powertap reliability

[Big@l]

Hi Guys & Girls,

l have been not so succesfull in powertraining. l first tried polar to see if it made a difference in training, and was pleased with the results so l bought a powertap SL wired. Had two faults with it after about 4 months use and got a refund as it went faulty after 2 weeks of being repaired.

l really like training with a PM, and l am currently using a garmin 705 with the ANT+ tech and l am thinking again about buying a powertap. The one l am looking at is the powertap elite+ for my winter bike and trainer.

My question is this

Has anybody else had problems with there powertap, and are the 2009 models more reliable?

really appreciate your experinces

thanks Big@l

 

[BeeGuy]

I was in your boat in January. Had a 705, just deep-sixed my Polar CS. I built up a pro+ PT and have been riding it hard ever since. At about 4000 miles I had to replace the batteries in the hub, not a big deal (a few bucks at Radio Shack). The data has been good, especially since the 2.9 firmware upgrade for the 705. I now have the ultimate bicycle computer, with mapping and power and it's great.

One thing I did to lower the cost is buy the complete powertap and then ebayed the head unit. Big demand for those.

Cheers

 

[marrykonta]

Hi Big@l,

Well,
Thank goodness for us that the sport scientists at the Australian Institute for Sport have a lot of toys on their hands, along with the time to play with them.In a 2004 scientific article in the well-respected journal Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, Gardner et al.1 systematically tested the accuracy and reliability of two of the dominant power monitors on the market -- SRM and Power-tap (PT).


Thanks

 

[daveryanwyoming]

I have wired PT SL wheelsets on my road bike, TT bike, cross bike and track bike. The road wheelset is going on 4 years and over 20,000 miles of steady use, the TT and track wheelset a lot less miles but still several seasons of use and the cross wheelset is newest but I abuse it the most in both races and training. Across all those wheels I've had two PT failures(same hub), both immediately following heavy rainstorms that left me soaked. I've since learned to coat the hub cover threads and O-ring with a light layer of grease and haven't had any failures even during wet cyclocross rides.

All my wheelsets were purchased used with no warranties so on the first failure I had to pay Saris for the repair but for ~ $125 it came back working fine in just a week or so and when that same hub failed nearly a year later they repaired it under warranty from the previous repair.

Hard to say what happened with your PT, but IME they're pretty reliable (other than the HR function on the older units) considering what I put them through.

-Dave

 

[frost]

I have wired PT SL wheelsets on my road bike, TT bike, cross bike and track bike.

Wohow! And I thougth (me) having two PT's was overkill

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Ooops, the track bike doesn't have an SL, it has the old Pro with a Surly Fixxer kit. Regardless it's still working...

 

[Big@l]

Thanks Dave,

this is the type of info that l was after. Not sure what happened with mine possibly just unlucky. l work with electronics so l understand that sometimes you just get a bad un.

A little bit dissapointed with the response though.....

surely everyone here has a PM.....

lets here your views good or bad please

 

[frost]

Thanks Dave,

this is the type of info that l was after. Not sure what happened with mine possibly just unlucky. l work with electronics so l understand that sometimes you just get a bad un.

A little bit dissapointed with the response though.....

surely everyone here has a PM.....

lets here your views good or bad please

Your question was specificly if anyone has had problems so lack of responses could mean no problems as well as no responses.

I have two PT's. Not a single problem and with the weather here you cannot avoid water or even temperatures below freezing point.

 

[azdroptop]

I bought my 09 SL+ in April and have had a pretty horrid experience with it. I just got the wheel back for the third time and I am on the 4th cmoputer. Turns out I've had both bad computers and a bad "send" unit in the hub. The CS was good overall, but I feel like they didn't really listen to what I was telling them and were kind of blowing me off because they didn't observe my problem in houre. At least the last two times I've had to ship it they paid for it.

I was first having intermittant readings and then I was having watt 'freezings' while riding. Since I just got the wheel back 3 days ago and have only riden outside once, I'm not calling it fixed yet, but so far so good.

With all that said I have a few friends who have thousands of mile on thier PT's with absolutely no issues other than battery changes.

 

[cakey]

i have had my wired powertap sl for 3 years, used in all the weather the UK can throw at it and its been perfect.

Its done 15,286 miles, and had one change of bearings.

 

[9606]

I have 2 wired and 2 wireless. Oldest is about 5 years.
No unusual problems.
Cross bike and mtb clip trees, shrub, etc. so I have gone through wiring kits.
I had oldest hub rebuilt last year.
Great product and CS.

 

[doctorSpoc]

i have a PT SL 3yrs old probably about 30,000km on it.. it needs new bearings but i haven't got around to it.. also one of the pawls of the freehub body is sticking a little bit

my HR monitor stopped working long ago but around the same time i stopped using it anyway so didn't really care

i recently had a problem with the head unit where it was flaking out while riding saying "full" and "data" then it wouldn't download the files.. but a firmware upgrade fixed that..

i had power dropouts a first for some reason but now i don't get them anymore.. no idea why.. i switch to the shark fin type cradle and pickup but not sure if that did it or not..

other than that it's been pretty solid.. and i'm not that gentle with my stuff either... so not bad in my books..

 

[BikingBrian]

2 PTs, an Elite+ training wheel and a Cosmic with the SL hub racing wheel, obviously both wireless. Been using them since March in all kinds of weather. Zero problems so far.

 

[JungleBiker]

My first PT (wired version) gave up at around 13,000 - 14,000kms. I was able to replace it with an upgrade to a wireless version and then that gave up after about 10,000kms. That too was then upgraded to the ANT version - so far I have only done 450kms on it. Besides that I also got a wireless PT for my MTB and then just recently it gave up at about 7,500km - so now I am still waiting for the verdict on what's wrong with it; I am hoping I will be given a chance to upgrade it, e.g. to the disc brake version!

 

[tonyzackery]

My first PT (wired version) gave up at around 13,000 - 14,000kms. I was able to replace it with an upgrade to a wireless version and then that gave up after about 10,000kms. That too was then upgraded to the ANT version - so far I have only done 450kms on it. Besides that I also got a wireless PT for my MTB and then just recently it gave up at about 7,500km - so now I am still waiting for the verdict on what's wrong with it; I am hoping I will be given a chance to upgrade it, e.g. to the disc brake version!

Please expound on the term "gave up". Thanks. I want to know what to look out for "just in case"...

FWIW, PT SL wired since May with over 7500+ kms. No problems other than having to replace batteries after drop-outs started to occur. Solid, reliable piece of equipment. Like Karl Malden used to say in those 70's AMEX commericals: "...don't leave home without". Sold a couple sets of wheels because I never used them since having the PT. Haven't trained or raced on ANY other wheel since getting it...yes, I'm obsessed with the power data...

 

[JungleBiker]

Please expound on the term "gave up".

By "gave up" I mean I stopped getting data from the hub (or I got weird data). It wasn't battery problems and the supplier never did tell me what the causes were but I was offered upgrades for what I considered were very fair prices (probably the same price or cheaper than the cost of repairing/servicing the original hub so I assume Saris considered the problem was their fault and wanted to make up for it (but also didn't want customers knowing what the problems were).

Anyhow, like you I am still a PT fan and I hate to ride without a PT.