Recommendation for Power Meter for Mountain Bike & Road Bike that Integrates with Garmin

Equipment
1

Hi Everyone,

I’m looking to start training with a Power Meter, currently just training with Heart Rate… and I wanted to see if I could get some Power Meter recommendations from the community. I have listed the key things I’m looking for below…

  • Can Be Used on Both my Mountain Bike and Road Bike
  • Integrates with Garmin 530
  • Integrates with TrainerRoad - I’m doing the TrainerRoad Base Program
  • I’ll be using a Kurt Kinetics Rock & Roll Trainer (model T-6500)

I was thinking about the Garmin Vector 3 Pedals with Power Meter but those are not the style of pedals I would want to use on my mountain bike.

Any reccomendations would be much appreciated!

Thank You
Patrick

2

What drivetrain do you have on both bikes?

I will say that what you want to do is not a direct or easy thing, due to the common differences in BB size, Q-factor and such. But with the info above, we can give some better consideration to your goal.

3

At present there isn’t a pedal PM solution for MTB’s. Yes, you could use a road pedal but you’ll smash it to pieces the second you catch it on something. Also, road cleats aren’t suitable for off road use.

4

Thanks @Dave I don’t have to have a pedal based solution, would there be a different solution that is not pedal based that would meet the requirements I listed. If there is not a solution that meets 100% of the requirements then could you let me know a solution that would meet the majority of the items I listed?

5

@mcneese.chad Do you think in the long run it would be best to get a power meter for my road bike and a separate power meter for my mountain bike? What do most of you guys do who train both on the road bike and mountain bike? I will work on getting you the drive train information.

6

Separate is pretty much the default option.

Pedals are no good, as covered above.

Crank arms kinda work, but the Q-factor on road is narrower than MTB. So you end up with an MTB arm that is wider on one side. Add to that there are limited lengths on MTB cranks as compared to road. So it doesn’t really work well.

Chainring ones dont work since most MTab is 1x and road is 2x.

Hub based is a full wheel and not likely to match unless you have a 142mm x 12mm on both bikes (which means road disc).

All that leads to people getting a completely separate PM for each bike. Nothing really jumps well between them because of all the differences.

7

If you were going the left crank arm option and went with 4iiii for both the total purchase should be around $1000

8

I can’t imagine it will be too much longer until someone comes out with a mountain bike pedal power meter.

9

Literally the only power meters that will work well with both road bikes and mtb are smart trainers.

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10

Thanks, everyone for your input! So now I’m focusing on just getting a power meter for my mountain bike. Any suggestions on what styles are best for mountain bikes (i.e. crank, hub or crank arm) or any suggestions on specific models you like?

11

What are you training for primarily? I’d get a power meter just for that bike. I’d say power really isn’t necessary for shorter course mtb racing as perceived effort is probably the best indicator. Longer marathon races seem more relevant to power metering. Same thing for road racing. Cross it’s not necessary whereas longer races might be more useful.

12
13

Given the state of my pedals due to regular XC style riding I can’t see that happening in the near future. It would be cool if there was that option, but I can’t see it being feasible. Too many impacts IMO.

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14

Im training for a 52 mile mountain bike ride which has a lot of climbing (7,500’ elevation gain). My goal is to be able to finish in 8 hours.

15

If you follow the IQ2 Kickstarter saga, they are supposed to be offering both a road and mountain pedal after attempting a pedal independent insert solution that wasn’t going to work. Whether they will ever be able to deliver is questionable though.

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16

Quarq gets my vote. I’ve used those PM’s with great success across road and mtb.

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