NEW EDIT: Spoke too soon. The calibration numbers after “the fix” were not as crazy as when the power meter died on me. It was 897 / -2100 or something like that when it died. Now it’s 895 / -997 which looks normal but upon reading Stages’ own website, I see that this is way outside of normal calibration (they say it should be within 50 of eachother). I didn’t wanna jump to conclusions and took it out on a ride. Sure enough, readings are all over the place. It goes something like 60%/40% balance for one minute. Then jumps to 30%/70 for another couple minutes and back and forth. I’m pedaling something around 200 watts by feel it shows 285 watts. I’m pedalling hard up 10% hill it shows 180 watts. So yeah… this PM has definitely pooped after 4 rides. I kinda don’t have time for this and gonna see if I can get my money back without waiting for a resolution that might take months. Not interested in a replacement.
EDIT: Issue resolved. Not by Stages. TL / DR: Try taking batteries out, install them reversed for about 20/30 seconds (factory reset procedure). Then get rid of old batteries and put fresh Duracell branded batteries in (yes brand matters). Credit: @AJS914
Just starting this thread for record keeping.
I bought a 9200 dual sided crankset from you guys on May 21st. Have been very happy with it so far.
I’ve been to only a few rides with it since then (have other pm’s on other bikes) but on my last ride, right side stopped functioning.
It was ok for the first hour then it gave me some erratic readings (1950w, 600w, etc when I was probably around 230-250 watt range) then for the rest of the 3 hours on the ride, It was 100/0 reading only from left side.
When I came home, I tried a few things
Took batteries off, put them on again. Did a zero reset. Still same issue
Unpaired and repaired right / left sides. Still same issue.
Calibration shows 897 / -2198 (normally it’s something like 897 / 891 or something close like that.
I already started a ticket at stages. Hope it gets resolved quickly.
Will keep you updated
It should be. I had an issue with my left side stages not calibrating in spec. Started a ticket and had a replacement on the way in a few days or so. I had to send them a pic of the electronics destroyed on the old one but it was that or send it in and be without a crank until the new one came in. Makes sense to me that they would do it that way to avoid being scammed by someone trying to get a free power meter.
I don’t wanna sound like a dillweed, but after reading this thread and the other thread re: Stages CS, I have to ask if you have actually tried to call them?
Everyone seems to be saying they have e-mailed them, but no one has said whether they actually called and tried to speak to a live person. It has been a few years since I have had to deal with Stges CS, but when I did, I called them and never e-mailed them.
I mean… It IS 2023 so it shouldn’t matter. If anything email / ticket system should be faster…
At least if it’s anything like any other company I worked at for the last couple decades.
Having said that, email did mention the phones are busy as well.
If I don’t get anything today I’ll try calling monday I suppose.
Not sure where you’re getting “multiple times” from.
Also, people tend have a hard time seeing the world from others’ eyes. I personally hate talking on the phone with a passion. I have a hard time gathering my thoughts when I’m not seeing the person in front of me. So I wouldn’t be explaining things right. Failed many, MANY job interviews like this that I know I’m highly qualified for.
My partner of 8 years even knows not to call me but either video chat so I can see her face or just text.
But anyway. getting off topic here. I’m sure they’ll get to my problem. This is just a thread for letting people know what happens in this situation. Not meant to be a me complaining about my poor luck. Sorry if you read it that way.
Just an idea of how long it takes to resolve and how Stages deals with it etc if they’re in the situation.
The other reason I’ve been stubborn about email is cause just a week ago I got an immediate response to my ticket that was about a question on zero offsetting the unit on the app (it resets fine on computer but fails on app)
But seeing that other thread now I can see where you’re coming from.
Which makes me think they pick and choose what they respond to quickly and what they put on the waitlist.
One of the best things I did for my Stages was starting to buy the more expensive, retail packs (usually Duracells now) of batteries. I only figured this out after a couple years of experiencing issues 2-3 times per year.
I’m usually of the mind that most batteries are the same and probably all come from the same factories but I found the oem 10 or 20 packs of various batteries off Amazon to be very hit and miss. They don’t last as long as the retail Duracells and when they would hit the end of their life I’d see weird calibration numbers or large variations of calibrations with temperature. And this is with the Stages app saying that the battery’s charge level is good.
I even tried Energizers off of Amazon in an oem 10 pack and had back luck with those. Maybe they are fake? Put a ten cent battery in an Energizer package and charge $1?
Short story - retail pack of Duracells are way way better, more reliable, and they last longer anyway.
I would try the factory reset procedure (shorting terminals or installing the battery upside down for 20 seconds) and then try again with fresh, good batteries.
Funny enough, when the phone app would fail calibrating the unit, just to make 100% sure I got the batteries that came with Stages and put in my own brand new Duracells. So what’s in there is fresh Duracells and I only rode them 4 times or so.
However, since it’s such a quick test, I’ll throw in a couple more fresh Duracells and see what happens. Something tells me it’s not a battery issue though cause I unpaired and repaired the left and right sides successfully. Which means the right side is functional (well… alive at least), just not reading / calibrating right.
Yes, per my post I know believe it. My guess is that the Stages may need a higher or more consistent voltage than other devices that use a CR2032. I’ve never had an issue, for example, with heart rate monitors and cheap batteries.
It just would have been helpful if Stages published info like this. It took me 2 years of futzing around with the device thinking that it was probably a piece of junk like people often say. I suspect that Stages might even have a much better reputation if either they warned people about cheap batteries or had designed the unit to work under a wider range of voltage and charge levels.
