Powertap P1 £999
Installation of the Powertap P1 pedals is very simple. You simply screw them in and do not have to worry about specific torque settings or installation angles. The cleats are specifically designed for use with Powertap P1 pedals. Although very similar to Look Keo, they are subtly different, which is a drawback.
Like the Faveros, the weighting of the pedals means that they don’t always sit in the optimum orientation for rapid clipping in.
When we first tried to pair them with a Garmin 1000 we were repeatedly greeted with error messages and failed calibration. This was resolved by updating the firmware via the Garmin. Calibration of the unit is simple, but we look forward to systems that do it automatically.
Power is provided by an AAA battery — for practicality and widespread availability according to Powertap — in each pedal. Powertap claims that this will provide 60 hours of battery life. We found this to be accurate but battery life could be improved with a coin cell type, which is surely practical and available enough.
The battery compartment is on the bottom of the pedal, decreasing pedal clearance and increasing the risk of grounding a pedal when cornering but this is only really an issue for those wanting to do criteriums.
The orange battery cover is made of soft alloy and very easy to round out when removing with an Allen key to change the batteries.
We found the P1 pedals consistently read about 2% higher than a Tacx Neo and 8W higher than a Wattbike at a range of intensities. However, the main thing is that the pedals were consistent.
One issue we’ve experienced is that at the start of a time trial while waiting to start the pedals will ‘go to sleep’ without warning, waking up a minute or two into the ride. We would love to see this resolved.
This is a superb power meter, but a few flaws prevent a perfect score.