I’m looking for a power meter to aid training and generally being a nerd; more data == Better. Following that to its natural conclusion dual sided seems the way to go.
I’ve been looking at pedal power meters like the Favero spd pedals because the idea of swapping them between bikes is attractive but despite being cheaper than the garmin rally pedals they’re still pricy, the price of dual sided 4iiii power meters however is attractive.
What are peoples thoughts on this brand and device?
by Mundane-Season-4911
12 Comments
Very reputable brand. I would’ve picked it if it wasn’t for my frame and zero clearance between the crank and chair stays for a power meter bulge.
If you’re not a pro, do you really need dual sided though? I’m very happy with single sided Favero MX.
I have the single sided one from 4iiii and it works really well, so I imagine the duo sided ones are good too. I also had Favero SPD pedal meters but returned them. I think technically the pedal meters are the most accurate because it’s closer to your feet which is where power is generated but I didn’t notice a difference when I had both. Also you have to charge Favero all the time and it’s kinda annoying, while the crank based ones runs on a single coin battery that lasts a long time.
The brand is reliable as is the product, at least according to DC Rainmaker. I just got the single side meter and was impressed by the delivery time – anecdotally, it was overnight even with standard shipping, but I might be near a regional distribution center.
The dual side power gives limited benefit, imo. I have Favero dual pedals running my indoor setup (cobbled together back before good smart trainers were so cheap). They showed that I had a slight and consistent favoring of one leg (48/52 L/R), which was also noticed when I started weight training. Now it’s balanced more or less (favored leg changes ride to ride, percentages are closer to 50/50). You can also see things like pedal smoothness and torque efficiency, or you can just put practice into pedaling circles instead of squares. Is that level of detail worth double the price to you? Also, that extra information is only available with an ANT+ connection, not Bluetooth, so make sure you’re planning to use an ANT+ device if you go double-sided.
Also consider the time you will spend sending your entire BB to 4iiii, install, and return – you won’t be riding during that time. Or go for “ride ready” and pay for a whole extra chain ring etc. If you can take your current BB and use it to build to another bike, then ride ready makes a bit more sense.
Absolute WORST battery cover design in history.
I just received the single sided and have one ride on them. It works great and seemed accurate vs what I feel on my trainer.
If money was no object I’d go with the dual sided but like other comments I didn’t think it was worth it for me.
One sided will be fine, too. Safe the money. You won‘t miss a thing.
I have no experience with the double sided model but I have use the nds crank arm model for a couple years with zero issues.
I dont have any direct info about this specific product.
My 2022 canyon aeroad came with the 4iii single sided crank arm power meter and I rode about 10k miles with it, so lots of data logged. My average and peak power data always seemed low to me but I am not a very fast or strong rider so I just took it as a reality check. I never had a reason to suspect it wasnt working properly, although I read a lot of things online that they were inaccurate.
Then I bought a 25 aeroad CFR which came with a dual sided quarq crank power meter that was very well reputed online.
For the first month, almost every ride I went on I would set PRs for power logged even though my times or speeds didnt really change. And we aren’t talking a few watts, but more like 50-100w average higher at anything more than cruising speed and about 25w higher at cruising speed.
Some would choose to take from this that a dual sided meter is more accurate than a single sided.
Some would choose to take from this that the 4iii is less accurate than the quarq.
Some would choose to ignore this data altogether.
I have them on my three bikes, left side only. They replaced two of them under warranty, the first one (GRX crank) after a year, the second one (105 crank) after 14 months. But they were very good while they worked :p
One thing is that while 4IIII is great, if you;re planning on doing it with GRX, 4IIIIs no longer produces a dual sided grx power meter
If its crank based, save your money and get single sided. If you want dual, get pedals instead.
The only reason to get crank based is if you’re comfortable with your crank length and going to have 1 bike only for a while
I have two 4iiii single sided power meters. They’ve been quite temperamental/problematic.
I’ve been eyeing up Magene
https://uk.magene.com/gb/power-meters/218-pes-p515-power-meter-set.html