Thinkrider PP5 power meter

[Bender87]

My summary with the "spider only" option + Easton EC90:

- I sanded down most oft the plastic housing to make space for the crank arm. I can easily imagine, that this clearance issue could arise with a multitude of cranks on the market, not just the Easton cranks... Actually, it's not possible to make it work perfectly. Even though the casing is now less than a mm in thickness (I even sanded a small hole, which I sealed with epoxy...), there's still collision with the crank arm.

- Also, as another forum member already stated, there's an edgle radial and close to the cinch interface of the PM, which usual cinch components (chainrings, other cinch PMs, ...) do not show. This makes it close to impossible to properly mount the PM to any "real" cinch crank. This edge is also the reason, why it wouldn't work to use washers in oder so make space for the crank.

Summary: I could easily live with the accuracy issues reported here, and was really looking forward to a PM at this price point. However, it's just not a "real" cinch interface, which disqualifies the spider for use with (probably) many third-party cinch cranks. Therefore, for this use case, I unfortunately can't recommend. This could have easily been adressed design-wise by thinkrider, and it's sad, that they didn't. However, the PM+carbon cranks still sounds like a great deal!

Yep, that's what i saw, i made a quick drawing to show what and where i measured it, i don't remember the overall diameter. But it was something like 0,1mm offset and due to the tolerances of the Easton interface it would not sit flush

[Nilist]

I did another test, 1h open ride on MyWhoosh, recording ThinkRider pp5 (I have the set with 165mm Carbon crank), Speedplay Pedals and ZwiftTrainer with 3 different devices. At the beginning I saw that the fine adjustment from last time installation (110%) needed to be tuned (to 105%, u can do this with the ThinkRider app on the fly). SelfAdjustment for pp5 was ON. Overall avg power during the ride was 195W (Trainer) vs 194W (pp5) vs 197 (Speedplay). Of course, I'm not riding 400+Watts, and I've tried to stop pedalling at decent (as I do usually outside as well)...

Make your own reading at https://compare-the-watts.com with the 3 fit files attached.

The 60m power curve shows an offset of 0.4%, and a max diff of 2.4%...

At this price point and with my age grouper ambitions, it's acceptable.
Any different readings?

Thanks for this. I'm a guy with similar age grouper ambitions, so it goes in my shopping basket as well (for 160€ with the carbon crank directly from Taobao)

[LJW]

I compared the kicker core and the PP5.
After an 800W sprint, there was a slight offset change, but it wasn't significant on mine. It was around 2W, and it didn't seem to accumulate.

At around 14 minutes, I set the kicker core's rolling resistance to maximum and pedaled with my body weight. The cadence was so low that the wattage wasn't displayed, but a significant torque load was applied. However, there was no significant offset change after that. In fact, the two graphs became almost identical.

At around 17 minutes, I set the kicker core's resistance to 5% and manually rotated it at 130 RPM in the innermost gear. If there was any residual stress within the PP5 (meaning the sensor compresses when pedaling and then recovers slowly), I should have consistently seen +20~30W(for example). Since it consistently showed less than 10W, I don't think the phenomenon of overpowering higher than the kicker core occurs often. (This kind of empty pedaling can be used occasionally during a ride when you're suspicious that your power meter is displaying inflated power.)

It's true that Chinese products have poor quality control, but mine seems quite well-made.
I bought the aluminum crank arms and power meter spider for $80.
I plan to move to Assioma after achieving FTP 4.0 on PP5!!

I used a machine translation, so my speech sounds unnatural. Sorry ^^

[luisaraujo]

does anyone knows how to mont the PP5 on a riro accrossfire crank?


the form factor from the spindle is completle different, is there any adaptor? spindle, that can be purchased?

[alfiomotrambo]

I don't think you can fit the pp5 powermeter, maybe you need to get on of this https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005010525306251.html

[rene2879]

seems ThinkRider released a new firmware targeting the issue of abnormal power a few of u spotted. Lets see...

[gf]

dear all, someone know if this thinkrider pp5 is compatible with Senicx PR3 crankset (use sram-like 3 bolt chainring)?
thanks

[poyo]

dear all, someone know if this thinkrider pp5 is compatible with Senicx PR3 crankset (use sram-like 3 bolt chainring)?
thanks

no

[gf]

no

Thanks, you help me to save money

[gplama]

I've tested another PP5 as someone sent me an unopened PP5.

Notes:
- Firmware v1.8.6 installed.
- PP5 was charged ~80% but needed to be fully charged again after installing the update.
- Installed with every bolt/etc to spec.
- PP5 meter was tested with Assioma PRO RS-2 (indoor and outdoor) and NEO 3M smart trainer (indoor).
- After one of my first peak power sprints the PP5 read low (this occured with the first PP5 and C10 I've tested)
- Following sprints (not all of them) caused the PP5 to over-read (same as with the first PP5 I tested). Residual torque issue remains.
- PP5 power data was inconsistent across three tests (2hrs outdoors. 1.5hrs total from two indoor sessions).
- When stopping to manually zero the PP5, it'd then line-up with the other baselines. Doing this three or more times per ride, after any hard effort isn't great.

ThinkRider initially responded (to someone else asking about my testing) with:

"Our tech team has tested it, and the issue isn't that serious. It's probably an installation problem on his end."

It wasn't an installation issue. And I've now proven (with data!) issues with this hardware exist on TWO PP5 units, and these issue persist after installing their latest firmware update (as of April 24th 2026).

The latest communication I've had from ThinkRider is that they HAVE replicated this issue and will work to resolve it in "next products". My testing and results have been validated by the manufacturer. The unit has issues. This isn't ideal for anyone who owns a PP5, but it's one step towards them having an excellent power meter on the market at an excellent price point.

I'll loop back here again when I have more information. I'll try meet with them in Shanghai at China Cycle in a few weeks.

[choan]

Thanks Lama, do you think they will release a new model or update the firmware ?

And guys do you know if a stantard red dub crank is compatible with this powermeter ?
thanks

[gplama]

Thanks Lama, do you think they will release a new model or update the firmware ?

And guys do you know if a stantard red dub crank is compatible with this powermeter ?
thanks

1. They've released two firmware updates since my initial testing that didn't resolve the issues. I can only guess they'll have to fix this in hardware. Will they make it a running change and call it the same thing, or release a new model? Who knows.

2. iirc the PP5 only comes with an Easton Cinch crank interface, so no.

[johnnydamage]

My summary with the "spider only" option + Easton EC90:

- I sanded down most oft the plastic housing to make space for the crank arm. I can easily imagine, that this clearance issue could arise with a multitude of cranks on the market, not just the Easton cranks... Actually, it's not possible to make it work perfectly. Even though the casing is now less than a mm in thickness (I even sanded a small hole, which I sealed with epoxy...), there's still collision with the crank arm.

- Also, as another forum member already stated, there's an edgle radial and close to the cinch interface of the PM, which usual cinch components (chainrings, other cinch PMs, ...) do not show. This makes it close to impossible to properly mount the PM to any "real" cinch crank. This edge is also the reason, why it wouldn't work to use washers in oder so make space for the crank.

Summary: I could easily live with the accuracy issues reported here, and was really looking forward to a PM at this price point. However, it's just not a "real" cinch interface, which disqualifies the spider for use with (probably) many third-party cinch cranks. Therefore, for this use case, I unfortunately can't recommend. This could have easily been adressed design-wise by thinkrider, and it's sad, that they didn't. However, the PM+carbon cranks still sounds like a great deal!

do you think it would work with next SL cranks, as the crank arms seem to flare out a bit more away from the cinch interface.

thank you.

[rakagian]

Is it compatible with CUES 50/34 (FC-U6030-2)? Can it be paired with iGPSPORT BSC200?

[Dan S.]

Is it compatible with CUES 50/34 (FC-U6030-2)? Can it be paired with iGPSPORT BSC200?

Seems like the Cues chainrings are 110BCD 4bolt, so it should be compatible. Will work with the computer as well.