My Stages Power Meter experience so far
Below is the email I just sent to Stages detailing my experience so far. It's obvious I received a bad unit so I have held off on being super critical as I'll gladly give them an opportunity to rectify the situation. They won't get a third chance.
I purchased my Stages power meter in late-July (order #105162). It was purchased to go on the new 2014 Trek Speed Concept that I had ordered about a week prior. I did not receive my bike until mid-September so the Stages power meter was not installed until that time. I had used a Quarq Cinqo power meter for about 3.5 years prior to this. I decided to go with the Stages power meter on my new bike for a couple of reasons: 1) My new bike had the new Dura-Ace Di2 11-speed drive train which was not compatible with my Quarq and 2) I love the new Dura-Ace crankset/chainrings with the ability to be both a compact and standard crankset. That’s why I purchased the Dura-Ace 9000 Stages equipped crank arm.
I was able to ride the bike with the Stages power meter 11 times over about six weeks between the time I received the bike and Ironman Florida this past weekend (I do all my weekday riding on my road bike on the bike trainer and only ride the triathlon bike with the Stages power meter on the weekend). Here are how those rides went:
Ride #1 – The Stages power meter worked maybe 5% of the time with about 95% signal loss using a Garmin 910XT on my wrist. An online search for “Stages power meter and Garmin 910” revealed an issue with the Garmin 910 and your power meter. Recommendations were to move the Garmin closer to the power meter if possible.
Ride #2 – The Stages power meter worked about 10% of the time with about 90% signal loss using the Garmin 910 mounted near the stem. That was slightly better than having the 910 on my wrist but still completely unacceptable.
Ride #3 – Decided to purchase a new head unit and went with the Garmin 510. Stages power meter worked flawlessly. I wasn’t particularly happy that I had to spend an additional $300 to get your product to work right but it seemed to solve the problem so I was happy with that.
Ride #4 - Stages power meter worked flawlessly.
Ride #5 – Stages power meter doesn’t work at all. I replaced the battery after the ride and that seemed to do the trick. Not sure why the battery would need changing but it did.
Ride #6 – Stages power meter worked flawlessly.
Ride #7 – Stages power meter didn’t work at all. Inspection of the unit showed the battery cover had somehow broken.
Ride #8 – I put tape around the Stages power meter and the crank arm to hold the battery cover in place. Seemed to work as the Stages power meter worked fine. I’m three weeks from Ironman Florida at this point so I figured I’d wait until after the race to get a new battery cover.
Ride #9 – Stages power meter doesn’t work at all. Once again, the battery had to be replaced. At this point I realized there must be a problem with my Stages power meter as it’s just eating batteries. I’m two weeks from Ironman Florida and do not want to risk sending it in and not having a power meter so I’m hoping I can just get through the race without issue.
Ride #10 – Stages power meter worked flawlessly.
Ride #11 – Stages power meter does not work at all. The battery had to be replaced again. That’s three battery changes in about six weeks and maybe 20 hours of total use. There’s an obvious problem with the unit.
Basically, my Stages power meter worked without issue on 5 out of 11 training rides. In comparison, I used my Quarq power meter hundreds of times and it worked flawlessly 100% of the time. I never once had an issue with the Quarq.
The bike sits in a bike stand when it’s not being ridden so there was never any constant pressure applied to the pedal/crank arm which could have caused the battery to drain. I heard that could be an issue for folks that lean their bike against something if the pedal or crank arm is touching something. That wasn’t the case.
Fast forward to this past week at Ironman Florida. I was really concerned about the reliability of my Stages power meter. I changed the battery a couple days before the race just to be safe. I took the bike out for a 10 mile ride two days before the race to be sure everything with the bike worked fine and everything was indeed fine.
I checked and calibrated the Stages power meter on race morning in transition and it seemed to work fine.
I finished the swim and hopped on my bike and the Stages power meter didn’t work. I pulled to the side to see if I could quickly troubleshoot it as maybe the power meter went to sleep and wasn’t waking up properly. I momentarily had it working and then the sensor signal on the Garmin 510 blinked and it was gone again and a sensor search turned up nothing. I manually entered the Stages ID # in the 510 to see if that would get it going again and nothing. It seemed the battery had been drained again.
I had been training with power for nearly four years at this point. I pace my races by my power numbers and now I was about to embark on a 112 mile bike ride without power and hopefully not overcook my bike ride so that I could have a good marathon to end the race. I felt like I was riding naked. Everything turned out okay in the end and I had a very good race.
What can we do to rectify this situation? Obviously, I need to have my Stages power meter sent back to you for replacement/service. I wish I had taken care of this prior to Ironman Florida but I wasn’t sure I’d have it back in time… which in hindsight didn’t much matter as it didn’t work on race day anyway.
Sincerely,
Bob McCallum
Comments
I do not have a Stages, however I know that new member Mike Dreyer has one and has also had multiple issues. He has been in contact with Stages since he received his unit and still is not satisfied. I will see if he can post the specifics.
J/K - That whole experience sounds hugely frustrating and I applaud you for not taking out your service weapon and shooting the shite out of it. Power is a cruel mistress….
I would appreciate his feedback. Thanks!
In fairness, Stages already had their early adaptor f**k-ups and corrected the issues within a couple of months (see DCRainmaker's revised review). My issue appears to be a bad unit. That could've happened with Quarq or SRM or PowerTap. I just got unlucky. Plus, the new 11-speed drivetrain limited what I could use right now.
Hi Bob.
Sorry to see you are having issues. I purchased a unit in late spring for the purpose of using it for my first 70.3. I trained on Virtual Power all winter and realized how good training could be using power measurements (even if virtual). However, the pricing of most units wouldn't have made it through my CFO. The Stages unit had both a good price point and I understood the technology, so I was very excited when it was released - all the articles and press were basically good.
Fast forward through purchase and install (easy) and on to my first tests. The first couple of times, I tried it out on the trainer. I have an older bontrager head unit with Ant+ that reads cadence, speed, power, HR and has offers some basic measurments and calculations ( intervals, avg, max, min, etc). I was successful in getting "some" readings..that is I would get a reading and then I would see nothing. The unit was mounted in the center of my handle bars, so it was only a few feet away from the unit. For comparison sakes, the unit can pick up my Ant+ Garmin HR strap from about 15 feet away. I thien tried to sync it with my Magellan Switch which I wear on my wrist, and sometimes on a mounting point on my handle bars as well. I had similar issues and though I would get some readings sporadically, I would not get continuous data. Finally, before calling Stages, I tried to sync with some apps on my cell phone (iPhone 5)and was unsuccessful with the Bluetooth.
Stages customer service was very good and I worked with Will Grossman over email for several exchanges. I provided feedback on test results and the different units I tried. They were helpful and listened, and offered lots of feedback. One of the recommendations was to test the unit with a Garmin 510 as this was the unit they recommended the most. I asked them if they were checking other devices and they said they were bringing on staff in the future to be able to do this type of testing. I didn't have a 510, but I did borrow one ( from Larry), and I was successful ( just as you were ). The only difference that Garmin had from any other device (other than Wahoo app ( I think it was this app ) was the ability to drop '0's and to actually lock onto a specific Ant+ device number or code. It did work flawlessly ( and actually, I think Stages should've made a deal to pair the units for sale ).
At this time, it was getting close to the race and I couldn't affor to purchase the Garmin 510, so I continued to work with Stages ( and spent a lot of time reading comments and reviews in varioius areas ) to find an answer. They had made suggestions that the BT on the iPhone 5 might have been spotty as it drops after a certain distance, but I know from using the BT for other things music streaming and BT headsets that it was not a problem. During the race, I was able to use my Bontrager unit to "spot" check my estimated power, but I was not getting consistent connectivity and it dropped several times a minute.
I did have some success with Wahoo and Strava Apps on the iPhone ( I provided feedback to Stages of this success in July ) and thought I had found the solution. However, like you have experienced, it was shortlived in terms of consistency and reliability.
Over the last couple of months, I did try some other things, such as the Viva 4iiii Ant+/BT HR monitor and bridge ( read about it on DC Rainmaker site ) and the Garmin Ant+ USB stick with TrainerRoad - both were able to pair, but not able to get good, repeatable readings. I cut my riding way down because of training for some other events and eventually just gave in to the fact that I would need to buy a 510 or an 810 to make this thing work. It would still be cheaper than the other power units on the market, but it sure depressed me as I thought BT4 and Ant+ were generally stable and standard technologies and thought this unit would be able to be more universally used.
I just sent an email to Stages yesterday to ask them to, at least, test the unit to make sure I'm not missing anything.
To summarize, I have tried the unit on the follwoing devices without repeatable long term success:
Ant+ Devices - Bontrager Node 1, Magellan Switch, Garmin Ant+ USB stick(TrainerRoad), Viva 4iiii
I had limited success with:
iPhone 5 Apps - Wahoo, Strava; Ant+ - Garmin 510
My apologies for the length, I recited most of this from my head, but have lots of emails if you want me to share them- just drop me a message and I can send you what I have. It seems like you are having similar issues, though it appears the battery drain appears to be the biggest problem. I'm hoping I don't buy a 510 or 810 only to discover this :-)
Again, Stages has been polite and I really really want the unit/technology to work as it is inexpensive and meets my basic needs. I am looking at a second bike and I was hoping to get another one at some point ( if it worked with Garmin 510/810 that I have planned to purchase)
Good luck and I'm anxious to hear the responses you get.
Hi David.
What do you use as a head unit?
Mike
@All ..... so far the Stages has been more reliable than my Quarq..... I am on my 3rd Quarq .... great service I know because I had to send 2 back LOL
Encouraging feedback - are you using a Garmin 500, 510, or 810?
Thanks
Mike
Michael,
Do you have some email addresses for the folks at Stages? They haven't responded to me yet.
Also, I have the same Di2 9070 system on my 2013 SC and I use the Quarq Elsa. I bought aftermarket 11 speed chainrings - brand name Stronglight. I run a 52/36 in a 110 BCD. My original plan was to go with Stages for the exact same reason Bob did - crank arm compatibility and wide variety of chainring combinations interchangeable. But when I got my bike a year ago, the Stages was back ordered and the Quarq wasn't. Still think that with a good unit, that would have been just as good.
HI Bob.
Yes, I heard back from them late last week and am waiting for information to send the unit back for analysis.
Please keep us updated as to what happens on your end.
Thanks.
Mike
Had a great exchange with Stages (Evan) and the provided me with a replacement.
Tested it tonight and it worked on every ANT + device and iPhone with no issues so far.
I used it with TR through my Garmin USB ANT+ stick and my Magellan Switch Up and both devices worked FLAWLESSLY with no drops.
I checked it on Wahoo on my iPhone and it worked well also.
No problems with 5-10' distances either.
I'll update in a week or so.
Mike
Another quick update.
Several more rides completed with TR and the Stages power meter is rocking it.
No technical or connection issues from replacement unit. It's been solid.
Like I mentioned before, its working well with all ANT devices.
Mike
I am in week 3 with my Stages. No issues...