[Updated note – Nov 2020: Please read the text. All of it. Especially the parts where I’m concerned about their ability to execute on the timeframes they’ve specified, and whether or not the unit I received for test is what regular backers would receive. At this juncture, there’s little reason to believe IQ2’s timelines. Just as there wasn’t back in May. That aside, my focus here was on the product from a technology standpoint. Update #2 – Oct 2021: Still no products shipped yet. As with before, still no reason to believe IQ2’s timelines.]
Two years ago (almost to the day), IQ2 announced their then crank arm spacer based power meter. It would fit in between any pedal type and any crank arm, and allow power on more or less any bike with any pedal. In theory, it’d be close to the holy grail.
In practice, a year later (almost exactly to the day again) that effort fizzled without any returns, and they announced a new goal – a pedal-based power meter. But not just one power meter, but a series of them – both road and mountain. For the road side they’d offer both single-sided and dual sided Look-Keo compatible pedals, while for the mountain side they’d offer the same single and dual options but in a Shimano SPD (MTB) compatible pedal.
Suffice to say, neither happened according to their timelines – but this weekend I got my second set (TLDR on the first set was three weeks ago I rode them and 20 mins into the first ride I found a hardware defect).
Given that y’all are incredibly eager to hear whether or not they’ve produced an accurate power meter, I figured I’d do a daily-double today and knock out both an indoor ERG workout and an outdoor varied-terrain workout and then look at the power meter accuracy data. Simple, right?
First, some ground rules:
1) This is *NOT* a full review. It’s two rides. Three if you count the broke-ass ride from three weeks ago. I typically test power meters for a month or more (many months often).
2) Second, this is DEFINITELY not sponsored. Whether or not they work I’ll tell you – just like I posted three weeks ago when it broke.
3) Third, I’ve only got a single-sided (left) road pedal. I don’t have dual-sided ones, and those sound like they’re sometime down the road. I don’t have a mountain pedal either.
4) I’m confident this is from their production line, but I’m not 100% confident this is what end users will receive. There were already some manufacturing tweaks related to assembly between the set three weeks ago and this set.
5) I’ve got no real clarity on when they’ll start shipping to real people.
Got all that? Good. Let’s try and break them. And for that you’ve got two options: You can watch the video, or read the text. Or be a cool kid and do both:
Onto the text bits for those that like textual things.
What’s in the box:
Here’s the box, again, of the left-pedal only variant. Of course, like all pedal-based power meters, you’ll get a ‘dummy’ right pedal as well. This lacks the electronic elements, but otherwise looks almost the same from the exterior.
Inside you’ll find the two pedals and next to them two CR2032 batteries. You’ll only use one battery.
Below that is the pedal wrench and two spacers for the pedals:
You’ll see the QR code to scan with your phone to install the app (technically it points to their site though, but close enough I guess):
To install the battery you’ll crack open the side of the pedal with an Allen key and then slip the battery in there. Oh, and as far as weights go, ask and you shall receive:
IQ2 Left: 199g
IQ2 Right Pedal: 204g
Garmin Vector 3 Pedal: 161g (both sides same)
Favero Assioma Pedal: 152g (both sides same)
I don’t know why there’s such a big difference between the two. Obviously one has electronics and the other doesn’t, but I figured they’d make them the same. Perhaps it’s because the right pedal (non-electronics) is solid within the spindle. Here’s the two side by side:
And for fun, here’s the flip-side:
In any case, onwards to install!
Installation:
For the most part, installation harkens back a bit to the older Look KEO/Polar/SRM EXAKT pedal installation process where you use a wrench to align things a certain way. It’s not as finicky as those units though, so that’s positive. But it’s definitely not as clean as Favero/Garmin/PowerTap or even the new SRM X pedal-based power meters. All of those you more or less just install as any other pedal.
To begin, you’ll notice the pedal has an inside component that rotates in and out of the spindle. I’d refer to this as the ‘swirly thing’. Basically, it’s what tightens into the crank arm and allows the positioning to be precise. Once you’ve got that snug against the pedal, then you’ll hand-tighten the pedal to the crank arm.
My pictures came out like crap for whatever reason, so instead, here’s a snippet from their install video. This is helpful for others, since they don’t have a written install guide. See, winning?
Then you’ll loosen the ‘inside’ of the pedal spindle area with a hex wrench one turn:
After that, you’ll use their pedal wrench to horizontally align against your crank arm, keeping the IQ2 logo facing upwards:
Finally, you’ll tighten that inside nut/swirly thing up:
Then, you’ll do a zero offset:
Realistically, as I’ve found out – you’ll want to do a few sprints first, then do a zero offset, and perhaps toss in a few minutes for temperature stabilization too.
Also, somewhat annoyingly, this entire process has to be done watching a YouTube video – rather than being in the app or on a clickable web page with step by step pieces. So you’re trying to pause each step, make sure you’re turning things the right way, etc… My attempts at install are as follows
Set #1: First attempt – easy success, accurate instantly
Set #2: First attempt – thought it was good, then immediate accuracy dumpster fire
Set #2: Second through fourth attempts: A mess still, eventually got myself back to square zero
Set #2: Fifth attempt: Nailed it! A few sprints, a zero offset or five, and I’m good!
I suspect the issue with the middle ones was that it wasn’t quite tight enough. I had done it ‘normal pedal tight’, and I think it needed more, and developed a bit of play. The video says a torque wrench is optional – but I have a funny feeling you need to skew more towards gorilla tight than normal pedal tight. Just my guess.
In any case, good to go now.
Trainer Ride:
For the indoor ride I loaded up TrainerRoad. In this configuration TrainerRoad only talked to the Wahoo KICKR (2018 Edition). And then I separately recorded the IQ2 power meter on a Garmin Edge 530:
I also concurrently recorded the Wahoo KICKR on an Edge 830, while recording a Quarq DZero on a Fenix 6. I also had a few other things recording HR and what not from Polar Grit X.
For the test, I selected TrainerRoad’s Apple Orchard. This wasn’t a super-challenging workout in terms of crazy power, but I figured it’d be a good starting point to show both stability of power in longer chunks, as well as responsiveness in short 15-20 second test intervals.
Note that what made it slightly more challenging is I did it 1.5x, since I spent the first attempt troubleshooting accuracy/installation issues. We’ll ignore that here and skip to when I got it nice and tight and happy.
For that, here’s that data set in the DCR Analyzer:
As you can see, it’s pretty darn similar. Each of my power meters (including the trainer) took their turn with what is likely some sort of WiFi or other wireless signal interference. All of them dropped for a second or two. I’m going to ignore that, since all of them did it. I’ll build a tin-foil fort tomorrow.
First, let’s look at the warm-up phase (first 12 mins):
While these are similar, there’s a bit more of a spikey-thing going on with the IQ2 power meter. You see it manifest itself as a slightly higher wattage than the others. I’m less concerned with it being consistently high (that’s actually to be expected), and more-so the fact that the purple line of the IQ2 spikes constantly above the others.
That said, the spikey-bits don’t appear in the outdoor ride later. So perhaps that’s just a bit of the unit settling in after install. It’s something I’ll look at more closely after longer-term testing.
Each of the interval sets are roughly the same, so I’ll just pick at the last one since I figure things would have settled the most by then (also, it has no drop-outs from any of the units).
These are all super similar. We see the Quarq going a bit higher than the others on all sets, a trend I’ve seen in recent tests of mine. I don’t tend to see it as much outdoors. Not sure why. But in the scope of this test, it’s negligible – all these units are super close here.
If we look at the mean-max chart, you’ll see it’s crays close. The Wahoo KICKR is exactly where it should be (lower than the rest) – since it’s further down the drivetrain:
And cadence is precisely identical to the Quarq, minus the two units’ varying signal dropouts:
Aside from the slight bit of spikiness on the IQ2, there’s nothing to be upset about here. This is pretty much a picture-perfect set. I could add a bunch more words, or I could go eat cookies. All you need to know is earlier in this same paragraph.
(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy sections were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, GPS tracks and plenty more. You can use it as well for your own gadget comparisons, more details here.)
Outside Ride:
Next, I headed outside for a loop of varied terrain. Some smoother pavement, some grittier pavement, some cattle grates, some rougher brick, some gravel. Yes, gravel: Why not?
Now, you can watch a fun montage of that in the video at the top of the post, but for here we’ll get straight into the data. Here’s the overview – in this case, I swapped out the Wahoo KICKR for a PowerTap G3 hub in my rear wheel. Quarq is still there as well. Here’s the high-level view (and here’s the data set):
I know, that’s kinda messy and hard to see – outdoor rides usually look that way due to the constant shifts in intensity. So instead, let’s pick some pieces. First, this relatively steady section here:
It starts off with a bit of a sprint off the line, and then digs in for some nice steady 250-325w cruising, before eventually ending at another stop-light. Still, all three power meters are within a few watts in most places. There’s no major outlier data points here, nor anything of massive concern. Keep in mind again, that the IQ2 is a left-only power meter, and as such, is going to be slightly more variable due to my normal leg differences. The Quarq & PowerTap G3 Hub are both total power units.
Next, another stoplight to stoplight chunk. For the most part, things are very similar here. A bit more variability in the second to second data points however across all units. I’m honestly not sure why. It’s not huge, but it’s not quite as crispy as some of the other portions. This was relatively normal pavement. There’s one drop-out from the IQ2 at the 34-minute marker that corresponds with a slight surge in the others. Given the precise timing, this seems far less likely to be an interference dropout issue, and far more likely to be an algorithm issue. It’s something I’ll be keeping an eye on in the future.
Next, the gravel section. This was an out and back section, with the turn-around in the middle. As you can see, I was cruising at between 300 and 500w across this. Take no prisoners on my aero wheels!
That said, you see some slight variability from everyone – even with 5-second smoothing on here. It’s not as clean as other sections, but it’s also 100% totally usable data from all players. No player is any better than the other here.
After that point, the Karoo unit that the PowerTap G3 was recording on ran out of battery. I didn’t exactly think that one through when I left the cave with sub-10% battery while also screen recording.
No worries, nothing exciting happens after that point anyway. As for the mean-max chart – super clean – anyone would be happy with this:
On cadence, there’s a few blips in there – things that are hard to notice in the grand scheme of stuff – roughly 1-second blips, but easily seen on a chart like this.
My guess is this is an area where a bit more work can be done still. In this section, it was mostly regular pavement, but it’s possible these exact blips line-up with some specific pot-hole or what-not.
Overall though, I think this is a pretty darn good start. With some very minor tweaks they can get that last little bit that might be causing the occasional drop-out in the algorithm. And I think it’d be pretty hard to argue that the extent of these dropouts is anything but minor right now.
Does the entire outside ride match the stability of some of the other players? No. But is it 99.9% of the way there? Yes, absolutely.
Wrap Up:
When the first test unit they gave me three weeks ago failed, it did so in such a spectacular (and really unique) fashion that based on their response I could tell they were beyond perplexed. So much so that it actually gave me confidence in their abilities (as odd as that might sound). Sometimes power meter companies will try and hem and haw about how an issue isn’t an issue, or that it’s something I’m doing wrong, or blah-blah-blah.
Nope, IQ2 was pretty clear at the time that whatever went horribly wrong was something they’ve never seen before and that they really wanted to figure it out (it helped that I had video and data-driven evidence showing the issue). The result was many days of digging to find what they stated as a bad PCB due to it not being QA’d in assembly.
That process has since changed, and this second set seems just fine based on these two limited rides. Yes, their instructions need a re-write (actually, they just need to be written, it’s only in a silent video right now). And yes, they need to remember to tell you to put in the battery. And yes, I’d be curious to know why the pedals are that different in weight.
However, the thing you care about: Actual power accuracy out on the road – is very very impressive for this being this early in the product release cycle. Most power meters I see tend to take a number more months (even years) to reach this level after sales release. Albeit, this still hasn’t started shipping to regular consumers.
Still – I’m optimistic for where the company is going here. The next challenge (and it’s a challenge that has perplexed even the biggest power meter companies) is scaling up production from a handful of units per week to hundreds or thousands. But everyone likes a challenge, right?
With that – thanks for reading – and stay tuned for a full in-depth review sometime down the road after consumers start getting their units and I know for certain this is the same final hardware/software that you’re getting.
FOUND THIS POST USEFUL? SUPPORT THE SITE!
Hopefully, you found this post useful. The website is really a labor of love, so please consider becoming a DC RAINMAKER Supporter. This gets you an ad-free experience, and access to our (mostly) bi-monthly behind-the-scenes video series of “Shed Talkin’”.
Support DCRainMaker - Shop on Amazon
Otherwise, perhaps consider using the below link if shopping on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot. It could simply be buying toilet paper, or this pizza oven we use and love.
Thanks MUCH Ray!
This should make a bunch of us breathe a lot easier! 😉
So I’ll have to pull off my carbon shimanos to put these on right?
No, you can use them with carbon cranks just fine. Just be sure to use the small spacer (like any other power meter pedal) to ensure it doesn’t hit the carbon cranks (you don’t have to use it if it doesn’t hit/touch).
Yeah I like that my Dura Ace 9100 pedals are going to be relegated to my KICKR bike instead of being able to slap them on like the original design. At least with how long these have taken to produce I’ve gotten 5k+ miles out of my current pedals so it’s not a total loss.
Ray – thank you again for your reviews, they tell it like it is without a bunch of fluff and have a ton of data to back them up. If anything once my Shimanos need to be replaced I’m going to buy either Garmin or PowerTaps since we’re never getting our hands on our orders.
While I didn’t back them, this review makes me cautiously optimistic that those who saw the very difficult kickstarter campaign through, will actually end up with a working, accurate power meter. 🙂
yes……but two years later!!!! (than we expected)
True, I do not envy those who made the jump. But a functional powermeter is better than no powermeter or a badly functioning one. Even if you have made other arrangements by now, at least there is some reselling value.
Glad to see it work this time around – Looking forward for my dual set for road use – Originally backed so that i could easily use on both mtb and road. Then decision time after the change to pedals and i choose the road option… If i am happy with them when i get them i might have to buy mtb pedals as well. Can’t get to much data 🙂
Ray, any idea what you expect the ballpark US price range to be for this power meter?
See https://www.iqsquare.com
Your kidding me, once lockdown is over I was thinking about getting come power pedals, for that price I can get a set for road, a set for mtb and still have some spare cash left over
Almost pre ordered !!!!!
Installation step 4 and step 6 show loosing and tightening of swirly screw to be the same direction?
It’s a scree-cap from an animation/video, so it came out kinda funky.
Thanks. Was the pedal weighed before you put the battery in? I would guess the battery adds a few grams. Maybe that would get the 2 pedals to be closer to the same weight.
It wasn’t. It gets it closer, within about 2g.
As a backer this is a relief, as a Speedplay user the redesign to pedals is useles to me. Hopefully the product accuracy will give it some value on the second hand market.
I can’t see the review?? Title is there but no body
And it appears as soon as click submit ☺️
Great write we were long patient for. And some results now! Wow.
Any remarks on the feel of the pedals? Clipping in and out was fine? Setting the tension spring works fine?
And thank you very much I was expecting some graphs in the tool, but not already a nice video! Very much appreciated!
Pedal feel was fine/normal, so much so that I didn’t think to talk about it. 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
Backed iq2 on Kickstarter, so looking forward to more reviews.
Thank you for this effort. It’s good to hear that I might get something I was really trying to avoid…I like your holy grail comment! Despite the holy fail, I am impressed at how the team has persisted.
That said,
1) I’m missing why a spacer would be required? I did a search and am not finding an explanation. On their web-site, I don’t find a mention either.
2) This may be out of line as this will be my first set of pedal-based power meter equipment, though, the install looks to be less than solid from looking at the video. Is that the case?
Thanks,
John
“1) I’m missing why a spacer would be required? I did a search and am not finding an explanation. On their web-site, I don’t find a mention either.”
Carbon cranks. The carbon usually sits a little proud of the threaded insert and can be damaged by the pedal spindles which likely have a larger outside diameter than the insert. The spacers have an outside diameter that’s more aligned with the insert and push out the contact point with the face of the spindle just enough to avoid contact with the carbon.
Spacer: Yup, exactly as cycloscott noted.
Install: It’s not as simple as a few other pedals, but it’s pretty quick nonethless. I’m curious to see if the quirks I saw on my middle install attempts were just random dumb-luck, or something perhaps a bit more indicative beyond that. Only people with numerous power meters would have noticed the difference (it was off by about 20w, both high…and low).
Thank you, cycloscott and DC Rainmaker.
20W is definitely high, unless its at 1500W 😉
Getting excited, do they output any cycling dynamics data that you can tell at this time?
No, no Cycling Dynamics.
Nothing would limit them from doing the power phase stuff or the TE or PS metric. The design they showed off would be incapable of doing pedal offset for two reasons. 1) The contra-flexure sensor they are using can’t detect offset like this no matter what, and 2) offset would be determined on average by both orientations and they can’t sense in the other orientation. Now, just like P2MAX that wouldn’t some someone from filling in the field with bogus data (PS/Balance).
I was THIS close to being a backer, but I’m not a gambler so I decided to take a wait and see approach. Had I been, I would be pretty excited about this. I’m still pretty excited. What impact do you think this will have on the pedal based power meter market? If the pricing holds true I’m thinking this has to be a win for the consumer, since if these are halfway decent I would expect prices to fall across the board in order for the current players to stay competitive. Is that just wishful thinking?
“What impact do you think this will have on the pedal based power meter market?”
It will only have an impact if they can demonstrate they can scale up production to meaningful market-impacting levels (realistically thousands of units per week). If they’re only at hundred or a few hundred units, it won’t have any impact on the market.
Hmm. I was just about thinking of finally buying an Assioma Uno, but not necessarily in crunch for time (just riding on Zwift these days with my Suite Elite direct trainer). I might pick up the dual sided version of this instead? It has BT so as long as I can connect to my phone, should be good.
Were the pedals you tested the stainless version or titanium? The kick starter backers are getting titanium, and new orders will be stainless from what I remember. They seem kind of heavy, so hope you had the stainless version. After waiting 2 years, I hope you can be my first sort of good news?
Ever since they changed to pedals, there has not been any talk about titanium versions.
They silently dropped the titanium version, as the options in the webshop used to be:
Titanium versie L + R = 349 EUR
Stainless steel L + R = 229 EUR
also, see this thread about titanium version on their website: link to kickstarter.com
Thanks for quick review.. hope MTB version is as good.. and ready next year?? lol..
Maybe I missed this, but what type of cleat are they using?
Look clears.
Look or “Look type” as others have done
Look-Keo compatible.
Are the “Sets” you describe multiple pedal sets or attempts installing the power metered pedal then removing it and installing it again?
Would 20-25 Nm as shown in the install photo be considered “gorilla tight”?
Sets are different pedal sets. The first one that I broke, and then the second one that this post is based upon.
20-25 would be chimpanzee tight, but in-line with what Garmin recommended. It’s more than most people would do though by hand if they didn’t have a torque wrench.
(Interestingly, that install photo screenshot is actually later on in the video after installing the pedals when it talks about ‘optional’ utilization of the torque wrench.)
It is going to be interesting to see how the other manufacturers respond with stiffer price competition.
As always, great early review, Ray. Thanks.
Curious if there’s any indication these might be offered in SPD-SL cleats at any point. I’ve heard, anecdotally, that the reason there is no SPD-SL-based power meter (well, aside from that Garmin retrofit kit that requires a very specific type of Ultegra pedals) has to do with patents. But I haven’t been able to find definitive proof of that—just the occasional rumor.
So, any possibility these might eventually be available in SPD-SL cleats?
I’d guess it’s possible but it’s never once been mentioned in the whole project. Given there are only factory issued Look compatible PM pedals out there I’d guess there is a licensing challenge either because Shimano want to be first or just don’t want pedal PMs on their system at the moment.
Yeah, I was looking for the exact SPD-SL patent, but not having much luck finding it either. I can easily find the SPD patent (link to patents.google.com)
I thought SPD SL patent expired in 2019…
link to patents.google.com
But the specifics about why some are licenced like crazy (SPD, Keo) while the other is not (SPD-SL) remains a mystery to the uninitiated.
Bummer, 2025 by the looks of it. But hey, at least the 2019 expiry of the SPD MTB mountain is a done deal!
As for licensing, yeah, Shimano has always been weird there. I can see why they’d want to minimize power meters in this space to in theory sell their own products.
Actually the IQ2-Website says “SPD-SL compatible”:
Yup, incorrect. Unfortunate for anyone who buys one and is expecting that. 100% used my Look KEO cleats on this one (I haven’t had a pair of cycling shoes with SPD-SL in probably 5-6 years, though I have some cleats on-hand just in case…).
Ah, I thought this was SPD-SL? The website says the road pedals are SPD-SL compatible?
link to iqsquare.com
Having been an early backer and then dropping out – which in hind sight was a very good decision. I’m really happy to see that IQ2 seem to have produced a decent product.
Although having watched this review and checking their website, it seems some of their website details are out of date:
1) Claims the road pedals are SPD-SL compatible but neither Ray’s review nor anyone in the forum seems to agree with this?
2) Their website only refers to ANT+ connections but Ray’s review clearly shows an iPhone connecting via BT (unless iPhones secretly allow ANT+ ?)
So unmaintained website, 2 year delayed Kickstarter, one decent initial review from Ray….I think I will wait for Ray’s full review before even having another think about this.
However if that review is good then IQ2 have certainly made a compelling power meter that is worthy of at least a consideration given its price!
Now y’all have me pondering…
I can’t imagine my Keo cleats would ever work with an SPD-SL pedal, even in the most rough shape. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think that’s technically possible?
Either way, I’ll try it in the morning (to see if a SPD-SL cleat fits in) when I’m at the office. That’d be mind blowing if true.
Ok, I checked this morning – first thing before evening putting down a bag. I stuck on a brand new pair of SPD-SL cleats onto my shoes and tried clicking in. No love.
I then dorked with a few things, still no love.
Then I texted IQ2 to see if I was crazy and somehow did 3 rides with LOOK KEO cleats without problem, or if their website showing SPD-SL was wrong. As expected, the website was wrong. It’s since been fixed. 🙂
They fixed it for the road pedal…but not for the MTB pedal…
MTB is still wrong, saying SPD-SL instead of SPD
Thank you for the great post.
What cleats did you use for testing the IQ2 pedals? I am just wondering how the pedals will work with generic Look type cleats, for example with the Vector 3 cleats (ARC R2). I once discussed the issue with the IQ2 support, but at that point they did not give very clear answer.
I’ll look when I’m back at the office a bit later today. They were either the Vector cleats or Favero cleats. Pretty sure they were red. 🙂
Thanks so much Ray! Glad to see it looks okay. Curious what the timeline for delivery will be now.
Finally!
I thought that due to the current mess it will be delayed again (the pedals, not the post)
Great, can’t wait for the shipment.
Hi Ray,
Thanks as usual for your great work.
This looks good and I think I may take the plunge on a preorder.
Just one question – they offer the choice of side on a single power set which is quite unique.
With my right leg being more dominant, would it make sense to order a right hand powered pedal to help me more accurately gauge effort against what I put out on the kickr?
I have no exact figures on how much stronger my right leg is and it may be trivial overall, but just thought the question was worth asking when the choice is available.
design change , yes, but apart from Assimo hack, these will be the first SPD mtb pedal based PM. nice! now get them shipped!
PS: im a backer and i was slightly concerned when they proposed design change but as long as my original intended use is fulfilled, im ok with that.
First SPD mountain bike pedals started shipping from SRM last week: link to dcrainmaker.com
So far my on and off-road data is looking solid.
I wonder how long that 999 euro price tag on the SRM pedals lasts if/when the IQ2 SPD pedals come available at 1/3 of that price. Given that the technical details for the SPD version is rather lacking at the moment I suspect IQ2 will focus first on their road pedals.
So many things could be and have been said about iq2 over the last two years but they basically performed much as you originally cautioned us about.
Let’s hope the switch to full scale production is easier than the last 24 months.
Nice to see that it looks as though they may have pulled off the design process let’s just wait to see if the products actually follow.
Thanks Ray, you are someone that I trust when they express their opinion on a cycling subject
One thing that really grinds my gears is scrolling through a ridiculously wordy article only to find it lacking the most important information, the price!
Price is on the site? link to iqsquare.com
link to iqsquare.com €199 for the single-sided.
I certainly wouldn’t want your gears to be grinding Robert. Might I suggest something like this? link to amzn.to
It usually helps smooth out things, physical or otherwise.
Thx for the video.
I think the difference in weight might be the battery.
If yo install it begore weighing, you probably end up with identical weights.
Kind regards
Steven
re spd-sl IQ2 originally tried to do a shimano-style setup when it was the pod between pedal and crank, then with an spd-sl style pedal – shimano said NO in no uncertain terms
DC Rainmaker, are expecting to receive a dual-sided version as well? Thanks.
Eventually, but I haven’t heard of any timeframes.
Thanks for the quick response. I just posted the question to them as well.
Just preordered a right hand single sided set.
Ray’s preview gave me enough confidence that a solid product is coming!
Thanks as usual Ray for all your hard work.
I didn’t read more into this than — looks okay (so far) after two rides.
Hope things turn out well with the in-depth review. Then I might consider a purchase if MTB model is made available and it passes the same tests.
I unfortunately backed this terrible company for their original design with the hopes of using my speedplay pedals. Based on their original Fall delivery timeline, I thought it would fit my Spring/Summer 2019 schedule. Obviously they blew passed that as mentioned by Ray. I have no intention of using their road pedals for both sides and if anyone in US is interested in them please reach out to me.
Ironguy, I am disappointed as you are with a 2x sets type of speculative investment. I will still be surprised when they show up, though I am actually impressed with the company taking cost out (a current pedal design, no titanium, etc.) and reducing their time to market potential by changing design philosophy (using the existing pedal platform likely), and last but not least, actually driving forward to deliver a product. The latter does not always happen.
We have a significant investment in SpeedPlay pedals (I think 5 or 6 pairs between road, track and cx bikes) and Wahoo (2x kickrs, climb, headwind, etc.). I did find some hope for the future in the following article, but I’ve not heard any updates from Wahoo.
link to dcrainmaker.com
Anyone who’s got an update on that would be great! This acquisition was made 9.24.2019, so we’re past the 6 month mark.
Ironguy, how do we swap contact info?
Tom, you can send me an email at sinanram@yahoo.com
I would be interested in a deal with you. What are your terms ?
Having a really tedious install process, being late to market, not good. SRM starting to ship, although overpriced, may be the nail in the coffin for these.
I am not sure I would buy these, even at half price of the srms. They may have a small window to undercut SRM, but they can’t wait a year to start shipping and they need to clean up that install. They need to be screw on and done.
IF Favero comes out with SPD pedals I think this company is in big trouble because Favero has a pretty good brand name now.
Pedal power meters are really hard to get right. Garmin hasn’t done it yet with the vector 3, end cap number 3 is out and it looks like those don’t fix the problems either.
Well they’re one-quarter of the price of the SRMs. That’s a solid deal.
Yeah, at this price the SRM’s shouldn’t even be in the conversation, even if they’re incredibly good and these are only decent. IQ2 will be screwed if Favero release a SPD pedal or find a way to reduce the price of their product as they have a far better reputation, but otherwise I can see these being a success if they manage to scale up their manufacturing without their quality suffering and maintain good QA/QC standards. They’re targeting the large portion of the market that’s very reluctant to spend the $400 on the Assioma Uno’s, so SRM’s $1199 entry is irrelevant. Anybody who’d even entertain the thought of buying the SRM’s wouldn’t care about these things, and trying to compare them is unreasonable considering the price difference is literally the cost of a decent entry level bike.
I’ll be selling mine (I got a pair) when we “finally” get them as pedals are not what I want. I have a pedal sponsor. We bought into a crank arm monitor. Total bait & switch on this level is not acceptable irrespective of the quality or final result.
Regarding Mountain Bike SPD –
I’m assuming these will be MUCH cheaper than the SRM X-Power.
However the pictures of the IQ2 mountain bike pedals appear that they would not work well in mud or ice/snow, where the SRM appear to have more space for shedding mud/ice. Thoughts?
Regarding swapping between bikes – would you feel comfortable having 1 pair of MTB pedals and swapping them between 5 bikes constantly? Would you still grease the threads, or just go in dry, and check the tension before each ride? (I’d give them a quick turn out and in every few weeks to prevent the thread metal from bonding).
As a background on why I’m looking into these – I have 5 bikes with Stages (both road-bikes have Stages L/R). It’s been a complete nightmare of RMAs, un-linking, botched firmware updates, and being unsure if the Right side is making the readings worse than left only, let alone provideing accurate L/R balance which is why I bought them,( after seeing gplama’s videos. ) Honestly I think the resale value of shimano cranks went down a lot after these findings, and it’s probably not worth my time to sell them on ebay and buy normal shimano cranks without power. I’d likely not make much money back.
I guess my only other option would be to find someone to LOAN me a pair of pedal based power meters to see how bad the shimano R8000 right cranks (Stages Gen3) actually read on my particular bikes.
Do they come with cleats? If no, what cleats are compatible?
They don’t…which is good imho as you can choose the cleats you like (different float),
The cleats are look keo compatible (but there also will be a SPD MTB version of the pedals).
Correct, KEO compatible. But no cleats in box.
How do these compare to the FAVERO ASSIOMA pedals based on your review and assessment?
Any news on whether the pedals support oval chainrings? I know the Assioma’s do, think they are the only pedal based PM that does.
Looks promising. We’ll see when they actually deliver…
Hey DC, I was originally thinking the Assioma dual powermeter pedals were the better option, given the review and some posted comments here and elsewhere… but certainly the iQ2 comes in at much more digestible price point… I can imagine (after the wait and see period) this is going to cause other manufacturers to reset their product(s)/price points, no?
Only if IQ2 can ramp up production to meaningful market levels (realistically 1,000+ units a week). Otherwise it won’t impact anything.
The 1K units per week is insightful. I’ve looked for a market analysis, but haven’t found a graph of all the players. Does the 1K have a source or come from your industry insight?
Thank you for responding. The iQ2 is intriguing. Looking forward to your future evaluation.
John – mostly based on industry insight and knowing what the larger players put out on a weekly basis.
There’s very little data out there on actual size of the power meter market in terms of units sold per year. Everyone has their own little tidbits and very few people want to share. So it’s like playing a board game trying to collect all the pieces.
While I have data for most of the majors, the simpler game one has to play in their head is actually the LBS by state game: How many power meters of a particular type in LBS’s in each state sell per week?
For example would Garmin sell 10 Vector 3 power meters across the entire state of NY in a week so that you can relatively easily find them on peoples bikes around you (which is only bikes you see)? No, they’d sell more. And then once you decide on a reasonable number you can roughly multiply by 50 and figure things out… And of course that ignores the rest of the world.
Do you know who produce the Pedal Body?
I love that it says “made in Holland”. Legally, there is no such thing as Holland, it is a used by many interchangeable with The Netherlands which is the proper name of the country. Pretty sure you need to put the country of original on the package for legal reasons. These whole thing smells amateurism.
Holland exists, it’s a part of the Netherlands. There are two provinces, North and South Holland. Together it is called Holland.
Anyone visited Giethoorn?
link to insidehook.com
Im out.
Hi Ray,
thanx for the first video of the iq2 unit. My question is what kind of datas does this unit delivers to a Garmin Edge 1030?
Same as any other Garmin, so it’ll include:
A) Total Power
B) Cadence
C) Torque Effectiveness
D) Pedal Smoothness
Cheers!
Thank you for the video on the iqSquare
@Ray
From your last photo of the pedal is possible to see the ant+ serial of the pedal (1310)?
When using the IQ2 app is it possible to adjust the slope value of the powermeter?
To the best of my knowledge this is currently only possible with SRM and Quarq at the moment and it is very useful feature if you use different powermeters on different bikes as you can then adjust them to match each other.
No slope adjustment here that I’ve seen yet.
To be fair, most of the industry is kinda going away from that. The theory now is: Just make the damn things accurate to begin with.
Essentially the only thing slope adjustments did was compensate inaccurate power meters. However, most companies do allow you to check the calibration using weights. I’m not sure if IQ2 permits that yet.
But in your video at 6.45, is it possible to see “Gain”, and 6.51 after the connection “100%”, isn’t this supposed to be used to align with other powermeter output?
That’s actually different. In this case it’s in theory used to align a left/right foot imbalance (and the usually incorrect assumption those are static). It can also (more appropriately) be used when someone uses two different crank lengths (however, that’s not yet applicable here).
Some people might use that to adjust for accuracy, but honestly, that’s super rare.
Ok, do you know how this is supposed to be used? If you set both the right and left pedal to 100% gain and after some rides discover that your right vs left balance is 48/ 52 are you then supposed to adjust the gain accordingly so you have a higher gain on the right pedal than on the left?
I think it is pretty normal to have a minor difference in power output between legs while riding. Usually the difference is not a static value, but can change between the rides. For that reason it is usually not adjusted.
Thanks for the quick review and we home the co dose will in scaling up soon.
Thanks for that. The price is amazing, so definitely interesting if it holds up to full scrutiny.
A bit of a worry is the low IP rating (IP54). IPx4 is only splash protection, which seems quite low for pedals bound to get hard hits of water from the front tire.
That is exactly what I have been thinking. It ride quite regularly in the rain and pedals that cannot handle that are not suitable for me. For example, vector 3 is rated IPx7.
The old model was rated IP67, IP54 It is a very low value, maybe a too low for this kind of product, infact even the chinese manufacture rated theire powermeter to IPX6.
I written for clarification in the kickstarter campaign, hoping for an answer.
Yeah that definitely won’t do for mountain biking or adventure races. A lot of gravel riding requires stream crossings and heavy rain. Was REALLY looking forward to the IQ2 mountain version after seeing the $1200 US pricetag on the SRM X-Power. After seeing the prototype pictures of the IQ2 SPD mountain pedals, I’m wondering how they would shed mud or ice. Honestly I’ll probably just sell my stages LR road cranks, and L only mountain cranks and go without power for a couple years and revisit when there are more options for mountain pedals.
I wrote their support, and this is the reply I got:
“Thanks for tthe interest in our power meters. Over the past months we’ve tested the power meter in rain and rode through puddles of water on many occasions without any issues.
Furthermore, our power meter comes with a 2-year warranty. In case your power meter is faulty or damaged because of our fault, we will replace your power meter.”
It helps, but I’m not entirely convinced that IPx4 is enough.
Hi is anyone else out in rainmaker land having problems with strava live segments seems very spotty after multiple deleting apps and reinstalling with my garmin edge 520 plus and iPhone took it out for a ride till the last new starred segment lit up and it was totally different to the old screen very confusing, does anyone know what’s going on at strava…… does strava know what’s going on at strava!!!!!!
Great review, I have been watching these for a couple of years, I didn’t take a punt at the time, but very interested after seeing your review. My only question is, will they be compatible with a Hammerhead Karoo. The specs say they should, but neither Hammerhead or IQ want to 100% commit. I was wondering if you still had your test Karoo to see if they work together please while you are continuing your tests.
I’m thinking why are Polar’s latest flagships Vantage M, V and Grit X missing here – link to iqsquare.com , even when those itelf declare them to be fully compatible:
“Sensors
Compatible with all standard BLE heart rate sensors and running cadence and power sensors as well as cycling speed, cadence and power sensors.”
That list appears to be written prior to any of those devices coming out (likely from the Kickstarter days). You’ll notice the Edge 530/830 are missing for example, as is the Fenix 5 Plus & 6 series.
Do you think they should work with the Karoo, nothing indicates that they wont work.
I would expect no issues there.
Thanks, both Hammerhead and IQ2 have said the same, but didn’t want to commit until the pedals were tested with the computer.
If ANT+ is a standard can’t every GPS brand simply say “any ANT+ device is supported”?
Is BLE the problem child?
There’s different profiles, or device types, so one has to support those. For example power meters are different than heart rate sensors, which are different than cadence sensors, which are different than radar sensors, and so on.
Repeat the whole thing for Bluetooth Smart.
So can a manufacturer simply say “this device supports any ANT+ power meter” or do they have to verify every single brand and model power meter in order to claim compatibility?
They verify against the spec. In fact, they can send in a device to ANT+ and they’ll perform verification that it meets the spec (not that it’s accurate, just that it properly conforms to the communication standards).
Most reputable companies do this for almost all products. Sometimes there’s obvious delays in getting things to ANT+ or such, but for the most part almost every company in the space will send things over to get certified: link to thisisant.com
Also note that this doesn’t mean a product supports every feature within a given type. For example, power meters (like Vector or Assioma pedals) can support Cycling Dynamics, which is essentially a subset of the power meter spec now. So a device could get certified on the basics, but not support extended features. The Pioneer power meter is a good example of that. It’s certified on ANT+ for all the basics, but when it comes to cycling dynamics, they don’t do that and instead do their own thing.
For Bluetooth, it’s vaguely the same except almost nobody sends in their devices for sport-purposes to get certified because its crazy expensive. I think Polar did for a few because they were on the board at the time. I haven’t looked in years. Also, the Bluetooth Power Meter spec is a bit of a disaster. Companies make it work now, but it’s mostly because through everyoe’s trial and error on how to make it work. It’s more of an issue for dual-sided devices than single-sided ones.
The overwhelming consensus of the power meter/bike computer industry is always use ANT+ for pairing your power meter. For things like heart rate, it doesn’t matter much – that spec is pretty clean on BT.
So they made the compatible list before they had their final product ready and it’s firmware ready? Sounds problematic…
The reason i’m (pre)worried, is that as Vantage V owner i would like to have IQ2 power meter sensor without need to have separate cycling computer, but when they (IQ2 or Polar) doesn’t declare the tested comtability, i can’t be sure.
Polar has allready proved that, their general feature declaration on Vantage V website is worthless, when their after-sales support narrows the supported power meters list from “all” to the list of 11 devices only:
according to link to trainerroad.com instead of *all BT power meters* they consider compatible only devices listed on link to support.polar.com
That’s why, Ray, if possible, please test it during your full review.
Like any Kickstarter project, a million people ask the question “Is this compatible with my X, Y, and Z?” And so they put together a list, based on devices out at the time, and compatibility. Seems super-reasonable to be honest.
There’s a large pile of things all of us can fault IQ2 for, but this is absolutely not one of those things to give them grief about right now (we could give them grief for not updating the list, but honestly I’d rather them spending time to workout the bugs).
I took the IQ2 pedals off my main road-bike for a bit to test other things for now (I want to see them start shipping out to the masses before I spend a bunch of time deep-diving into testing), but I’ll mount them to something and see if the Vantage V can pair up. Cheers!
Would you be able to link them up to the Karoo at the same time please to test it can support the pedals. I am sure it will be ok.
Yeah don’t give them any publicity until they ship their PMs to backers/people who preordered.
We had no update for the last 2 weeks…They have become quiet again despite their last promising update saying to produce hundreds of PMs last week and thousands from this week on, and this silence happended before (always when something went wrong)
I also hope that GPLama waits until at least 100 backers got their PMs, or at least give the strong recommendation to wait to buy them until they are actually delivered.
So, general question, how can we know comparing 3 or 4 powermeters which is more accurate? Three of them could give us same values and the other 10 watts different. But, we can’t say that this last is not accurate.
We need a calibration certificate from a national accredited laboratory, according to official standars. And this is something that no company (SRM, Stages, Powertap, Pioneer, etc.) provides. How they calibrate that powermeter, and its value of correction, tolerance, deviation, uncertainty. Without that data, we can’t know which is accurate and which is not. Also, five powermeters from same company and same model will never give same results.
I understand the purpose of comparing 3 or 4 of them, but people should not take it into account in terms of good/bad accuracy.
Here’s the problem, your “nationally accredited lab” is most likely going to be testing indoors on a dynamometer or something similar, not outdoors in the real world. Because that’s the whole problem: how do you measure power outdoors in the real world under real conditions? If the lab had some better, more accurate way of doing that that wouldn’t otherwise interfere with the ride, then what you’re suggesting would be feasible. But testing indoors (which as I understand, most power meter companies already do) wouldn’t provide much. Testing several meters at once (all of which claim to measure the same thing) seems a much more practical approach and one more likely to discover flaws with particular meters.
Just got a reply from IQ about Oval Chainring compatibility:
“The iQsquare power meter has not been tested with oval chainrings yet. Because of the oval chainring, the angular speed of the crank is not constant during a revolution and we need to measure micro-cadence to be able to calculate the power with oval chainrings accurately.
We want to support oval chainrings in the future, but we cannot promise it is supported at the time of the release of the first power meters”
I’ve preordered the pedals, but have now just installed absoluteblack oval chainrings on my bike…..unsure whether to cancel my order or not. Would the figures be that different? (I would be comparing them to kickr figures purely for my own training).
If they were close enough I guess that would be ok – I’m not a racer and I suppose as long as they were constant, reliable figures I would at least be able to compare all outside rides together if nothing else.
Hey DC, what are your thoughts on putting this on a spin bike? Do you think these would give you a good result for that? I really want to get that set up with Zwift or something like that.
Thanks,
Ben
First of all wait until they are available…there was no KS update the last weeks…this “no news” thing we had before.
SO who received one… according to last email they are shipping some…
I was definitely in the early backers and still nothing so far 🙂
So the question is a do I buy a dual set of the iQ2 or the Favero Assimoa uno?
Well, Favero Assioma Duo is mostly shipping today (minus any minor stockage issues due to COVID19), and has been validated and tested for years.
IQ2 doesn’t yet have a dual-sided setup ready. It could be soon, but they said they’re going to focus on single-sided first.
It breaks my heart reading the comments from May, after Ray’s review. If only the loyal backers knew they would be in for further delays and more unknown timescales (4/June update on their Kickstarter page….)
Mind you if you are a backer you are used to it by now.
I hope IQ2 deliver the pedals during 2020. Sounds like the lucky single sided road pedal backers may get it, but everyone else…..
I think people may be underestimating points #4/#5 in my opening section of this post. Or the last few lines of the post.
I remain firm those are substantial points that will likely drag on for some time.
Amen. As an early investor in many projects including myself! Nos. 4 & 5 are salient, Ray.
Just took the plunge and pre ordered. Customer service was extremely responsive via EM this morning and mentioned the DUOs if ordered today would ship early July. I’ll take that gamble paying a 200+ premium to get the Assiomas.
Where did you find Favero DUO for 200+ over the IQ2 Double?
200 over MSRP. I should have been clear. Amazon resellers are charging over 800 for them.
Thanks for the review. I am really looking forward to the full in-depth review, and will base my decision whether or not to buy on it. Do you have any indication of when this review will air? Thanks!
I’m kinda waiting to see how things settle on units people are receiving. Mostly because as noted in the intro, I’m not super confident the unit I have will be an exact representation of the units everyone else has.
I’d really like to wait until they’ve shipped a few hundred units, and then get one of those to see how well they work.
Which isn’t a slight on IQ2, every power meter company learns a lot in manufacturing. I think it’s just harder for IQ2 because they’re under far more pressure timeline wise to ship those early units than not.
Yeahhhh…..might cancel my order and go with the Assioma duo’s. I only placed my order 3 weeks ago for IQ², and I already don’t enjoy this rollercoaster. The ONLY reason I even placed an order was because “if you buy now, we’ll be shipping to you in June”.
They don’t even offer any usable information in their updates. But then again, maybe they don’t even know themselves. At this point, unfortunately to say, but Favero is 100% worth the extra couple hundred dollars. I think IQ² needs to work on their optimistic updates and be realistic. Wouldn’t it be better to say a later date and deliver goods before that date, as opposed to saying an earlier date and have only delivered a grand total of 3 units by that date?
Nevermind, favero website says “you’ll be able to compete your purchase in 60 days when we have it in stock”. Well, poop.
Good luck finding them for under 800 for the duos. Price gouging due to lack of availability. Customer service said yesterday morning early July shipping. Mentally I’m preparing (praying) for August
Did you mean that the version in you possession was single side? Because on IQ site the double-leg version is available.
Correct. They haven’t produced any dual sided unit yet (at all).
Data accuracy looks very good for a first time product, but I see potential Achilles heel issues you should cover in your in-depth review.
– bearings design (how robust; can they be serviced?)
– IP54 rating (never hose down your pedals?)
– plastic end cap (damage from hex wrenching, bad cornering, or crash worthiness?)
I guess we’ll know soon enough after the first hundred early backers gets theirs. 🙂
Awesome article about your testing. Thanks.
After hearing almost nothing from IQ2 since my order in May2019 – this makes me feel much better:-)
I also just read your blog about Polar devices using Ant+. Did you test-ride the IQ2 pedals only with your Garmin? Do you know by chance if there will be a potential connection possibility between the pedals and a Polar Vantage V?
Keep on riding!
Regards, Steffen
Thanks for the review. I’ve been exploring power meter pedals for my Peloton as it kind of enrages me that a $2500 bike can’t figure out how to send output real-time to my Fenix 6s. Not sure I want to invest $500+ in Vectors/P2s as someday I should be able to go to my gym again…ha.
Is there any reason to expect these wouldn’t be compatible with a Peloton?
Thanks very much for the ‘initial impressions review’. I appreciate the time that takes. Oh and I love the cycle routes you get to test on.
I’ve never been able to afford/justify a power meter so I’ve stayed with TrainerRoad’s Virtual power which is great indoors but leaves rather on my own outside.
I really like the pricing of these units so I’m very interested to see how these go, particularly how reliable they are once mass production and shipping starts.
http://www.iqsquare.com is currently unavailable.
Hopefully they are updating the site with some good news announcement.
Probably it’s just a technical error on a web server.
Maybe this is very bad news.
Actually, I think somebody forgot to pay the web server bill.
In their lastest (late) update, it turns out they havent even started production yet. The three sets delivered to one backer, DCR and GPLama are all hand made – they even have to change the PCB design. On 29th June they were still claiming that they would deliver to all backers in June. When they missed that it was first week of July. It now turns out they have at least an 11 week lead time as shown in the last update, so the earlier promise dates were either deliberately misleading or down to incompetence (if you have an 11 week lead time and you have one day until your deadline you know you are going to miss it). They have now gone back into the mode where they do not respond (the last facebook post was 9th May). I feel this project has finally failed. I dont mind if I loose my money if they tried valiantly and failed, but the poor comminication is an insult to us backers. I have tried reaching to to Keejan directly to ask him to do some sort of webcast to talk trhough the project, but have had no response.
Phil, perhaps DC can respond to your post? He lives close by IQ2 and given his unwavering commitment to IQ2 think he would be only too happy to respond to your concerns. I am surprised he hasn’t already done so. As DC said at the outset, “Meeting with the founder Keesjan Klant was without question interesting. He’s part Elon Musk and part Dr. Emmett Brown from Back To the Future. I have zero question in my mind he’ll be able to pull this off. He and his team are certainly smart enough – and he’s got a long resume of far greater and more complex engineering projects to work from.
So with zero question on this mind that Keesjan will deliver I am sure he will be able to allay your concerns.
Hi Pedro-
I already addressed this point in the opening section of this post, and the summary (and in the video). Specifically stating I was lacking confidence in whether what I received was considered final, given it had already been changed once. Not to mention, I specifically stated I have no idea (or confidence) in the timelines.
I don’t have any unwavering commitment there. Which, mostly seems to be the opposite of your unwavering commitment to like trolling on the subject over the years, specifically of my initial thoughts on meeting with the CEO. Which, btw, are still valid. He pulled off making a power meter. That’s done. Whether he can scale it remains to be seen. Though, even that seems pretty likely at this point – just not in the timeframes people want.
Which, is also what I’ve said repeatedly about IQ2, and you’ve repeatedly ignored – every time you like to quote me. In fact, that’s actually the next line that you decided to omit from the quote:
“But, like Elon Musk, I suspect he’s underestimating the difficulties in this product and the timelines involved. There’s a long trail of companies that have tried and failed to develop power meters.”
Which was then followed by:
“Like Elon – he’ll get there, and the product will likely be great in the end. But, it probably just won’t happen when you think it will.”
So again, I’ll ask – if you’re gonna quote me, at least don’t do it selectively.
Cheers.
I’m currently seriously considering getting new pedal-based power meters. Coming from the SPD faction I (naturally?) had my eyes on the new SRM X-Power (the beast of habit) but haven’t yet seen any tests or reviews. Apart from that their latest pricing spike of course also pretty much kicked them out of contention for me. That said, the Favero Assioma Duo now appear to be my top choice. As these – as well as the Garmin Vector 3 are now “already” a bit longer on the market I was, however, kinda wondering whether there might already be new things in the pipeline I haven’t yeard heard of. Are you aware of any plans by Garmin or Favero to bring out new generations in the near future?
are these available to gen pop?
should I buy one and what’s their warranty?
It has all gone quiet again and they have stopped answering questions (even on messenger). The promise to ship to all backers by the end of June became July then Q3. It then turns out they haven’t mass produced any (despite an advertising campaign stating mass production and shipping has started). They claim to have hand-shipped 19 single sided PMs (but only one person on kickstarter can confirm they have them). They said they would make 250 the next week, but now won’t confirm if that happened/how many.They also state they need to fine tune the pcb design.
Right now it doesn’t look promising at all. Waiting for the mountain bike version…
Their latest facebook post is MONTHS ago where they hand delivered ONE power meter and stated they are shipping and ‘out in the wild’. Since they they have began ignoring all questions and comments. This is a shame. I finally had to order some new XT pedals after waiting and waiting for these, so that counts me out….I won’t ever consider doing business with IQ2. They seem to be doing a lot of harm to their brand name at this point. If they were to handle tech issues down the road as poorly as what they are doing now, it doesn’t seem worth the risk.
I asked them in May if I could switch to mtb version (so I could by Assioma instead and not end up with two road power meters). They discouraged me from switching and said singles were about to ship and duals were in production. Now I asked them again to switch my order to mtb and they said that it’s not possible because the orders are “almost lined up for production” and ignored further questions. I kind of don’t expect anything anymore.
Latest Kickastarter update yesterday (number 65 – 31st Aug 2020) makes it clear you were given a hand-made power meter and that no power meters have yet been made on the production line. So can we trust production power meters (if it ever happens) will get the same accuracy results?
When you go from hand-made to automated, they’re two different products in my mind. In most cases, they turn out better – though, not 100% of the time (sometimes the shift to automation is incredibly challenging – we saw that with Brim Brothers years ago).
As noted in the intro of this post, I was unclear/ensure just how much what I have reflected what people will get. A core reason why I didn’t call it a review, nor will do I do more testing till I have a final production unit.
Cheers!
How is the battery life on your unit? The people who have got some of the 19 deliveries are reporting only 15 hours (link to facebook.com).
Hi.
IQ2 has stopped all communications and does not refund regular customers.
If you have any direct contact to them maybe can you just check quickly if they are still…there…?
Would be a great help for a lot of people who gave them quite a lot of money.
Thx.
Seems they are not able to refund money for cancellations, which, to me, shows they are short before failing 🙁
According to their web site they still offer full refund for the cancelled pre-orders made through their web shop.
link to iqsquare.com
Hi, Waiting for a dual mtb set, no news since 23.7 where they said september, no answers in messenger nor by email. I hesitate on refund but september is not finished and nothing beat their offer yet : fresh news anyone ?
I suggest you have a look at the kickstarter pages (link to kickstarter.com) or their facebook page – but be aware their posts have pretty much stopped. There is also a backers and customers group (link to facebook.com) where we are sharing any information we get.
We have two confirmed deliveries and it seems the battey only lasts 15 hours. In their last post they confrimed they hadn’t actually started any mass production and the 19 they had hand delivered were all hand made. A number of customers have had paypal refunds bounce. Thye stated single sided road first, then dual then MTB – so far they haven’t made anything but the 19 single sided and no evidence of a working MTB prototype.
Thanks Phil, went to the fb group, let see till end september
I anyone thinks buying this:
It’s 09/2020 and IQ2 has seized all communication, nothing is being delivered.
It’s a fraud.
One kickstarter backer has been doing some digging and visited the IQ2 office (link to facebook.com) and found out they have set up another company and tried to start kickstarter funding (link to kickstarter.com). Very concerned they are trying to start a new venture whilst this one is failing and they are not even talking to us.
Thx mate, I am already in the FB group.
Things are getting ugly it seems..
I’ve found a more recent update.
Dating 31st Aug.
Cryptic!
link to kickstarter.com
That’s a month old – nothing since then so far.
link to youtu.be
This is a video of their current manufacturing process from the latest kickstarter update (link to kickstarter.com). When they missed the last dedline they kicked it 3 months fdown the road, that three months is up and they have done nothing except stop anwering questions or responding to customer (oh and tried to satrt a new kickstarter campaign – see q-reel).
Dear DC,
If I understand you review correctly you used also the POLAR Grit X to pair with the IQ square pedals?
I’m trying to contact IQ square customer service the check if the “new” polar devices (Vantage M,V, Grit X,..) are compatible with these pedals, but they only send me the link to their website. For Polar they only mention V800, V460, v600).
Thanks for your confirmation.
Hi Steven,
I’m sorry for your problem and I’m sorry but I can’t help you, but I have to highlight
that someone is getting their own pedals though 🙂
Can I ask when you got it and where you live?
Only to understand if IQ2 is doing something or the pedals are from the old batch from a month ago or so.
Thanks and good luck.
For comments on the listed devices, see this section of comments here: link to dcrainmaker.com
Greetings. I would like to know if the product is compatible with the Brayton 60T. Thanks.
Nobody knows as the product is not in production.
The product is non-existent, it’s a fraud.
Stay away.
By the way… i just got a sponsored FB ad… on IQ2 power meter… BEWARE.
I believe this is a complete scam (very random website, “company in china” with very little details… ) and not related to the pedal power meter on this page. Oh, and its “only” 35 EUR (discounted from from 106 EUR) + shipping + taxes and duties.
Yeah, there was a round of similiar fake Instagram/FB ads about a year ago. For fun I actually bought one – curious if perhaps IQ2 was offloading discarded prototypes to China to get rid of.
Nope, I just got a non-functional piece of garbage cadence sensor in the mail a few months later.
what about this link to bestoutletshops.com ? Is it a scam as well, right? can anyone confirm?
Yes, all scams.
Unless you’re buying from IQ2 directly, it’s gonna be a scam at this point.
Now, buying from IQ2 doesn’t guarantee you anything either apparently – but, it does at least guarantee you that it’s not a fake IQ2.
You better don’t place any preorder at their webshop. DON’T TRUST THIS SHADY COMPANY!
After order cancellation they told me, refund could take up to 30 days. nothing happened for 60 days now. Several times i requested their support, sometimes they replied (will be forwarded to accounting, sorry), sometimes they don’t even reply. Legal steps have to be taken now to get my money back!
I was not a kickstarter backer, i ordered in their webshop.
Filthy company!
Hello, you really should pull this article. The company is ripping off customers left and right. There are now Facebook groups created with people posting strategies on how to get refunds since no product is ever shipped…. Only empty promises. Your good article about them only perpetuates this problem. If you need proof, contact me.
I’m confused. More than four months ago I appended to the start of the article a long warning that I wouldn’t trust their timelines.
Did you not read that? Were these words unclear: “At this juncture, there’s little reason to believe IQ2’s timelines.”
Hey Ray, well before 4 months ago, you pointed out at the beginning of the venture the risk in what the company was trying to do with regards to product and timelines. That has been something you’ve constantly monitored on our behalf. Thank you for the realistic expectations.
John
Sometimes Latin is helpful.
Caveat emptor.
I see that they are taking pre-orders for a dual sided MTB set (on sale, even) and am considering them for a gravl bike. Have you heard anything about these and/or have a chance to test them?
If I did get order and actually get them, is there any issue with me being able to use them even if the company folds? In other words, is anything dependent on their servers or, once installed/paired, is it just transmitting data from the pedals to my head unit?
Given the considerably lower price compared to the SRM X-Power or Favero/SPD hack and the promising (albeit limited) findings from your test of the single sided road version, it may be a risk worth taking if their continued use doesn’t depend on the company being around.
I guess at this point I just wouldn’t order anything until we see them ship meaningful quantites of power meters, notably also including an SPD variant.
To date, we’ve only seen them trickle out a handful of Look Keo style pedals to a few people, but none SPD.
For what it is worth, I made an order way back in December 2018 for the original IQ2 powermeter as a dual set and later changed that order to the dual version of their SPD version as they had to change their design and solution due to consistency problems. As they still have no expected release date, further information regarding their SPD version and are not able to produce either valid information or road powermeters to a lot of backers I decided to cancel my order and claim my refund according to the terms of agreement on their website. After struggling to get my refund back for almost 3 months after their deadline according to the terms I finally received my refund. In the meantime I have successfully ordered a dual pair of the Favero Assioma road pedals and converted them to SPD/Xpedo ones and used them on my cross bike for gravel and they just work.
Ray – It might be worth putting a health warning right at the start of the ariticle. I understand I took a risk with kcikstarter but web customers are struggling to get refunds and IQ2 are not communicating. Even if I do eventually get something (unlikely) I think the customer service is going to be terrible.
There is a warning at the start of the article. It’s been there for months.
Sorry Yes – very clear!
I just wanted to add to the list of complaints concerning cancellations not being refunded by IQsquare. I would encourage people to continue to publicly state their complaints. I also encourage individuals to file complaints with the Dutch agencies:
link to consuwijzer.nl
link to english.rvo.nl
Here is a sample complaint text filed:
This complaint concerns IQsquare B.V.’s failure to refund a cancelled purchase in the amount of 349 € pursuant to their terms of service.
On 27 April 2020, I preordered a product “MTB Dual Set” for 349 € under order number EN1032. IQsquare B.V.’s terms of service state:
6. Cancellation. You […] may cancel this reservation […] at any time [and] you will obtain a refund of the purchase price without interest. Cancelling can only be done by sending an email to info@iqsquare.com.
I submitted a cancellation request on 8 Dec 2020, which IQsquare confirmed. IQsquare initially confirmed via email it would process the refund and there were approximately 10 email exchanges regarding the refund processing.
Thereafter IQsquare became silent to my request to refund and will not refund the 349 €. I now seek formal action be taken against IQsquare by your agency to facilitate my refund.
I ordered from their website NOT knowing it was. a start up Their website looks like a normal retail site. I paid and they quickly took my money in USD. Then they sent out the emails saying they were behind and to expect soon yadda yadda >So i emailed and said i didnt want to wait that long and they tried to talk me out. Then they said they would refund within 1 to 30 days (wth) So its been 5 weeks NO refund and now they wont even answer me back. This place is a SCAM. I have my creidt card company trying to help me . next contact is US consultate
link to hilltopup.com
What is this? Something new from IQ2?
Same-same: link to dcrainmaker.com
My brother ordered from their official webpage https://www.iqsquare.com for 329€!
Same same. Not for 35$ from a strange looking page …
This is THEM!
link to kickstarter.com
Next PM on Kickstarter.. I am not sure if I am brave enought after the iq2 fiasco 😉 Any insides on that one?
There should be a huge disclaimer on top of this review making clear that so far nobody has either received a unit or got their money back! This is clearly a SCAM.
This review still says “Still – I’m optimistic for where the company is going here”.
My brother ordered 17/10/2019, and according to their shop they should have reimbursed automatically after one year not shipping the order.
Contacting them after _2_ years leads to an automatic email claiming that they will need 30 days to send the money, and there is nothing after waiting 2 more months. They are still taking orders, and are clearly in violation with the law!
Umm, there literally is a huge disclaimer at the top of this post. It’s been there for a year now. C’mon folks, read.
I’m happy to add another line noting that as of Oct 2021, still nothing. But frankly, that’s not going to fix your order, as you ordered a year before this post, or two years ago.
Is IQsquare a scam Company??? They haven’t reimbursed me since March 2021 and they don’t answer the mail. Are they bankrupt already or at the Bahamas….?
Yes.
They pretended to still be active for a year or more with fake employees and auto generated answers, but even that’s over now.
This FB group has answers for you
link to facebook.com
It’s been well document that they are a SCAM. Not talking about the backers, but about orders from their official web store. They claimed that automatic refund will happen within a year if not delivery happens, but after 2 years still did not do so. They sent apparently deceiving replies at the beginning, and then claimed that refund will take place after 30 days. Nothing happened after that.
I am very surprised about the justice system in the Netherlands. There had been plenty complaints filed, but no reaction. The same guys now start a new thing, same pattern. EV charging for a fraction of the price, and you should back them on kick starter, or buy on a web store that does not even have an official legal notice or company information. This is not even legal in the European union!
link to youtu.be
So your concerns were not unjustified….
link to youtube.com
Nice! Finally!
This has been going on for such a long time, and the justice system in NL obviously ignored it, despite all the complaints that had been filed.
I do hope that the people behind this SCAM will never be back in business.
Again: this is not about the Indigogo funding SCAM, but the orders they took as a company directly on a webpage, claiming to refund within a year if they can’t deliver…
Hi Guys,
Any news from that?
I contacted them but no answer. The site is still there.
I am an early backers from march 2018.
Just wondering if my money is gone.
No changes.
Even notifying the dutch authorities did not change anything.
Your money is most definitely gone. And it’s incredibly unlikely you’ll ever get any power meter from IQ2, especially in this current investor climate where them finding money is almost non-existent. Though frankly, they couldn’t do that at the peak of everywhere-cash a few years ago, so, no reason they would now.
This is some unbelievable s***. They’re still advertising. Came across Instagram today.
IQ square is a scammer, powermeters paid in May 2020 and never received.
You should not refer suppliers who do not fulfill the order or return the money.
Kickstarter update stating they are yet again closer.
In the meantime, Boos pays a visit to Keesjan Klant’s house: link to youtube.com
Order in 12/2022 delivery 01/22/2023. Installed and tested. 🙂
pictures, video?
What? Ordered mine in 2019…lucky!
Yes can we have some pictures please.
I was an early backer and I’ve had nothing from them.
I don’t buy this unless you reveal a real identity and show a proof
Video or it didn’t happen
Hi, waiting for some proof, you should have!
Yes. I am extremely sure that happened.
😀
Picture. Installed in the trainer.
So, I made a YouTube video regarding iQ2 about 2 years ago (iQsquare Power Meter: a power meter disaster thus far). I’ve been following this for quite some time.
I placed an order a few weeks ago (out of curiosity) because the website said “in stock. Order before noon for same day shipping”.
My confirmation email sang a different tune, however. It said “thank you for your PRE-ORDER”. I promptly emailed them sharing my displeasure for their trickery and trying to lie to the consumer.
They tried to plead with me to keep my order, I said no. Refund now. They reassured me twice that it was being refunded.
Somehow, about 2 weeks later, a pair of iQ2 pedals show up to my house.
I’ve been using GARMIN RALLY RK200 pedals, and just today decided to try out the iQ2 pedals.
ABSOLUTE JUNK!!
My pedals are apparently only reading one side and not doubling the power. I was hammering uphill, into a headwind at 20mph and they said 155w when I knew damn well I was doing over 300w.
Watched the installation video again, and apparently my pedals are a defect pair as mine won’t do the whole “align the logo facing upwards with the tool and then tighten with the Allen, holding the iq2 logo upwards the whole time”. The “coat” part of the pedal that has the logo does not spin freely from the rest of the axle. So how can I use the provided tool to hold that part still while tightening the axle to 20-25nm.
These are junk pedals. Stay away.
And also a junk company. Lying to consumers for over 5 years.
You need to loosen the screw and then set the logo up and tighten it.
I was able to calibrate the pedal. A difference of about 2W to ELITE XR.
They still have to work on them. After mounting according to the instructions, the difference between the elite directo XR-T is about 20W. I don’t know if I’m doing everything right. I will communicate with the IQ2 service.
Ray, now that they are actually shipping, will you order one and test the actual production model?
They are not actually shipping! There is one guy claiming he got them and hundreds, if not thousands that got scammed!
It looks like they are. I’m in the Facebook group, and others are posting there with photos as well. It sounds like a limited run has been produced and they are filling new orders before backers. I don’t have a dog in the fight – just wondering if there will be a full review on the pedals now that they are, even if scarce, out in the wild now.
I’ve been watching the progress, also via the FB Backers page posts.
I’m certainly not opposed to buying a set, but I’d like to wait till the March batch or so starts going out, so I know whatever that has their most recent “production-level” changes. I’m also perplexed why it looks like different people are getting different pedals (some have white inset pieces, others don’t). Which would imply rather different batch levels.
Also once that happens, I’ll likely buy them under some random friend name elsewhere here in the Netherlands.
All that said, if someone in the Amsterdam area gets ones and wants me to do a quick spot test by swinging past the DCR Studio, I’m happy to do so. Most pedals though need about 1-2 rides to ‘bed’ in, so it’d probably be a few days of rides. Anything on these pre-March ones would be heavily caveated that I don’t believe these are considered final units (good or bad) indicative of future unit quality (again, good or bad).
you can buy different color inlays, that’s why they look different I think
We should have known Ray was already on the case! :-). When things settle out, I’ll look forward to hearing your report. Like many, I didn’t expect these to ever see the light of day. If they truly are accurate and reliable, and the price point holds, this could really shake up the market. Only time (and testing) will tell though. Thanks Ray, staying tuned!
They don’t deserve any positive publicity unless all backer and the buyers who bought from the webpage YEARS AGO have received their goods.
Otherwise this would be ridiculous!
If the website is to be believed, as of May 2023 it looks like these are shipping. I’m curious if anyone has purchased them recently and what the experience has been like?
Hello! I’m from Canada and I purchased them last week. I told myself could always dispute the charge with Mastercard in the worst case. I received them 3 days later.
For now, I’m pretty sure I’m not installing them correctly because my power is really off. I’m doing a third install. The representative in Canada (Raye Ackerman) gave a responsive answer during the holiday weekend.
I’ll keep you posted
Hi Patrice,
Here is Benoit, from Montreal. Could you please share Raye’s coordinates. I am an early backers from 5yrs ago and didn’t receive anything. I’d like to speed up things a little 🙂
Thanks
Benoit
There is a Facebook group for the pedals if you want more up to date info. In summary, backers like us are not getting pedals until web sales create enough income. We are forever screwed!
I have an old teammate that received pedals from the website & had to return them because of problems with readings. He received a new pair & is still evaluating them.
I am not somebody who usually complains, but I make the exception in this case. Purchased the Single Sided IQ2 Power Meter Pedals and they failed within the first month. That of course was disappointing but my real issue is the complete lack of support by the supplier despite the Return/Replace policy on their website. Never responded to any of the 4 emails over the last 3 weeks, can you say “Ghosted”. I purchased them in through http://WWW.PowerMeterPedals.com; don’t if you want support.
I’m still waiting for mine from over 2 years mate
Be patient my friend. I paid hundreds many years ago (5 or 6, maybe be, don’t remember) to back their startup. They didn’t even plan to make a pedal back then, but a device between the pedal and the crank….
I do still ask questions some from time to time, never get a respond…
My advise: Figure you lost your money, but if you do receive something, assume Santa Claus exists for real.
I bought in 2020 and I’m still waiting. I requested a refund and neither. More than 3 years later I don’t have power meters no money.
I am one of the thousands who ‘backed’ this project. Over 5 years ago I paid for a pair of double sided pedals and I am still waiting.
Now the pedals developed and manufactured using the millions of dollars of funding from backers like me are being sold to new customers rather than being delivered to the backers as originally promised. The team behind IQ2 refuse to explain what they’re doing, their communication throughout has been distainful to the people who trusted them by funding them with millions of dollars.
They did not even deliver or pay back to the people who officially bought via their webstore. This had nothing to do with backing going wrong but with a clear SCAM and the Dutch authorities ignoring the consumer rights!