XCADEY VENTUS Carbon Cranks + PM

[ChiefWarmPaws]

A bit of a strange response from XCadey on Shane's video about how they are upgrading the PM material, but haven't done it yet, and will resolve your issues if you face similar issues.

My plan had been to put on a trainer and "fix the scaling" when I got the time, but this does not sound like a scaling problem. Not sure there is a resolution if it simply doesn't work - and does every user now need to do all the same testing to prove it to XCadey. I don't have power pedals, but my vibe after using it for a bit longer is it was overreading sometimes (even on pure Z2 rides), but reading low on sprint power.

In practice if you want to replace the PM but keep the cranks, I guess your only option is to ignore it and use PM pedals, or replace with a non-XCadey 3 bolt PM ...

[Asco]

From the XCadey responses to Shanes video:

This material upgrade aims to further enhance the product's rigidity. Please rest assured that all purchased products have undergone rigorous testing and meet relevant standards. We have discontinued using that material, and all products currently on sale use the non-upgraded material.

If you encounter any similar situations, please let us know, and we will resolve them immediately and provide you with a satisfactory response.

The way I interpret this is that they will replace the PM if you can document the issues shown in the vid. But maybe I am overly optimistic.

[kubackje]

Xcadey is absolute crap. That's my experience now confirmed by the Goat.

[TribesMan]

I own Gen2 Xcadey since 2023... yes it consistently over reads about 5% compared to Assiomas... but I never noticed such drift in any of my comparisons. I did a few comparison rides in 2023 when I bought it, but the results were always quite "reliable".
Maybe the power signal is a bit more "noisy", but it does not influence averages.

For instance a few snips out of a longer (2+h) ride.
Two climbs, one in beginning and one close to the end of the ride.
There was a lot of varied terrain in between, also one short sprint close to 1000W...

I was very happy with it, considering I paid 220€ for it.
So much I ordered another one on this years 11.11 sale. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I guess your mileage may vary.

[toxin]

I guess if you have no sprint to speak of and low standards it's acceptable. But even without the drift destroying any semblance of accuracy, the consistent miscalibration out of the box is enough for me to call it a piece of garbage deserving of a class-action lawsuit for false advertising.

What I want to know is how long XCadey have "known" about this issue and gleefuly kept sending out a defective product.

[Sakizashi]

I have two of these PMs that are a couple of years old. While I now double up on PM pedals during aero testing (just because data collection is such a PITA, and because I need them anyway to ensure my different setups are reporting similarly), I've also just adjusted the linear scaling values and called it a day, as they have been accurate for me.

My last aero testing thing I did was a while ago, and it was clean, but this has me worried that XCadey broke their PMs with bad firmware, and now I feel compelled to spend a couple of hours validating both of these with some sprints and stuff. NOT how I want to spend my time, so very unhappy with XCadey regarding this.

[TribesMan]

I agree it is not acceptable that you need to verify the accuracy of you PM after every FW update.
Which can be a hassle if you don't have anything to compare to.

I also don't like Xcadey response, which is clearly bullshit.
My 2 year old PM has the same HW version as the one in Shanes video.
So their excuse this "only happens in a new revision" is complete BS...

[Sakizashi]

Yeah my charts look like yours, though I top out at around a couple hundred watts less than GP (hey I am smaller too!). XCadey is blaming a glue supplier for failing and putting the PM into a reset state when it deflects out of plane beyond a certain threshold. IDK about that, it seems implausible, but I gather from them that the electronics hardware is the same, which is why the HW version number is the same.

[bigApple]

After watching GP Lama's video, I did another test comparing the Xcadey to my Kickr.
What do you guys think?
The test procedure was as follows:
- Before starting, I calibrated the PM with my Garmin
- I competed in a Zwift race
- For comparison, the first 20 minutes, minutes 20 to 25 with two efforts
- After the race, a sprint 1
- Before sprint 2, I calibrated the PM again via the Garmin

What do you think of the data? Not as inconsistent as with GP Lama, but also not particularly accurate?

[Shinobi_77]

Did anyone observe a difference in offset depending if you are in which front chain ring you aremin?

[TribesMan]

After watching GP Lama's video, I did another test comparing the Xcadey to my Kickr.
What do you guys think?
The test procedure was as follows:
- Before starting, I calibrated the PM with my Garmin
- I competed in a Zwift race
- For comparison, the first 20 minutes, minutes 20 to 25 with two efforts
- After the race, a sprint 1
- Before sprint 2, I calibrated the PM again via the Garmin

What do you think of the data? Not as inconsistent as with GP Lama, but also not particularly accurate?

I would say yours if OK, no drifts after sprint consistant readings, but a bit high.
I observed the same on my unit, and also other users report that reported power values are always ~5% too high.
If you scale the power output to about 95% (in the Xcadey app) it gets really close to values reported by other power meters.
Not sure how can they get this wrong, are chinese watts different to western?
Or are they using a wrong calibration method in the factory?

Honestly not really acceptable for something that is advertised as 1% accurate.
But considering the price I can live with it.
On the other hand there are other units on the market for similar price that are more accurate.

Did anyone observe a difference in offset depending if you are in which front chain ring you aremin?

That is something I was wondering myself, but I use 1x so I can't test that.
Also it would be worth testing how much does chain alignment influence the values (ie. running on the big vs small sprocket).
But form what I was able to observe on my unit, there is hardly any difference.

[DC31]

The front chainring position hypothesis is in line with my experiences. I am inclined to say that chainline also plays a role. My deviations become larger when I am in the small chainring in front and a large sprocket in the back. This could perhaps indicate that the power meter interface is not stiff enough.
Attached is part of a triple recording on Zwift with my Kickr V5, Favero Assioma Duo and Xcadey Xpower S. In the large chainring the deviation is close to acceptable (This until about 5540 seconds). Then as I change to the small chainring and a low gear in the back for the Radio Tower KOM the Xcadey goes from reading about 1% lower to 4% lower. A calibration at the top in the big chainring and the Xcadey is back to constantly being 1-2% lower. This pattern has repeated itself every time I have done the Radio Tower KOM and that at a low power output of about 300W.

[ChiefWarmPaws]

Mine has completely failed ... it suddenly started to either read crazy high or crazy low, while the cadence seems to be reporting correctly. No amount of caibrations fixes it.

Have reported to seller to see what they say, but suspect I will end up having to deal with XCadey.

[kubackje]

Mine has completely failed ... it suddenly started to either read crazy high or crazy low, while the cadence seems to be reporting correctly. No amount of caibrations fixes it.

Have reported to seller to see what they say, but suspect I will end up having to deal with XCadey.

Xcadey PM is an absolute crap as a product. Luckily they seem to not duck the responsibility. At least with my case with spider PM I've bought from Alix. Ii had battery drains and inconsistent readings from the start and reported it to the seller. He checked with xcadey and I was asked to perform few things like charging from socket (not powerbank), re torquing, calibration. Whole process of testing it took few months, but it was my fault as I had a lot of work and was traveling a lot and wasn't using this particular bike too much. Because of that 90 days free return on AliExpress passed. But I talked to the seller, he contacted xcadey and they replied that basically there is something wrong with my unit and for 50$ covering shipping fees etc seller offered me a brand new unit and didn't have to hassle with sending the old one back. Haven't installed the new one yet. I hope it will be working good. I asked them clearly to check it before sending, hope they've listened.

Even if it will be working fine I will never again buy any product from xcadey again,, it's a total lottery and absolute lack of QC. If it won't be working I will just have to write it off and will buy Sigey (which I should have done in a first place).

[Mariuszuzd]

I'm working on some longer comparison. Now around 1.5 week. I'm comparing elite justo, favero assioma duo and Xcadey Gen 2 in crank from XMCS. I can provide some feedback.