IQ2 Bike Power Meter – Massively Exceeds Funding Target

The IQ2 Power Meter Kickstarter campaign had to hit is £87,464 goal by 24 May 2018 and, at the time of writing, has 3,216 backers amounting to a whopping £722,168. The goal for shipping is 1st October 2018.

What’s the big deal?

There are lots of ‘ifs’ around this one but if a reasonably accurate power meter can ship in the £100-$150 range then it would increase the excitement at the lower end of the market. To temper that excitement the single-sided WatteamPowerbeat is on sale at PowerMeterCity for $223 (20% discounted). So it’s ‘only’ a $70 difference but, nevertheless, that shows that prices might be heading in the right way for consumers.

Furthermore the ease of installation of the IQ2 looks good and, unlike the Powerbeat sensor, it can be switched between bikes. So the IQ2 is really a price competitor to the current crop of power meter pedals rather than simply a lowest cost power meter.

It comes very much in the vein of LIMITS, which seemed like a good idea at the time. As things often do.

What is it then?

There is a kickstarter page (link to: kickstarter.com) and dcrainmaker has also written about the IQ2 (link to: dcrainmaker.com).

• Single-sided or dual-sided.
• Crank independent (may be a few exceptions)
• You can use your own pedals/cleats eg Shimano
• Fits between pedal and crank, increasing Q-factor on EACH side by 16mm
• BLE and ANT+
• No calibration as such
• L/R and Total Power, Pedal Smoothness, Cadence and Torque Effectiveness (TE) data over ANT+.
• CR2032 battery lasting, on average, 200 hours (stated)
• 30g weight per unit (that’s less than the additional weight of a P1 pedal compared to an ASSIOMA). A single Dura-Ace pedal is about 125g
• 110kg rider limit (similar to Vector 3 and ASSIOMA)
• Stated power accuracy 1% (hmmm, same as stated for Vector 3 and ASSIOMA)
• IP67 waterproof
• 2 year guarantee
• Temperature compensation
• up to 2000 samples/second
• up to 2600 watts
• up to 200 rpm

From The Manufacturer

A Shorter-Spindled Pedal

For an additional cost, IQ2 are also offering both a Shimano Ultegra PD-R8000 (Eu153) and a Shimano XT PD-M8000 (Eu105) mountain bike pedal each being 10mm narrower than normal. ie IQ2 have re-engineered the spindle (axle). These pedals will only increase the Q-factor by 6mm per side. I suspect that most of us wouldn’t notice 2x6mm even if we were concerned about 2x16mm, and some of us might not notice 2x16mm if we were honest.

Anything Else Interesting

Just one other thing. It has some interesting-looking, machine-etched technology for the strain gauge. Is that good?

Take Out

It all looks hunky-dory on paper.

You have to love the price, the accuracy and the ease of installation. It ticks all the boxes

From some of the other imagery, not shown on this post, the IQ2 looks like it might just be well hidden enough to be adequately protected on MTBs – ie the crank might just protect against many, but certainly not all, impacts. TBC

If it works, this sort of product might hit the fortunes for Watteam Powerbeat and Velocomp Powerpod. However Watteam are already diversiying their offering and Velocomp are moving forwards in exciting new directions with the Velocomp AeroPod (now available for pre-order, btw). And when comparisons are made you often imagine the new product in the market as it is today. The reality is that the compeition should already be undertaking new product development and the further reality is that launch dates often slip and, once launched, even the mighty Garmin sometimes have to deal with hardware issues eg Vector 3 battery caps.

Summary: Interesting. 

Link to: kickstarter.com