Jesse,
Thank you for your post. I purchased an new Aeolus 5.0 carbon clincher w/ 2.4 sl hub in Feb - which was a major purchase for me since the wheel retails for $2500. It had significant dropouts - ie. every 30 sec. Called Saris and they asked me to send the wheel and cpu back (paid $35 to send it back). They told me that the changed out the transmitter to one with a higher frequency (i.e. from "30-40" to a range of "50-60"😉 and switched the cpu (ver 5.33) to one with a stronger signal. Unfortunately, it still had dropouts every 1-3 min. Since then, Saris has sent me 3 - 4 replacement CPUs (ver 5.52 and 5.53) - I keep having to wait 2 weeks to get one, return it, then wait another 2 weeks for another one - and each had dropouts every 30 sec or so. Then I was told that the recommended ver to use was 5.33, so I downloaded the 5.33 software and installed it into the 5.53 CPU. Dropouts were less frequent, but still every 1-3 min. It has now been over 90 days since I purchased my wheel and I still don't have a working powertap (and even worse - no reliable data from my daily rides for 90 days!). To make things worse, the online coach I paid a lot of money for has no power data to track my progress for the last 3 months.
I don't mean to sound upset - Saris has been really great over the phone and with supplying replacement CPUs in an attempt to fix the problem. But it's been 90 days now - and I've about given up. Since this is a Bontrager wheel w/ a powertap hub, what's the mechanism for requesting a refund? I emailed Bontrager and they said it's strictly a Saris issue - however, it seems despite 90 days, Saris is unable to fix the problem.
Question: Do you know if there is a definitive fix in the works for this device? If so, I'd like to know it and have my wheel working once and for all. If not, I'd really like a refund at this point. Thanks.
powertap said:It certainly is easy to say that we've had a "bumpy" product launch if you're only looking at the anecdotal data posted on various forums. But, considering the number of units currently in the field and the technology in play things could be worse. That being said, whether there is an issue on 1 or 1,000 hubs we want to understand it and solve it. Period.
We can't understate the difficulties involved with that "understanding" statement. RF is a tricky technology. From the beginning we have been testing each and every hub that leaves our facility but what we've learned is that depending on the test we can miss things. In our case it was the overall RF power vs. the characteristics of that RF. Unfortunately, a recall is not possible in this case because the variability is not associated with a bad lot of parts or a new operator in production, it's much more subtle than that. We can say that a very small number of units are suspect and that an even smaller number will be suspect moving forward.
As always, we stand behind our products and if anybody is experiencing issues please contact our customer service department at 1-800-783-7257. Regarding Adict07's particular experience, replacing batteries is a standard trouble shooting tactic worth the effort. Return shipping is commonly a burden shouldered by the consumer and spelled out clearly in the warranty. If you feel this to be unfair I would recommend taking it back to your dealer for them to handle the return.
Just because we provide "the value priced power meter" doesn't mean we offer value priced service. $1500 is still a lot of money and we respect that. We also appreciate the constructive criticism and will work to improve our processes in the future.
Jesse Bartholomew
CycleOps Product Manager
