Just got back from Interbike and I'm pretty excited about the current state of power measuring developments. The first thing I did when I walked into the expo was make a beeline to the Quarq booth. I thought I had an inside scoop when I came across Quarq on this forum, but judging from the buzz of activity at such a relatively small display booth, it seems the word is starting to get out in the industry.
I dropped by a couple of times and spoke at some length with Jim Meyer and came away really impressed. He's taking a very sensible approach to the Quarq system's development and the company's expansion. Basically, he's keeping things low key for the time being until he sees how things play out over the next year. Upon it's official introduction, sales will be exclusively direct, which made for a steady stream of disappointed retailers, including myself. While I was there, he was courteously rebuffing Kendra Wenzel's dealer inquiries. But that's the smart thing to do at this point, and that's an area that also impressed me about him. The bike industry is littered with smart guys with good ideas who over-hyped their product and couldn't deliver.
The crank examples on display all had a very clean looking an unobtrusive intallation. No compatibility yet with Dura Ace and it's idiosyncratic shape, but he said with a little bit of engineering (or maybe a hack saw), it was doable sometime down the road. I asked when a mountain bike compatible version might become available, and he said that's somewhere down the road as well. It seems like that wouldn't be too difficult. Installation looked like it depended on the bolt pattern, rather than anything instrinsic about off road riding that would disqualify them from MTB use. That possibility has me pretty excited - accurate straing gauge data that matches up with SRM and PowerTap...in a unit that weighs 120 grams!
I checked out the Ibike again and some new stuff from Racermate, but that's another story.
I dropped by a couple of times and spoke at some length with Jim Meyer and came away really impressed. He's taking a very sensible approach to the Quarq system's development and the company's expansion. Basically, he's keeping things low key for the time being until he sees how things play out over the next year. Upon it's official introduction, sales will be exclusively direct, which made for a steady stream of disappointed retailers, including myself. While I was there, he was courteously rebuffing Kendra Wenzel's dealer inquiries. But that's the smart thing to do at this point, and that's an area that also impressed me about him. The bike industry is littered with smart guys with good ideas who over-hyped their product and couldn't deliver.
The crank examples on display all had a very clean looking an unobtrusive intallation. No compatibility yet with Dura Ace and it's idiosyncratic shape, but he said with a little bit of engineering (or maybe a hack saw), it was doable sometime down the road. I asked when a mountain bike compatible version might become available, and he said that's somewhere down the road as well. It seems like that wouldn't be too difficult. Installation looked like it depended on the bolt pattern, rather than anything instrinsic about off road riding that would disqualify them from MTB use. That possibility has me pretty excited - accurate straing gauge data that matches up with SRM and PowerTap...in a unit that weighs 120 grams!
I checked out the Ibike again and some new stuff from Racermate, but that's another story.
