Bad man. Was not supposed to be spending anything on bikes this month. They’ve also got a promotion on with £20 voucher and its 7% cash back at topcashback. Not too fussed if it is a mark1 mates just failed close to the end of the 2 year warranty but was sorted in a week.

DCRainmaker on Limits again

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/11/limits-responds-still.html

wonder if they will head this way

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-11/20/zano-investigated-trading-standards

My Powertap GS is here. As far as I can tell without building it up it seems to work… Have connected to it with my Garmin several times, checked that the torque display goes up when I twist it with my hands. Anything else I can check before ordering a rim…? Ta!

Might be worth popping the cap off and seeing if the software upgraded thing can talk to it.

Just waiting for Xtr to drop to closer to 350ish. Got to be on the cards

I bought when the stock level of the 175mm was down to 3. That left 2 about 2-3 weeks ago. I wouldn’t leave it too long!

I’m wedded to XTR M980 for about the next decade (multiple chainsets and spare rings) so having another Stages made sense.

is that from Merlin or Evans?

edit – Merlin, unable to add 3 to basket

Might be worth popping the cap off and seeing if the software upgraded thing can talk to it.

Thanks. Hmm, I talked to someone about building it up, and he said he’s not a fan of the GS since the ‘flanges’ such that they are (straight pull) are so close together, so they don’t build up super-strong wheels. And I’m not super-light (only 78 kg, so not THAT fat!).

So now I’m having second thoughts…. I could still send the GS back. Vector 2s would be about the same price, and a lot less hassle (I have wheels that I’m happy with anyway). But that would be left side only…. gnnnrgh! Not sure what to do. Might wait until tomorrow just in case of any bargains. Ideal would be full Vector 2 or P1, but I don’t think that’ll be cheap enough for me.

Ideal would be full Vector 2 or P1, but I don’t think that’ll be cheap enough for me.

With the vector you can buy the 2S then get the other pedal later if initial outlay seems a bit much.

Also new review of the InfoCrank over at dcrainmaker…

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/11/verve-infocrank-review.html

Can’t see why you would. Unless there is a serious price restructuring. And having to superglue something to the frame?! At least they are planning to do away with that.

While on the subject of crank based PM’s, going almost un-noticed is the PowerTap C1. Dual sided, can be had for 520 quid. Not really looked into them. Assume there’s something not right as no-one seems to be buying.

Edit… hmm worn chainrings means sending it back to PowerTap. That’d put me off a bit. Still for a turbo bike solution it would probably be pretty good.

It’s rings only isn’t it? And 110mm 5 arm BCD – who uses that?

It’s rings only isn’t it? And 110mm 5 arm BCD – who uses that?

Can be had cheap 🙂

I have Campagnolo cranks so the C1 is out for me. Does seem a little restricted…

It looks really really shit too, like something off a £100 supermarket bike!

Can’t argue with that. I’d not put it on a bike that I’d take out in public!

Just waiting for Xtr to drop to closer to 350ish. Got to be on the cards.

£404 at Merlin now

I got my new stages (Third one) second Gen Last night under warranty replacement. The housing (second one) had actually cracked which was picked by the stages support person.

Profile of the meter and the cap look much better. This is the one the bike journos have been reviewing of late and not whinging, so they must have got it right. Only time will tell.

Have to say, the service of my local Evans, Stages and Saddleback have been great.
If you shopping around for cheap stages on the Black Friday sales. Try and avoid the first generation and use a LBS where you can do a face to face warranty replacement if required.

In case you’ve missed it, 2nd gen Stages on latest 105 to be had for 400 quid at Sigma Sport. 500 for Ultegra.

Also, would I be mad to buy a PowerTap C1? My old PowerTap hub I think is on its last legs on the turbo mule and I quite fancy moving to a direct drive turbo at some point too. Can get the C1 for 420 quid. Very tempting.

Hmm just noticed it does BLE as well as ANT+ so I could run TrainerRoad on the iPad. Hmmm. I was going to get an ANT+ dongle so that’d save me 40 quid at least.

Glad to see 2nd generation Stages in XTR M980 – but at nearly double the price of Merlin’s 1st generation. I think if mine start to play up again I’ll be knocking on Saddleback’s door!

Well my C1’s turned up today. Looks a decent enough bit of kit. Shall fit it to the turbo bike tomorrow and run it together with the PowerTap hub for a while and compare the numbers before retiring the hub. Be nice to be able to run TrainerRoad on the iPad. Anyone know how well BLE works compared to ANT+?

The Stages at £404 are very tempting – https://www.merlincycles.com/stages-power-shimano-105-5700-63995.html

Amusing to see LIMITS’s timeline slipping seconds after they told DCR off for suggesting they were never going to meet their own schedule 🙄

Evans were doing the 105 5700 even cheaper at £360 plus a £20 voucher. Deal might still be on.

Amusing to see LIMITS’s timeline slipping seconds after they told DCR off for suggesting they were never going to meet their own schedule

They’re saying that they’ll be shipping batches in January, February and March. From what I’ve read about them I’d be amazed if they have shipped any by March.

They’ve also said that there’s going to be a prototype available for reviewers in two weeks. I’ll believe that when I see it.

March 2017.. 2018…?

InfoCrank price cut (here). Now £1150 RRP. Not much more than a set of Vectors or P1’s. Though still about twice the price of the C1’s and the cheaper Power2Max. Don’t know why I’d want to spend more on the InfoCrank.

Pretty pleased with the C1 rings so far. Easy enough to fit to a 5 arm Tiagra chainset. Stuck it on the turbo bike. Paired ANT+ and BLE. Though no power initially reported over BLE. Quick firmware update with the “no power reported fix” using the iOS app and all is good. Shall run it in parallel with the PowerTap hub tonight and do some comparisons.

did anyone jump on these?

https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/accessories/#category=specials&subcat=T012

I might well have done if they hadn’t sold out before I saw them… bah!

What were they? Link doesn’t work for me.

Vector 2 and 2s for very good prices. Something like £7xx for Vector 2, £450 for 2s, if I remember rightly. I could just about still send back my Powertap GS (today is last day of 14 day return period), so would have been sorely tempted if I’d seen it before they all went.

Well worth checking out Canyon sales. I got my RHS Vector upgrade there for £380 after a mate pointed it out (he’d just brought a Vector S from them.)

Interesting first turbo with the C1 here. Seems to be reading between about 5 and 10% over the powetap hub (which is fairly consistent with my Vectors and Power2Max.) I’d expect them to be a few watts higher but not that much. Though checking the instructions I’ve not torqued the chainring bolts enough (thought it was 5 Nm but needs to be 11 Nm) so shall do them up and check again.

DC Rainmaker has a review of the PowerTap C1 up now.

Mine unfortunately still seem to be reading about 20 watts high and don’t seem to be “settling in”. Shall be giving PowerTap a call.

Interesting. Have you taken the rings off and re-torqued/did you do it diagonally from bolt to bolt?

Yup, as per instructions. Just checked and my chain is a bit stretched, shall try changing that and see if it makes a difference.

I’ve pretty much decided that I want to get a power meter for the bike and I’ve been looking into a few different ones.
So far I’ve pretty much decided that I wan to go with a pedal based system so I can easily switch it between two bikes, both of which have different BB’s so a crank based unit is a non-starter.

I’m leaning towards a Garmin Vector 2S and an upgrade to a second pedal as and when funds allow. Is there any greta reason to go for a set of Powertap P1’s over the Garmin?
From what I can see so far there’s not much difference apart from price.

Well the P1 is double sided, so you need to compare to the Vector 2, not the S, and the Powertap is cheaper. Easier to swap between bikes, so I’d get P1s over Vector 2. To compare to 2S is a bit apples/oranges.

I should’ve been a bit clearer there, I’m comparing the Vector 2S once the extra pedal’s been added to make the set to the P1’s.

The price difference doesn’t seem to be huge, you can pick up the Vectors for about £830 a set if I were to buy them complete rather than one at a time and the P1’s are £880 with the Wiggle platinum discount.

One thing with the P1’s is that the DC Rainmaker review says that they need to use Powertap specific cleats but the description on Wiggle says that they are Look Keo compatible.

I’d go with P1’s if you ever intend moving them between bikes. Vector owners would rather swap chainsets than risk breaking the pods. P1’s are treated like any other pedal. I believe the KEO cleats fit, but may creak. The ones with grip may be a better fit.

I have the vectors and would say TiRed’s advice is right. Not so worried about breaking the pods, but they do need to be installed quite carefully and take a bit of bedding in. I very infrequently swap between bikes and when I do I just leave the pedals on and swap the entire crankset. Still really like them though. And the V2 pods are a lot easier to install.

Ignoring the swapping of pedals thing the Vectors are a bit lighter, and if you use a recent Garmin head unit they do all the Dynamics pedalling analysis stuff, which aside from producing some pretty graphs is fairly useless!