Sram Quarq Quatro MTB

A very welcome new addition to the power meter market in the last month or so has been the Sram Quarq Quatro MTB power meter. Up until now for the MTB crew to be able to really quantify training load and fine tune the real demands of racing on the MTB it was a case of a Power Tap rear hub or the very expensive SRM. Both units worked fine, but the Power Tap was a little heavy and for races most of my clients prefered to use their lightweight wheel set and save nearly 400g’s. The SRM although a fantastic crank based power meter, cost and the not so user-friendly battery replacement issues put it out of the range of most athletes wanting to really dial their training and racing on the MTB.

The new Quatro follows a very similar design to that of the road based Quarq, but, with some subtle differences. The battery case has been beefed up and made from aluminium which takes out the possibility of smashing the plastic case on a rock and losing the cover and therefore the battery. The whole spider set up is more compact to allow for the smaller chainrings and it all looks more robust and solid. This more industrial look and feel doesn’t come with a weight penalty, however, as the cranks are only 50g or so more than the standard XO units making running a power meter in races a no brainer now.

Sram Quarq Quatro MTB

The set up of the Quatro could not be easier, as with most crank based power meters it is simply a case of plug and play these days with ANT+ wireless technology there is no messing about with fiddly cables and wires it is just so easy. A cadence magnet needs to be attached to the bike to activate the reed switches on the power meter and allow for the cadence to be measured. In the case of the Quatro, Sram/Quarq have given the user multiple options for cadence sensor placement to allow for multiple BB configurations. I simple GXP BB has a cup washer with magnet attached that is simply placed on the BB cup threads and screwed onto the drive side of the bike, With the magnet placed facing backward to avoid shipping a chain into it, set up could not be easier. The Quatro also comes with some placement putty for BB30 or press fit BB’s and it is again a simple case of mixing the two-part adhesive putty together and placing just behind the BB shell.

Cadence sensor ring

Cadence sensor ring

Once the magnet has been set up it really is just a case of putting the cranks on and syncing it in with the head unit of your choice. I use my Quarqs with a Garmin 500 and they work really well. I have all 3 bikes Road, Time Trial and MTB all set up as different bikes on the head unit as each power meter has a different code to eliminate picking up power from another device. I will not go into detail about the head unit set up because there are other great sites out there to help with this. If you are interested try the following for detailed Garmin head unit set up info.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2009/11/garmin-edge-500-in-depth-review.html

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2008/12/garmin-edge-705-review.html

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/08/garmin-edge-800-in-depth-first-look.html

http://www.quarq.com/i/garmin_quick_menu.pdf

With the Quatro on the bike there is nothing more to do than get out there and start training. The data from races and training on the MTB will enlighten you as a rider to the real demands of the discipline. Simply going out on the road bike for km’s simply doesn’t target the specific demands of riding the MTB and after your first quadrant analysis of a MTB race compared to a road race you will be shocked;o)

They might still be an investment, but, compared to a uber light rig they are still very good value and I would say over time as an athlete you will get more reward from using power than any new piece of bike kit you could think of.

See you on the trails soon

Fenz