an often voiced argument, as long as an imbalance is consistent a left sided pm should be fine.
How do you know that a) you have an imbalance, and b) that it is consistent?
When I got my Stages I neither knew that I had an imbalance and that this imbalance would change with fatigue.
For many a left sided pm may work. Problem is, how to know if this is true for oneself.
Do dual-sided pedals read more smoothly/less jumpy on the head unit?
I agree, the data and science just don’t support the need for DS PMs. The marketing department has created a need for sure.
Before you “mismatch” kids pile on, i have a significant mismatch, I’ve dislocated my right hip twice on airborne operations, and broken a piece out of the hip cradle. I did almost 18 months of recovery after my most recent surgery (which is what led me to structured training and Trainer Road specifically) during which I had access to dual sided PMs at the therapy facility. As has been stated, all it did was show me I had a mismatch, nothing to be done about it.
I ride a single sided stages on three different bikes, and I’m a data nerd through and through.
3s 5s 20s power average (or whatever equivalent your head is showing). The precise power you are putting down at any given second is irrelevant.
Anyone training with a power meter that hasn’t read Training and Racing with a Power Meter (Hunter, Allen, Coggin) is doing themselves a disservice. You may as well not even be using power because its just numbers scrolling by. Apps like TR, Golden Cheetah, and TP do a lot of the work they discuss in the book for you so you’re not camped out with a calculator post-ride, but you need to know what your’e seeing.
@mellowdave it’s not just numbers scrolling by, it’s how I pace when time trialling. I work to a small window of watts and use 10 second average. Very good book, BTW.
My question stands - is the readout less jumpy using double-sided pedals?
Congrats on your come back. Airbourne operations?
Again, not to be a “know it all” I’m definitely not, but what I’m saying is that your power varies hugely from second to second. If you’re showing current power of any kind from any meter, you’ll see a jumpy reading.
Do you have your current screen set to show a 10 second average? If so and its still jumpy, what meter and head unit are you using? Perhaps you’re dealing with signal cut outs? On mine, single sided stages, and a wahoo ELEMNT I have 10s average showing and I wouldn’t describe it as jumpy at all.
To the other question,
Airborne Operations ( I’m a US Paratrooper, no “U” in the word. 
)
That last one, the pretty day in the nice rolling green field is when I actually broke my hip cradle. 
I purchased a discounted single-sided Gen2 Stages for my old TT bike last spring and a Power2Max NGeco for my road bike that i added just recently. The Stages was an affordable way to go from virtual power to a more repeatable power measurement for training purposes, and I’ve been happy with it. I do see higher power readings from the Stages compared to my Pwr2Max, but on different bikes – so I just don’t sweat it. I don’t regret buying the Stages at all – it was a good deal on clearance and it’s worked great for purposes of training. Adjusting workout intensity to compensate for the different ftp values and later editing ride ftp is a simple enough fix when swapping bikes with different meters on a basic fluid trainer.
According to a 2017 study in the link below that evaluates the accuracy and precision of various power offerings, the Stages were found to have more variability between meters and even on the same unit from one ride to another. In my experience I haven’t perceived any noticeable issues. Would I notice a couple percent between rides? Probably not, but even if it’s the case, I don’t have an issue with it. It’s an improvement over virtual power for sure. The Power2Max brand on my road bike didn’t score that well, either, in these tests, but again, I’ve not sensed a whole lot of variation that I could , considering the ups and downs of training, sleep, recovery/fatigue, etc. that factor in to every ride. Power2Max and some other brands had so few data points in the graph that I wouldn’t consider any conclusions about those to be meaningful. Looking at figure 3 in this study, it looks like about 2/3 of the Stages units are clustered there under 2% with the other meter manufacturers, and about 1/3 are a little less accurate (one outlier really looked especially off). Is this study still relevant with Gen3? Your guess is as good as any.
Is your power meter really telling you what you think it is?
Single side 4IIII, 105 crank arm. No regrets at all.
The only time I regret having a one-sided crank arm power meter is when I unclip during an Isolated Leg Training interval (like during Goddard), and my wattage drops to zero!
Do you think by having a left side power meter it messes up your pedal strike favouring your left leg which the power is measured with in terms of the subconscious mind ?
Do you think by having a left side power meter it messes up your pedal strike favouring your left leg which the power is measured with in terms of the subconscious mind
I seriously doubt that. Just don’t think about it. Single sided is perfectly fine for all but a minute portion of the population.
About half the time.
{ba dum tis}
I don’t think it has for me but I can’t speak for others.
I’ve got a 4iiii single sided coming in the mail today. Hope I dont regret it…
IMO…I dont think there is a readily available absolute measure of power. I have a wahoo kickr. It’s power could be off 50 watts or more…I wouldnt have a clue. As long as it is consistent…I can train consistently.
Same with the single sided IMO. I’ll be able to dk workouts based on power outside. And hell…lets say WORST case scenario is I have something really weird going on, where one leg fatigues at a wildly different rate than the other…say creating a 10% discrepancy at different times of the workout. Even 10% discrepancy will result in Work performed largely in the correct zone.
So…is dual sided better? Sure. But…999 gram frame is also ‘better’ than a 1000 gram frame. How deep do we really need to go for marginal gains?
I have a left side only Stages PM, I’m very happy with it. Excellent training tool!
Got 2 single sided power meters on different bikes. I have never found it to be an issue not knowing the Wattage the other leg is putting out.
I saw what you did there.
Huh?.. If you’re doing, let’s say 4x10 min at threshold for a workout. You’re FTP is 250 watts a 10% discrepancy is 275 watts or 225 watts the other way. Trying to do your LT work at 275 watts is going to put you in Vo2 max and 225 watts would be below the threshold zone at the top of tempo.
Totally hope it works out for you but 10% does make a difference when training and it gets even more complicated as you get more bikes. I’m sure all of us would kill to have a 10% higher FTP and that would make a huge difference in our riding.
Just ordered a Stages for my Cannondale crank. I would prefer dual sided but there’s nothing on the market that would work for someone who swaps between chainrings & spiders, and I prefer SPD-SL to any other pedal. So it will have to do! If you buy any PM get a new one with a warranty. I had a Specialized brand PM last year and it literally fell apart after a month. They replaced it and I sold it, added some $ and got the Cannondale Stages for my new bike. I would be out a lot more if I was stuck with my dead Specialized meter.
