I bought a Stages power meter for my gravel bike this past week. I mostly planned to use it for training but it looks like it could be useful in racing situations also. Anybody else have feedback on how delicate these things are. Stages offers a 2 year no questions asked warranty for another $80. I have another week to decide weather to spend the extra for the peace of mind.
They are pretty durable. Then again, if you go bouncing over rocks and ditches on a mountain bike, I could see where you can rip it off the crank. Normal riding, I wouldn't foresee being any problem. (I have three of them, (two road bikes and a TT bike with a different size crank), the oldest a couple years old now.) Only problem I've ever had is braking the tabs off the battery cover. My own fault, but they send me a couple spares, free of charge, anyway.
(disclaimer: I don't 'abuse' my bikes or treat them harshly. They cost too much to treat them that way.)
I've only been training with it for a week. All but one ride on the trainer. For use on the trainer I think there is minimal value. I was using speed and Kurt Kinetics power curve to calculate FTP. In my case that was a pretty close to what I'm seeing with the power meter.
For outdoor training I am looking forward to using it more. It should be a big asset in pacing into a 15 mph headwind and evaluating improvements. So far I'm very happy with the Stages meter. It simply connects to the Garmin as you start to pedal and displays the data without any issues. It even gives you pedal smoothness and torque efficiency. That is on you left leg anyway. I think this will be useful if you want to diagnose your pedal stroke. I guess I wasn't expecting that kink of data without buying Garmin pedals.
I ended up deciding to buy stages power meter protection plan. I most likely won't need it for a gravel bike but it seems worth it for the peace of mind. I may do a cyclocross race or two with the bike and who knows what can happen.
I've had mine fow about a year. I swap it among three bikes without any issue and it's seen a ton of rough gravel and bike packing. Stages sands behind it's stuff!
Stages has some great deals on some close out models.
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\nThe one I purchased in Feb I highly recommend and is now only $350.
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\nCheck their website or your lbs for details.
I was looking at them a little while ago. I was tempted to grab the FSA carbon crankset for $500 since the Ultegra crank arm isn't likely to go on sale or closeout anytime soon unless they start pushing a new powermeter and need to unload some stock. The whole crankset is cheaper than just the Ultegra arm and it's carbon. But honestly...much as I'd like to have one, I definitely don't need a powermeter at the moment.
I've been a power meter junky from my racing days. Although I'm not racing any longer, I have a Stages Shimano 105 installed on my road bike, and find it invaluable for monitoring my true effort and work. It is a very durable and reliable piece of equipment. I use a Garmin Edge 500 bike computer which pairs flawlessly with the Stages meter. The Garmin tracks virtually any power related stat that you may be interested in, and also allows you to display rolling average power which is good for pacing. As others have mentioned, Stages is having a big sale on older discontinued models. As far as durability, the one thing you have to be careful about is water --- not so much the water you encounter riding in wet conditions, but water when washing your bike. Never spray water from a hose directly on the unit -- the seals can't take it. Whenever I wash my bike, I put a plastic sandwich bag around the unit to protect it from the spray and any solvents I use to clean the bike. Finally, the customer support from Stages HQ in Boulder is first rate. These guys actually ride bikes! PS: To get the most out of your meter get this book! https://smile.amazon.com/Training-Racing-Power-Meter-2nd-ebook/dp/B007WZ55XI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464785098&sr=1-1&keywords=training+with+power .
