SPENDING POWER

The brands, how much they cost, and what they offer

CRANK SPIDER

SRM (from £1,400) was the first to kick off the search for power, and chose the crank spider as it’s one of the first points of contact between rider and bike, plus there’s enough room for the electronics and an integrated battery within the crank spindle.

Power2max (from £650) and Quarq (from £650) use a similar principle, while Powertap’s C1 (£579) focuses the strain gauges at the chainring.

CRANK ARM

4iii (£349), Rotor LT (£699) and Pioneer Single Leg (£599) all followed in the footsteps of Stages (from £500) by putting a strain gauge on the inside of the left-side crank. The Verve Infocrank (£999) put strain gauges in each crank arm, followed by Pioneer’s Dual Leg (£1,099.99).

BOTTOM BRACKET

Rotor Inpower (£599) undercuts its own LT lefthand crank power meter in price by putting the strain gauges in the bottom bracket. For a dual-leg reading a second set of strain gauges can be added in the right crank with its 2inpower (£1,200). Polar was first with the Look Keo Power System (£1,050) back in 2012, but was held back by closing the system off to its own head units. Garmin Vector (from £549 single-sided) and Powertap P1 (£999) pedals are the main contenders now.

HUB

Powertap’s G3 Hub (from £499) is the only power meter based at the hub. It offers a combined measurement of both legs, but can’t offer a true split between left and right.