Stages Powermeter hire/rental London area Shimano????

Morning all,

I am trying to find a store that offers Power meter rental, I have seen that Panagua Bikes offer stages rental but sadly the enquiry I put to them for a 170mm crank arm has gone unanswered, I "believe" they only offer a 172.5mm as a option after speaking with a guy locally..

The long and short is that I want to really build on a few solid years of training and I think a power meter is the way to go, obviously it is a hefty investment so I would like to get on one before making a decision. I currently run Ultegra 6800 but have been informed any of the Shimano Stages units are compatible.

Any options???,

Regards

Would it not be better, than sinking money into rental, to pick up a unit in a sale?
You don't need Ultegra either, a 105 4iiii / Stages / Pioneer will do the job. I've seen the 4iiii units below £300. I don't know your financial situation but stick that on free credit, like paypal, and it's £75 a month x4 or less.

If you just want to see what it's like, I'd just lookout for one to borrow or go to a spin class with Wattbikes, e.g. ninja cycles.

Regarding other units, from what I have read Stages seems to be the best overall unit bang for buck???, I have just come back to the UK from a major Property development so saying I am skint is a under statement, and I will never put anything on credit. I purchase when I have the cash..

Sadly none of the people I ride with in the UK have power meters and as most places offer a rental for £30 odd quid a month it is a viable investment to see if it is something I can use long term, sadly they only seem to only carry 172.5mm. As the Stages unit is the one I will be looking at it makes sense to attempt to use that model prior to purchase.

Regards

They are all broadly in the same ball park with various pros and cons and some are certainly better than others. In principle renting any powermeter will tell you if you find the data useful or not.

You could rent a wheel, for example; https://www.cyclepowermeters.com/power-meter-rentals.html but it will set you back 1/3 price of a 4iiii.

As for Stages, the variance per model is seemingly quite poor. Perhaps they have addressed this in the new L/R models.

https://roadcyclinguk.com/how-to/fitness-nutrition/power-meter-really-telling-think.html

The issues I have seen personally with Stages tend to be user error, people not having good batteries or simply not having firmware updates, "or" the good old lottery of using a Garmin head unit.

The other reason I prefer Stages is that they have a wolrdwide dealer network and I travel a fair bit with my bike so that could be useful plus all my bikes both here and abroad run Shimano chainsets, the other option was something like the P1 pedals but honestly the weight penalty for me just is not worth it esp on mass you will notice.

Truthfully the reason I had not made the jump earlier was I was fully expecting power meters to have trickled down in price but obviously that has not really happened. Stages are still running at £540 odd quid although granted some places are cutting prices for the off season, I was fully expecting by 2018 that someone would have produced a viable alternative and marketed it at a £299 price point that would have opened it up not just to the experienced cyclist but the weekend warriors..

Funny enough I just had some money come in and I was in two minds as to what to do be it get a Stages or head to Majorca for a week, needless to say I just booked the flights for the end of March!!!!...

Regards

Powermeter thread>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.