Power Meter - One meter for 2 bikes

[LLTHB]

Hi. I have two bikes - MTB and Gravel Bike.

 

Each has its place. My Garmin 1030 moves easily between them, happy days.

 

Looking for a power meter now.

 

Hoping to get one unit that I can easily move between bikes.

 

Was thinking of a left hand Garmin power pedal only, just loosen from bike A, move to bike B, nip up and away you go.

 

My cleats are Shimano SPD mountain bike cleats.

 

What other options are there that would work for me.

 

Cheers.

[Shaunie_g]

I just bought this for my TT bike and just swap between that and my road bike.

 

very happy with it

https://trishopsa.com/collections/power-meters/products/assiomasinglepowerpedal

[gtr1]

Problem with power pedals on a mtb is the bashing they take. So not a great idea. Also depends on cleat requirement for pedals.  So swapping pedals between road, gravel and track bikes is great. MTB always a bit of an issue.

 

Best bet sometimes a 2nd hand wheel set with power hub. Often cheaper than a new set of power pedals

[BMXER]

Road and gravel, great idea.

Mountain bike, not so great an idea.

 

A power meter on a mountain bike offers little value to us mortal weekend worriers who sneek in a few midweek rides.

[Ozzie NL]

Pedal based units are the only ones you can swap between bikes easily (provided you ride SPD on both)

 

Single sides obviously has the drawback of only measuring one leg (and doubling that). Garmin and assioma are both good options.

 

Suggest you have a look at DC rainmakers website as he has really good and in depth reviews

[Jbr]

as far as I know there are no perfect answer, you'd have to be riding MTB with road style pedals.

 

The only answer I could give you is try to have matching cranksets on both bikes (brand and size), and buy a non drive side power meter like a stages or 4iii so you can only losen two bolts, and move the arm from the one bike to the other. But not sure if it's a viable option overtime, untightening/tightening the crank arm ten times a week might cause issues... Apparently tightening them with the wrong torque already affects que zeroing/readings so...

 

To be honest I had a power meter on my mountain bike and found very little use of it, because I only ride my bike on fun trails I don't really have long consistent climbs to do intervals on, I always end up not pedaling half of the time.. Only use at the moment would be to do a 5 mins VO2 max effort on the conties mast climb. I'm not planning on getting one again on my new MTB unless it's a killer deal... Of course when marathon racing eventually resume I might get one to pace myself, but again not even sure that would be usefull as I barely look at it on the road bike during a race...

Edited August 25, 2020 by Jbr

[Ryinc]

I think you only have 3 options if you want to go pedal based and retain MTB cleats:

1. Assioma's with the mountain bike pedal hack (

)

2. SRM pedals (expensive)

3. IQ2 (cheap, but not a proven product and not yet available).

If it were my money, i would go with option 1 unless you are prepared to wait it out to see that option 3 delivered and reliable with no widespread issues on a gen 1 product.

[Schnavel]

You can always look at a stages left crank arm or similar.

 

If you have cranks with the same arm length and BB (GXP, BB30m shimano etc.), then it would be a case of undoing the crank arm and moving it over to the other bike.

[mecheng89]

Well, look at the options - 

 

Pedal based

Crank based

Hub based

 

Putting a Garmin pedal based on a MTB is a big risk. My opinion - each bike will need its own. 

[Jewbacca]

Power Meter on the road.... Use it to train, do intervals etc....

 

You honestly don't need those readings on other bikes unless you are racing to race and racing to a plan/program.

 

If you have Shimano cranks on both with the same arm length, you can use a left crank. It's easy to remove and replace but I would hazard a guess you will just leave the PM on your roadie after a while

[Frosty]

Hi. I have two bikes - MTB and Gravel Bike.

 

Each has its place. My Garmin 1030 moves easily between them, happy days.

 

Looking for a power meter now.

 

Hoping to get one unit that I can easily move between bikes.

 

Was thinking of a left hand Garmin power pedal only, just loosen from bike A, move to bike B, nip up and away you go.

 

My cleats are Shimano SPD mountain bike cleats.

 

What other options are there that would work for me.

 

Cheers.

I swap my 4iiii PM between two road bikes twice a week, with no problems - have been doing so for close to 4 years. The spline gets cleaned and greased monthly, and I use a torque wrench every time I tighten the screws (12, 13 then stop at 14Nm, as per the spec on the crank).

 

That’s for road.

 

4iiii make a “left side only” unit (XT M8000) for XTR, XT and two SRAM options. Seems Stages do a similar unit. Your gravel bike would have to be compatible with using the same crank arm (crank length and the offset shape of the crank arm), and there’s no reason why you can’t use these on both bikes.

[bertusras]

I use the same crank-based powermeter from 4iiii between the road and gravel bike, but in fairness both have 105-series cranks with the same length. I worry that between gravel and MTB you'll firstly have a length issue, and secondly a Q-factor issue.

 

I don't think that Garmin makes a SPD MTB power pedal?

[Thomo]

As others have already stated, pedals would probably be the easiest swap, but SPD-type options are a little limited.

Hub based if wheel fits both bikes.

Otherwise, dependent on what your power requirements are, perhaps something like a PowerCal or PowerPod.?

[DieselnDust]

I think you only have 3 options if you want to go pedal based and retain MTB cleats:

1. Assioma's with the mountain bike pedal hack (

)

2. SRM pedals (expensive)

3. IQ2 (cheap, but not a proven product and not yet available).

If it were my money, i would go with option 1 unless you are prepared to wait it out to see that option 3 delivered and reliable with no widespread issues on a gen 1 product.

 

 

^^^ what Ryinc said.

 

The crank arm options will require understanding of the bike the crank arm based power meter will be fitted to and the cranks you're using. Won't moving the cranks result in the same outcome?