Stages Brings Power Measurement to the Masses w/ Miniature Strain Gauge

Very interested. Looking forward to the review(s).

“The masses” have $700+ lying around just to know how much power they putting out? Really?
Man, I wish I was one of the masses.

Strain gauges are trival to use in this case: you have no interest in the forces radial or axial, as only the forces tangent to the radius can possible generate work. However, I agree that I don’t think it’s possible for them to do real power measurements since they’re missing a strain gauge on the *other* crank arm. (Imagine unclipping your left foot and pedaling only with your right: this system wouldn’t have any way of measuring power in that case. The most they could get from the other arm is acceleration but that doesn’t tell you much of anything about power.) It seems there would have to be a lot of hand-waving going on in the head unit.

Haha, PP makes a great point. I too wish I was one of the masses. Then I would spend that $700+ taking a few days off work to ride my bike and get more of a training benefit than I ever could from this (likely flawed) instrument.

I will pass, thanks!

Ok, so this isn’t for the whiny Freds like the previous posters, but $700 is sure a lot cheaper than $2000 for a Quarq.

I guess I just don’t understand roadies. Why not just measure your time or average speed over a known course with a $20 bike computer and try to improve that number? But I guess you guys are having too much fun spending boatloads of money on EPO, power meters, carbon wheels, etc. just to go a tiny bit faster. Sometimes I think I’d like to replace my steel cyclocross bike with a lightweight carbon racer bike, but then I see the slippery slope that leads to a dark world of insanity and mindless consumerism and I change my mind.

I will still get more training effect with $700 in EPO than $700 on a power meter.

Hey I just had an idea. If you can’t afford something, simply STFU.

I like that there is no option for Campy cranks. Us who ride Campy already know that our watts are way higher than everyone else. The speed on my cycling computer says 99.9. That’s all the info I need. Go ahead and spend your $700 on a power meter. I just spent that on Campy water bottle cages. Suckas

No campy yet because they know that anyone with enough dough for campy in the first place can purchase an srm or Powertap wheels. Also no campy user would dare downgrade their record, super record nor chorus crank to Athens. And mismatching is a no no.

I like my EPO on toast in the morning.

I like dales idea.

I worked in a high end road bike shop for a while and I’d have a hard time telling you with any certainty if I heard more whining about creaking B/B’s or power meters that weren’t showing the numbers their owners felt they should. Yes, I suppose training with one can be beneficial….. I also know two people who own state champion and age group champion jerseys and did it WITHOUT a power meter. One of them, definitely a techie type, had one… and sold it. Think about it….

Lot of dentists in this thread apparently

This article is very informative http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/stages-cycling-stageone-power-meter-interbike-2012-35270/

I’ve read the comments here and in the other bike radar post about the Stages meter and there is a lot of talk about the consistency of the device being more important over true accuracy, even with possible irregular or inaccurate readings of power compared to say an SRM. I personally have a powertap and a used (bought off ebay) SRM and have used them for the last 4 seasons. First off, I want to offer my two cents to this thread to explain that consistency of inaccurate data, won’t really be consistent. Otherwise it would be accurate. By that I mean, that even with readings of “3000000 watts” one day and “3000000 watts” the next, this implies that the system is stable at transmitting its torque frequency, so long as its following a linear torque response or ‘slope’. If the system is stable, then it only needs to be accurately calibrated against a known force. Boom, an accurate and stable power meter. The stages device has immediate error introduced to its power equation by negating the right side of the stroke. I would urge those who truly value their training, work with a coach, and want to use power as a means to improve – seek out a used quarq or SRM system that has shown to be reliable and accurate. Otherwise, you are paying for version 1.0 of a new fangled cycling product and crossing your fingers that it will deliver the same accurate and comparable data to other devices on the market. You can’t then say “I did 300 watts up the climb today”, you have to say …”but it was using a Stages Meter”. Kinda like using a cell phone to ‘accurately’ record your Strava segments and be off by 20 seconds, when you know you are the new KOM if you had used a Garmin or a stop watch! (cell phone triangulation is sometimes laughable when recording GPS)