Not only did my old crank and chainrings come back to me (complete with a simple spider, giving me a spare crankset) but at the bottom of the box was a brand new, untouched, SRAM Red Exogram Quarq. Brand. New. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n\tI had talked with Quarq's techs and they had explained to me the issue with the Saturn model: the electronics pod was the weak point (which I knew, but he explained why.) The electronics pod on the Saturn is external to the spider which houses the strain gauges and is connected by a 12 pin connector and should be<\/em> waterproof. In most cases it is. By some stroke of horrible luck, I kept having water permeate the pod, probably by the junction between the spider and pod. This would damage the unit and render it a boat anchor (a non-waterproof one.)<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n\tThe new Mercury model (which the Red, Elisa, Riken, Specialized and Cannondale units are built upon) is completely sealed, with all the electronics contained within the spider. This means there are far fewer places for moisture to penetrate the electronics and disrupt things. Accordingly, since the Cannondale and Specialized units have been out for quite some time, there's been excellent reliability with the Mercury platform, meaning these conversations and return shipments (as touching as they may be) should be a thing of the past.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n\tThe Verdict<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n\t[pullquote]<\/span><\/span><\/span>In the end, they made sure all was right in my world, and that's worth every penny.[\/pullquote]<\/span>I'm optimistic with this new resolution to my ongoing Quarq problem. The first test ride on the new Exogram model even saw me caught in some light sprinkles as I got close to home. While my blood pressure rose, my eyes began to bug out of my head and I kept waiting to see the dreaded "- -" under my power display, but it never wavered. Constant, solid power readings from the moment I clicked into the pedals to the time I turned off my Garmin. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n\tI have to admit, prior to seeing how Quarq would take care of this situation, I was wavering in my support of them (which is understandable after three of the same issue.) However, their customer service really is top notch. I'd even go so far as to say one of the pinnacles of the cycling industry. Alex went to bat for me and hit a grand slam like no other, and reaffirmed that when you buy a power meter from Quarq, they WILL<\/strong><\/em> (bold and italicized for extra emphasis) support that purchase to the absolute end. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n\tSo, if you're in the market for a power meter, you know exactly where to go and why. I can wholeheartedly recommend Quarq to anyone who's in the market for a power measuring device, and I'll be glad to support and promote a company that stands behind their products and supports their end users the way Quarq does.<\/span> In the end, they made sure all was right in my world, and that's worth every penny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contacting Quarq has always been a simple affair: they actually have human beings to talk to as opposed to a computer, and I love that. Alex, the service tech that I spoke to was immediately apologetic; in fact, his first words upon hearing “this is the third time” was essentially “oh no, you’ve got to be kidding me?” I give him the utmost credit. He was as helpful as he could be over the phone, talking down a jittery racer on the eve of a huge “A” priority race, standing in front of another deceased power meter, seething with anti-electronics rage, struggling to not blow a gasket and take a sledgehammer to said (dead) Cinqo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,82,25],"tags":[177,163,171],"yst_prominent_words":[2427,2414,2420,2417,2421,2418,2430,2422,2426,2412,2424,2413,2415,2429,2423,2416,2428,2425,2411,2419],"wppr_data":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10938,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770\/revisions\/10938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2770"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}