World’s Lightest Power Meter option at 622 grams with BB and chainrings.

Saturday Jul 17,2010 12:56 PM
By Nico
In Everything

I’m excited about the someday-to-be-released Metrigear pedal based power meter system, but I got tired of waiting and decided that it was time to add power to my weight weenie machine. Here are a few photos of the system weight including everything except for the head unit. The lightest head unit I could find was the Bontrager Node 2, but I like the Garmin EDGE 500 better, so that’s what I’ve been using. The Node is maybe 20 grams lighter than the Garmin, but the display on the Node shows your speed in huge numbers and the power in really small numbers, and you can’t configure the display to do otherwise. I don’t really care how fast I’m going, but I really care about the wattage I’m producing. The Bontrager Node also doesn’t store the power data, rather it just displays it. This is fine for pacing yourself while racing, but it’s not much good if you want to analyze the numbers later. The Garmin, on the other hand, lets you configure the display so that your power is most prominent, and I love it. I have mine configured to show power (largest), heart rate, cadence and distance.

The 622 gram scale photo includes the cranks, the Quarq, the BB cups with ceramic bearings, and even the BB magnet attachment.

7 Responses for "World’s Lightest Power Meter option at 622 grams with BB and chainrings."

djconnel July 18th, 2010 at 8:41 am
With the Metrigear change of platform resulting in both delays and likely added mass, I agree this is the more weenie solution, although I don’t think Quarq would claim 2% accuracy with those chainrings.
Nico July 19th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Surprisingly those chainrings are quite stiff, and they calibrate really well, according to Quarq.
tim July 20th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
I was wondering if you had used an SRM or other power meter previously and how the numbers seem to compare. I have 7 years of SRM data and would like to use a power meter that I could compare numbers to.
James August 4th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Is the Lightning the lightest crank of the crank options that Quarq offers?

How does the weight of the Quarq CinQO Saturn unit compare to the additional weight between a lightweight rear hub and the lightest PowerTap rear hub?

Thanks!
Nico August 4th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Yes, the Lightning crank is the lightest option with a Quarq. I don’t know the exact numbers, but it’s a big difference. Maybe 150 to 200 grams? As for comparing to a PowerTap, I consider the PowerTap as adding about 250 grams over a light rear hub, and the Quarq adds about 85 grams over a light crank with no CinQo.
cj August 9th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Interting stuff and good blog. Keep it up & thanks

I saw in the photos from the Centurion race it looks like you are riding Di2. Is that the case? How about a report on it, from your point of view.
Nico August 9th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I did ride Di2, along with the Lightning/Quarq setup, at the Centurion. I’ll try to write up something on it here soon. Thanks.