I wonder if other people have noticed their Stages not compensating adequately for temperature.
Today, my bike was stored inside (75F). I took it outside and let it sit for maybe 5 minutes. I came out, calibrated my Stages (gen 2) with my Garmin head unit and then left on my ride. It was 93F outside with 80% humidity.
I think the initial calibration was 890.
Towards the middle of my ride, I noticed that my power seemed abnormally low. I stopped and recalibrated it (914) and then power looked normal for the rest of the ride.
I guess my stages canāt compensate for a 20 degree swing in temperature? Maybe the humidity?
Iām just wondering if others have noticed these kinds of things. Or, if this is normal. I guess the moral is that if Iām doing any serious power based workouts that I should calibrated after I warm up.
@AJS914 Iāve been taking a lot of data on Stages single sided power meters latelyā¦and orthogonal strain gauge array power meters in general. I was going to publish the data but as I got ready to I balked. It was really a recipe for how to cheat on Zwift and that activity is already so endimic I didnāt want to contribute. And this would have contributed in a big way!
I think Stages temp compensation is pretty good over a commercial range of temperatures. But maybe not as robust as some people might think. The difference you notice is QUITE LARGE. Yikes! So maybe there is some hardware issue with your power meter.
According to my cal factor/watts curve that difference would result in 10ās of watts difference between the two readings.
Bike in garage and summer temps before opening the door, are 70s. Outside in the 90s. I ride outside a lot. Morning rides on the weekends might be 60F at start and end in 90s. Havenāt had any issues with Stages gen2 or gen3.
In your situation Iād call Stages and file a support ticket.
The only problem Iāve had is with Quarq magic zero. Called support and they explained when that can happen, so I turned off that feature and since then no issues.
What are they going to tell me? Do a factory reset? Update firmware? Itās already got the latest. Iām guessing they wonāt give me a new one as this one is old now.
It feels like itās been pretty consistent. This was the first ride where I had this large of a temperature jump and a big humidity jump.
I dunno, be polite and see where it takes you Iām in sales and get to deal with a lot of āfunā situations. You never know if you donāt step up to the plate and take a swing.
I was having temp issues and inconsistency between 2 different stages. They diagnosed the problem and offered a reasonably priced solution. They were great.
I think this might be normal as far as I can remember?
I donāt think you need to worry about what values your Garmin spits out during calibration as a believe that this is related to a raw strain gauge reading - so will be different at different temperatures.
I.e. it records the temperature at the time of calibration and uses future strain gauge and temperature (and cadence) readings to then calculate the power at any temperature.
If you believe you are actually seeing power drift with temperature than thatās a different story.
Before my ride yesterday, I put my bike outside for 10 minutes, and then calibrated the Stages with the Stages app before riding. Upon calibration, the Stages temperature was spot on with the outdoor temperature. The power readings while riding looked good.
Moral? Be a little more careful with calibrations? Calibrate after warming up for 10-15 minutes when doing a serious power-based interval session?
Tbf, I do sometimes calibrate a couple of minutes, after I started riding, when thereās a big temperature difference between indoors and outdoors. Though afaik stages say it should be able to handle normal shifts in temperature. Maybe yours is just a little extreme? Iām in the UK, and itās rare to have more than 10 deg difference between indoors and outdoors.
Most definitely. On paper this workout looked pretty ādoableā, and it was, but it wasnāt easy.
Iāve noticed that my Stages reads lower temp than what my thermostat in my garage is reading. Granted, they are at different heights. As an experiment, I just put my bike outside for 20 minutes to see how closely the Stages would align with the outdoor temp (82Āŗ). After 20 minutes the Stages warmed up to 80Āŗ.
Letās say I calibrate right away indoorsā¦
If calibrated indoors at a cooler temp then outdoors, will the Stages read lower or higher power outdoors?
If calibrated indoors at a higher temp then outdoors, will the Stages read lower or higher power outdoors?
Based on my experience, if you calibrate indoors at a lower temperature, the Stages may read low outside.
I havenāt tested the 2nd scenario, but Iād guess the reverse. Now, obviously, the Stages is supposed to compensate for the changing temperature but Iām not sure what itās range is.
So, when you need to rock it on Zwift you should warm up your stages a bit!
I just changed the battery on it a few weeks ago and Iām using Energizers rather than the noname Amazon batteries. The Stages app says the battery level is high.
Probably, when in doubt do a factory reset on a Stages (install battery backwards for 20 seconds or short the terminals together for the same time). This has fixed all of my issues in the past.
Iām not sure where I read it, probably @GPLama or @dcrainmaker , but I believe if you are going to be moving your power meter from inside to outside you are better off either calibrating before you move it or a long time afterwards.
I suppose itās not ideal to calibrate while it is actually changing temperature.
I noticed more of this foo the last couple of days so I opened a ticket with Stages. It just recently warmed up so Iām seeing a 15 degree temperature differential between inside and outside.
The primary reason I opened a ticket is because Iāve noticed that my ADC number is quite low. Lately Iāve seen it between 747 and 787. I recall in the past it was close to 900.
Has anyone ever had their ADC number off? Solution? I just did a factory reset the other day and it did not cure it. Bad battery? Not enough voltage? I can reset it again and try a new battery though my current battery is almost 100%.
I had one where it was off and also drifted a vit during rides. Stages asked for photos and saw a crack in the housing that I hadnāt noticed. They said it couldnāt be fixed, but offered me a discount on a new one, which was nice.
Iām in sales and get to deal with a lot of āfunā situations. You never know if you donāt step up to the plate and take a swing.