New power meter

tunney

http://www.metrigear.com/

Less than a grand, don't like speed plays myself but the idea of being able to switch your PM so easily and travel so easily with it.....

Home:Ballyhoura

I WANT ONE NOW!!! LOOKS SO CLASS, FAIR PLAY TO THEM! :pac:

uberwolf

where are you seeing the price?

presumably the speed play tie in will be expanded over time?

IM0

theres a couple of Irish guys developing something very similar to that (pop!)

Diarmuid

Beat you too it Tunney !

They mentioned "less than $1000". Depending on the price I would definately consider switching to speedplays...

Lumen

February Tunney wrote:

I switch [my SRM] between bikes in under two minutes with no issues

September Tunney wrote: »

Less than a grand, don't like speed plays myself but the idea of being able to switch your PM so easily and travel so easily with it.....

I also got the impression that you thought that pedal-based systems were fundamentally flawed.

Yes, I am your internet stalker.

tunney

Lumen wrote: »

I also got the impression that you thought that pedal-based systems were fundamentally flawed.

Yes, I am your internet stalker.

My SRMs can be switched in under two minutes, however if I am renting a bike in italy or borrowing a bike in france when on a cycling holiday its a pain in the hole to bring a set of cranks on the plane, especially if its carry on Also if I want to ride my winter hacker for a few hours before work with a PM and park it in work in town its a pain to whip off the SRMs and bring them into the office. A set of pedals no one would notice.

Yes I did/do have problems with certain approaches to pedal based systems, however this is a new one to me, in that its not the shoe and not the cleat its the spindle. Worth reading up on it.

Obviously wouldn't go with V1.0 of them but looks like could drive prices down. Google groups have some good discussions on them.

tunney

me@ucd wrote: »

theres a couple of Irish guys developing something very similar to that (pop!)

Emmmmm I don't have much faith to be honest in that very coming out. Its a shoe based one. If they get it right they are minted. However thats a big big if. They've not gone into any technical details. They're talking about having force sensors in the cleats, seems very simplistic. Measuring force alone isn't really sufficient.

Compare http://www.metrigear.com/products/ to http://www.brimbrothers.com/faq/

I'd like to believe a shoe based system is going to be availible and will work and will be irish made, but given the lack of information on the product (which given its patented can be released and build a bit of hype??)

Plus if a sub 1000 dollar PM is on the market then their idea of pricing being competitive with other power meters just changed Now its being competitive with 700 euro products not 3500 euro products.

As I said I'd love to be proved wrong.

DrB

tunney wrote: »

As I said I'd love to be proved wrong.

Your wish shall be granted!

Barry
Brim Brothers

Diarmuid

tunney wrote: »

Plus if a sub 1000 dollar PM is on the market then their idea of pricing being competitive with other power meters just changed Now its being competitive with 700 euro products not 3500 euro products..

Well if budget is a factor (which for most it is) you have to compare it with the powertap not the SRM so the equation doesn't really change. You still have to be competitive with the €700 Pro+ hub

tunney

DrB wrote: »

Your wish shall be granted!

Barry
Brim Brothers

That would be nice.

Will there be a release of more detailed technical information on the construction and make up of the product?

DrB

tunney wrote: »

Will there be a release of more detailed technical information on the construction and make up of the product?

For the moment there won't be any more detailed information than is already published. The power meter business is getting more competitive by the day and we want to keep every advantage we can for as long as we can.

As for the concept being "very simplistic", it isn't. The basic description that we've made public might make it look that way, but there's a load of stuff we haven't mentioned.

And finally, it's much too early to conclude that MetriGear's marketing-led strategy will come up with a better product than Brim Brothers' engineering-led approach. Let's see what happens over the next 12 months. Maybe there's room for both of us.

tunney

DrB wrote: »

For the moment there won't be any more detailed information than is already published. The power meter business is getting more competitive by the day and we want to keep every advantage we can for as long as we can.

As for the concept being "very simplistic", it isn't. The basic description that we've made public might make it look that way, but there's a load of stuff we haven't mentioned.

And finally, it's much too early to conclude that MetriGear's marketing-led strategy will come up with a better product than Brim Brothers' engineering-led approach. Let's see what happens over the next 12 months. Maybe there's room for both of us.

Cheers, look forward to seeing the nitty gritty.

Looks like it will be early 2011 before the new range of PMs (yours and metrigear) are available. And SRM are releasing a new version mid 2010 - alot more movement in the PM world these days.

Lumen

Oooh, new SRAM S975 Quarq:



884g w/ BB. Similar spec to the S900 (which is listed on Quarq's site) but prettier.

Lumen

Some new stuff in this Quarq blog video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqU0Mf_WsTM

Quarq have a new black box device for the don't-show-me-the-numbers objectors (Euro-rules compliant?), and there is mention of Golden Cheetah open-source cycling performance software. Might save me from writing my own, hurrah!

tunney

Lumen wrote: »

Some new stuff in this Quarq blog video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqU0Mf_WsTM

Quarq have a new black box device for the don't-show-me-the-numbers objectors (Euro-rules compliant?), and there is mention of Golden Cheetah open-source cycling performance software. Might save me from writing my own, hurrah!

Golden Cheetah is pants.

Lumen

tunney wrote: »

Golden Cheetah is pants.

So are all the others!

tunney

Lumen wrote: »

So are all the others!

Thats pretty true. WKO is okay, but a little overpriced.

Murph100

Lumen,

I was nearly tempted by the Quark Cinqo earlier this year, so I rang them up to find out a few things.

Any firmware update has to be done at the factory, which for us means shipping it back to the US every time.

Each unit is specifically designed for that particular crank, ie ya cant swap the unit over to a lighter set of cranks when they come out.

There is no upgrade path/pricing

I got the impression that the possibility of getting a Campag / Shimano fit Cinqo is a LONG way off

..... needless to say I didn't get one.

Lumen

Murph, I wasn't too keen on Quarq until the new "Red level" SRAM/Quarq crankset came out, but now Quarq has gone to the top of my wishlist. I have a couple of bikes and a couple of wheelsets, so am fairly agnostic about the hub vs crank issue, but I do like the idea of getting bling wheels (e.g. Zipp 101s) without going to a specialist wheelbuilder or waiting for a factory PT version.

Murph100

Pricewise the Quark can add up to nearly $2,000, and the new SRAM is a pretty heavy crankset.

My money is on the pedal/cleat/shoe based systems. It certainly is the most swappable, use whatever wheels and cranks ya like and if retails for $1000 or less, they will sell like hotcakes ... providing they work of course !

tunney

Murph100 wrote: »

Pricewise the Quark can add up to nearly $2,000, and the new SRAM is a pretty heavy crankset.

My money is on the pedal/cleat/shoe based systems. It certainly is the most swappable, use whatever wheels and cranks ya like and if retails for $1000 or less, they will sell like hotcakes ... providing they work of course !

As soon as a pedal/cleat/shoe system is released and passes basic testing. All pie in the sky at this stage.

Murph100

Might be here sooner than you think. I've heard rumours that Look are developing their own pedal based PM, which given their market share, should be a pretty strong contender.

tunney wrote: »

As soon as a pedal/cleat/shoe system is released and passes basic testing. All pie in the sky at this stage.

tunney

Murph100 wrote: »

Might be here sooner than you think. I've heard rumours that Look are developing their own pedal based PM, which given their market share, should be a pretty strong contender.

First thought - oooohhhhhhhhhhh, nice.
Second thought - wait they can't even build a frame that is robust and lasts (well a TT one) what chance do they have of this.

Murph100

Heh !

Go on Tunney, 'fess up, what pedals do ya use ?

Lumen

Murph100 wrote: »

Heh !

Go on Tunney, 'fess up, what pedals do ya use ?

He uses these, with bare feet.

blorg

Murph100 wrote: »

Each unit is specifically designed for that particular crank, ie ya cant swap the unit over to a lighter set of cranks when they come out.

This would be the same with other crank based systems like the SRM, you can't move that to new cranks either. As far as I am aware the cranks have to go back to the factory for firmware upgrades also - still it is seen as the benchmark system.

I would no problem changing pedal system to Speedplay (currently use Time) if this thing worked. Would seem very flexible/portable etc.

@Tunney- From looking at the MetriGear site and the Brim Brothers one I don't see where there is more information on MetriGear. There are more CGI mock-ups and the site looks a bit prettier, there is no more technical information on how their technology actually works.

tunney

Murph100 wrote: »

Heh !

Go on Tunney, 'fess up, what pedals do ya use ?

Look Keos. Hardly an engineering masterpiece.
if they had a PM built in - then excellent, but I'd still wait a year. The earlier adopters of any complex french designed and built product generaly take it up the.........

Murph100

Thats gotta affect his running !!

Lumen wrote: »

He uses these, with bare feet.

tunney

blorg wrote: »

This would be the same with other crank based systems like the SRM, you can't move that to new cranks either. As far as I am aware the cranks have to go back to the factory for firmware upgrades also - still it is seen as the benchmark system.

I would no problem changing pedal system to Speedplay (currently use Time) if this thing worked. Would seem very flexible/portable etc.

@Tunney- From looking at the MetriGear site and the Brim Brothers one I don't see where there is more information on MetriGear. There are more CGI mock-ups and the site looks a bit prettier, there is no more technical information on how their technology actually works.

Alot of the metrigear information was gathered from the google groups power board.

I agree there isn't a huge amount of information out there but there is some.

Murph100

Hey, the Mini-Call revolutionised the world

tunney wrote: »

Look Keos. Hardly an engineering masterpiece.
if they had a PM built in - then excellent, but I'd still wait a year. The earlier adopters of any complex french designed and built product generaly take it up the.........

tunney

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/on-show-interbike-2009-part-15

not a review, more of an overview but its a little more detail.

Diarmuid

Metrigear have some data on their site. Nothing amazing but shows that the prototype is well on the way to being a real product

tunney

Diarmuid wrote: »

Metrigear have some data on their site. Nothing amazing but shows that the prototype is well on the way to being a real product

If anyone wants to be completely overwhelmed by discussion on this approach to PM and how its been implemented check out the google power group.

Good to see they've released actual data.

Lumen

Just noticed from an cyclepowermeters.com ad in Cycle Sport Magazine:

SRAM S975 Quarq Saturn available to pre-order for February 2010 delivery @ £1550.

I guess this means they've passed (or are attempting to pass) Euro electrical testing.

The Garmin Edge 500 is listed at £200, also for Feb delivery.

And to complete the holy trinity, the Saris Joule 2.0 @ £360 for delivery January 2010. Ouch.

I have no connection to any of these companies, I'm just really dull. Does this cement my bid for most tedious poster of the year?

ryan_sherlock

The Edge 500 seems very nice - I might pick one up for when I'm racing (currently have a 705). Lighter and sleeker and I don't need the mapping when I race anyway.

sy

ryan_sherlock wrote: »

The Edge 500 seems very nice

Agree. Always feel my 705 looks a little bulky. Assume all the hardware for 705 is compatabile with the 500? ie cadence sensor, heart transmitter etc

@ Lumen for what its worth always enjoy reading your very informative posts (the humour is not bad either!)

Home:Ballyhoura

sy wrote: »

@ Lumen for what its worth always enjoy reading your very informative posts (the humour is not bad either!)

+1