Power Meter Advice - Stages vs 4iiii

I am looking to upgrade from my Powerpod and an leaning towards the 4iiii after reading though this forum. Does anyone know where I can find the best deal on one?

I don’t have a stages but my experience in 2 years with the 4iiii left crank 105 has been superb. It just works without any problems and battery life is stellar.

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Exactly this for me also.

Yep and me. Would recommend 4iiii (105) to anyone. Had it several years and never missed a beat.

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And me! Again I’ve never had Stages but can’t fault my 4iiii

Can I check, does 4iiii have active temperature compensation? and does it make a big difference to the readings? I don’t want to be doing a zero offset when the temperature changes (Stages Owner here)

I believe they do but to be honesty I hardly ever bother to do the offset and still has accurate numbers. This is based on doing the same routes months apart without doing the offset.

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I religiously zero my 4iiiis before every ride, inside or outside, and the zero offset has never changed. (That’s a really handy feature that TrainerRoad has, so if things start to drift, you have a way of knowing.)

Looks like I’m in the minority with 4iiii issues. My 6800 left arm worked fine for maybe 3 months and then would drop power readings if I stopped at all during the ride… I would calibrate it before taking back off but zero power readings. Then it got to where it would drop readings while riding, regardless of if I stopped or not. Yesterday I put a brand new battery in it, connected and calibrated, and never got it to give me any power readings at all. It’s been very frustrating to say the least.

Has anyone got any feedback on the 4iiii right side pm? My new gravel bike doesn’t have the clearance on the left side for my stages, so I’m looking at getting either the stages right side, or 4iiii right side meter.

There’s been some accuracy issues overall with L/R crank arm based PMs on some newer shimano cranks, doesn’t matter if they are stages or pioneer, etc.

I’d email 4iiii support and describe this to them. My 105 left only worked flawlessly for almost 2 years and then one day started going through the roof – I think it got up to 3500 watts while I was soft pedaling. They had me try a couple standard things and when that didn’t fix it gave me a shipping label to send it back for repair, and had it back in 10 days or so, no charge, and even though I was technically out of warranty. It’s worked flawlessly again ever since. Good luck!

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Yep I contacted them and they told me to take it up with the dealer. The dealer wouldn’t replace it but offered me a refund. Went back to 4iiii and told them my dealer wouldn’t replace it and they told me to send it in and they’d repair it for me.

I currently have a Gen3 and have noticed that my numbers are lower on climbs than my friends who different power meters and weight 20 lbs less than me. Additionally, I had the Vector 2s for a long time and the numbers I’m getting from Gen3 are much, much lower than what I was getting from Vector 2s (318 FTP vs. 385 FTP, 600 vs 720 1min, 400 vs 530 5min, 1100 5s vs. 1480 5s). My guess is that these numbers are most likely somewhere in the middle.

All in all, I need consistent numbers to gauge how fit I actually am, and it looks like 4iii is the way to go, so thanks! If you’ve learned anything hear, do not get Stages Gen 3.

Have a 4iiii precision 105 left crank that is a 175 and had worked well great over the last couple of years. It is a workhorse and just works.

I am selling it though as I have a new bike now with 172.5 cranks so I have a 172.5 on the way from 4iiii.

What’s the offset number when calibrate it?

890

Question for all 4iiii users. I’ve got a specialized left side ultegra power meter, made by 4iiii I believe. Got it over the winter. You can calibrate through the app, but my Garmin head unit can also calibrate. Does it make a difference one over the other? Head unit us much easier on the road and was used to that with the old vectors.

I’m not aware that there would be any difference as it’s just a different button telling the PM to do the same thing.

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