Anyone have a cinch power meter? Looking at getting one for my mountain bike with next sl cranks but can’t find any reviews online.
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I’ve been using a Cinch on my mtb for a few years. It seems to be accurate and consistent but I haven’t put the bike on my Kickr to see how it compares. I find it to work well during races for pacing off of NP. Rechargeable battery lasts a long time for me.
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I have one on Easton road cranks. Build is good and there’s no issues with clearance to the frame, which can preclude using 4iiii or stages. Only knock is that it’s pricey for a left-only unit.
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I had a cinch power meter for awhile on my roadbike. Ended up not liking it very much. I don’t know if its because I came from a dual sided meter but my power always felt inconsistent and off (either to high or low). The power always jumped up and down while doing intervals. I was in the same position as you, couldnt find any other options.
Maybe check out the power2max thats for easton? you can use a wolftooth chainring with it for 1x.
I have two of them. One on gravel and one on MTB. It works great and I much prefer it over any Stages unit. It is internally contained, is as accurate as any other left only unit, battery lasts 400 hours and you can run any chainring you want on the bike.
However, if you prefer a power meter that measures both legs I would get the power2max for race face OR the Sigeyi AXO for race face, or the Xcadey for SRAM 3 bolt 104 bcd.
If the single side doesn’t bother you at all it is a great power meter and the other really cool thing is you can use the Team Zwatt iphone app (that is who makes the internals) and modify the power reporting. Meaning that, if you’re like me, and know that I have on at least a 2.5% lower power output from my left leg you can go into the app and increase the power reporting from the unit by 2.5% to get a more accurate reading.
If you have any question on them, ping me in this thread so I see it and I can help. I think there is a used one on ebay right now too for $350 but it might be the road version.
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I have one on my mountain bike and I am pretty pleased with it’s performance but their cusutomer service has lots of room for improvement. I ran into one issue where I lost the cap covering the usb charing port on a ride (I presume from a rock garden crash). I didn’t notice it until after I power-washed all the mud off the bike. So I probably killed my unit with the power-wash. Raceface replaced it for free after after proof was provided that the internals were destroyed (dealer had to cut wires). The whole process took 2-3 weeks as communication with them is very slow, it takes up to a week for them to respond to emails. Replacement had to be done via dealer, they don’t and won’t deal with the direct consumer.
I have one for my road bike, it’s my first power meter and I’ve liked it, found it’s been pretty no fuss and have never had issues with it not syncing with my wahoo or fitness apps (although the cinch app randomly has connection issues and I’ll need to do a reinstall.) At the time I got it I ended up spending a ton of cash because I switched from ultegra cranks to their EC90 cranks (they now have alloy ones for like $130.) They only thing I’m a little disappointed in is that I had to buy a heavy duty torque wrench because it recommends torquing the cranks to 40nm which is a lot.
A few teammates have them for mountain bikes and I think they only issues they had were needing to use spacers.
Thanks for the feedback. I am currently watching the one on eBay 
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I have one on the road bike and one on my mountain bike.
If you only use one meter, accuracy isn’t important. It seems to be precise. I find the single sided element to be frustrating at times but that’s the same as any single sided meter.
As far as dependability, neither unit had ever failed over two years. The battery life is exceptional. It’s a good option for frames with clearance issues like a lot of MTB. I like that the unit is housed in the BB.
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I got the one on eBay for $325. Excited to get it installed as I’ve never had a PM!
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Main reason I bought it + a Garmin 520 is to do trainer road outside. In my town we have a 40 mile paved path that is perfectly straight and flat through the woods. Should be awesome for training
I have the Cinch on my new bike. My other bike has the left only Stages, and best I can tell the power reading from the Cinch is no different from my Stages.
The problem I am having with the Cinch is not being able to calibrate it in the Cinch app, with TrainerRoad, or with Wahoo. The Cinch app is saying it can’t find the meter, the TrainerRoad app tells me the calibration fails, the Wahoo app just spins forever when I select calibrate.
Anybody else have a similar experience with the calibration and know how to address it?
Hmm. I haven’t had this problem but you could download the Zwatt app and try that to calibrate just to see if it works.
I ended up buying the cinch power meter that was on eBay. Seems to work well for me. The power readings seem a little high compared to my indoor bike but I have an oval chainring which I guess increases readings by 3% or so. I just calibrate it using my Garmin 520 and that seems to work fine.
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TR doesn’t support calibration of the Cinch system directly, I was pointed towards using the Cinch app, calibrating (zeroing), closing the Cinch app, opening TR and carrying on.
If the Cinch app won’t find the meter, just make sure nothing else is connected to the meter, head unit, TR etc, then try again. I became frustrated with this one day but TR support walked me through it. I make a habit of calibrating my meter with the Cinch app before anything else is running, calibrate then open TR.
Hope that is helpful.
Does the meter show a green light when you wake it up?
Do you have a head unit that connects to the PM? These usually have a calibration function.
I have one on every bike now. It’s not perfect but for the money they are good. Road bike is primarily trainer only now and that PM has been good since day one after 1.5 years of use, (knocks on wood). The one on my mountain bike stopped working but RF warrantied it (albeit slowly). And I just got one for the gravel bike which I think will see the most outdoor use now. I think I may only use the Cinch for the mountain bike occasionally now.
Left only is challenging for me at times, but I rate the Cinch higher than Stages FWIW as far as reliability.
Thanks! I opened the Cinch app and was able to find and calibrate the PM before allowing anything else to connect to it.
I’m a little curious about what happened next though. I did Hunter -4 directly afterward and my heart rate got pretty close to threshold while at 88% of FTP and I ended up doing a back pedal in the last interval. That should not have happened. I don’t know if I was having a bad day or if the PM was reading low. I did Antelope on Monday and my HR was lower doing 94% intervals.
You tested your FTP with the same Cinch power meter?
No, last test was on a Stages L only on an ERG trainer. Honestly, I think I have too many variables right now for me to really narrow it down: lots of travel, new bike, new power meter, different non-ERG trainer.
Things will be much more consistent for me over the next few weeks. I’ll report back if something still seems askew.
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