Thinkrider PP5 power meter

[gauomzei]

I just received the ThinkRider PP5 with their budget crankset: 160mm length, 24mm steel axle, for 132€ from AliExpress.

I mounted my Ultegra 8100 chainrings onto the spider and swapped out the Ultegra crank. Unfortunately, the chainrings don't sit in the same position at all; they are at least 5mm further outboard.

I am completely unable to adjust the front derailleur to compensate. My Di2 flashes red (outer limit reached), but it still can't lift the chain onto the big ring.

It’s super frustrating—how can they still mess this up? Did I miss something?
This reminds me of a friend's Xcadey from years ago; he was at least able to make it work with his mechanical front derailleur.

Maybe try fitting some spacer between the spider and the crank arm? One of my friends received his PM with the same crankset, I took a look when he was installing it and I think a 1mm spacer should fit, that might be just enough. Although I'm not sure if it could move the spider too much and cause some other issues. I'll check again when my other friend gets his cranks, should be by next week, maybe I could post some pictures too.

BTW, this crankset doesn't have any manufacturer specified, and Thinkrider most likely isn't producing it in their own factory, but the left arm is mounted with a plastic bolt (same way as Shimano cranks) that looks suspiciously similar to bolts on Prowheel cranks. I think the OEM is in fact Prowheel, or whoever is the OEM for Prowheel, though I might be wrong.

[ricchirock]

What's the logic here exactly? If one company cannot make a good power meter I'll use an inferior one on purpose instead of getting one that works. You people baffle me.

The logic is to save money. Till my resources will be limitated I have to deal with this logic. I have also Favero Assioma RS pedals, and Im training good the same with a less accurate power meter. There's lot of overthinking about it.

[rene2879]

I would be interested if ThinkRider is able to fix the residual error with a software fix.

[makl]

Another datapoint: The PP5 seems not compatible with Easton EC90 cranks. The inner part of the housing touches the crank arm, so that the powermeter cannot sit flush on the cinch interface.

Does anybody know if it's okay to put some spacers in between the spider/powermeter and the crank? Somethin like 1,5 mm should fix the problem. If yes, does somebody have a product link for dedicated spacers? However, I'm a bit sceptical since the interface itself isn't that much more than those 1,5 mm...

[kubackje]

I would be interested if ThinkRider is able to fix the residual error with a software fix.

Good luck

[LJW]

I just received the ThinkRider PP5 with their budget crankset: 160mm length, 24mm steel axle, for 132€ from AliExpress.

I mounted my Ultegra 8100 chainrings onto the spider and swapped out the Ultegra crank. Unfortunately, the chainrings don't sit in the same position at all; they are at least 5mm further outboard.

I am completely unable to adjust the front derailleur to compensate. My Di2 flashes red (outer limit reached), but it still can't lift the chain onto the big ring.

It’s super frustrating—how can they still mess this up? Did I miss something?
This reminds me of a friend's Xcadey from years ago; he was at least able to make it work with his mechanical front derailleur.

"It looks like you installed the inner chainring backward. I had the exact same issue before. Try flipping it over."

[makl]

Thank you.
Can't open the link, but it's the matt black RIRO crankset in 165mm.

I'm considering returning the power meter or sanding down the casing a bit at the points marked in red.
I mean, it only cost €90, and I'm really curious to see how well, or even if, it works at all.

Did you sand it down? Did this work? I'm having the same problem. Massive design flaw by Thinkrider...

[rene2879]

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?

[raisinberry777]

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?

The problem is that it reads higher after sprints - have you tried sprinting at all?

[rene2879]

...check the data around 35-44min. It's uphill with short, but (for me) high intensity phases of 400+W followed by pausing pedalling. I don't see a drift ... maybe it's to low push or self adjustment is correcting it or ...

[Bender87]

Did you sand it down? Did this work? I'm having the same problem. Massive design flaw by Thinkrider...

Maybe that's why they are so cheap, due to the fact that it isn't compatible with all Easton interface cranks.

I tried to remove as much plastic from the outer housing, but at the end I found out it will never fit.
Due to a edge around the Easton interface. The power meter has like 41,8mm edge and my crank arm has a 41,9mm edge, so even when it will not touch the outer housing it will never be flush mounted.

I ordered the cheap aluminium crankset with a second pm and will send the first one back (obviously the untouched one..)
Also changed my BB form 29mm dub to 24mm due to some issue with it, cheap ceramic bearings....

Installed the new crankset yesterday and waiting for better weather for a ride outside.

[kubackje]

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?

When will you all understand that this accuracy will go outta window after one sprint?

[Rajmundx]

When will you all understand that this accuracy will go outta window after one sprint?

Oh my God, stop coming in here and whining about how bad this power meter is. Are you getting paid for it or what? Let people buy whatever they want — it’s their money. And yet again you show up here complaining about how weak it is. What a guy…

[kubackje]

Oh my God, stop coming in here and whining about how bad this power meter is. Are you getting paid for it or what? Let people buy whatever they want — it’s their money. And yet again you show up here complaining about how weak it is. What a guy…

Oh my God, stop coming here and defending shitty products. Are you getting paid for it or what? Let people write whatever they want - it's an open forum. And yet again you show up here defending your poor/cheap choices. What a guy...

[Rajmundx]

Oh my God, stop coming here and defending shitty products. Are you getting paid for it or what? Let people write whatever they want - it's an open forum. And yet again you show up here defending your poor/cheap choices. What a guy...

No, I’m not being paid (unfortunately), but I’m also not defending this product like you are. Every one of your posts on this topic is about how bad it is. Okay, once is enough — but you keep whining and whining, and that last post was really next-level

GpLama make great test and everybody can see it and make their decision. And that's end of the topic for me.