SRAM Red Quarq BB30 Power Meter

SRAM Red Quarq BB30 Power Meter

SRAM’s purchase of Quarq several years ago meant even greater integration of Quarq and SRAM technology. This Red Quarq Power Meter is the apogee of the partnership.

It mates SRAM’s Exogram crankarms with an Elsa-styled strain-gauge equipped spider and a bolt pattern optimized for SRAM’s Red chainrings. The meter is sold as a chassis only, meaning it comes with spider, arms, and thru-axle.

While SRAM is rightly proud of their hollow Exogram arms, the highlight here is the Quarq spider. There are strain-gauges, an accelerometer, and a transmitter embedded in it. The battery is a 2032 coin cell and is user-replaceable via the “Q” hand-secured cover on the outside of the spider. It broadcasts an ANT+ signal that most modern head units can read, and it doesn’t need a magnet fixed to the bike to turn on. The reading is extremely accurate. It’s +/- 1.5%, among the best in the business, and thanks to their new 10k technology, the meter has virtually eliminated the effects of temperature on accuracy or consistency. The signal also can give your head unit a left-right pedal balance number, helping you get the most out of your pedal strokes.

Almost unique to SRAM is the five-arm hidden bolt design of the chainrings. As a result, you’re best served by mating SRAM Red rings to this crank-the stiffness, ramps, pins, and cuts on the rings are designed to mate perfectly with a SRAM chain and SRAM Yaw front derailleur. And you can mate any small to any big ring and still get accurate readings. And if you prefer a single-ring setup, you can do that as well. SRAM’s X-SYNC chainrings are offset and come with the spacers you need to give you power for your 1x bike.

The spider can be with either 110mm or 130mm bolt circle diameter, the arms go as short as 162.5mm and as long as 177.5mm. And the thru-axle can be either a GXP, the traditional SRAM bottom bracket spindle, or a BB30. The GXP mounts to English- or Italian-threaded GXP bottom brackets or with adapters to most bottom bracket standards (BB30, PF30, BBright, BB86, BB386EVO, BB47). The BB30 spindle works with BB30 and PF30.

The SRAM Red Quarq Powermeter allows for Quarq’s inimitable spider to be mated to SRAM’s Red chainrings and X-SYNC chainring.