have one or have you heard any feedback regarding this product? Deciding between this and Quark, with Stages being a bit cheaper. Here's a link to the Stages website- http://www.stagescycling.com/stagespower-models-tri
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Are they shipping? I think DCrainmaker did a preview of them. General rule of thumb regarding new gadgets like this is don't be a beta tester and wait for the 2nd generation. That said, the price point is appealing.
Mine's on pre-order. haven't received it yet. The initial testing looks very positive from the company. A professional cycling coaching company tweeted today that it's been testing the StagesOne PM against the SRM and PT and that SRM and StagesOne are spot on equal with PT reading values approximately 5% lower but still consistent. I think this is going to be the biggest product in the power meter market this year.
Being an early adopter is poopoo'd on in da haus. But I don't think it's a big deal to go through some growing pains for an ultimately good product. I did it with the Joule, as did a lot of us here. If it ends up being a crap product, oh well.
It makes a big difference when your season plan says you're going to do this, and this, and that across your season, counting on power to be there for testing, measuring, race rehearsals, etc. Then spend time chasing bogus power readings, always wondering if the PM is correct, or at least consistent; tossing the PM back and forth to the manufactuer, via UPS, and generalyl dealing wth the friction of being a company's unpaid beta tester vs training.
Awesome if it works out. If it doesn't it potentially can cause a lot of friction and angst across a season. With so many used, proven systems out there, if you're cash strapped, I just can't see why anyone would put their season in the hands of an unproven product.
Again, I've seen it many, many times.
I held off for the Garmin Vector as long as I could.
Looks like it's a PowerTap for me.
Yeah don't wait for the Garmin pedals. The functionality and reliability of the electronics isn't there yet, and even the pedals are crappy. Team Garmin only sporadically used them with functional electronics (mostly in training camps), almost all of their training and racing was done with dummy pedals (which were no good).
I gave up after the last update from Garmin, when they publicly announced that they had absolutely no idea when the Vector would be available. They went from vaporware to noware. I bet the dudes Garmin bought the concept from are relaxing on some beach sipping colorful beverages, laughing their hineys off.
nealhenderson
Three power files from today:
@stagescycling http://tpks.ws/FF0a
@SRMtraining http://tpks.ws/HKd9
@CycleOpsPower http://tpks.ws/RI1N
Same ride. 3 PMs, 3 head units.
The short answer is that I ordered a new bike months ago and delivery was being held up by availability of the new DA crankset. So instead of waiting for the crankset, and the unavailable Stages PM that was also delayed because of Shimano issues, I elected to go with the Quarq and different chainrings so that I could finally get my bike. I would have stuck with it if I didn't have the other issues.
My brother did get one that he swaps easily between his road bike and tri bike. His initial experience (about the last 6 weeks) is that he's not having any issues with consistency or reliability. Because he had a PT before, which records at the hub, his power numbers were slightly higher which would be expected. But he has not had any problems with the device transmitting data to his computer which he can read, train, and race with, which is ultimately what matters.
I don't think the issue of "left leg stronger than right leg" or vice versa is a real world issue for the vast majority of cyclists. And up until a few months ago, especially with the development of this PM, 99+% of triathletes would never have even give this a thought as an issue with their technical cycling ability. Now all of a sudden the technology to measure left and right and see and analyze it is being developed so now people are thinking about it. The Stages only records power delivered to the left crank arm then doubles it. Probably accurate enough for most people, and accurate enough for everyone who doesn't think about leg discrepancy. But don't forget that other power meters that measure left/right power don't do it directly either. The Quarq Elsa and Red, as well as the Power2max, measure at the spider (drive side) by measuring right leg power as the right leg goes from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock then records "left" power as the right leg goes from 6 o'clock to 12 o'clock presuming that the left leg is doing it's work while it's going from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock. Probably more accurate than Stages, but probably not by alot, unless again, there is a large leg discrepancy. Only the Garmin and Polar pedal based PM's measure each directly and independantly. Rotor and Pioneer are also coming out with new PM's this year that have Stages-like devices on both crank arms so they will be the first to measure left and right independantly at the crank arm. This will make them extremely accurate overall. They will also be extremely expensive.
As you can tell, I've done a ton of research on this. I can tell you that especially for the athlete who is new to power (who would have no prior comparison to other technology) or who can't afford to shell out a ton of cash, I still think this is a great option. It's a power meter for the masses, no more, no less. It will do what every other PM out there does. It will give you data that you can record and analyze then use to guide your EN training and racing.
My Powertap is always telling my head units (yes, that's plural) that it has a low battery, even one ride after replacing the battery. Now I just change the battery before every race when I install the disk cover. It's easier then tracking months or milage.
My Quarq has been trouble free for over 1 year. So, two out of three ain't bad.
My n=1 is that it is all part of the journey when you elect to train and race with power. All that being said, I would shiver at the thought of a unit with a reputation of anything less than being absolutely stellar. Because I have had three with stellar reps and two have/had issues.
For what it is worth, I know that DCRainMaker is re-reviewing Stages at the request of the company.....
50/50
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52/48
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For me, had I been more patient, Stages would have been a good PM for me, and saved me about $1200.