That part was different on the new replacement so, maybe the new ones are better? I’m not willing to find out at this point though.
IMO, it’s really hard to go wrong with the sram/quarq stuff. And I really like their “8 bolt” ecosystem where you can mix and match between 2x and 1x with a single spider and also swap out spindles and crank arms as needed.
I just pulled the trigger on a new dzero spider for my gravel bike that takes the threaded rings. The rings are pricey, but I’m able to use my old arms/spindle since it’s the same 8 bolt interface. And a little trick I found out - the Red Xplr spider ($500) and the Force AXS spider ($385) are the same thing. Classic arbitrary road vs. gravel marketing differentiation. So, you can get the force “road” spider and put the red xplr “gravel” threaded rings on it and save over $100. And the rings and spider are on sale at biketiresdirect right now, 15% off.
The SRAM AXS power meter spider is my favourite too. For the price of Favero RS-2 or MX-2 you can get two of them (in the EU). No need to swap PM pedals between your bikes.
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Do they work with their mountain bike components?
SRAM has separate DZero PM spiders for mountain bikes.
I don’t think any of the reported issues with the faveros (chirpy sounds) are enough to dissuade me that they are the best power meter option on the market right now.
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I believe the threaded MTB rings are a different inner diameter than the gravel rings, but not positive. I’ll know soon enough since I already have the threaded chainrings/PM on my MTB and should have the road/gravel setup by next week.
I have a 4iiiii left side PM. It started on my gravel bike but for the last 2-3 seasons it resides on my dedicated trainer bike (I have Stages on my road and gravel bike). It gets ridden 5-6 times a week, somewhere between 7 and 10 hours total or 200-250’ish “kilometres” on Rouvy and an Elite Zumo trainer. Knock on wood, it hasn’t let me down in any way.
I’ve never tried faveros, but all the reviews I’ve seen make it sound like they are the best pedal-based option out there right now. I personally prefer crank/spider-based power, but I can see the draw for pedals if you want to move them around from bike to bike. And for crank-based, I’d argue that Quarq/sram is the go-to unless you can’t live with running a SRAM crank.
I’ve got an early dzero spider on my trail bike that started life on my old XC bike back in 2016 when the first dzero was released. It’s almost 10 years old now and the only issue it’s ever had was the little battery spring screw getting loose once (30 second fix with an allen wrench). They are super accurate and have been very reliable for me. @dcrainmaker ‘s comments on the latest SRAM spider pretty much sums up Quarq/SRAM PM’s for me -
“I’ve gotta say, it’s just so nice riding with a dependable power meter. That might sound silly as a dude whose job it is to test power meters, but there are few power meters out there as effortless as the Quarq units, with a massively high ‘just works’ factor. It’s been that way for nearly two decades, and remains that way today.”
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