Originally Posted by
RChung
People often say that one advantage of pedals is that they're easily swapped between bikes but users often end up buying several units for different bikes anyway. I used to swap my PT wheel between bikes (and that took just seconds) but then I ended up buying another PT.
Originally Posted by
bbbean
Lots of folks make the argument that pedal based are easier to swap from bike to bike, but given the relatively low cost of power meters, I simply have a crank arm PM on each of my bikes. A small investment on a bike I'll ride for 5-10 (maybe more) years saves a lot of swapping pedals from bike to bike. I really don't want to swap pedals when I swap bikes. I want to hop on and go.
Originally Posted by
Mtracer
Several people have commented on the ability to move pedal based meters between bikes, yet many don't do that. That is certainly true in my case. Though I did move them some when I had my first and only set. But I have also changed cranks on all of my bikes. If I had crank-based meters, that would have been a big deal. With the pedal based, it's a non-issue.
One potential feature of pedal based PMs is that they are handy for cross-checking various other PMs you may be using on your bikes. For example I had a single-sided 4iiii PM on one bike, a SRAM Quarq on another and the Power measurement from my Kickr Smart Bike. If I had PM pedals I could fit them on all 3 bikes to see how their PMs compared in parallel. I notice DC Rainmaker often does this kind of thing when reviewing PMs.
Also, if you replace your bike, pedal PMs are easy to move onto the new bike and guaranteed to be compatible, even if the cranks are different.