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Stages Power Meter Gen 1 Vs Gen 2

The Stages Power meter is lightweight, easy to fit and, according to our tests, it gives results that are comparable with those of systems costing twice as much.

The Stages Power meter is housed in a left (non-driveside) crank. Y'all buy the consummate crank with the ability meter already installed. Stages offer various different models starting at £599, but only in alloy cranks. They say that carbon doesn't provide the consistent deflection curve needed for the technology to measure accurately.

At that place are currently no Campagnolo options and if you want a SRAM version, information technology has to be Rival (which you can use with a Red driveside crank, for example). We used the Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 version, so Shimano made the creepo and Stages added the power meter.

The Stages system relies on a bending beam that is added in a pod on the crank. When you push on the pedals, the creepo deflects plenty for the bending beam to option upward the movement, accelerometers measure cadence downward to 30rpm, and the data is converted into a power reading. The Stages organisation adjusts automatically for changes in temperature. Past power meter standards, the way Stages derive your ability figure is relatively straightforward, and they believe this simplicity ultimately leads to accuracy.

The Stages system adds less than 20g to your bike and it runs on an everyday CR2032 coin cell. Yous become about 200 hours of utilise per battery, co-ordinate to Stages.

Fitting and setup

Fitting the Stages Ability meter is simple. Y'all take off your left crank and replace it with the ane from Stages. The Stages unit protrudes slightly from the inner confront of the crank and that ways it's not compatible with some bikes with very tight chainstay clearance, simply you'll be okay in the vast bulk of cases. If y'all're worried, go to the Stages website and perform the quick cheque they advise.

Assuming everything is fine, y'all tighten your pedals in place. If you lot want to swap between bikes, it'southward equally piece of cake as long as you have the same (or a compatible) groupset on the other bicycle, of grade.

You then need to follow your bike computer's instructions for pairing with the powermeter, which is likely to take seconds. A Stages Power meter will work with both Emmet+ and Bluetooth Smart units.

At the start of every ride y'all should 'zero reset' the system to get the most accurate results. You only sling the cranks into the vertical position and follow the zero reset procedure on your computer. With a Garmin, you just hit 'calibrate'. You lot'll hopefully get a message inside a few seconds telling you that it has been successful. It always worked first time for me. Then y'all're gear up to ride.

During the ride

In one case out on your ride, the Stages arrangement is and so lightweight and unobtrusive that you don't observe it at all, and you don't need to do annihilation out of the ordinary. Different with some systems, there's no demand to zero reset while on the road. Even if you lot head upwardly a large mountain and the temperature plummets, the system updates automatically.

The amount of data you can display varies according to the caput unit that you use. I paired the Stages Power meter with a Garmin Edge 510 almost of the time, and displayed my average power over the whole ride and the power for the last xxx seconds (to polish out big peaks and troughs), just at that place are commonly loads of power measurements you tin can choose to show. You also get a cadence measurement without the need to add anything else to your wheel '' no magnet, no sensor.

Results

You have to get to some lengths to get meaningful data in a power meter review. To compare the Stages meter with other power meters I fitted the Stages crank, a PowerTap and Garmin Vector pedals to the same bike, and used 3 dissimilar computers to brandish and collect the information prior to uploading it. I followed each company's installation and scale instructions to the letter, and made sure the Garmin Border computers were all recording and dealing with zero power in the same way. Then I used the Stages Power meter alongside these other systems on every ride for seven weeks: short rides, long rides, steady rides, difficult rides, interval sessions, turbo sessions... y'all proper name information technology.

The results from the various setups were never exactly the same, so how do we know which are virtually accurate? You might get similar results from ii of the powermeters with the other disagreeing, but that doesn't mean annihilation. Information technology's not a democratic process – the outlier might be giving the truest reflection of your bodily power.

Plus, ANT+ powermeters transport out 4 'data packets' of data per 2d and the Garmin figurer head units option up only one of these packets (that's a whole discussion in itself; let's not go into depth hither). Run 2 computers picking upwards information from the same powermeter and they won't necessarily requite yous exactly the same results considering they'll pick upward different data packets. Y'all can become really geeky about this stuff if you want; it'due south never ending. SRM's PowerControl caput unit grabs all information packets sent past the sensor, for case. Using Bluetooth and an app, yous can catch all data packets sent by the Stages Power meter.

We can't tell you for sure which powermeter is the nearly accurate, and so. Distressing, but it's merely not possible. What nosotros can tell y'all is that Stages reckon their system is authentic to inside +/-2% when you're riding at 100W and 90rpm – so in that scenario you lot'll get a reading somewhere from 98 watts to 102 watts. They say that the 4 watt range stays the same as you put in more than power, and so the organisation gets more accurate in percentage terms.

Looking at our results, the Stages system gave us figures that were inside 10 watts of those from our PowerTap most of the time, and within virtually the same from the results from the Vector arrangement, sometimes a little college during high-intensity bursts. The averages over the class of a ride were e'er inside 5 watts. These differences hands fall within the operating tolerances given by the manufacturers for each of the systems.

What is maybe more important than the absolute figures is that the three systems tracked one another impressively consistently – non completely consistently, only e'er within those operating tolerances. Whether the power y'all put in is given a figure of 250 watts or 255 watts probably isn't that of import to yous, it'due south the fact that the figures you get are consistent that's more valuable and, for us at least, they were.

In that location was the odd bibelot when the figures from one system would fasten or drop relative to the figures from the other two, simply zilch that would affect the overall results. The only fourth dimension figures would devious across the bounds explainable by the operating tolerances was an occasional seemingly random high power figure – but that's nothing in the overall scheme of things.

One criticism levelled at the Stages organisation is that it measures ability just through the left crank and doubles information technology, finer assuming that you're doing an equal amount of work with each leg.

How much of an supposition is that to make? It's hard to say. The biggest discrepancy the Garmin Vector pedal organization has given me in left/right balance over the by couple of months has been 48%/52% just – and this is a crucial point – Garmin say their system is accurate to within +/-two% (they don't say in what circumstances) so in that location'south some jerk room in those figures.

Even if you lot did have a significant discrepancy in leg strength, as long as it's consistent within a ride and from one ride to the next, the results yous get from a Stages Power meter would withal be consequent, and that's the most of import thing.

You could become lost forever in the maths and the theory but Stages reckon that their left leg force measurement is more than authentic than anything else on the marketplace (including SRM) due to them looking at the force input as simply equally possible through the unmarried beam in the creepo arm.

They too think that their assumption of symmetry is justified in the vast bulk of cases, giving figures that autumn within their published system tolerances, and that their apply of their calibrated temperature compensation system adds to the overall accuracy.

There'due south nothing in the data nosotros've collected over the past few weeks that makes u.s. call back that the results from Stages fall outside of those claimed system tolerances and for that reason, forth with the price and the ease of use, we'd wholeheartedly recommend it.

Verdict

Lightweight and easy to fit power meter that gives results comparable to much more expensive systems.

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road.cc test report

Make and model: Stages Power meter

Size tested: 172.5mm

Tell us what the product is for, and who it'due south aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about information technology?

Lots of people have the idea that power meters are only for hardcore racers. Serious athletes will certainly get a lot out of the Stages organisation, but so will anyone else who wants to maximise the physiological do good they can get from their fourth dimension on the wheel.

Charge per unit the product for quality of construction:

8/10

Stages only take an existing crank from the relevant manufacturer, brand a hole and add their device in at that place.

Rate the product for performance:

9/10

Hidden away in a hollow in the inner face of the creepo, y'all'd have to exist pretty devil-may-care or very unlucky to impairment it. I guess you could harm the left crank in a crash to the point that information technology'southward no longer useable '' simply you could say that about whatever component.

Charge per unit the production for weight, if applicable:

10/x

It adds 20g to an existing crank. That's really not worth worrying well-nigh

Rate the product for value:

10/ten

Prices starting time at £599. In this market, that's inexpensive.

Tell usa what you specially liked nigh the product

Lightweight, piece of cake to setup, like shooting fish in a barrel to use, hard to damage, gives results comparable to those of far more expensive systems.

Tell us what you specially disliked about the production

Um... All other things being equal, I guess I'd like info on left/right leg remainder, only I'g struggling to pick faults here.

Did y'all enjoy using the product? Yes.

Would yous consider buying the product? Definitely.

Would y'all recommend the product to a friend? Definitely.

Overall rating: ix/x

Age: 43Height: 190cmWeight: 75kg

I normally ride:My best cycle is:

I've been riding for: Over 20 yearsI ride: Most daysI would class myself as: Expert

I regularly practice the post-obit types of riding: commuting, club rides, sportives, general fettle riding,