New Watteam PowerBeat Charges Up Left-Right Power Measurement on Any Crankset for $499

Are they $499 each or for the pair?

What’s their distribution plan?

I would love to see a robust mtb version!

Pretty cool to see new options! That wire looks like a potential snag.

I only need one leg power just like my Stages , so I can buy a left side for 1/2 the price. Someone wants to split with me ? 🙂

Almost any crankset, might have problems sticking it onto the narrow ones, or with a pointed ridge – how wide does the surface have to be

Make that metal mounting bracket carbon and I’m sold

(deleted)

The proof will be in the test data. I can’t wait.

(deleted)

@Psi Squared Thanks for that, looks like it’s $499 for the pair.

Rako +1

Thanks Joey!

Brian, you’re totally right in your response to Phyz. All you need to know is indicated strain values under a number of known loads. The gauges don’t even read out strain directly…they’re usually outputting either a change in voltage or a change in resistance.

Stages doesn’t offer their product on carbon cranks partly because of carbon’s anisotropy, but mostly (IMNSHO) because carbon’s sample-to-sample stiffness variation is enormous. Lots of variables affect the stiffness of a particular carbon crank, especially (a) how carefully the worker who laid it up paid attention to the intended fiber directions, and (b) voids and resin pools resulting from the molding process. These and other factors make it almost impossible to use a single calibration for multiple samples of a particular carbon crank.

But this meter seems to be calibrated upon installation, which is why it’s not necessary for the Powerbeat to know anything about crank shape or material. All it needs to know is a the structural response (strain gage readings) to a given load. This does indeed assume that the material is linear elastic as Brian said.

Strictly speaking, carbon/epoxy parts are linear elastic under some stresses and not others, so it’s not safe to assume linear elastic behavior. For example, most resins exhibit some degree of viscoelasticity, which means that they act stiffer or more flexible depending on how fast the load is applied.

However, Brian is right–a given carbon crank may be close enough to linear elastic to allow this meter to work pretty well. Time will tell.

Not a particularly good time to be linking your company with Israel. I wonder how quickly that will disappear from their press releases.

In any case we are talking about bikes here, not aerospace or NASA. All this talk of viscoelasticity and anisotropic materials is all well and good but in the realms of the power outputs of the average Fred using this kind of doohickey a reasonable margin of error is going to have a negligible effect on its overall useful accuracy. And you gets what you pays for.

great news for amateur cyclists who don’t need insane accuracy. For that price tag and compatibility with almost eveything I could accept even lower accuracy.
until now, every power meter on the market required some tradeoff, rather a specific spider, or cranks (like there is no Stages pm for SISL2 cranks) or pedals. Now we can use our favourite setups.
My concerns are quality and toubleless use. Let’s wait for real-world reviews.

Strain Gauges are what they are (They measure Strain).

Like others above have stated it’s the other variables that have to be taken into account to spit out an accurate Power figure to a display or database.

A strain gauge doesn’t know where it is but it knows what it experiences in terms of the strain placed upon it.

My gut feeling is the calibration process for this device is going to be a tad more involved than other power measuring gadgets out there if accurate results are to be experienced. That might include applying accurate known masses on each crank arm, at various positions throughout various positions of a 360 degree crank rotation.

I too am also eager to see how this product compares to other products that also claim to measure power and be within 2% accuracy.

Regarding Israel being a sensitive subject area at the moment then I have to agree with that. I also have to say that when it comes to high tech stuff then Israel doesn’t mess about, as they are no clowns in that arena. Israel’s tech on a bike that is VFM I would have no problem with.
The price is about right-ish (for the over interested cycling man in the street) for a not so complicated engineering want, that all companies at the moment that supply the cycling boom exploit.

I was heart set on Garmin Vector for my next purchase due to the option of having to be able to transfer pedals ‘n’ pods from bike to bike. If $50 per extra bike maps out to be correct then I can live with that. Garmin was paining me by having to use ‘Look Keo’ type pedals and the required cleats on all my shoes and bikes to make them interchangeable because of a want for Garmin Vector that is a crazily price no matter where you live.

Hopefully this product will do what it says on the tin and lets other manufactures know they are taking the p*ss re what they want to extort from a cycling punters wallet.

I/we can only wait and see…

I didn’t realize Israel had a national cycling team.
For a head coach of a national team to be co-founder of a product should say a lot…Then again, I didn’t realize Israel had a national cycling team. 🙂

(deleted)