Quarq CinQo Power Meter

Power Meters?  Seems they're here to stay now the big guns are getting involved.  They're no longer the product of niche companies working on the fringes of the sport.  When the big boys arrive, volumes go up and prices come down.  Is it not time to get on the bus...?

Obviously, if you've been here before you're aware of my affinity for power meters and the significant changes they can make to your training, development and performance.  I've been an SRM user since 2004 and have seen nothing since to change my opinion of power meters or my allegiance to our German friends.  That is, until now.

A lot has changed in the past seven years.  Wireless has arrived and a few companies have come and gone while others have remained at the forefront.  I've covered power meter use in other areas of the site, so here I'm just going to concentrate on one make and one model.  The Quarq CinQo.

The Technology
There are a few places on the bike you can measure power;

▼  in the wheel, PowerTap
▼  in the pedal, Garmin MetriGear ~ in pre-production
▼  off the chain, Polar
▼  at the crank. SRM and Quarq 

▼  for a while there was the bottom bracket Ergomo but I believe they're in some sort of "transition" phase.

SRM have, in my opinion, been the gold standard against which all others are measured.  I try to keep an open mind but it's a bit like comparing Campag and Shimano.  Having said that, last year I followed the Vapours and turned Japanese; an old punk joke!

All power measuring devices use an age-old technology, colloquially known as a strain gauge.  When connected as an electronic  Wheatstone Bridge (I know what one of those is you know!) and you throw a small voltage through one side of it, you get a small reading out of the other. 

By strategically placing the strain measuring gauges in the right place and connecting them up to the right electronics these "strains" which mean nothing to us, can be converted to watts which most definitely do.

Here's one of the eight gauges located inside an SRM crank.  They really are tiny and super sensitive.

With no force applied to the gauge the reading can be sent to a computer and it can be told to read zero.  If you apply pressure to the pedals, by standing on them, the metal to which the gauge is firmly attached stretches.  This stretching changes the resistance of the unit and that gives you a computed torque reading.  But you still don't have power measurement.

Only when the pedal turns and completes a full revolution can you measure cadence.  As I've explained elsewhere on the website, cadence x torque = power.  Power is only power when the pedals are turning and the crank is being "twisted". 

So as well as a strain gauge you need to have something that can count pedal revs, which is done with a tiny reed switch.  It's this switch (inside the crank) that tells the unit to wake up when you pedal.  If it's not activated for ten minutes or so, when you hang your bike up for the day, the electronics take this a a signal to go to sleep and save battery power.

So if you place the bike in a repair stand and spin the pedals you still can't measure power.  You may have cadence, but there's no torque because there's no road grip to provide resistance against the forward motion of the wheel, so the cranks can't twist. 

The electronics take care of calculating all this clever stuff and display all the info you need to impress your friends on your handlebars.

The Quarq has 20 strain grids placed on 10 strain gauges using their propriety arrangement nicknamed the "Ring of Saturn".  Like the SRM the Quarq uses "event-based" measuring; in effect it averages data over complete revolutions of the crank then transmits the message to the head unit at the end of each revolution. 

The PowerTap is "time-based" which means around every second or so, it transmits what it has to the head unit.  This is a "dirtier" method of transmission because you could be freewheeling or doing a 140 rpm sprint.  The machine doesn't know or care what it has, it just sends it every second.  Information is therefore non-linear and prone to more discrepancies and variations.

Another positive for the Quarq is the fact that it's ANT+ compatible, which means it's wireless and can be picked up by your compatible head unit of choice.  You aren't necessarily tied in to a proprietary, or wired, head unit.  In our case the head unit of choice was the Garmin 800, because we already had one.

The Product
The CinQo differs from the crank measuring SRM in the fact that it is a retro-fit to a production crank spider, not a replacement self-contained module.  You therefore won't find a Campag or Shimano version, which is just as well as SRAM have now bought them.

The Quarq is powered by a bog-standard, CR2450 battery that you'll find in any bike computer, heart monitor or cadence sensor.  Each battery lasts around 400 hours and can be changed in around 30 seconds with no tools needed.  It sits under the big letter Q in the photo above. 

This is where it scores against the SRM, which has to be sent away to have it's battery replaced and to be factory recalibrated.  Although I am lucky enough to be able to do my own, I haven't forgotten everything from my apprenticeship days.

The units are currently available as a standard 53x39 and a compact 50x34 or 50x36.  Track and mountain bike products are sure to follow now there's big production, big marketing and big research budgets to be thrown at them.

Fitting & Setup
Okay, here's the breakdown of events. Tony Moffa at Big Maggys says to me Friday lunchtime,  "Why don't you have a road test of my Quarq power meter?"  Why not, I think to myself and take him up on his offer.  Then throwing him a curve ball, I tell him I'll be back later.  I'm an SRM man but it's got to be worth a look. 

Even though it was still on his bike at lunchtime, I pick it up late afternoon and it's given to me in an as new condition, cleaned to within an inch of it's life.  I didn't think you got service like that any more.  Seems that you do in some places.

Okay, it's 5:30 pm, I'm sitting at home with a Quarq crank, a GPX bottom bracket and a funny ring with a magnet.  I put the kettle on, thinking I'll better get a cup of tea going, it's going to be a long evening.  I head to the workshop to try and find a manual to download off t'interweb.

I'm in the Flamme Rouge Service Corse with the necessary bits and a couple of tools.  No, not Steve Whiteside and Mick Heald, I mean the mechanical kind.  I've decided to "Man Up", so in the short trip from the kettle to the workshop I've concluded I don't need a manual.

So, here we go, lets fit the bottom bracket.  But before we do, we need to fit the special rare earth magnet.  This is the bit that trips the reed switch to wake the electronics up and activate the pedal rev counter.  It ain't going to work without it on and attached in exactly the right place.  A normal magnet will do, but these magnets are very strong for their tiny size.

An ingenious mounting collar slips behind the bottom bracket and perfectly places the magnet in the exact position to activate the internal electronics on pedalling the crank. 

On SRMs, this can take a bit of tweaking, a lot of time and much frustration.  Quark 1 ~ SRM 0.  I hand tighten the cups, line everything up then nip them up to torque tight with the aforementioned tools.

Four minutes in and we've got 50% of the job done.  I hear the kettle click, and run back to the kitchen to throw some water on a tea bag.  As you all know; I am the most impatient person I know, not a trait I'm proud of, just a sad fact.  So while the tea brews, I run back to whence I came to fit the crank.

I apply a sliver of copper-ease grease and slide the drive side crank in to the frame and check the magnet is lined up.  How can it not be?  I place the left hand crank arm on to the drive splines, tighten up the bolt, give it a proper torque up and spin the cranks. 

66% of the job done, lets get the tea bag out of the cup.

Tea bag out, milk in, two chocolate hob nobs (pre-ride carb load) and grab Dianne's Garmin 800 on the way back to the workshop.  So far so good but I really do think I now need a manual.  Never used a Garmin before so I dive off to the manual library (yep, I do have one) and grab the book of words.

I spin the CinQo to "wake it up" and I switch on the Garmin.  It immediately starts looking for satellites, won't find any in here so I press "Menu". 

There's a picture of a spanner, no it's not Mick or Steve (enough now), I press it and instinctively choose "Bike Settings". 

Again, there's a few options to choose but "Bike Profiles" seems the obvious choice.  "ANT+ Power" suggest to me that it would be a good option and hey presto it asks if I have a power meter! 

A quick "Yes" and a scan for devices and we're up and running.  The Garmin displays the CinQo unique ID number and that's it, we're locked on.

The manual is returned to the library unused.  Result!

I pressed a few more options and pulled up a wattage field on the screen and obviously gave it pole position.  It's ten-to-six, one biscuit down, two slurps of tea, and a fully installed up and running power meter in less than 20 minutes. 

Meg's looking at me waiting for her after-work-walk but sorry puppy, I've a power meter to test.  I pull the Garmin mounting bracket from Dianne's bike and attach it to mine.  Two O rings, thirty seconds, nearly a PB. 

I share the second biscuit with Meg and ask, "Where's me shoes?"  Unfortunately for the puppy I meant cycling not walking,  She goes off to her mat for a sulk.

Like a true professional I tuck my sports-casual trackie bottoms in to my sock (all I need now is a paper round bag).  I ride to the end of the drive, the Gamin picks up the satellites and recognises the bike is moving. 

I have power, I have cadence, I have speed from the satellites (there is a wheel mounted option for greater accuracy) and should I get lost, I have direction and maps.  All boxes ticked.

All carbed up, I decide to ride the hill outside our house and I've got elevation as well and big(ish), at one point I saw a three, power numbers.  Five minutes.  Done and dusted, back home, park the bike ready for the morning ride and try to win back affection by giving Meg my cold cup of tea.  It's just 6:00 pm.  Walkies.

We're ten minutes in to the walk before I realise my trousers are still tucked in my socks.  Arse!

Ride Data
Saturday morning 8:00 am I'm out the door to meet up with the flamme rougers and to impress them with my new toy. 

You pedal, it records.  You go home, you download, you analyse.  It really is that easy. 

SRM provide a fantastic, if fantastically expensive data recording unit, Quarq don't. 

For Quarq any ANT+ unit will do.  You can even choose the SRM PC 7, if you want to impress, as initial compatibility issues have now been resolved.  SRM's aren't ANT+ compatible!

The Saris Joule (PowerTap), has the advantage of showing ride average TSS but to be honest it's not a feature I've looked out for as a show stopper,  The Joule has had mixed reviews but for a release 1, it's okay.  Version 2 will be much better.  Remember SRM are on Version 7!. 

There's also the Garmin Edge 500 or the very user friendly, mapping capability, Edge 800.  You won't be short of choices and options.

SRM provide analysis software with their units, as do PowerTap, Quarq don't.  To be honest, SRM's is not the most user friendly or intuitive piece of software you'll ever use.  It's a science based product, written for sciencey people by sciency people.  Brilliant, I would imagine, but mind-bogglingly confusing.  Here's an analysis screen...

Quarq don't provide software.  Which is where Cycling Peaks WKO+ comes in.  Why try to write something yourself, when there's a de facto standard already leading the market.  Here's one of their, fully customisable analysis screens from a one-off interval session...

And if you don't want to purchase WKO+, then you can always use Garmin's own GarminConnect that comes free with your purchase and is uploaded to the Garmin site.  Here's how to squeeze a 60k recovery ride in to an island 9 miles by 5, and a sample power file..

There's also Golden Cheetah, a freeware version of power software and the Saris Power Agent software.  So all in all you've got as many software options as you have hardware ones.

Conclusion
I've remained with my wired SRM technology right up until today because it's perfect, it's ultra reliable and I have wired harnesses on all six of my Colnago's, with two cranks, standard and compact to choose from as and when needed.

When Big Maggys delivered my seventh, a Colnago Di2 C59, I had nowhere to put the wires or mount the magnet!  Now I needed to consider my options as £3,200 for a Dura Ace SRM is only the start when you end up with one bike out of sync with six others.

First off, the Quarq doesn't come with all the bells and whistles of the PowerTap and the SRM.  It doesn't have to, Quarq's mission is to sell power meters that are a fit and forget item.  All their R&D is aimed at giving you the best value power meter and customer service.  Let other best of breed products supply your head unit and software.  You get to design your own system, dependent on your needs, not those of a marketing department.

So, the Quarq measures power at the crank, which the PowerTap doesn't; it's event-based, which the SRM is; and it's about the price of a PowerTap which is around a grand less than just the SRM crank unit!  It also means you can use whatever wheels, pedals and peripherals you want, when you want.

But you do need a head unit and possibly, depending on your choice, software.

The Garmin 800 comes in around £300 and WKO+ is around £80.  Which now makes the £1300 purchase price of the Quarq from Big Maggys an absolute bargain.  Total solution, £1680 as compared to £3200 for an SRM.  Let me think...

If you already have a compatible Garmin then the decision's almost made for you.

This really is a fit and forget item.. Out of the box, on to the bike, on the road and dodging cars within 30 minutes.  Every 400 (riding) hours you swap a £2 battery.  If you're of the nervous type, keep one in your saddlebag. 

As you start each ride, you pedal backwards for four revolutions to calibrate it.  This makes the strain gauges reset to the ambient temperature and increases accuracy.  Standard practice for SRM owners.  It's the only thing you have to remember.

You can't check the zero-offset just yet.  Unless you are already familiar with power meters this bit means nothing!  It's an important but infrequent task.  I check my SRM's every six months and they never move.  It's only a necessary task when you've swapped chain rings.  When the option shortly arrives you can only do it with a 3G iphone or an itouch and a dongle.  Oo-er missus.

This is where the SRM scores highly as it can be calibrated and checked very easily with it's head unit.  Not a show stopper, but as yet you can't change the chain rings of the unit without sending it back to the dealer for calibration. 

I'm sure SRAM will soon ensure that this particular hurdle is removed.  Possibly with the ramping up of the Quarq Qranium head unit that was put on hold once "purchase talks" began.  The Qalvin software and dongle mentioned above are now flooding in to the shops and iApps stores as we speak.

The fact that I rode with it for a month and never once gave it a second thought speaks volumes of its reliability, compatibility and plain all round fit-for-purpose.  Not much more to say really!

If you want/need more information contact tony@bigmaggys.com, tell him I sent you and he'll give you a free cup of Magnus Maximus coffee while he talks you through the options.  And if you pop in on a good day, Magnus might even be there himself to give you a pro's insight.  Until then, here's a photo to compare the two side by side.

Having carefully considered my options, I don't think I'll be upgrading to a wireless SRM.  But a wireless Quarq could be a whole different ball game.  It's a serious bit of kit that will help make you a fitter, faster, stronger rider.  And isn't that what we're all after? 

I've yet to see anyone say they were disappointed with their power meter.  It's almost impossible to find second hand ones and the wired SRM's that are available are going up in price as the wireless units move the benchmark price point ever upwards.  If you're in the market for a wireless power meter, a Quarq seems it should be at the top of a very short list.

Pre-order at Big Maggys for an end of July delivery date.  Once they hit the open market you could be waiting in the post-production catch-up queue.  Click the link in the left column, get in touch with Ian or Tony on 01534 729 900, or fire me an email if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

See you on the road, be careful out there, and may the "Watts be With You".

Tools & Spanners?
And to finish the piece off, here's my two bessie mates Steve (with Susan, who'll always be my favourite) and Mick (in the cap) who both, through no fault of their own, have been recently taken out in races and ended up in hospital. 

See they're just normal blokes like you and me! 

Get well soon boys...

Quarq History
The story goes that Jim Meyer (a full-time triathlete) realised in early 2006 that he needed a power meter to better train for the bike discipline of his chosen (three) sports.  His wife Mieke, studying full-time for an MBA, and being practical, said we can't afford one.  Jim sulks and decides if he can't buy one, he'll make one.

Mid 2006, Jim builds his first prototype, tweaks it for the rest of the year and in early 2007 starts to think of launching a product.  Come September 2007 and a toe-tester is shown at Interbike.  June 2008 and generation one units start to trickle out the door.  Jim and Mieke have themselves a business. 

Generation two units follow in 2009, and come May 2011 SRAM, spotting the potential of the device, the people and the business opportunities, acquire Quarq.  The first, but they wont be the last, of the group set manufacturers to move power meters in to the mainstream market.  So they're here to stay.

Designing a power meter is easy.  I've done it myself.  It's the building of one in to a bicycle product, making it accurate, reliable and able to endure the ravages of the cycling elements, wind, rain, heat, cold, and cobbles that are the truly hard bit.  Mr Meyer and his team seem to have it cracked.

Many have tried and most have fallen by the wayside.  Up until now the only safe bet was Power Tap and SRM.  Now there is a third major player, there may yet be a fourth.  It's not always about the hardware either; product support and customer service are key to success.  History is littered with the failures of the best product.  Remember Betamax anyone?

The Tester
What makes me think I'm qualified to write articles and critique bikes? Click here and I'll try to explain.