I’m thinking about buying a pedal power meter, but it would only be for hotels/ travel. I do a decent bit of traveling for work and would like to throw them on the hotel fitness bike, BUT… I don’t want to spend a ton of $$ on them. They would only be for traveling, as I prefer my Speedplay pedals on my road and tri bike.
Vector 3 or Powertap are both more than I want to spend. I did see the Favero Assioma one sided was getting closer to a reasonable amount. Are there any other cheaper options that would work?
As far as I know, the Favero Assioma is the cheapest pedal based power meter currently on the market.
There is a kickstarter based company called IQ2 that plan to make a cheaper one, but it is not known whether they will actually be able to meet their price targets, nor exactly when they’ll be able to make it to market. More details on them here IQ2 Power Meter Changes Direction: Backers Now Getting Pedals | DC Rainmaker.
For something cheap, go with a cranks arm based PM and keep using pedals for the Speedplay. 4iii’s are around $300 for a left only, You may find them cheaper if you look hard enough. Bought one for a 105 5800 from powermetercity,com for $299.
@djabby, he is looking specifically for a traveling option. There is minimal chance that a crank arm solution will work for the variety of fitness and spin bikes he will use.
I’ve had mixed success traveling with a Stages DA left sided arm on trips when I rented a road bike. Provided the rental bike has a Hollowtech 2 crank, I’m usually in good shape, but I need to confirm that ahead of time. Can’t trust the pictures on their website either because the bike you actually get may have a different groupset.
One shop did not want me to swap the crank arm when I asked ahead of time. I didn’t want to get into a long discussion about why not - their bike, their rules. The other big shop in town did not have Shimano cranks on their rentals. So there’s that.
I think you can’t go wrong with PM pedals if you travel and want to use hotel bikes, spin bikes and rentals. Don’t forget you might need a separate pair of shoes if you currently use another type of cleat (Shimano, speedplay) and have your cleats carefully dialed in on your current shoes.
