SRM X-Pedal Power Meter, MTB SPD

Any news on the x-power pedals ?

Anxious to buy, but no where available and first I want to hear Ray @dcrainmaker his opinion on this guys :slight_smile:

Looks very promising !!

I gave up and went with the Assioma solution. I hate that itā€™s a hack, but after waiting a year, Iā€™ve given up and lost confidence in the X-Power. At least I know for certain the Assioma hack works reliably!

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To avoid starting a new threadā€¦ any SRM mountain bike crank users on the forum who can comment on how well (or not well) it performs?

I have been on SRm road cranks since the wired crank PCV days, and now and again consider adding a mountain bike crank to the collection. Am aware of options and other brands of PMs and have experience with several. Specifically asking for experience comments from SRM mountain cranks and if there are any specific issues with it in terms of performance.

Cheers and TIA

@Pbase Is the ā€˜hackā€™ difficult to establish ? And reliable ?

Is there some kind of tutorial of the process ?

I read about this in the TR topic, but i am no fan guy of messing around with good working products :slight_smile:

https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/t/a-wild-idea-for-favero-assioma-pedals-mtb-spd-hack/18627/225

Itā€™s also worth knowing thereā€™s a good chance youā€™ll have to cut the tread on your mtb shoes to accommodate the pod. I did.

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@Pbase thanks a lot for all the info !! I really going to consider to take this route :+1:

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I ran Srm MTB cranks for quite a few years, zero issues, data drops or spikes. I ended up selling it to get a Power2max instead so I donā€™t have to mail it back to get a battery change. The construction of the MTB spiders is different than road so you can change the battery yourself like road spiders

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Thanks!! Thatā€™s my experience with the SRM road products. They just work. Donā€™t need MTN power and should probably wait for the pedals. But have been eying the SRM / XT crank.

Is that a typo ā€œCanā€ vs Cannot"? I do all my own SRM battery changes on the road cranks and didnā€™t know MTN was different. Appreciate that info very much.

Mark

Oops, that is a typo. When I had a road Srm I soldered in my own batteries. The MTB spiders are different, they dont have the screws on the back to take apart like road spiders. srm told me they are glued together instead.

Not sure about the later ones, but the original ā€œSRMā€ cranks and I think the first SRM installs on branded cranks required you to send them back to SRM for battery replacement. I seem to recall it would cost me roughly $400 Cdn for shipping and replacement. Like most head units, the PCx head unit battery was non-replaceable as well.

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Thanks again for the details. Thatā€™s interesting difference and Iā€™ll avoid it. Looks like the new SRM mountain spider has the rechargeable battery system. So Iā€™d do that or just wait for the pedals (if going SRM).

The road cranks have had a few iterations on batteries and connections. All were meant to go back for service but easy enough to DIY at home with some soldering skill. My D/A cranks (7800 and 7950) have dual batteries and instead of directly soldering to the board as the older models did, they use a small two prong connector with leads for the batteries. Iā€™ve half-heartedly tried to identify and source the connector and leads component as it would be nice to prewire battery assemblies and just pop them in when needed.

The dual battery cranks are better than the old single battery units in terms of use time. I get a 2-3 seasons before needing to change batteries. Thatā€™s not bad and it takes maybe 30 min to do the job. Just low enough on the pain threshold to not upgrade to something rechargeable.

Thanks guys - thatā€™s the info I needed so glad to have asked and appreciate the responses.

Mark

Hi DC, how are these going? I had one set and they didnā€™t read/wholly inaccurate from Left channel (getting readings like 96/4% power balanceā€¦) now on my second set and while PB is much better (still a bit iffy at 44/56 comparatively to other power pedals I have) they read 10%+ lower than my other three power metresā€¦

Okā€¦finallyā€¦done: SRM X-Power SPD Power Meter In-Depth Review | DC Rainmaker

TLDR:

A) Accuracy is solid in my testing
B) It appears to smooth a bit harder than my Quarq off-road, namely for typical 1-2 second long surges
C) Battery kinda sucks today, namely because it burns 2-5%/day (solidly 5% for me) in standby. However, both hardware and software updates are coming to soon to be made units thatā€™ll basically make the standby issue go away, and also add a pile more hours of ride time.
D) Durability seems solid. I havenā€™t killed them yet. According to SRM, theyā€™ve not seen a single broken/bent/etc spindle yet
E) Reminder: This is a very different unit than the SRM EXACT pedals, which were a mess. Those were designed by LOOK. These are fully in-house at SRM.
F) Availability: Still tough, but they just opened up a second manufacturing facility and line, and that should improve nearish in the future.

Cheers!

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Thanks Ray! Been looking forward to this review for a very long time!

I own the SRM X-Pedals since end of August 2020 and managed to break the clip-in mechanism on a pedal. It broke during a downhill, but my guess is, I striked a rock and bent it prior. SRM send me a new clip-in mechanism under warranty. Like you stated @iamholland I never had any issues with Shimano SPD, but the release mechanism is a little less defined on the design SRM uses. I sometimes have to rotate the foot some more to get it to release.
One pedal had battery issues and they exchanged both pedals due to this issue under warranty also.
I can attest to the battery drainage over time. Received the firmware update yesterday.
They work great, if charged and the switch from bike to bike is easy.

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Has anyone using the X Power pedals run into any issues since the latest firmware update? I installed 1.4.3 and these things went to :poop:.

  1. Battery is worse (100% to 80% overnight, just sitting idle),
  2. huge (1500watt) spikes in power even though I was maintaining a pretty steady 200ish watt pace
    3 The left pedal keeps dropping out from the SRM app when I put it into ā€œzwiftā€ mode.

I reached out to SRM support and am hoping they can solve or replace.

Any update on your X-Powers?

Received a set a couple weeks back and have done several rides with them. Am seeing similar issues of power spikes well above what Iā€™m capable of producing and left pedal drops. Admittedly am riding fairly technical terrain which isnā€™t the best way to evaluate a power platform. But itā€™s where I ride. Firmware is 1.4.6 which is current.

Wonder if there are enough X-Power users on the TR forum to start a little users group or thread?

Sorry, I havenā€™t checked in in a while.

Iā€™ve since taken these pedals off my XC bike and they are sitting on my workbench while I figure out what to do with them. I had a bunch of pretty hard pedal strikes on rocks and they donā€™t seem to be the same.
The symptoms include the power dropping out, as in the middle of a ride will have 20-30 minutes where no power data is collected. Then it just comes back. Iā€™m not looking at the power on these rides so I donā€™t even notice.
Also when using the with trainer road, they just donā€™t work well. Example: Iā€™ll be on ERG and powermatch. Say at 200 watts. While staying at 200 watts it will get noticeably more or less (sometimes no) resistance.
Another thing I have seen is when an interval is over, and power should drop down for recovery, it doesnā€™t drop and stays at the interval level.

I use the ANT connection for both trainer road and on my Garmin because I read it was more accurate for power. But Iā€™ve tried switching back to BT and the same issues occur.

The batteries last about 12-15 hours. Which is horrible compared to my Assiomas. I only need to charge them every few months.

And lastly, they creak. I think itā€™s the springs that control the clip release. But i thought it was my pivots or bb or anything else. When I put on my XTR pedals the creak went away.

And last week I got an email to schedule my srm service. Which they are asking $200 to perform. Kinda frustrating for a $1200 piece of equipment.

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Tnx for commenting. Appreciate the reply. Have a set in hand and will be curious if I have a better experience.