Stages Cycling Lays Off Entire Workforce

[Karvalo]

Shimano won't buy them. Market was very different for PMs when they bought Pioneer (to block FSA or others from acquiring them). If they buy them now then it shows that upper management and executives are completely detached from reality and thinking 3 or 4 years behind - also wouldn't be a surprise.

I suppose Giant is really the only potential bidder - for a token sum. Given their collab re: head units. But maybe they just take the L.

Tough to see why Giant wouldnt partner up with one of the many solvent and local Chinese PM OEMs instead. Giant branded XCadey/Sigeyi/Magene etc. spiders sounds like much better synergy. Theyd be partnering up rather than swooping in as a savior.

Still sucks, hope everyone at Stages lands on their feet.

Giant acquired Stages
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industr ... -shut-down

Ha, so the reason Giant would want to take on stages (if they do) is because they already make the powermeters for them. No need for them to put their name on anyone else's product.

[TheBelgian]

Ha, so the reason Giant would want to take on stages (if they do) is because they already make the powermeters for them. No need for them to put their name on anyone else's product.

I think it's more a case of Stages using Giant's manufacturing (like some other bike brands, e.g. Scott) for their products (or some of them), and Stages not paying the bills.

[TobinHatesYou]

Ha, so the reason Giant would want to take on stages (if they do) is because they already make the powermeters for them. No need for them to put their name on anyone else's product.

I think it's more a case of Stages using Giant's manufacturing (like some other bike brands, e.g. Scott) for their products (or some of them), and Stages not paying the bills.

Stages did all the assembly in-house for individual crankarms. I'm guessing Giant was involved in making all the spinbikes and the SB20 since they do have significant expertise in manufacturing metal bike frames.

[AJS914]

I have a Stages gen 2 Campagnolo (11 spd Chorus arm). At times it was flakey, super annoying, with many dropouts and then at other times just perfect. What I eventually found out was using name brand, retail pack Duracells or Energizers worked way better than cheap, oem, 20 packs of CR2023s off of Amazon. Even though the cheap batterys "work" initially, I think the Stages needs a more consistent voltage or something to be reliable. The more expensive retail batteries seem to last a lot longer so it seems to be a wash in cost.

Maybe they improved power/voltage in the gen 3?

I never had any of the water intrustion issues which seems to have been one of the chief causes of problems with the gen 2s.

[208]

Their current power meter is shit and stages is not shit. They could buy stages and use it. Pretty straightforward.

Crank-based solutions are poor because the forces seen by the strain gauges are not in a single plane. With a spider-based power meter the strain gauges are positioned roughly in the same plane as the chainline. With pedals, designs like the Garmin Rally are better than pod-based designs because the strain gauges are directly under-foot. With spindle-based power meters, the spindle is isolated from non-rotational forces because it is braced by the bottom-bracket.

Shimano definitely shouldn’t just take the existing Stages product and use it as is with a little rebranding. They should do spiders and pedals like everyone else.

I don't disagree with you, when I bought my assiomas, for reasons you state, among others, are why I went with pedal instead of crank.

But it doesn't change the fact that shimano's current pm is shit, stages pm is not shit, they could buy it and use it and offer a not shit pm.

[TobinHatesYou]

Their current power meter is shit and stages is not shit. They could buy stages and use it. Pretty straightforward.

Crank-based solutions are poor because the forces seen by the strain gauges are not in a single plane. With a spider-based power meter the strain gauges are positioned roughly in the same plane as the chainline. With pedals, designs like the Garmin Rally are better than pod-based designs because the strain gauges are directly under-foot. With spindle-based power meters, the spindle is isolated from non-rotational forces because it is braced by the bottom-bracket.

Shimano definitely shouldn’t just take the existing Stages product and use it as is with a little rebranding. They should do spiders and pedals like everyone else.

I don't disagree with you, when I bought my assiomas, for reasons you state, among others, are why I went with pedal instead of crank.

But it doesn't change the fact that shimano's current pm is shit, stages pm is not shit, they could buy it and use it and offer a not shit pm.

I don’t think you get it. Crank-based PMs are shit, Stages included. Stages’s power meter accuracy is affected by battery voltage and imperfect pedaling styles. Stages might have some IP worth vulturing, but Shimano absolutely should not do what you’re suggesting.

[TheBelgian]

Crank-based PMs are shit, Stages included.

And you did all the tests to prove it I presume?

[TobinHatesYou]

Crank-based PMs are shit, Stages included.

And you did all the tests to prove it I presume?

I do have quite a few, and for shits and giggles I have a Verve IC2 eventually coming my way. This isn’t about testing though, but the fact that it’s a horrible location to derive power from.

[TheBelgian]

Maybe you should collaborate with DC Rainmaker then ....

[ronanmclaughlin]

https://escapecollective.com/stages-cyc ... workforce/

Stages Cycling lays off entire workforce

The well-known power meter and indoor bike company has seemingly ceased operations. Stages Cycling provides power data during training rides and races.

by Ronan Mc Laughlin 23.04.2024

[…]

@calicyclist maybe you are indeed Ronan Mc Laughlin. Otherwise the decent thing would be to delete the full quote of the article.

Copy/pasting copyrighted content isn’t ok. And in my opionion even more so as Escape Collective are trying to create an ad-free quality cycling outlet.

I don't believe @calicyclist is me

Joking aside, I/we appreciate the support from you and others here

[joesch]

Too bad to see them go, they seemed to be the first PM vendor to democratise the market.
The product itself was okay. I have used several Stages PMs over time - from a 2014 Dura-Ace Gen1 to a 2021 Ultegra Gen3 LR and several iterations in between on different bikes (road, cyclocross, MTB). Overall their accuracy has improved over time, the first generations were rubbish (which may be an inherent flaw of single sided PMs). But even with Gen3 I saw some strange readings compared to my Tacx Neo and Garmin Rally.

On a more positive note, the Stages service in Germany/Europe was first class; probably the most responsive and helpful service I have experienced in cycling technology in recent years. Two or three of my previous Stages had drowned and they replaced them quickly with no questions asked.

As for Shimano, I think it would help them with a low-cost entry-level offering if they simply adopted the existing solution to make powermeters a standard feature of their range. However, if they were to act like when they acquired Pioneer and screwed up a solid product - please, no
Other than mass democratisation of Powermeters by a major brand, I unfortunately see little value in the PM side of the stage business. It is already a crowded market with many vendors working together.

[KalleWirsch]

Let´s talk some tech.
I own a Stages powermeter at a Shimano Ultegra Crank. You need the Stages App for setup and config. I wanted to calibrate it again after a bettery swap, but the iphone App can´t connect to the powermeter anymore.
Does the app need a server? Is this cloud or is the app running on premise on my iPhone?
In other words: Is the functionality still given to use the app atfer ther shutdown of the business?
Can you calibrate your powermeters still?

Thanks!

[BernieMoves]

I calibrated my powermeter yesterday via my Garmin watch. However, I am also concerned about settings only available through the app (Gyroscope, linking L/R sides). It's not unheard of for apps to disappear from the app store/stop working after a few iterations of the phone OS/etc.

[KalleWirsch]

Oh, good point. Can you calibrate it with a Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt (first gen) without the Stages App?

[BernieMoves]

I am sorry, I have no idea. I connected it to my Garmin Fenix and now every time I start a cycling activity it automatically connects and prompts me to calibrate.

Interesting take by DC Rainmaker by the way: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2024/04/sta ... ssier.html

I did not know that Stages was having problems. It certainly didn't show when I contacted European customer support. Had I known I would probably have waited for the release of the 4iiii dual sided power meter with Apple FindMy that happened a few weeks back.