The power-meter price wars continue. This week Pioneer dropped prices on its SGY meters, with the single-leg Shimano Dura-Ace version falling from $899 to $629 — $20 less than the Stages Dura-Ace meter. For North America, dual-sided meters went down in price too, with Dura-Ace going from $1,849 to $1,499 and the Ultegra version now at $1,299 from $1,549. In Europe, only the single-leg prices dropped, down to €899 for Dura-Ace. In UK and AU pricing was not immediately available.
Pioneer originally came out with a $2,500 dual-leg meter that included a color-screen computer and some unique features like force direction, which measures and visually displays where in the pedal stroke a rider is applying power, and in which direction.
The original meter required dealers to assemble the strain gages onto a rider's crank, a solution that wasn't warmly received. Now, however, the meter comes installed, and the power meters can work either on ANT+ for use with Garmin and other GPS computers, or Pioneer's own wireless frequency.
The newly repriced meters measure power at 12 points and, when paired with a Pioneer SGX computer (for $300 or $499), can show power production in a way no other meter can. This style of measurement requires that a magnet be affixed to the frame. For use as a standard power meter over ANT+, however, this magnet isn't required.
Pioneer has a unique way of measuring and displaying power production
The Pioneer SGY single-leg and dual-leg meter ship in ANT+ mode, and can be switched over to Pioneer's SGX mode with a press of an SGX button.
"Installation is greatly simplified from when we launched the product," said Russ Johnston, executive vice president of marketing and corporate communications for Pioneer Electronics.
As more players enter the power-meter market, prices are generally going down, not up. Quarq dropped its prices last April, Stages lowered its prices last September and PowerTap lowered its prices in January.
