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TECH NEWS

Quarq release next generation power meters

Crank-based power measurement system updated for 2013

Quarq have just announced two new crank-based power meters that offer a high level of accuracy.

The top level Elsa 10R (above, priced at €1,787 – we don’t have UK prices yet) comes with SRAM Exogram hollow carbon cranks and weighs 735g (that’s a GXP version in 172.5mm crank lengths with standard 53/39-tooth chainrings). It’s available in crank lengths all the way from 162.5mm up to 177.5mm.

What Quarq – owned by SRAM since 2011 – call their Power Balance technology captures separate data for each leg, so you’re given the ratio of power generated on the left and right side so you can address any issues with asymmetry.

Quarq reckon the system is accurate to +/-1.5% and that you can swap chainring size without affecting that accuracy. It uses a widely available CR2032 battery and sends the information via ANT+ so you can get a readout on all sorts of head units, like Garmin Edges, for example.

The Riken 10R (above, €1428) is similar but the carbon-fibre crank arms aren’t that Exogram hollow design so they’re a little heavier. You’re looking at a claimed weight of 823g (again, that’s a GXP version in 172.5mm crank lengths with standard 53/39-tooth chainrings). Both the Riken and the Elsa are available in compact (50/34-tooth) versions too.

They’ll both be available from 22 February. For more info go to www.quarq.com.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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8 comments

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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Yeah, but you've got a kick-ass trike...

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Gkam84 replied to notfastenough | 11 years ago
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notfastenough wrote:

Yeah, but you've got a kick-ass trike...

This is true I should quit making stupid comments, I'm trying to fit a tiny bit of carbon somewhere through, I'm thinking a bottle cage  4

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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I don't have carbon or garmin  20

I doubt carbon will be up to recumbent standards for a while yet, I know there are some, but not hearing good things about them.

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russyparkin | 11 years ago
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want and need, always a fine line isnt there:-)

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dave atkinson | 11 years ago
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Do you *really* need a carbon frame or a garmin? wherever you draw the line, it's a fairly arbitrary one. anyway, gives us all something to talk about  1

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JonMack | 11 years ago
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I don't even race and I have a power meter.

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themartincox | 11 years ago
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maybe if you are working towards a specific goal it could come in handy, but unless its pretty massive, think moving up a couple of CAT's in a short period and not london to Brighton, then its a nice to have rather than a need.

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Beautiful. But does anyone apart from cat 1 upwards "REALLY" need to know the information that this can give you?

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