I’m looking to get a left arm crank power meter for my hardtail mtb but was after some advice or thoughts on my options. It would be an Shimano XT M8000 crank and I’ve been looking at the Stages G3, however shopping around I can get the 4iiii one for about £100 cheaper (that’s like a yearly TR subscription). I’ve had a 4iiii power meter on my Specialized Crux for around 8 months now and not had any issues.
Is it worth paying extra for the stages G3?
I mainly use the power meters for outdoor rides as most of my TR workouts are done at the gym on a Wattbike.
I have a Stages Gen 2 and if I was buying a left-only PM again I’d get a 4iii and I would definitely get a 4iii if I already had one on another bike. I don’t think there is significant difference between them other than the price.
i own both and would suggest 4iiii only because stages still seems to have “some” issues with certain headunits…i’m looking at you garmin 820.
9/10 everything works as its supposed to, but for some reason sometimes if you have bluetooth turned on with the headset then the H/U is glitchy with the stages PM and you get dropouts. Garmin knows about it and its well documented but there are no perfect solutions
I had one of the first 4iiii Gen 1’s and I never had a problem until a firmware update put it out of commission. I sent it back and they replaced it with a Gen 2 at no cost. That was two years ago and no problems ever with the Gen 2. About 120 hours of battery life on cheapo batteries I get from the Dollar Store. Customer service was always great, even with user errors.
In addition, Specialized power meters are made by 4iiii.
Have both. No real difference. Would maybe go for 4iii because of the price. Some friends had issues with Gen1 Stages, but I have to say that the Stages support replaced everything, even after guaranty time and not always treating the power meter nicely.
I have a 4iii 2nd generation since half a year. No issues so far. After a break of 3 weeks yesterday it wouldn’t calibrate though. I showed the power numbers on my ride though, and after an hour - magic - callibration worked again.
So still happy!
If you have a compatible bottom bracket, them or the powerbox are good value. If you start adding bottom brackets, chainsets etc, especially paying someone else to fit, they start to come up close to shimano compatible dual sided or pedals. Or at least when I was looking.
fwiw I ended up with 4iii. No issues so far, and easy to swap between my bikes. Actually, I’ve found the crank easier to take off than the resultant swapping of pedals to be honest.
4iiii have just announced gps tracking of the PM in case the bike gets stolen. The firmware will get an upgrade soon and you will need to purchase the service. You can track the PM from an app on your phone. 2019 Q2 perhaps?
