Chinertown

Chinese Carbon Road Bikes => Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components => Topic started by: raisinberry777 on December 20, 2025, 06:50:14 PM

Title: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: raisinberry777 on December 20, 2025, 06:50:14 PM
Yet another Chinese PM spider. Easton interface only at this stage. Cranks look like a similar design to the Lexon/Rockbros cranks.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: poyo on December 21, 2025, 11:28:41 AM
I ordered one. It surely won’t be worse than my Xcadey. Seems like a good deal, including a carbon crank, looks like a Lexon crank.

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005010577608240.html

Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Blueberry on December 21, 2025, 01:49:59 PM
interesting that they are claiming +/- 1%. xcadey claims 1.5%. wonder if it's really that accurate. definitely interested to hear how well it works. Lately my Rally pedals and 4iiii crank arm PMs have been putting out some very suspicious numbers, on both the high and low end.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ludo on December 21, 2025, 01:55:04 PM
Magene is 1% and thinkrider home trainer are also 1%. At that price it is so tempting even though my mage ps515 is barely 3 months old…
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: toxin on December 21, 2025, 02:41:14 PM
claimed accuracy is just irrelevant, especially for this class of product
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: offspring_fan on December 21, 2025, 02:54:48 PM
I wouldn't buy one based on my Thinkrider turbo, which under-read compared to a Wahoo and was woefully slow at changing resistance in ERG mode. Which isn't directly relevant to a PM, but did not give me confidence in their product.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on December 23, 2025, 03:48:19 PM
Does this PM have an app or its all done via the head unit ?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: casper.f on December 25, 2025, 07:33:18 AM
Price seems too good to be true. It looks like Lexon cranks, but something isn’t adding up:
€280 for carbon arms, a Ti spindle, and a power meter (excl. VAT).
Lexon cranks cost nearly that much without the power meter, and i assume that their margins aren't exactly huge.

My experience with the thinkrider X2 trainer for €270 was great, though I had no PM to verify the power data.

Wuxi Thinkrider is the largest trainer player in China, so you could assume high volume and optimized manufacturing.
This argument falls apart when you look at the Magene TEO P515. They charge almost double for a similar product.


I really hope the readings on the PP5 are accurate. If they are, we might be seeing a massive price war, and the consumer wins.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Dark17 on December 25, 2025, 08:37:04 AM
Always wait for our Patron Saint of Power Meters GPLama before buying. :D
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ludo on December 25, 2025, 08:44:34 AM
At the main h price of 280, why wait, if all you get is a crankset it’s still a good deal. For me privé has already been bumped 50$ vs launch
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rebel_Yell on December 25, 2025, 09:01:51 AM
Wondering what the Q Factor and chainline are with these cranks? Anyone seen anything or anyone ordered and can measure?

Thanks for any info. 
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: ricchirock on January 01, 2026, 10:46:43 AM
does it has an app? I cant find any info on Thinkrider website
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: poyo on January 01, 2026, 12:15:23 PM
does it has an app? I cant find any info on Thinkrider website

Yes, ThinkRider has an app for that. You should search directly in the App Store or Google Play Store, as their website is often not up to date:

ThinkRider Tools: For firmware updates and calibration.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: ricchirock on January 01, 2026, 01:29:26 PM
This convinced me to order it  :D
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on January 01, 2026, 02:56:40 PM
With the current sale, it comes to just under US$250 for me (includes 10% tax) which is an insane price but I don't know what I am really buying. The lack of specs on the crankset is holding me back. Also the PM suspiciously looks like an xcadey given the same charging port, although claimed accuracy differs.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: poyo on January 02, 2026, 06:55:50 AM
I had the same suspicion because of the identical charging port, but after digging into the technical data, it’s clear that these are not the same device.
The FCC IDs confirm they are separate entities: ThinkRider (Wuxi Thinkrider Technology) is registered under 2BOPJ, while XCADEY is registered under 2ANM5.
The battery life specifications differ significantly as well. The ThinkRider PP5 is rated for 300 hours, whereas XCADEY models (including Gen2) typically offer around 150 hours. This strongly suggests different internal hardware and power management.
The magnetic 2-pin charging port is actually a generic off-the-shelf component used by several Chinese brands (including some Sigeyi models), so it’s not a reliable indicator of rebranding.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Chrisf10 on January 02, 2026, 04:33:57 PM
Has anyone ordered one of these to the US? I can’t find a seller that will ship to here
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on January 02, 2026, 05:40:44 PM
I had the same suspicion because of the identical charging port, but after digging into the technical data, it’s clear that these are not the same device.
The FCC IDs confirm they are separate entities: ThinkRider (Wuxi Thinkrider Technology) is registered under 2BOPJ, while XCADEY is registered under 2ANM5.
The battery life specifications differ significantly as well. The ThinkRider PP5 is rated for 300 hours, whereas XCADEY models (including Gen2) typically offer around 150 hours. This strongly suggests different internal hardware and power management.
The magnetic 2-pin charging port is actually a generic off-the-shelf component used by several Chinese brands (including some Sigeyi models), so it’s not a reliable indicator of rebranding.

Thanks for sharing that Intel. I messaged all the sellers for the crank specs (spindle length and chainline) and none of them know. Bit of a gamble what you will end up with and PM is untested.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: poyo on January 04, 2026, 01:37:33 AM
The power meter arrived yesterday and weighs 486 g.
It’s not the lightest option, but for the price it’s absolutely fine.
The app gives a clean and well organized impression.
The power meter needs to be activated within the app, and a firmware update was already offered.
I can’t say anything about the accuracy yet.

Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on January 04, 2026, 02:33:55 AM
The power meter arrived yesterday and weighs 486 g.
It’s not the lightest option, but for the price it’s absolutely fine.
The app gives a clean and well organized impression.
The power meter needs to be activated within the app, and a firmware update was already offered.
I can’t say anything about the accuracy yet.

Thanks for sharing, I'm thinking of picking this up in the next big sale. When you have a moment, can you measure the length of the spindle ?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: poyo on January 04, 2026, 02:54:31 AM
Thanks for sharing, I'm thinking of picking this up in the next big sale. When you have a moment, can you measure the length of the spindle ?

Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on January 04, 2026, 03:49:28 AM
Thanks, much appreciated. Do you mind me asking how much you picked this up for ?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: poyo on January 04, 2026, 05:00:42 AM
Thanks, much appreciated. Do you mind me asking how much you picked this up for ?

290€ including tax and customs duties.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: waltini on January 11, 2026, 02:56:46 AM
Took the plunge and bought a set of these cranks to go on my gravel bike, ill test them with my Assiomas and report back in a few weeks.

Paid $260USD delivered to Australia. 165mm.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: klindsey00 on January 12, 2026, 12:17:38 PM
Always wait for our Patron Saint of Power Meters GPLama before buying. :D

No GPLama review, No buy from me.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: raisinberry777 on January 14, 2026, 02:18:03 PM
Now being sold for $146 USD here:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPAjNpB
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Merry on January 14, 2026, 03:09:04 PM
No GPLama review, No buy from me.

In GPLama we trust
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on January 14, 2026, 06:03:11 PM
In GPLama we trust

Cheers, I appreciate the support. I'm just the messenger. It's the data we trust (even when it's bad, it's still data). 😅

Maybe one day there will be an industry standard these power meters have to pass before they're allowed to be sold. I suspect a LOT of power meter manufacturers don't want to see that and are happy getting away with printing whatever they like on their tech specs.

Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Merry on January 15, 2026, 01:23:16 AM
Cheers, I appreciate the support. I'm just the messenger. It's the data we trust (even when it's bad, it's still data). 😅

Maybe one day there will be an industry standard these power meters have to pass before they're allowed to be sold. I suspect a LOT of power meter manufacturers don't want to see that and are happy getting away with printing whatever they like on their tech specs.

For sure, I (and probably the other members in this forum space) appreciate the work you do. Especially that you're willing to explore and test lesser known brands and their products to sort out the good and bad products - so that we know of any viable alternatives and to save money from the bigger brands.

Keep it up.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Dan S. on January 15, 2026, 04:00:20 AM
Now being sold for $146 USD here:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPAjNpB

A very tempting price indeed. Does anyone have a real world experience with this PM?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ludo on January 15, 2026, 07:19:49 AM
Are you guys seeing that privé in US? I see 196
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: ricchirock on January 15, 2026, 10:37:25 AM
Now being sold for $146 USD here:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPAjNpB
it's just the PM with no crankset. Still a very good price anyway
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rene2879 on January 17, 2026, 04:17:41 PM
Would be really nice to see first measurements about the accuracy. Anything planned?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rdnl on January 18, 2026, 01:52:12 AM
yes, my wife wanted pm for a while. delivery planned Feb 3, i think i can do tests before feb 10. with xcadey gen2 slightly disappointing test i really want this to be it
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: offspring_fan on January 18, 2026, 06:07:46 AM
yes, my wife wanted pm for a while. delivery planned Feb 3, i think i can do tests before feb 10. with xcadey gen2 slightly disappointing test i really want this to be it

I look forward to your test, thanks in advance. The work you did on the Xcadey was interesting. Hopefully you can get outside with this one if Poland starts warming up. Dziękuję  ;D
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: ricchirock on January 18, 2026, 02:36:46 PM
Would be really nice to see first measurements about the accuracy. Anything planned?
I hope to can do it this week or the next, it dipends on when it will be delivered and if I wont have troubles to fitting it on the bike. Comparing it with Favero Assioma PRO MX
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: cateto on January 19, 2026, 04:34:12 AM
I hope to can do it this week or the next, it dipends on when it will be delivered and if I wont have troubles to fitting it on the bike. Comparing it with Favero Assioma PRO MX

Single sided or dual sided?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: ricchirock on January 19, 2026, 04:36:01 AM
Single sided or dual sided?
Dual sided
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: ricchirock on January 20, 2026, 08:35:46 AM
super price here: https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005010785073577.html
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: TidyDinosaur on January 21, 2026, 01:31:37 AM
super price here: https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005010785073577.html

That's insane. I see 106USD.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on January 21, 2026, 01:45:58 AM
I see 2 sellers have this discounted to ~US$100 so it's not a one off super discounted price. Makes you wonder what you are actually buying.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: TidyDinosaur on January 21, 2026, 01:57:43 AM
Does any one know a cheap crankset you can mount these on? I can only find carbon cranks.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Dan S. on January 21, 2026, 03:09:43 AM
That's insane. I see 106USD.

120 USD for me (Czech Republic). Still an insane price.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: raisinberry777 on January 21, 2026, 03:15:01 AM
This listing even cheaper for me (Australia) at $91 USD:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005011527980253.html
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on January 21, 2026, 04:52:10 AM
Purchased the spider just now. I'll get a review up soon after it arrives.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: waltini on January 21, 2026, 05:39:20 AM
Does any one know a cheap crankset you can mount these on? I can only find carbon cranks.

Yep, Senicx XR3. About 130AUD on AliExpress. Have seen it for 90AUD on Taobao.

Easton, 29MM. Total cost combined with power meter is 250. Insane value. (If it works lol)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: teunnes on January 21, 2026, 02:13:32 PM
This listing even cheaper for me (Australia) at $91 USD:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005011527980253.html

I've even bought one for €73.
Also had the complete crankset with spider for 160. Hopefully gplama has some good things to say about this.
Have done one test ride so far, but looks like it isn't to far off from my other powermeter.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on January 22, 2026, 01:43:22 AM
Will this power meter be compatible with a Shimano 105 crank?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: teunnes on January 22, 2026, 01:59:35 AM
Will this power meter be compatible with a Shimano 105 crank?
No, you will need a different crank. But there are many Chinese carbon cranks that work.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on January 22, 2026, 02:40:38 AM
It's a race to the bottom, now it's US$85 !!
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on January 22, 2026, 05:55:11 AM
No, you will need a different crank. But there are many Chinese carbon cranks that work.

Can you send me link to that cranks?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rene2879 on January 25, 2026, 01:17:42 AM
Good morning, my PP5 PM just arrived. I'm really interested to see the accuracy.

Since having Wahoo Speedplay and a Zwift kickr, I was curious if I could not use all 3 together to see how accurate pp5 is.
Is there any program available, than can connect all 3 and graph the power?

Thanks René
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: raisinberry777 on January 25, 2026, 01:40:51 AM
Good morning, my PP5 PM just arrived. I'm really interested to see the accuracy.

Since having Wahoo Speedplay and a Zwift kickr, I was curious if I could not use all 3 together to see how accurate pp5 is.
Is there any program available, than can connect all 3 and graph the power?

Thanks René

Yes, this tool:
https://compare-the-watts.com/

You will need two head units though to record the pedals and spider at the same time.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: casper.f on January 25, 2026, 01:36:02 PM
Good morning, my PP5 PM just arrived. I'm really interested to see the accuracy.

Since having Wahoo Speedplay and a Zwift kickr, I was curious if I could not use all 3 together to see how accurate pp5 is.
Is there any program available, than can connect all 3 and graph the power?

Thanks René
That would be so great! Looking forward to it.

Since you are one of the few people with 3 independent power sources on one bike, you have the perfect setup to benchmark this thing.

You can record all three at once by pairing one to your head-unit, the Kickr to your laptop, and the PP5 to your phone. (This works best via Bluetooth, assuming they aren't all ANT+ only).

If you don't feel like messing with the analysis software yourself, feel free to send me a PM. I’d be happy to take the .fit files and overlay the graphs for you.

(Just be sure to note down when/how/what temperature you calibrated at)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on January 25, 2026, 09:31:48 PM
It's a race to the bottom, now it's US$85 !!

I picked one up at this price. And the Coospo one even cheaper again. Those together are the same price as a 52T DuraAce chainring. 🤯

I won't be surprised these turn out to be total potatoes. The results will speak for themselves. Stay tuned....
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on January 30, 2026, 05:53:12 AM
Which cranksets will be compatible with this powermeter?
I bought this but it’s not fit.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EI3TDI4
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: ricchirock on January 30, 2026, 06:25:35 AM
Which cranksets will be compatible with this powermeter?
I bought this but it’s not fit.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EI3TDI4

cranksets with Easton interface. This one seems to be GXP
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on January 30, 2026, 06:58:20 AM
No, you will need a different crank. But there are many Chinese carbon cranks that work.

Maybe but with Easton interface the crankset on aliexpress are very expensive.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: alfiomotrambo on January 30, 2026, 10:37:52 AM
I think the correct chainring is the sram interface like this https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005008653144864.html (https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3PxxtDv)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kubackje on January 30, 2026, 10:40:09 AM
Maybe but with Easton interface the crankset on aliexpress are very expensive.
Then just get a Magene pes515 and forget about it
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: waltini on January 30, 2026, 05:58:12 PM
Maybe but with Easton interface the crankset on aliexpress are very expensive.

If you scroll to the top of the page, I posted this one. I have purchased for my gravel frame from Taobao and it is getting delivered next week to Australia. ($83 AUD, so cheaper than Aliexpress)

Senicx XR3 (on Aliexpress)  - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010582023538.html

Easton, which will fit this power meter.

Taobao link if anyone is interested - https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=976478543735


Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gandalf on January 31, 2026, 02:50:43 AM

If you scroll to the top of the page, I posted this one. I have purchased for my gravel frame from Taobao and it is getting delivered next week to Australia. ($83 AUD, so cheaper than Aliexpress)

Senicx XR3 (on Aliexpress)  - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010582023538.html

Easton, which will fit this power meter.

Taobao link if anyone is interested - https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=976478543735
Can't find the Ali ones you mention... It says no longer available
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rdnl on January 31, 2026, 01:53:23 PM
Guys, i think its working

not proper test and indoors and i was blown from yesterday ride, but xcadey gen 2 demonstrated some problems even indoors. pp5 solid on sprints like my pes505 or fsa powerbox
Tomorrow will ride proper test and post here. My test on xcadey in its thread with setup and method if you want more now
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rdnl on February 01, 2026, 02:01:41 PM
I have 1 suspicious sprint undershoot (900 vs 950 and flat cadence reading from pp5), but everything else seems fine. Please check my files, maybe i missed something

Whole ride was with +3% offset for pp5 (after my first ride), but i think it should be +2% - 1 watt under direto on low watts and spot on on 300+ is better than exact low watts but +2-5 on high

Comparing with Elite Direto (very first one) and Magene PES505.
For past 7 years Direto was tested with FSA PowerBox (Power2Max NGEco) and Xcadey gen1 spider. In those tests Direto had identical readings with some constant offset - fsa no offset, magene offset +4%, xcadey gen1 -2% - so Direto my control device.
I have only spider PMs, so no triple recording and no outdoor comparison

Test protocol - copied from GPLama, with free ride first, sprints, some ERG work, more sprints and 2 stops in the middle for calibration. FIT files and screenshots attached

I really think they did it. Now we wait for Shane and others guys, especially outdoor rides, to be certain

Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: raisinberry777 on February 01, 2026, 03:51:07 PM
Nice one - even the initial testing is very helpful.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rene2879 on February 02, 2026, 01:48:51 PM
More input attached (can be used with compare-the-watts.com). Was recording a MyWhoosh session (32min) with 3 devises in parallel, each recording another single power source - Zwift trainer, ThinkRider and Wahoo Speedplay. All calibrated before (as well the trainer after warmup). At ThinkRider I needed to change the sensitivity to 110% (max value, this is possible in the TR app) as I had a constant shift vs Trainer of 20W (did yesterday already a run).

Feel free to comment.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ludo on February 02, 2026, 04:07:32 PM
Now available with aluminum crankset:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0xDQzb
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: toxin on February 02, 2026, 04:12:10 PM
24rmm alu spindle...
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: alfiomotrambo on February 02, 2026, 04:52:05 PM
So cheap
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: DavidG on February 03, 2026, 01:05:55 AM
Only if the power data from PM is usable otherwise not that cheap for a piece of aluminium ;-)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 03, 2026, 02:29:43 AM
24mm alu spindle is not good?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gandalf on February 03, 2026, 02:41:42 AM
But is alu?? Crankset yes, but I haven't read anything about spindle... It seems like cruz ones that I  have in my sons bike and they spindle is not aluminium
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Dan S. on February 03, 2026, 03:03:02 AM
24rmm alu spindle...

Are you sure about this? There is no mention of what the material of the spindle is. And given the weight, I would assume it’s steel.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 03, 2026, 04:29:55 AM
Are you sure about this? There is no mention of what the material of the spindle is. And given the weight, I would assume it’s steel.

Information in screen below.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Dan S. on February 03, 2026, 05:36:23 AM
Information in screen below.

Hmm, I guess I am just blind lol
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 03, 2026, 05:41:13 AM
The question is whether it’s worth buying a crank with an aluminum spindle. Does anyone have experience with it?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: poyo on February 03, 2026, 07:04:34 AM
The question is whether it’s worth buying a crank with an aluminum spindle. Does anyone have experience with it?

Why don’t you ask the seller? A Geoid power meter crank weighs 676 grams when weighed myself, so it’s not far off from the stated weight and that’s with a steel axle. The Thinkrider carbon crank is listed as having a 24 mm titanium DUB axle. You see the point?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: cateto on February 03, 2026, 07:08:09 AM
The question is whether it’s worth buying a crank with an aluminum spindle. Does anyone have experience with it?

24mm aluminium spindles are risky, I've seen too many snap in two. Personally I would not use them, maybe for a lighter rider they can be ok
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 03, 2026, 07:10:33 AM
Why don’t you ask the seller? A Geoid power meter crank weighs 676 grams when weighed myself, so it’s not far off from the stated weight and that’s with a steel axle. The Thinkrider carbon crank is listed as having a 24 mm titanium DUB axle. You see the point?

I ask seller but they didn’t answer.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ludo on February 03, 2026, 08:12:15 AM
24mm aluminium spindles are risky, I've seen too many snap in two. Personally I would not use them, maybe for a lighter rider they can be ok
I would tend to agree, but i have a 210W FTp, never really push more than 700W, I am fairly confident I won’t break one… lol
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: johnnyboy4711 on February 03, 2026, 08:49:21 AM
That's insane. I see 106USD.

cheap alu cranks for this ? 24mm?
thanks
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Da11as on February 03, 2026, 11:17:58 AM
24mm alu spindle is not good?
Unless you have really poor power output or going for purely casual rides, don't buy alloy 24mm spindle.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: toxin on February 03, 2026, 11:36:14 AM
Standing on the pedals with the cranks horizontal while going over some bumps can hit the spindle pretty hard., so you don't want to be on the heavy side either, regardless of your watts.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kubackje on February 03, 2026, 04:46:12 PM
Titanium 2m version

https://a.aliexpress.com/_Eyyj5bW
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Dan S. on February 05, 2026, 03:21:38 AM
I asked the seller about the spindle material and they’ve sent me this.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 05, 2026, 03:40:09 AM
I asked the seller about the spindle material and they’ve sent me this.

They wrote to me that someone from their staff made a mistake in the description and the axle is steel.
Even so, crank is no longer available, at least from what I can see.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: jhearrtot on February 05, 2026, 09:21:44 AM
got confirmation as well that it is steel and will restock within 1-2 days


not sure though about the price
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: xavi9112 on February 06, 2026, 03:21:34 PM
Hi guys, I just bought the power meter with Thinkrider carbon crankset. Does anyone have the reference number for the nut used to tighten the spider PM onto the crank?
Thank you
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 07, 2026, 01:04:27 AM
got confirmation as well that it is steel and will restock within 1-2 days


not sure though about the price

I order 1 pc. We will see from which material is spindle.
I put magnet on spindle and check it  ;D
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on February 07, 2026, 04:02:45 AM
Hi guys, I just bought the power meter with Thinkrider carbon crankset. Does anyone have the reference number for the nut used to tighten the spider PM onto the crank?
Thank you

What's wrong with it ? Have you asked the seller for a replacement part ?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Bender87 on February 07, 2026, 08:13:01 AM
So i bought the PP5 few weeks ago and wanted to finally mount it to my RIRO crank.
Unfortunately the power meter touches the crank arm due to the recessed edge on the interface and the arm doesn't have enough space.

Anybody have a clue if there are some "easton/direct mount interface spacers"? To put between the power meter and arm?
I search a bit but didn't find anything like would fit, otherwise it would mean i need a longer threaded lock ring to compensate the spacer on the other side.

Maybe i have to switch to a compatible crank set.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: yudo on February 09, 2026, 04:17:22 AM
This crankset?
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005009333438182.html
I don't think you will find easton specific spacer.
Try to find a generic spacer that fits (external/internal diameter, width).
This is something FSA uses for their boost/non-boost MTB cranksets.
https://www.bike24.com/p2307774.html?sku=1076120
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Bender87 on February 09, 2026, 04:44:03 AM
This crankset?
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005009333438182.html
I don't think you will find easton specific spacer.
Try to find a generic spacer that fits (external/internal diameter, width).
This is something FSA uses for their boost/non-boost MTB cranksets.
https://www.bike24.com/p2307774.html?sku=1076120


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.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 09, 2026, 06:20:08 AM
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.

You have powermeter Thinkrider + crankset now for about 150€.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 10, 2026, 07:45:48 AM
Guys, i think its working

not proper test and indoors and i was blown from yesterday ride, but xcadey gen 2 demonstrated some problems even indoors. pp5 solid on sprints like my pes505 or fsa powerbox
Tomorrow will ride proper test and post here. My test on xcadey in its thread with setup and method if you want more now

@gplama already did some spoiler on that pm.. and not a good one.  :o :o
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 10, 2026, 07:54:02 AM
@gplama already did some spoiler on that pm.. and not a good one.  :o :o

Where?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 10, 2026, 08:32:46 AM
Where?

"Looks like the ThinkRider PP5 meter has a non linear offset. Oh well. Another three power meters arrived today. 😂"
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kubackje on February 10, 2026, 11:43:14 AM
I said it once and I'll say it again. All those cheap Chinese PMs are crap. Shimano up to this day can't make a reliable PM and you guys expect some AliExpress brand to provide you one for 100$. Tell me about being delusional
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Super_davo on February 10, 2026, 02:04:19 PM
I've ordered one today, because with codes it came to £71, and it will fit onto a set of Leese carbon cranks I already own, and it will look better than the alloy spider they came with.

I'm fine if it turns out a bit crap - I already have Assiomas that I know are accurate - but I can to see a point in adding to my winter bike / gravel bike that wouldn't otherwise have a PM.
 
If I'm trying to gauge exactly how hard I need to push for a time trial, accuracy is paramount. If I'm trying to measure TSS on a winter club run so I know how hard I should or shouldn't push on the next days turbo session, being in the right ball park is OK.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 10, 2026, 03:22:19 PM
I've ordered one today, because with codes it came to £71, and it will fit onto a set of Leese carbon cranks I already own, and it will look better than the alloy spider they came with.

I'm fine if it turns out a bit crap - I already have Assiomas that I know are accurate - but I can to see a point in adding to my winter bike / gravel bike that wouldn't otherwise have a PM.
 
If I'm trying to gauge exactly how hard I need to push for a time trial, accuracy is paramount. If I'm trying to measure TSS on a winter club run so I know how hard I should or shouldn't push on the next days turbo session, being in the right ball park is OK.

But what is the point? Buying something faulty..
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: notnow on February 10, 2026, 03:48:08 PM
I also placed an order for a powermeter + crank arms. $238USD after coupon is crazy, I paid more than double last year for Elilee x310 + Xcadey @ $572USD with sale + coupons.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Bender87 on February 11, 2026, 12:23:35 AM
But what is the point? Buying something faulty..
For me it's playing with some new tech and more data from the rides for low money.
And I'm aware that this and any other thingy for less than +500€/$ is most likley to good to be true  ;D
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 11, 2026, 01:07:15 AM
I said it once and I'll say it again. All those cheap Chinese PMs are crap. Shimano up to this day can't make a reliable PM and you guys expect some AliExpress brand to provide you one for 100$. Tell me about being delusional

Maybe let’s wait for some tests before we pass judgment? When it comes to new developments, Shimano is generally behind — they’ve only just introduced a fully wireless GRX groupset, while SRAM and even Wheeltop (OMG, Chinese!) had that a long time ago. So I’d skip using Shimano as an example here.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: CycOps on February 11, 2026, 04:38:23 AM
Maybe let’s wait for some tests before we pass judgment? When it comes to new developments, Shimano is generally behind — they’ve only just introduced a fully wireless GRX groupset, while SRAM and even Wheeltop (OMG, Chinese!) had that a long time ago. So I’d skip using Shimano as an example here.

AFAIK Shimano is behind with wireless group sets because of SRAM was holding several patents.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Dan S. on February 11, 2026, 04:58:40 AM
AFAIK Shimano is behind with wireless group sets because of SRAM was holding several patents.

Yup, I also believe pantent issue is the reason why Campagnolo has different batteries for the front and the rear derailleur.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on February 11, 2026, 08:22:55 AM
The Chinese don't give a shit about patents and will take over all of them before we know it.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: massarob on February 11, 2026, 11:05:08 AM
Pulled the trigger for €129 and something with alu crankset (coupons+PayPal discount)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: toxin on February 11, 2026, 12:37:56 PM
The Chinese don't give a shit about patents and will take over all of them before we know it.

Eh, some do some don't. Patents are significantly more respected now that a decade or two ago. There's absolutely still a lot of infringement, but it's not universal.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: DavidG on February 11, 2026, 03:13:27 PM
Pulled the trigger for €129 and something with alu crankset (coupons+PayPal discount)
How much is the PayPal discount? Is it applied automatically once you select to pay with Pay?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: massarob on February 11, 2026, 03:27:31 PM
You have to "try" it but yes, discounts via Paypal payment give often an additional coupon (€8). You can use it only once/for 1 purchase for that discount slot days, e.g. "AliExpress Valentine's days" now.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: notnow on February 11, 2026, 05:13:09 PM
The Chinese don't give a shit about patents and will take over all of them before we know it.

If they didn't, why did it take so long for $500usd wheelsets w/ dt240 hub clones to be as good as $3500 western wheelsets?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 12, 2026, 03:08:28 AM
"ThinkRider PP5 power meter throws its back out in a sprint. Better it than me. 🚮" - by gplama..

stop buying this.. :P
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: EricL on February 12, 2026, 05:48:50 AM
In which video/article does he say this ?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Bender87 on February 12, 2026, 05:50:40 AM
On Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/17369519118

You can also see there is a flat line with 0 watts at some point.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 12, 2026, 06:58:59 AM
On Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/17369519118

You can also see there is a flat line with 0 watts at some point.

when you stop, there is no watts and cadence.. ahaha
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: squirrelgripper on February 12, 2026, 08:51:01 AM
On Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/17369519118

You can also see there is a flat line with 0 watts at some point.

Looking at the date log, one of the "zero watts" moments is on a downhill - could be coasting, not pedalling
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Bender87 on February 12, 2026, 10:40:35 AM
Looking at the date log, one of the "zero watts" moments is on a downhill - could be coasting, not pedalling
yeah, your right, maybe we just wait for the review.   ;D
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ludo on February 12, 2026, 10:45:52 AM
I think some of the comments and issues with cheap PM have  to be put in context of use case. I am new to the sport, I have wimpy legs with a 210W FTP and never push more than 700W. So when I hear a review talking about issues during sprints with 1200W, am I really concerned, should I really be? I spend 99% of my time between 140 and 270W, at this point of my journey, I don’t care about a 2% offset. So the cheap $120 PM might be all I need right now.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 13, 2026, 01:31:27 AM
I’m really curious this review:D
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gandalf on February 13, 2026, 01:33:55 AM
Maybe this problemas will be solved vía firmware... I hope so. And Maybe, once the firmware is optimized, the price grows up!
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 13, 2026, 01:56:47 AM
Maybe this problemas will be solved vía firmware... I hope so. And Maybe, once the firmware is optimized, the price grows up!

I hope that spindle in this crankset is made of steel not aluminium. When it arrived I will check it.

The seller assured me in the messages that the axle was steel, not aluminum. We'll see...
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: hamzo on February 13, 2026, 02:25:06 AM
It's steel. I got it yesterday
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 13, 2026, 02:48:02 AM
Maybe this problemas will be solved vía firmware... I hope so. And Maybe, once the firmware is optimized, the price grows up!

The chinese guys doesnt works like that.. even with good reviews they dont touch the price.. look at Elilee and QuickPro.. when they were announced as World Tour sponsor teams, they didnt touch the prices.. as well with Magene head units, etc..
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Velocity-Velo on February 13, 2026, 02:52:11 AM
I hope that spindle in this crankset is made of steel not aluminium. When it arrived I will check it.

The seller assured me in the messages that the axle was steel, not aluminum. We'll see...

Great, did you get the DUB or 24mm spindle?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: DavidG on February 13, 2026, 03:15:33 AM
I think some of the comments and issues with cheap PM have  to be put in context of use case. I am new to the sport, I have wimpy legs with a 210W FTP and never push more than 700W. So when I hear a review talking about issues during sprints with 1200W, am I really concerned, should I really be? I spend 99% of my time between 140 and 270W, at this point of my journey, I don’t care about a 2% offset. So the cheap $120 PM might be all I need right now.

The thing is that if the PM is not consistent then imo it is totally useless and no matter what the price is or what watts you put in. You are just wasting your time (and money). From Shane's comments in his Strava ride, the issues are not just tied to sprints but more about consistency at random times.

Anyway lets wait for his full review and find out.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: TribesMan on February 13, 2026, 03:53:49 AM
Not everybody is using power meter for training.
You might use it just as a simple "power estimator", to help you control your efforts on longer rides.
+-5% or even +-10% is good enough for that kind of use. It is still much better than using just HR alone.
And why pay 500+$ for +-1% device, if you don't need that kind of accuracy?

I might buy it for my GFs bike. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 13, 2026, 04:17:26 AM
Not everybody is using power meter for training.
You might use it just as a simple "power estimator", to help you control your efforts on longer rides.
+-5% or even +-10% is good enough for that kind of use. It is still much better than using just HR alone.
And why pay 500+$ for +-1% device, if you don't need that kind of accuracy?

I might buy it for my GFs bike. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For that you dont need to buy a pm.. just use the Strava watts/power estimation. :P
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: carbonMad on February 13, 2026, 04:23:13 AM
The chinese guys doesnt works like that.. even with good reviews they dont touch the price.. look at Elilee and QuickPro.. when they were announced as World Tour sponsor teams, they didnt touch the prices.. as well with Magene head units, etc..

It happened almost every time TraceVelo gave a good review to a piece of kit he bought on Ali. Ti spindled road pedals went 50-100% up overnight. Magene and Elilee didn't raise the prices because they're already high for Chinese products and they don't yet have the reputation, trust and customer service Garmin and others do.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 13, 2026, 04:43:01 AM
Great, did you get the DUB or 24mm spindle?

24mm
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 13, 2026, 04:43:24 AM
For that you dont need to buy a pm.. just use the Strava watts/power estimation. :P

This Strava watts/power estimation is crap.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Da11as on February 13, 2026, 04:56:19 AM
Not everybody is using power meter for training.
You might use it just as a simple "power estimator", to help you control your efforts on longer rides.
+-5% or even +-10% is good enough for that kind of use. It is still much better than using just HR alone.
And why pay 500+$ for +-1% device, if you don't need that kind of accuracy?

I might buy it for my GFs bike. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I am not going into the philosophical debate how effort has to be paced or how one should train, but 10% drift in power on the same training could be a difference between blowing yourself up and making it through at exact effort. It is mandatory for power meter to be:
- reproducible in its technical error
- reliable in its ride-to-ride comparison
- able to compensate for temperature/pressure drift

It MATTERS WAY LESS how high or low it reads, how much it lags on sprints or how much it weighs or costs. If it makes it possible to compare today's training to the same training from 2/6/12/128 weeks ago, than it is good enough. If not, then it is more convenient to install some RNG plugin on your Garmin screen and call it a day, there is no need for a power meter and you are better off with HRM and RPE only (yes it is possible to train effectively that way too).
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: TribesMan on February 13, 2026, 05:39:42 AM
For that you dont need to buy a pm.. just use the Strava watts/power estimation. :P

How can I access or check strava watts/power estimation during the ride?

I am not going into the philosophical debate how effort has to be paced or how one should train, but 10% drift in power on the same training could be a difference between blowing yourself up and making it through at exact effort. It is mandatory for power meter to be:
- reproducible in its technical error
- reliable in its ride-to-ride comparison
- able to compensate for temperature/pressure drift

If you need that kind of accuracy and repeatability for training purpose, then its time to accept that maybe this product is not for you.
Move along.  ;)

On the other hand, you have thousands of people who are training successfully for years with one side power meters.
And it is well known that that kind of measurement/estimation has big issues when it comes to fatigue or drift in L/R power balance when under load compared to easy riding.

Maybe 5% error in measurement is not that big of a drawback as one might think.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kubackje on February 13, 2026, 07:00:42 AM
Not everybody is using power meter for training.
You might use it just as a simple "power estimator", to help you control your efforts on longer rides.
+-5% or even +-10% is good enough for that kind of use. It is still much better than using just HR alone.
And why pay 500+$ for +-1% device, if you don't need that kind of accuracy?

I might buy it for my GFs bike. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Are you serious?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: toxin on February 13, 2026, 07:23:30 AM
At 5% error, you might as well ride by heart rate or rpe. Or alternatively, dont wate time and money on  a power meter in the first place
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gauomzei on February 13, 2026, 08:39:40 AM
This Strava watts/power estimation is crap.
My friend was getting her power estimated by Strava way below 100W every ride, then she got a Magene PM and suddenly she was recording 130-150W. This function is totally useless.

At 5% error, you might as well ride by heart rate or rpe. Or alternatively, dont wate time and money on  a power meter in the first place
5% accuracy at 200 W is 190-210 W, if I didn't know what riding at that power feels like and waned to learn my zones, even with that margin of error it would still be a valuable information for me. That could be acceptable for people who don't even know if their FTP is 250W or more like 150W, and can't afford more proven PM for over twice that price. However, for someone experienced with using a reliable PM, that would be too much drift.

Two of my friends just ordered these Thinkrider PMs, but if they turn out to be a total crap in GPlama test, they'll just return them.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: CycOps on February 13, 2026, 11:21:17 AM
I think some of the comments and issues with cheap PM have  to be put in context of use case. I am new to the sport, I have wimpy legs with a 210W FTP and never push more than 700W. So when I hear a review talking about issues during sprints with 1200W, am I really concerned, should I really be? I spend 99% of my time between 140 and 270W, at this point of my journey, I don’t care about a 2% offset. So the cheap $120 PM might be all I need right now.

If you have just one bike, I wouldn't worry about accuracy to much. If you use it for FTP testing and setting your training zones, and then train on it, it doesn't really matter it it reads a few percent to high or to low, as long as it is consistent in itself.
If you have several bikes and you want powermeters on most or all of them (and sure that's what you want 😁), you'll want consistency in the power readings between theses bikes, IMHO.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: muringuets on February 13, 2026, 12:09:42 PM
I see a lot of concerned users here.
If the product is just a random number generator, if it's complete crap—why, why, why do you even bother coming here to comment and complain about it?
Let the people who want it order it. It's their money.
No one's forcing you to buy the crappy power meter from ThinkRider, or any other chinese power meter for that matter...

"oh but you could buy a good power meter for $250"

What if I want to buy the crappy one that costs $50?

Is it possible that people are in some ways concerned that I'll be misguided by wrong power figures?

Geez…

Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Da11as on February 13, 2026, 03:50:55 PM
The main problem with us, who are shilling these cheap PMs, is that they do not fulfill its primary purpose i.e. reproducible (enough) power measurement. People may be looking at these PMs, not convinced by "good packaging, did not install yet" 5-star Ali reviews and thus guided to specialized forums like this. And if these folks read positive discussions, they may expect what is expected from a proper power meter i.e. reproducible (enough) power measurement.

It is in the same realm as having frame with oval BB or group set that shifts 50% of the time. Does it looks like a proper frame/groupset? Probably yes. Can it be used for its main purpose? Most likely, not. At best you can assemble them together, put square wheels on the frame and call it an art object reminiscent of a bike. But it will not be a bike.

Would such power meter show some numbers on your computer? Yes. Would you be able to track your progress? Properly pace your effort? Properly compare your intervals at 350W three months before and now, after consistent structured training, barely be able to squeeze 330W out of your legs (because your PM decided to drift 20W down on this ride)? Ride uphill at zone 2, go downhill and now your zone 2 is somehow substantially more difficult, because they did not manage to implement proper temperature compensation?

I would love to get a really cheap power meter to be able to more easily swap my cranks and buy it for all of my bikes, but if it doesn't fulfill its dedicated purpose it cannot be called a power meter. It is power estimator. And I am fine with you buying power estimators. Just don't call it power meter for the sake of those who want to buy a proper power meter.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ludo on February 13, 2026, 04:17:05 PM
I think it’s urgent for our PM expert to release his freaking video, we are all going mad here!  Lol
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kubackje on February 13, 2026, 09:23:15 PM
I see a lot of concerned users here.
If the product is just a random number generator, if it's complete crap—why, why, why do you even bother coming here to comment and complain about it?
Let the people who want it order it. It's their money.
No one's forcing you to buy the crappy power meter from ThinkRider, or any other chinese power meter for that matter...

"oh but you could buy a good power meter for $250"

What if I want to buy the crappy one that costs $50?

Is it possible that people are in some ways concerned that I'll be misguided by wrong power figures?

Geez…

The answer is pretty simple - it's a forum and we are here to discuss thing. If someone doesn't want to read our discussion about certain things, he should not post about it or even use a forum. Simple.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: muringuets on February 14, 2026, 06:45:18 AM
The answer is pretty simple - it's a forum and we are here to discuss thing. If someone doesn't want to read our discussion about certain things, he should not post about it or even use a forum. Simple.

Perhaps I didn't use the right words. I don't have any problem with anyone here—especially not with debating things in this forum. That's exactly the purpose of being here, right?

Ten years ago, there was very little information about Chinese carbon frames. If it weren't for the early buyers who purchased them, tested them, figured out which ones were good and which were bad, and shared their experiences, we'd all still be in the dark, wouldn't we?

Today, the Chinese frame market is well established. Thanks in large part to this forum, we all have a pretty good idea of which manufacturers are reliable and which ones to avoid.

Now, drawing a parallel to Chinese power estimators: by now, it's widely accepted that most of them are inaccurate and unreliable (with exceptions like Magene and maybe Geoid). Point. That's it.

There are one or two isolated voices here claiming their unit is good and reliable, but they usually rely on non-rigorous tests, so I wouldn't put much stock in them.

But there's a key difference: a crappy frame could potentially fail catastrophically—leaving you with fewer teeth in your mouth, or worse.

My crappy power estimator, as far as I know, won't break, explode, or cause my bike to fail. The bike still works fine (it's not ok to compare it to a square wheel bike). I can ride normally, I simply ignore the inaccurate numbers if I want.

The weight and price of my power estimator is comparable to a regular spider adapter (piece of metal/carbon to mount my crank arm to my chainring). So I ordered the crappy power estimator, I'm using it, I'm fully aware I can't trust the readings, and I'm okay with that. That's the math I made.

I'm not sure there's a real need for more people to keep buying these, testing them, and coming here just to say the obvious 'it's crap.' But with the recent price drops, more and more people will probably get them anyway. Let's just hope they don't end up overtraining—or worse—because the power numbers were way off.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: eugeniob on February 14, 2026, 08:59:50 AM
I test my PP5 with Direto XR at low power

LightBlue PP5
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 14, 2026, 09:51:18 AM
I test my PP5 with Direto XR at low power

LightBlue PP5

Where are the values? 😂
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: eugeniob on February 14, 2026, 10:05:36 AM
Where are the values? 😂

In the image:

https://chinertown.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6814.0;attach=43534

added this:

https://chinertown.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6814.0;attach=43536;image
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 14, 2026, 11:32:27 AM
I test my PP5 with Direto XR at low power

LightBlue PP5

I am no expert but it looks similar for me or?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: eugeniob on February 15, 2026, 06:52:54 AM
New, more significant tests for power and durability

PP5 vs XXPro   all Thinkrider PM

(http://xxpro-PP5b1.jpg)
(http://xxpro-PP5b2.jpg)
(http://xxpro-PP5d1.jpg)
(http://xxpro-PP5d2.jpg)

and low power

(http://xxpro-PP5c1.jpg)
(http://xxpro-PP5c2.jpg)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Samuel BMR on February 15, 2026, 08:31:55 AM
New, more significant tests for power and durability

PP5 vs XXPro   all Thinkrider PM

(http://xxpro-PP5b1.jpg)
(http://xxpro-PP5b2.jpg)
(http://xxpro-PP5d1.jpg)
(http://xxpro-PP5d2.jpg)

and low power

(http://xxpro-PP5c1.jpg)
(http://xxpro-PP5c2.jpg)

So what’s the bottom line? Kinda reliable? Sorta reliable? Pure Random Number Generator ? Even if there are occasional losses in power reading and a 2-3% accuracy rate only, I’ll accept that
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: eugeniob on February 15, 2026, 09:28:40 AM
The accurancy is less than 2%.

For me it's quite reliable, no significant losses have occurred, as soon as meteo permits I'll test it on the road, for 288 Euros and 610 g it seems like a great purchase to me.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 15, 2026, 10:25:09 AM
The detection of max power seems to look a little different..
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: choan on February 16, 2026, 01:33:04 AM
I just need a power meter to pace my long gravel ride. I use my gravel for fun ridenot structured training. I don't need my assioma power meter on it.

If it in a good ballpark of the avg power I will be happy
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: klindsey00 on February 16, 2026, 10:11:43 AM
If you need that kind of accuracy and repeatability for training purpose, then its time to accept that maybe this product is not for you.
Move along.  ;)

The whole point of a power meter is to have a way of consistently measuring your effort. If it can't at least be consistent ride to ride then it is useless. I do not need +/- 1% in a max effort sprint but I do need a pretty good estimate during a steady state time trial effort. That will be close enough ride to ride.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: An_Professional on February 16, 2026, 11:25:32 AM
Edit: Sorry, I see that I *could not* use these with the SRAM cranks, as they're direct mount. I'd just need some new 110BCD 4-bolt chainrings?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on February 16, 2026, 03:37:07 PM
Worth noting that it's illegal here (and in a lot of regions) for companies to make false claims about a product. eg, ±1% accuracy. Here in Australia, Shimano should not be able to sell their power meter. If our government consumer protection agency (ACCC) were to enforce these regulations, they'd have to remove them from sale.

No rules apply buying power meters internationally, so it's the wild west. It's up to us (the riders/consumers) to keep these companies honest.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Samuel BMR on February 16, 2026, 04:54:13 PM
I just need a power meter to pace my long gravel ride. I use my gravel for fun ridenot structured training. I don't need my assioma power meter on it.

If it in a good ballpark of the avg power I will be happy

Same, I don’t need super precise 1% accuracy with zero losses and every stroke accounted for. If I can get that for $100 LFG. I have Favero Duos, MAGENE duo pedals too, used the Vector 3 & Look SRM Exakt, Qwarq duo spider, SRAM RIVAL & FORCE left crank arm and even STAGES left Dura Ace crank arm on my Track bike (which was awful…) so something cheap & kinda reliable would suffice
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: toxin on February 16, 2026, 04:55:15 PM
Worth noting that it's illegal here (and in a lot of regions) for companies to make false claims about a product. eg, ±1% accuracy. Here in Australia, Shimano should not be able to sell their power meter. If our government consumer protection agency (ACCC) were to enforce these regulations, they'd have to remove them from sale.

No rules apply buying power meters internationally, so it's the wild west. It's up to us (the riders/consumers) to keep these companies honest.
yeah, it's surprising to me how Shimano hasn't been hit with any lawsuits for false advertising when their PMs seem to be so demonstrably and consistently unable to meet specifications by significant margins.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Dark17 on February 16, 2026, 04:59:51 PM
Same, I don’t need super precise 1% accuracy with zero losses and every stroke accounted for. If I can get that for $100 LFG. I have Favero Duos, MAGENE duo pedals too, used the Vector 3 & Look SRM Exakt, Qwarq duo spider, SRAM RIVAL & FORCE left crank arm and even STAGES left Dura Ace crank arm on my Track bike (which was awful…) so something cheap & kinda reliable would suffice

How's your experience with Magene duo pedals? Is it better if I just stick with my current Favero Assioma pedals? I really wanted to go to Shimano platform pedals because I think it's much better compared to Assioma's Wellgo pedals. I am planning on buying Magene duo pedals or Assioma Pro RS2.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Samuel BMR on February 16, 2026, 05:06:54 PM
How's your experience with Magene duo pedals? Is it better if I just stick with my current Favero Assioma pedals? I really wanted to go to Shimano platform pedals because I think it's much better compared to Assioma's Wellgo pedals. I am planning on buying Magene duo pedals or Assioma Pro RS2.

MAGENE pedals have been flawless so far (~5,000km with them) and got them for 399€ on AliExpress during the Summer Sales. Made a short « unboxing » video comparing them to the Favero Assioma Duos
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: massarob on February 17, 2026, 06:18:21 AM
I guess I have/had too almost all the PMs on the market since years (exept SRMs, but I saw files from former clients). There's probably an higher degree of error on a single side PM (and Shimanos) than from these last "Chinese" spiders PM. Not because of hardware (lack of) specs or factory miscalibration but simply because none is pedalling 50/50 (or even 50.5/49.5 thus on/over the +/- 1% accuracy).
In general, with the "democratization" of PMs I saw a lack in general precision on all the spectrum, no matter the price, with the only notable outlier being Favero Assiomas (they learnt a lot from the BePro, remember them?).
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rdnl on February 18, 2026, 01:16:52 AM
GPLama video

https://youtu.be/y0CZEbVhC5w

High power after big ring sprint ahh.
My spider didn't have this, but my sprint lower (1000vs1200) and on trainer. Will repeat sprint test
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Super_davo on February 18, 2026, 01:41:03 AM
Fantastic work as ever GP Lama.

I can see the clear, repeatable issue - but I also think for the bike I intend to put it on I am almost never going to expose it to that issue (the chances of me doing 1000W sprints on my winter bike are practically zero...). In that case - it looks pretty accurate - and certainly way more accurate than single sided when I know my L/R balance is not consistent.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 18, 2026, 02:06:27 AM
Could someone summarize this video for me? I don’t have the ability to watch it or even listen to it.

Worth to buy or not?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Da11as on February 18, 2026, 02:06:47 AM
Fantastic work as ever GP Lama.

I can see the clear, repeatable issue - but I also think for the bike I intend to put it on I am almost never going to expose it to that issue (the chances of me doing 1000W sprints on my winter bike are practically zero...). In that case - it looks pretty accurate - and certainly way more accurate than single sided when I know my L/R balance is not consistent.
It seems the power meter has issues with residual torque after any high torque work. It doesn't have to be a proper sprint - even weak acceleration (~800 W) triggers the drift. In real world 2-3 sec long revolutions at high torque happen all the time: when you want to overtake someone, kick start on a traffic light, or during loss of traction on loose surfaces (sand, snow etc.).

We don't know the lower threshold where the drift is triggered but it looks like it may work in a very narrow set of cases where you don't accelerate at all.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on February 18, 2026, 02:21:41 AM
Cheers all for the feedback and the patience while I got that testing done. The PP5 is coming of the bike as I type and the Coospo S10 is being installed. Wish it luck!
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: DavidG on February 18, 2026, 03:05:42 AM
Fantastic work as ever GP Lama.

I can see the clear, repeatable issue - but I also think for the bike I intend to put it on I am almost never going to expose it to that issue (the chances of me doing 1000W sprints on my winter bike are practically zero...). In that case - it looks pretty accurate - and certainly way more accurate than single sided when I know my L/R balance is not consistent.
He actually said it is not consistent so cannot be called accruate I am afraid. We'd all love it to be accruate, consistant and cheap but it is not right now. As he said in the video, they are not far from getting it right. Maybe in their next version.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: yudo on February 18, 2026, 05:05:16 AM
Is it possible to perform zero offset calibration without unclipping?
Like coasting or pedaling backwards.
Does this "fix" zero offset issue until the next sprint?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ludo on February 18, 2026, 05:06:19 AM
Cheers all for the feedback and the patience while I got that testing done. The PP5 is coming of the bike as I type and the Coospo S10 is being installed. Wish it luck!
Qq: you test in absolute, which is great, but as you can see, there are a lot of discussion about specific use case. Could you provide your feedback on that?  For example I am relatively new to the sport, I have a Magene p515, I don’t think I ever hit 800W, could that be a suitable option. Or on a bike dedicated to zone 2 effort?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Da11as on February 18, 2026, 06:11:25 AM
Is it possible to perform zero offset calibration without unclipping?
Like coasting or pedaling backwards.
Does this "fix" zero offset issue until the next sprint?
Proper calibration of modern power meters requires you to not put any extra weight on the pedal.

Qq: you test in absolute, which is great, but as you can see, there are a lot of discussion about specific use case. Could you provide your feedback on that?  For example I am relatively new to the sport, I have a Magene p515, I don’t think I ever hit 800W, could that be a suitable option. Or on a bike dedicated to zone 2 effort?
It would be plausible only if we were sure anything above exactly 800W triggers the drift, but it could be lower than that. Regardless, it is very easy to get 800W for few spins if you are above 70kg even untrained or not intentional of hitting high power. In that case you may have already drifted away from the calibrated values.

Tracking every high torque power spike and recalibrating each time after that is simply not practical. You may probably use it for indoor training in ERG mode but in this case you already have more accurate measurement from the trainer.

My suggestion to everyone who already own this PM is to check for the drift yourself - maybe Shane has faulty unit (which is unlikely). I personally wouldn't buy it.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Yozha on February 18, 2026, 10:52:47 AM
Hi everyone. Today I compared the readings from Assioma, Tax Neo, and ThinkRider.
The error is around 1%. Overall, I'm very satisfied – I recommend these cranks.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Yozha on February 18, 2026, 10:54:36 AM
I bought a 162.5mm ThinkRider with a DUB axle.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 18, 2026, 11:31:23 AM
I don’t know what doing now. Send it back or keep it xD
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 18, 2026, 12:34:13 PM
Hi everyone. Today I compared the readings from Assioma, Tax Neo, and ThinkRider.
The error is around 1%. Overall, I'm very satisfied – I recommend these cranks.

we all aready saw the gplama review.. ahah
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: 00Garza on February 18, 2026, 02:10:59 PM
Wishful thinking, but is it possible that Gplama was sent a dud? Has anyone else tested accuracy post sprint?

At that price point though, I'm not surprised it has some issues.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 18, 2026, 04:00:22 PM
Wishful thinking, but is it possible that Gplama was sent a dud? Has anyone else tested accuracy post sprint?

At that price point though, I'm not surprised it has some issues.

Whenever he tests one there is always this talk that he may have received a dud one.. When he tested elilee they said the same thing.. I think we have to get it into our heads that true quality has a price. The good example of this is the Chinese bicycle brands that are also getting high prices because they have quality. My impression is that all these power meters are made in the same factory and with the same parts, that's why they all fail!
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on February 18, 2026, 04:20:28 PM
Whenever he tests one there is always this talk that he may have received a dud one.. When he tested elilee they said the same thing..

They sent two EK01 (one alloy spider, one carbon) that both had the same issue. They published a press release proclaiming the issue resolved, follow up testing showed it wasn't.

The bigger issue I see with the EK01 is that their World Tour team are getting different non-commercial versions of these meters. Why?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Yozha on February 18, 2026, 11:36:13 PM
we all aready saw the gplama review.. ahah

I'm probably too far from such strict testing protocols)) I don't think I'll often see power above 1000 watts on my computer))

But yes, I will try to run a test at power levels over 1000 watts. This is interesting
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: DavidG on February 19, 2026, 01:05:53 AM
They sent two EK01 (one alloy spider, one carbon) that both had the same issue. They published a press release proclaiming the issue resolved, follow up testing showed it wasn't.

The bigger issue I see with the EK01 is that their World Tour team are getting different non-commercial versions of these meters. Why?
Shane,
How are things looking so far with the Coospo one? I'd expect to be identical to the Thinkrider. Is it feeling that same so far?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 19, 2026, 01:17:46 AM
They sent two EK01 (one alloy spider, one carbon) that both had the same issue. They published a press release proclaiming the issue resolved, follow up testing showed it wasn't.

The bigger issue I see with the EK01 is that their World Tour team are getting different non-commercial versions of these meters. Why?

I know that because I saw it all.. I was just saying that people always try to justify your result as if you had always received a defective one when the problem is really the power meter. As for Elilee, I'm still going to see what they're going to do with mine. 🤦
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 19, 2026, 01:18:39 AM
Shane,
How are things looking so far with the Coospo one? I'd expect to be identical to the Thinkrider. Is it feeling that same so far?

He already posted on Strava and it seems that he is equally bad..
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Tpower59 on February 19, 2026, 03:36:33 AM
XCADEY is shit too, so there is not good option apart from MAGENE ?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on February 19, 2026, 04:43:38 AM
Shane,
How are things looking so far with the Coospo one? I'd expect to be identical to the Thinkrider. Is it feeling that same so far?

Shane replied to someone on his YouTube video that it only took him one ride to find issues with the Coospo one, essentially it's just as shit as all the others.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: oxidizer on February 19, 2026, 07:12:20 AM
Just get Geoid PM500. It's cheap and accurate.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 19, 2026, 07:33:14 AM
Just get Geoid PM500. It's cheap and accurate.

forget about that.. no one of this type is accurate.. chinese and cheap you cant ask for accurate.. end of story.. :P
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Bender87 on February 19, 2026, 08:19:59 AM
I wondering if they are all the same on the inside, like why name all the power meters something with a "5" in the name?  ;D

I mean they are flooding the market at the moment, there are listings on Ali with EU shipping from France or Poland.
Like someone just produced few 40-foot containers of cheap power meters and now selling it like a drug dealer to everyone  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: toxin on February 19, 2026, 09:06:16 AM
forget about that.. no one of this type is accurate.. chinese and cheap you cant ask for accurate.. end of story.. :P

Geoid is all rebranded magene stuff, so that one probably is accurate
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: 00Garza on February 19, 2026, 09:14:34 AM
forget about that.. no one of this type is accurate.. chinese and cheap you cant ask for accurate.. end of story.. :P

Define cheap. I got my magene powermeter crankset for $250 and its pretty accurate. I consider that cheap, but not bottom of the barrel cheap.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ludo on February 19, 2026, 10:07:38 AM
GEOID (Magene P505) can be had at 200-220$ with cranks, not cheap but really affordable
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 19, 2026, 11:51:10 AM
Define cheap. I got my magene powermeter crankset for $250 and its pretty accurate. I consider that cheap, but not bottom of the barrel cheap.

Cheap is 80 to 150 usd for a power meter.. Even 250 usd is cheap for the product itself.. I have one from elilee that cost 300 usd or more and is also not accurate.. 🤦 🤦
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rebel_Yell on February 19, 2026, 04:36:02 PM
I have Magene P515 on my new build. I sure wish they would do their PM where it would fit other carbon cranks.  TEO is nice but only 29mm spindle. Do love the P515 just wish it was lighter.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: ricchirock on February 20, 2026, 01:57:51 AM
do you remember the Pogacar interview with Peter Attia when he said that the powermeter he uses (Shimano) was not reliable? Im wondering which one really it is... Even if a top brand like Shimano have some problems... I can deal with a cheap chinese one inaccuracy :D I rode years without it, if sometimes reading could be a bit lower or higher than real I dont think is a big issue that will destroy my training plan...
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: fabxyz on February 20, 2026, 02:08:41 AM
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.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: wanted100 on February 20, 2026, 02:23:28 AM
do you remember the Pogacar interview with Peter Attia when he said that the powermeter he uses (Shimano) was not reliable? Im wondering which one really it is... Even if a top brand like Shimano have some problems... I can deal with a cheap chinese one inaccuracy :D I rode years without it, if sometimes reading could be a bit lower or higher than real I dont think is a big issue that will destroy my training plan...

Thats why they used SRM for the TT bikes with cybrei cranks.. :P
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Da11as on February 20, 2026, 03:27:23 AM
do you remember the Pogacar interview with Peter Attia when he said that the powermeter he uses (Shimano) was not reliable? Im wondering which one really it is... Even if a top brand like Shimano have some problems... I can deal with a cheap chinese one inaccuracy :D I rode years without it, if sometimes reading could be a bit lower or higher than real I dont think is a big issue that will destroy my training plan...
Power2Max is second best powermeter you could get after SRM. Price starting at 350 EUR with whatever interface you want. I've had two NGEco's for 6 years. Install and forget, that's it.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Bender87 on February 20, 2026, 04:06:18 AM
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.
Do you have some picture of this? Maybe you can use a different derailleur hanger on the front to the the FD to a wider chain line.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: carbonMad on February 20, 2026, 04:10:07 AM
[.]] Even if a top brand like Shimano have some problems... I can deal with a cheap chinese one inaccuracy :D [..]
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.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: muringuets on February 20, 2026, 05:59:40 AM
What's the logic here exactly?

Money...

If a product price is low enough, people will buy it, regardless if it works as intended...
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gauomzei on February 20, 2026, 07:50:35 AM
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.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: ricchirock on February 20, 2026, 07:58:52 AM
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.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rene2879 on February 21, 2026, 10:55:48 AM
I would be interested if ThinkRider is able to fix the residual error with a software fix.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: makl on February 21, 2026, 01:35:01 PM
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...
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kubackje on February 21, 2026, 04:47:31 PM
I would be interested if ThinkRider is able to fix the residual error with a software fix.

Good luck
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: LJW on February 22, 2026, 03:52:58 AM
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."
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: makl on February 22, 2026, 04:04:15 AM
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...
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rene2879 on February 22, 2026, 04:30:30 AM
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?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: raisinberry777 on February 22, 2026, 04:32:59 AM
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?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rene2879 on February 22, 2026, 04:38:09 AM
...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 ...
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Bender87 on February 22, 2026, 07:06:19 AM
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.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kubackje on February 22, 2026, 03:01:07 PM
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?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 22, 2026, 03:18:19 PM
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…
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kubackje on February 23, 2026, 03:43:52 AM
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...
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 23, 2026, 03:53:01 AM
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.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rene2879 on February 23, 2026, 04:45:53 AM
When will you all understand that this accuracy will go outta window after one sprint?

...

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...

I'm not sure what you wanted to achieve with your post under my comment. I've shared data from my ride, even my assessment as an age-grouper - I'm not pushing 1200 Watt, but I did with 400-500 Watts - not sure u checked the data prior commenting ;). At least on my end, I've not seen the drift. I'm wondering if the majority of rider do way harder. Let me try another set with higher W, but in real life, for me, I'm not battling at this level.

Nothing against the test of GPLama, nothing about that this product might have weaknesses at requested performance of ambitious or pro rider. There might be is a compromise, but at this price point I consider this as more than acceptable. The set of Speedplay I have came 600€ a few years ago and they are obviously worse ... and it didn't bothered me (so far ...because I never compared them until now).
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kubackje on February 23, 2026, 05:56:37 AM
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.

Just admit you're cheap and it hurts you that you wasted money on crap product. Not my fault, so don't blame me for your hurt feelings.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rajmundx on February 23, 2026, 06:04:29 AM
Just admit you're cheap and it hurts you that you wasted money on crap product. Not my fault, so don't blame me for your hurt feelings.

I wrote that I was closing the thread, but I have to reply xD

Listen, buddy, yes, I bought that power meter, but I've already sent it back, so I didn't lose any money.
The guy writes about me being "cheap" on the forum about CHINESE bicycle components xD

What irony, you're the boss xD

Go lie down on the couch and get some rest, or I don’t know — jump into some ice-cold water and cool off xD


P.S. Tylu użytkowników na tym forum a ja prawdopodobnie posprzeczałem się z chłopem z tego samego kraju xDD
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: ernorator on February 23, 2026, 07:00:08 AM
P.S. Tylu użytkowników na tym forum a ja prawdopodobnie posprzeczałem się z chłopem z tego samego kraju xDD

Z czegoś to wynika  ;)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: patliean1 on February 23, 2026, 10:03:52 AM
It's really a shame the few reliable options of Easton style power meters, for how many Chinese carbon cranks use this standard today.

Magene makes great stuff. If they decided to ever release a new officially Easton compatible spider PM for like $300 they would easily gain huge market share in this sector.

I'm still sitting on these XMCS carbon crank arms without a decent budget PM option. All signs point to the Power2max NGeco Easton but $590 is a bit steep. You can buy the Magene TEO w/ carbon cranks for less.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kbernstein on February 23, 2026, 10:33:54 AM
Magene doesn't get enough hate in this regard. They had no reason to make a proprietary interface. They would sell like proper hot cakes if they weren't
Anyway if someone wants to be a guinea pig - https://cyclegears.net/products/nexga-s1-powermeter
Easton, 110BCD, 95g and USB fucking C  ;D
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: poyo on February 23, 2026, 11:08:29 AM
Anyway if someone wants to be a guinea pig - https://cyclegears.net/products/nexga-s1-powermeter
Easton, 110BCD, 95g and USB fucking C  ;D

Jesus, 8 years of warranty!
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kubackje on February 23, 2026, 11:23:05 AM
I wrote that I was closing the thread, but I have to reply xD

Listen, buddy, yes, I bought that power meter, but I've already sent it back, so I didn't lose any money.
The guy writes about me being "cheap" on the forum about CHINESE bicycle components xD

What irony, you're the boss xD

Go lie down on the couch and get some rest, or I don’t know — jump into some ice-cold water and cool off xD


P.S. Tylu użytkowników na tym forum a ja prawdopodobnie posprzeczałem się z chłopem z tego samego kraju xDD

Mate don't get me wrong I would love to have a cheap power meter, but sadly it's not the case here. You can call it whining, crying etc. Whatever... But if we all gonna accept mediocre products then the manufacturer will have no motivation to actually fix it and deliver a reliable power meter. So you may not like it, but I will call a bad product what it is. That's the only way for manufacturers to rethink and change the product for better.

Pozdrawiam serdecznie
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: notnow on February 23, 2026, 12:32:13 PM
I dont see anything wrong with buying this one as a temp for most casual riders. I've been riding it and see no difference vs my 3x Quarq, 1x 4iiii and 1x Xcadey. But again, I'm just a casual rider who has more bikes than they should.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Rebel_Yell on February 23, 2026, 12:36:08 PM
Magene doesn't get enough hate in this regard. They had no reason to make a proprietary interface. They would sell like proper hot cakes if they weren't
Anyway if someone wants to be a guinea pig - https://cyclegears.net/products/nexga-s1-powermeter
Easton, 110BCD, 95g and USB fucking C  ;D

Have there been any test and results on this Nexga PM?  I have not seen any yet.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kbernstein on February 24, 2026, 04:31:57 AM
Have there been any test and results on this Nexga PM?  I have not seen any yet.

Not to my knowledge, but I know stone (or PQ idr) work with them indirectly and read on chinese forums they were ex employees of xcadey and had a decent reputation, Their website certainly looks legit too so if nobody bites the bullet, I will in a couple months when insurance check drops
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: cady on February 24, 2026, 05:32:42 AM
Does anyone tried LEXON  crankset with this ?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008208626439.html?pvid=40739eb2-af17-40a6-8254-e76bc122f426&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22ship_from%22:%22CN%22,%22sku_id%22:%2212000044239451649%22%7D&scm=1007.28480.422277.0&scm-url=1007.28480.422277.0&scm_id=1007.28480.422277.0&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21RON%21RON%20358.50%21RON%20358.50%21%21%2181.06%2181.06%21%402103956b17719326099557164eb09d%2112000044239451649%21gdf%21RO%21167649624%21X%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29919%3Bd%3Abae3088a%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&spm=a2g0o.tm1000029706.4162782170.dundefined&aecmd=true
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Da11as on February 24, 2026, 07:52:24 AM
Does anyone tried LEXON  crankset with this ?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008208626439.html?pvid=40739eb2-af17-40a6-8254-e76bc122f426&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22ship_from%22:%22CN%22,%22sku_id%22:%2212000044239451649%22%7D&scm=1007.28480.422277.0&scm-url=1007.28480.422277.0&scm_id=1007.28480.422277.0&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21RON%21RON%20358.50%21RON%20358.50%21%21%2181.06%2181.06%21%402103956b17719326099557164eb09d%2112000044239451649%21gdf%21RO%21167649624%21X%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29919%3Bd%3Abae3088a%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&spm=a2g0o.tm1000029706.4162782170.dundefined&aecmd=true
There is a whole thread on Lexon crankset with tons of issues people have with it. The power meter is Xcadey gen2, which is shite.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: massarob on February 24, 2026, 10:50:47 AM
got mine with their alu crankset. For 129€ total I had no big expectations about the crankset but they are actually not bad, in line with average aluAli :D cranksets
Spider interface with the right arm crank was perfectly fine.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: makl on February 25, 2026, 01:14:53 AM
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!
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Bender87 on February 25, 2026, 01:30:37 AM
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
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Nilist on February 25, 2026, 02:45:06 AM
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)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: LJW on February 25, 2026, 11:33:22 PM
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 ^^
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: luisaraujo on March 25, 2026, 11:14:03 AM
does anyone knows how to mont the PP5 on a riro accrossfire crank?
(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0514/2124/9693/files/RORI__08.jpg?v=1724922047)

the form factor from the spindle is completle different, is there any adaptor? spindle, that can be purchased?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: alfiomotrambo on March 25, 2026, 12:37:47 PM
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 (https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c4Dgsmur)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rene2879 on April 18, 2026, 03:25:42 AM
seems ThinkRider released a new firmware targeting the issue of abnormal power a few of u spotted. Lets see...
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gf on April 18, 2026, 12:44:33 PM
dear all, someone know if this thinkrider pp5 is compatible with Senicx PR3 crankset (use sram-like 3 bolt chainring)?
thanks
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: poyo on April 18, 2026, 02:39:30 PM
dear all, someone know if this thinkrider pp5 is compatible with Senicx PR3 crankset (use sram-like 3 bolt chainring)?
thanks

no
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gf on April 18, 2026, 03:40:20 PM
no
Thanks, you help me to save money
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on April 23, 2026, 08:15:05 PM
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.


Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: choan on April 26, 2026, 07:45:43 AM
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
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on April 26, 2026, 06:14:50 PM
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.


Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: johnnydamage on April 28, 2026, 12:15:45 PM
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.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rakagian on May 05, 2026, 06:10:59 AM
Is it compatible with CUES 50/34 (FC-U6030-2)? Can it be paired with iGPSPORT BSC200?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Dan S. on May 06, 2026, 07:33:12 AM
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.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rakagian on May 06, 2026, 12:23:01 PM
What about this set?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005011946459764.html
They don't mention if it's compatible with BB86. Has anyone tested it?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: alfiomotrambo on May 06, 2026, 02:23:53 PM
I think it's compatible, cause it's a 24mm spindle linke the p515 https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005005506880823.html (https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3PO7uk3)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rakagian on May 06, 2026, 04:08:52 PM
I think it's compatible, cause it's a 24mm spindle linke the p515 https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005005506880823.html (https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3PO7uk3)

I was wondering about the axle length and if it's too long for the 86mm bottom bracket.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Bender87 on May 06, 2026, 11:35:15 PM
I was wondering about the axle length and if it's too long for the 86mm bottom bracket.

I have it installed at the moment on a T47 86.6mm BB with the D24mm.
I put like 1 or 1,5mm spacer on the none drive side. Just because it was not in the middle and I measured it from the arms to the middle of the frame.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rakagian on May 23, 2026, 04:31:25 AM
I ordered the 172.5mm for €122 to install it on my CUES. I will measure and weight everything once it arrives and I will report back. Hope it fits.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Tpower59 on May 23, 2026, 04:32:47 AM
Just got a Magene P515 165mm crankset for 205€ shipping included
595 g only
Why would you buy unreliable brands ?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Finiesta on May 23, 2026, 08:39:50 AM
Just got a Magene P515 165mm crankset for 205€ shipping included
595 g only
Why would you buy unreliable brands ?
Where did you get it?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Tpower59 on May 24, 2026, 02:54:08 AM
Where did you get it?

Seller seems to have it out of stock now
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Chineseweaklegrider on June 12, 2026, 09:25:38 PM
Is it compatible with CUES 50/34 (FC-U6030-2)? Can it be paired with iGPSPORT BSC200?
I am using this power meter PP5 paired with BSC200, working well but the power meter is like 3 secs delayed.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Chineseweaklegrider on June 12, 2026, 09:35:40 PM
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...
PP5 now is only perfectly compatible with its own crank or CENIT crank, because they share same mold. Also you could buy a spacer from THINKRIDER, now I bought PP5 and crankset, they give a spacer like, if you want to buy it costs around 4USD.
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?abbucket=0&id=1027193446614
Actually the crank needs to be lower than the powermeter, otherwise you need the spacer to make it lower.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rakagian on June 23, 2026, 07:17:37 AM
I  received the powermeter but it's not compatible with CUES FC-U6030-2. The big chainring is 110BCD but the small is not.
I ordered two cheap chainrings (BUCKLOS 50/34) which seems compatible. A photo review already shows it installed with the PP5.
The seller forgot to ship it with the 4 bolts and I had to order them separately and wait more. I ordered bolts for double chainring.

I noticed that when I install the bolts with the powermeter, the bolts extend about ~1mm. It doesn's become flat with the big chainring. Is this gonna be ok? Should I get bigger bolts for triple chainring and cut them to make them compatible with the double chainring + power meter?

https://i.ibb.co/4nLHyZY1/IMG-2235.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/s9yhvSN1/IMG-2236.jpg
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Chineseweaklegrider on June 23, 2026, 07:42:42 PM
I  received the powermeter but it's not compatible with CUES FC-U6030-2. The big chainring is 110BCD but the small is not.
I ordered two cheap chainrings (BUCKLOS 50/34) which seems compatible. A photo review already shows it installed with the PP5.
The seller forgot to ship it with the 4 bolts and I had to order them separately and wait more. I ordered bolts for double chainring.

I noticed that when I install the bolts with the powermeter, the bolts extend about ~1mm. It doesn's become flat with the big chainring. Is this gonna be ok? Should I get bigger bolts for triple chainring and cut them to make them compatible with the double chainring + power meter?

https://i.ibb.co/4nLHyZY1/IMG-2235.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/s9yhvSN1/IMG-2236.jpg
Not sure about the 2x chainrings, but it seems you put the powermeter upside down?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rakagian on June 24, 2026, 07:10:48 AM
Not sure about the 2x chainrings, but it seems you put the powermeter upside down?

No, I'm pretty sure I installed it correctly. The first photo shows only the small chainring. The second photo shows both of them with the sensor sandwiched in between them.
The app shows me there is a firmware update available. I have 1.8.6 installed and 191 is available.  Should I do it?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: maxpet on June 24, 2026, 01:47:06 PM
No, I'm pretty sure I installed it correctly. The first photo shows only the small chainring. The second photo shows both of them with the sensor sandwiched in between them.
The app shows me there is a firmware update available. I have 1.8.6 installed and 191 is available.  Should I do it?

yes, first time this PM shows halfway believable numbers for me
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Chineseweaklegrider on June 24, 2026, 09:21:19 PM
No, I'm pretty sure I installed it correctly. The first photo shows only the small chainring. The second photo shows both of them with the sensor sandwiched in between them.
The app shows me there is a firmware update available. I have 1.8.6 installed and 191 is available.  Should I do it?
Got it, sorry for misunderstanding, you should upgrade, this is not like the iOS, I upgrade the SRAM firmware or powermeter firmware all the time, if they update it means they really fix something, haha.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Catsoft on June 28, 2026, 07:30:49 AM
Is there a changelog somewere? What do you mean by

yes, first time this PM shows halfway believable numbers for me
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: rakagian on July 14, 2026, 08:56:38 AM
Does anybody know if the plastic installation tool is a standard size? It slipped a couple times and the plastic has been deformed. Where can I find a replacement?

(https://i.ibb.co/HpttQPcv/IMG-2391.jpg)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: maxpet on July 14, 2026, 01:35:22 PM
Is there a changelog somewere? What do you mean by

before the update the power was way off (too low, sometimes just showed 0) and after the update it looks fine so far, or at least a lot better
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Chineseweaklegrider on July 14, 2026, 07:48:53 PM
Does anybody know if the plastic installation tool is a standard size? It slipped a couple times and the plastic has been deformed. Where can I find a replacement?

(https://i.ibb.co/HpttQPcv/IMG-2391.jpg)

https://tieba.baidu.com/p/10759222575

Mine is DUB but I saw this problem before, this might be the deviation
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: M91 on August 03, 2026, 04:49:49 AM
Hello guys,
are u happy with ur PP5 so far? Is the test of GPlama really so concerning? Should i buy it for 60 Dollars?

Thank u
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Catsoft on August 03, 2026, 04:58:22 AM
I bought one for my Girlfriend. After calibrating against my Feveros (+10%!) it works fine. But she´s no wattmonster like GPLama ;-)  She uses it for pacing on long climbs, not for intervals. For $ 60 it´s a no-brainer.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on August 03, 2026, 05:37:21 AM
I’ll call it straight: I don’t believe you.

You acknowledge the issues but construct a narrative in which the known failures appear irrelevant. My concern is that I’ve seen more effort put into sidestepping this product’s failures than the company has put into resolving their root cause.

This post reads like a standard play used by so many companies promoting budget bike tech through guerrilla marketing. The giveaway? The “girlfriend” line. It’s always the girlfriend. Never the wife, never the sister, and almost always a woman. Why? Because, to support the narrative you’re spinning, she’ll put out less power, right? Therefore, the issues acknowledged by the manufacturer supposedly don’t apply.

Company employees or associates repeatedly use this tactic to plant comments while posing as ordinary users. It completely erodes trust in the brand and its marketing. It also makes forums like this less useful.

I could be completely wrong about this, but I’ve been online and active on enough forums for long enough to recognise the pattern.

Either way, it doesn’t change the underlying issue. The day the PP5 meets an acceptable standard, which simply means meeting its own published technical specifications - people won’t need to explain away its failures. And they won’t have to risk a breakup by buying known-crappy gifts for their “girlfriends.”
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Catsoft on August 03, 2026, 05:58:25 AM
Hi GPLama,

you ARE wrong. You can verify me via a German forum.: https://www.mtb-news.de/forum/ user Catsoft

I don´t say the Powermeter is great and I trust your testing. But the issues in your test seem to be after peaks with more the 600 Watts. So if you use the Powermeter for pacing with 200-300 W it seems to work fine. if I want to di intervals I would use Feveros or SRAM (Witch I use since I do Intervals with more then 600 W)

Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on August 03, 2026, 05:59:34 AM
Happy to be wrong. Now buy your girlfriend a better power meter :)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Catsoft on August 03, 2026, 09:50:42 AM
Happy to be wrong. Now buy your girlfriend a better power meter :)

She likes Powermeter so the test the the cheap Thinkrider on the Easton crank was successful. I´m now looking for a SRAM Powermeter for a good price. I'm not willing to spend 700 bucks and she don't want other pedal than Eggbeater. It´s complicated ;-)
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: kbernstein on August 03, 2026, 12:10:39 PM
Lama I love you and always will for your excellent essential work but I think you (and many others here) have expectations from a racing bubble.
yes, the unit is flawed, thinkrider don't address it and it should be improved, but for many (i would argue most..) bike riders, a cheap unit that peforms well until 1000w sprints is still a complete nobrainer.
i think a powermeter is a wonderful upgrade even for casual riders and for 60usd those limitations are not a big deal at all.
for your audience, and for many people here the PP5 is worthless junk, but for the casual rider, why not? didn't read like blatant company marketing either to me
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on August 03, 2026, 05:49:58 PM
I think its fair to call out a product that doesn't meet its own advertised specifications, you don't have to be a hardcore or elite cyclist to agree with this and hold the manufacturer responsible. If they are lying about the accuracy then what else are they lying about ? Are the numbers flashing up on your screen an accurate representation of your power or are they just random numbers ? It seems to work for some while not for others, it's your own money, so only you can decide if it's worth it.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gplama on August 03, 2026, 06:33:54 PM
My hand is up for being overly triggered by the recent post. The company’s history on this very forum and on Reddit has contributed significantly to my scepticism. Spending hours, days, and more riding and testing these products, only to reach the same conclusions repeatedly, has also worn me down.

Just to reiterate what I want to see on the market: quality, trustworthy, accessible components that allow people to have a better time on their bikes. That’s why I spend time trawling forums for new products, ordering whatever pops up on AliExpress, and sending emails asking for early access, whether it’s power meters, bike computers, radars, or anything else.

It’s also self-serving. As a cyclist, I want the latest, greatest, lightest, cheapest, and so on. The whole review thing is a side quest. I’d be doing this even if YouTube and other social platforms didn’t exist. I’d also still be sending companies support tickets nonstop, asking them to fix problems. ;)

Over the past four or five years, we’ve seen a massive shift in the smart-trainer category from $1,000 trainers to quality $399–$499 trainers with even more features. That has been a huge win for consumers.

In the power-meter category, we’ve also seen a massive drop in price, which is excellent, but it has been accompanied by a massive drop in quality, reliability, and accuracy. The average user, however, wouldn’t know. The claimed technical specifications are often the same for a $100 meter as they are for a $500 meter. That’s extremely deceptive and potentially illegal in many markets. It needs to change.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: gribs on August 04, 2026, 01:34:37 AM
I wonder for some of these low cost power meters that at least provide repeatable data is there a market for a device that intercepts the data, applies a correction factor, and retransmits it. Calibration should be easy enough with access to a smart trainer. The obvious other application is cheating on Zwift etc.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: hubba on August 08, 2026, 11:54:26 AM
What's the chainline on the PP5 + thinkrider crankset combo? I'm trying to find out do I need offset 1x chainring for it or a normal one. Some ppl report it's wider than normal? Is it because of the spider or the crank? And how long is the spindle do you use spacers on the bb?

I found it cheap for my commuter bike I don't need that good accuracy on it and it's definitely not for sprinting.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Chineseweaklegrider on August 09, 2026, 07:58:18 PM
What's the chainline on the PP5 + thinkrider crankset combo? I'm trying to find out do I need offset 1x chainring for it or a normal one. Some ppl report it's wider than normal? Is it because of the spider or the crank? And how long is the spindle do you use spacers on the bb?

I found it cheap for my commuter bike I don't need that good accuracy on it and it's definitely not for sprinting.
My original crankset is SRAM DUB wide, chainring is APEX XPLR x1 with 6mm offset, I replaced with thinkrider powermeter+crankarm with PQ 0 offset chainring. Portside with 0.5mm spacer and starboard with 1.5mm. When you buy thinkrider powermeter and crankset, they have English manual to calculate the spacers you need.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: hubba on August 11, 2026, 12:42:27 PM
I received my PP5 and tried to install it on my road bike to test it. It's not sitting straight on the cranks even though it's not touching the crank arms and it's fully tightened. So it's wobbling a bit side to side.

Can this be because it does't work with these cranks (Elilee X-novanta) or is it just a bent powermeter? Sigeyi sits straight on those cranks.

Google says I might need a shim and the PP5 only works with certain cranks. I was planning to get Leese carbon cranks for it for my commuter bike I hope it sits straight on those. The mounting surface is a bit different on the PP5 vs the Sigeyi. It has a recessed area and the Sigeyi is completely flat.

Only paid about 40€ for it but was hoping to get it to work. By quick test it reads Z2 watts fine.
Anyone had similar trouble with it?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Chineseweaklegrider on August 12, 2026, 12:20:46 AM
I received my PP5 and tried to install it on my road bike to test it. It's not sitting straight on the cranks even though it's not touching the crank arms and it's fully tightened. So it's wobbling a bit side to side.

Can this be because it does't work with these cranks (Elilee X-novanta) or is it just a bent powermeter? Sigeyi sits straight on those cranks.

Google says I might need a shim and the PP5 only works with certain cranks. I was planning to get Leese carbon cranks for it for my commuter bike I hope it sits straight on those. The mounting surface is a bit different on the PP5 vs the Sigeyi. It has a recessed area and the Sigeyi is completely flat.

Only paid about 40€ for it but was hoping to get it to work. By quick test it reads Z2 watts fine.
Anyone had similar trouble with it?

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?abbucket=17&id=1027193446614&mi_id=0000u_nIMnxPPt3NTCDfeZTIGwwzScD2x-bUmneBKX_1948&rn=742df3c1ff79b1d5eb050e6e92eb9413&spm=a1z10.5-b-s.w4011-25349356760.78.10b14343jEVylG

You need this spacer
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: hubba on August 12, 2026, 11:31:02 AM
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?abbucket=17&id=1027193446614&mi_id=0000u_nIMnxPPt3NTCDfeZTIGwwzScD2x-bUmneBKX_1948&rn=742df3c1ff79b1d5eb050e6e92eb9413&spm=a1z10.5-b-s.w4011-25349356760.78.10b14343jEVylG

You need this spacer

I don't have a Taobao account can I find it anywhere else? Can you share a picture what kind of spacer?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: jonathanf2 on August 12, 2026, 12:02:14 PM
My Thinkrider PP5 power meter came with a slim Easton washer that I placed on the crankset before placing the power meter. That fixed the FD rubbing I was having with a Shimano Dura Ace chainring. If you have access to that washer, I'd try placing that on the crankset to see if it will fix your issue. Good luck!
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: hubba on August 12, 2026, 12:33:37 PM
My Thinkrider PP5 power meter came with a slim Easton washer that I placed on the crankset before placing the power meter. That fixed the FD rubbing I was having with a Shimano Dura Ace chainring. If you have access to that washer, I'd try placing that on the crankset to see if it will fix your issue. Good luck!

You mean under the Easton cinch direct mount or under the lockring or where?
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: jonathanf2 on August 12, 2026, 12:51:41 PM
You mean under the Easton cinch direct mount or under the lockring or where?

My Thinkrider PP5 came with a slim washer that I placed onto the Easton mount and then placed the power meter before tightening it up. I mentioned the washer on another thread and the OP mentioned his didn't come with the power meter. I ordered my power meter with the alloy/steel axle crankset, but it worked properly on a separate Easton mount carbon crankset I was using.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Chineseweaklegrider on August 12, 2026, 09:44:45 PM
I don't have a Taobao account can I find it anywhere else? Can you share a picture what kind of spacer?
Sry didnt notice that
Could you see the pic with these links?
https://img.alicdn.com/imgextra/i4/2217614725885/O1CN01z1mwWw1tLNyMy8zXM_!!2217614725885.jpg
https://img.alicdn.com/imgextra/i3/2217614725885/O1CN01WDXDKG1tLNyNZkbu6_!!2217614725885.jpg
https://img.alicdn.com/imgextra/i1/2217614725885/O1CN01LltEYa1tLNyNA9W9H_!!2217614725885.jpg
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: hubba on August 12, 2026, 11:49:00 PM
Thanks! I need to find that part from somewhere now. I hope Leese can send one with their carbon cranks I'll order as they are often sold with the PP5. I'm not the original owner so might be tricky to get one from Thinkrider.

Edit. Thinkrider wants 25 euros to send the shim it's a bit too much. I'm wondering will this fit or is the Thinkrider one somehow smaller?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005012282934033.html
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Chineseweaklegrider on August 13, 2026, 02:38:31 AM
Thanks! I need to find that part from somewhere now. I hope Leese can send one with their carbon cranks I'll order as they are often sold with the PP5. I'm not the original owner so might be tricky to get one from Thinkrider.

Edit. Thinkrider wants 25 euros to send the shim it's a bit too much. I'm wondering will this fit or is the Thinkrider one somehow smaller?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005012282934033.html
25 euros? Gosh. Thats 25CNY in China, like 3.5USD with free shipping. Now they give this spacer with the powermeter. The reason is some crankarm is lower than the powermeter easton surface. Thats why need this spacer.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Ultramic on August 13, 2026, 03:25:03 AM
If you are located in Australia, I can send you one. Otherwise message this seller -
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtAhrUj

They quoted me $1 a piece and I purchased a few of them and didn't need them in the end.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: hubba on August 13, 2026, 04:10:07 AM
If you are located in Australia, I can send you one. Otherwise message this seller -
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtAhrUj

They quoted me $1 a piece and I purchased a few of them and didn't need them in the end.

Thanks but I'm in Finland. I ordered 2 pieces from the seller I linked ended up costing 13€.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: jonathanf2 on August 13, 2026, 09:45:21 AM
That's definitely the part I'm talking about. Also I do think Shimano chainrings are slightly more offset outwards. I plan on trying some 3rd party chainrings to see if they're more inward offset to allow some flexibility with my groupset electronic tuning app.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: Zeewongone on August 21, 2026, 03:50:47 PM
If you are located in Australia, I can send you one. Otherwise message this seller -
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtAhrUj

They quoted me $1 a piece and I purchased a few of them and didn't need them in the end.

Hi Ultramic, where in Australia are you located. I might be interested in taking one of these cinch spacers off your hands.
Title: Re: Thinkrider PP5 power meter
Post by: xzx_components on September 05, 2026, 11:38:03 PM
Thinkrider PP6 coming out soon! It's going to be cheap as well

I'm curious to see whether the issues were addressed