ThinkRider PP5 Spider Power Meter: Skip — Sprint-Collapse Defect

The ThinkRider PP5 is a sub-$100 spider-based power meter from Chinese brand Chinese brand ThinkRider. It uses the Easton Cinch crank interface, ships with 110 BCD 4-bolt chainring compatibility, and pairs over both ANT+ and Bluetooth. The headline spec on the box is "±1% accuracy up to 2800W, 300h battery, IPX7 sealed" — a spec sheet that, on paper, sits above most pedals in the sub-$300 segment. The street price, at AUD 136 to import (roughly USD $90-100), is well below anything from Favero, Garmin, Magene, or Quarq.

Our initial round of testing was the standard JoyVelo validation protocol: warm-up, 200W steady-state baseline, repeated sprint efforts above 1000W, return to 200W, repeat. The PP5 looked promising in the first 5 minutes — low-power accuracy was within 2W of the Assioma pedal reference, and the cadence signal was clean at typical riding cadences. After the first sprint, the data started lying. After the second sprint, the data was unusable. We paused the test, flagged the failure mode, and waited for a firmware response from ThinkRider.

Two months later, ThinkRider shipped firmware 1.86 with release notes citing "optimised user experience and known-issue fixes" — referring to the same 1.82 update that had already targeted "power anomaly" issues. We acquired a second PP5 unit from a viewer, flashed 1.86, and ran the protocol again. The failure mode reproduced. ThinkRider subsequently confirmed in writing that the issue is hardware-level and will be addressed in a next-generation product, with the next-gen unit "a few months" away from release as of July 2026. This review documents the two rounds of testing, the failure mode, and why we believe the PP5 in its current form should be excluded from any e-sports competition.

TL;DR

Two rounds of testing on the ThinkRider PP5 — the first on early firmware, the second on the 1.86 release that was supposed to fix it — reproduced the same hardware-level failure mode: every hard sprint shifts the zero offset by 18-20W high, the cadence signal cuts out at roughly 155 RPM against a 240 RPM spec, the bias in the 300-350W+ range is non-linear, and the drift is cumulative across a ride. ThinkRider has confirmed the defect is hardware, not firmware, and committed to a next-generation fix.

The PP5 is the cheapest dual-sided spider power meter on the market in 2026. The price is genuinely astonishing. But a power meter that drifts 18-20W after every sprint produces training data that is systematically wrong in a direction the rider cannot detect without a reference meter — which is exactly the situation the meter is meant to solve. For any rider with structured-training goals, the PP5 in its current form is the wrong answer. For a spare / beater meter on a turbo trainer where directional accuracy is the only requirement, the PP5 is genuinely useful, and the price is unbeatable. For e-sports: the post-sprint positive drift gives a few seconds of "free watts" per effort, which is enough to affect race outcomes, and the device should be excluded from any Zwift or structured competition until the next-generation hardware ships.

Unboxing & Design

The PP5 ships in a small printed box with the spider, a USB charging cable, a printed quick-start card, and four M5 chainring bolts. There is no printed full manual — the manual is a QR code in the box that links to a ThinkRider download page. The spider itself is a CNC-machined aluminium 110 BCD 4-arm unit with the strain gauges sealed inside the centre. The status LED is a small blue/red indicator on the spider face. Build feel is solid; the spider is heavier than a Quarq DZero but comparable in stiffness to the Magene P515.

Notable specs: 109g measured weight (108g claimed), IPX7 sealing, 300h rechargeable battery, ANT+ and Bluetooth dual protocol, ±1% claimed accuracy to 2800W, cadence support claimed to 240 RPM. The claimed cadence range is generous for the price segment — most sub-$300 spiders spec out at 200 RPM. The reality, as covered in the data section, is that 155 RPM is closer to the operational ceiling.

Notable omissions: there is no published L/R balance methodology (“dual-sided” is stated, but the L/R figure appears to be estimated from cadence and total torque rather than measured from a second strain gauge), no published operating temperature range, and no published IP test depth (IPX7 means 1m immersion for 30 minutes, which is the standard claim, but no third-party test data is published). The 1-year warranty is below segment average — most spider power meters ship with 2 years.

Setup & Installation

The PP5 requires an Easton Cinch-compatible crank — the spider drops onto the Easton 30mm spindle and locks with a centre bolt. This is the same interface used by the Easton EC90 and many Race Face cranksets. Aftermarket 110 BCD 4-bolt chainrings fit as expected. Installation is a standard bottom-bracket and crank swap — no specialty tools beyond an 8mm hex for the spider pinch bolts and a torque wrench for the centre bolt (specified at 40 Nm).

Pairing requires the ThinkRider app (iOS and Android). The app is functional but rough: it discovers the spider, prompts for ANT+ or Bluetooth, and walks through zero-offset calibration. App quirks noted: the live-data view updates at ~1Hz (acceptable for set-and-forget use, slow for a sprint check), and the firmware-update flow requires the app to stay foregrounded for the full ~3-minute flash. Both quirks are typical of low-cost Chinese power meters and are not deal-breakers.

OTA firmware updates work. ThinkRider shipped 1.82 and 1.86 during our test window. The release notes for 1.82 cited a fix for "power anomaly" issues; 1.86 cited "user-experience improvements and known-issue fixes". Neither update resolved the residual-torque problem documented below, which is consistent with ThinkRider’s later statement that the defect is hardware-level.

Real-world Data

Our indoor validation protocol uses a Tacx Neo 3M as the trainer reference and a Favero Assioma pedal-based meter as the secondary reference. Both references are validated to within ±1% of each other on the test bench. The PP5 was installed on the same bike, recording the same trainer sessions, with the head unit broadcasting ANT+ to a data logger for cross-validation.

Round 1 (early firmware). Warm-up at 150W for 5 minutes: Assioma 150W, Tacx 150W, PP5 151W — within noise. 200W steady-state baseline: Assioma 200W, Tacx 200W, PP5 201W — within 1W, well inside the ±1% spec on paper. Initial impression: a $100 power meter that meets the spec sheet on steady-state low-power. This is the part of the review where most budget power meters pass.

After the first >1000W sprint: return to 200W. Assioma 200W, Tacx 200W, PP5 219W — a 19W positive shift relative to the reference. Manual re-zero of the PP5 (via the app) brought the reading back to 200W. The same re-zero on the Assioma was a 0W change — the reference is stable across sprints; the PP5 is not.

After the second sprint: return to 200W. PP5 231W — a 31W positive shift. After manual re-zero: PP5 196W — a -4W shift relative to the Assioma. The PP5 zero offset moves unpredictably across sprints, in both magnitude and direction. The pattern is consistent with a residual-torque effect in the strain-gauge bridge: the bridge does not return to its true zero after a high-torque transient.

Cadence test: at 155 RPM (a sprint cadence in the drops), the PP5 cadence signal froze. The power reading followed the cadence to zero. The Assioma cadence continued to track normally. The PP5 spec claims 240 RPM cadence support; the operational ceiling is closer to 155 RPM.

Steady-state at 350W: Assioma 350W, Tacx 350W, PP5 367W — a 17W positive bias in the high-end of the FTP range. At 300W: PP5 311W — an 11W positive bias. The high-power non-linearity is on top of the post-sprint drift; the PP5 systematically reads high in the 300-350W+ range, even after a fresh zero.

Round 2 (firmware 1.86, on a second PP5 unit). Same protocol, same references, same bike, same trainer. The results reproduced: 18W positive shift after the first sprint, 28W positive shift after the second sprint, 155-RPM cadence ceiling, 17W positive bias at 350W. The failure mode is identical across two units and two firmware versions. ThinkRider confirmed in writing that the defect is hardware-level.

Analogy. Imagine stepping on a calibrated scale and reading 75kg. You jump up and down a few times, then step back on the scale. It reads 80kg. You have not gained 5kg of mass. The scale’s zero has drifted because the load cell did not return to its true zero after a transient. That is the PP5 in a single sentence: a power meter that reads correctly before a sprint, and reads 5-8% high after a sprint, and stays high until you manually re-zero it.

Long-term Use & Drift Behaviour

The cumulative-drift behaviour is the deal-breaker for training use. Across a typical 90-minute ride with 4-6 hard efforts, the PP5 zero offset can drift 20-40W from its initial reading. The rider cannot predict the drift direction or magnitude without a reference meter. The only mitigation is to stop the ride, manually re-zero the PP5 via the app, and resume. Stopping to re-zero 3-4 times per ride is not a practical workaround.

Coasting behaviour: the PP5 reads -5W to -10W of negative power during freewheel, where the Assioma reads 0W. This is a known failure mode of low-cost strain-gauged spiders — the bridge relaxes slightly when unloaded. The negative bias is small but adds to the overall data-integrity problem.

Temperature: the 1.86 firmware notes claim improved temperature stability. In a 15-30°C range, the offset moved ~2W, comparable to the Assioma. The temperature compensation is adequate. The residual-torque and cumulative-drift issues are unrelated to temperature.

Battery and charging: the 300h rechargeable claim is plausible. Across the two test rounds (each ~6 hours of recording), the PP5 was at 96% battery at the end. The USB charging cable is proprietary (not USB-C); replacement cables are included in the box but the connector is not industry-standard. Charging takes ~2 hours from empty to full.

App and firmware: the ThinkRider app is functional but rough. Live-data view is slow (~1Hz). Firmware update flow requires the app to stay foregrounded for the full flash. There is no support for structured-workout export (ERG-mode files, Zwift workouts). The app does not log zero-offset history, so the rider cannot see the cumulative-drift behaviour after the fact.

Competitors

Same-price pedal segment. There is no real competitor at the $100 price point. Favero Assioma DUO-Shi is the closest in price-validity terms but starts at ~$500. For a sub-$300 reference-quality meter, the Magene P515 PES kit at $299 is the right answer — it has been validated in independent testing to be within 2-3W of the Assioma on steady state and within 5W on sprints.

Same-price Chinese spider segment. The 4iiii PRECISION 3 at $279 (left-only) and $579 (dual) is the established low-cost reference. The PRECISION 3 has a published independent-test history with data within 1% of the Assioma on steady state. The PRECISION 3 is the right answer for riders who need a validated, sub-$300 spider and do not need a dual-sided meter.

E-sports and beater-meter use case. The PP5 is genuinely useful for non-training applications: indoor turbo trainer beater, e-sports / Zwift use where directional accuracy is the only requirement, or as a redundant data source for a rider who already has a primary reference meter. In any of these cases, the cumulative drift is a feature (not a bug) — the PP5 will give a number, the number will be close enough, and the price is unbeatable. For any structured-training use case: skip.

Next-generation PP5. ThinkRider has publicly committed to a hardware fix in a next-generation product, expected "a few months" from July 2026. If the next-gen unit resolves the residual-torque defect and keeps the $100 price, it will be a serious entry in the budget segment. We will re-test when the hardware is available.

Final Verdict

The ThinkRider PP5 is a power meter that passes the spec-sheet check on price, battery, and protocol, and fails the data-integrity check that a power meter exists to provide. Two rounds of testing on two units and two firmware versions reproduced the same hardware-level residual-torque defect: every hard sprint shifts the zero offset by 18-20W high, the cadence signal cuts out at 155 RPM against a 240 RPM claim, the bias in the 300-350W+ range is non-linear, and the drift is cumulative across a ride. ThinkRider has confirmed the defect is hardware-level and committed to a next-generation fix.

For a structured-training power meter in 2026: the PP5 should be skipped. Spider-budget riders: Magene P515 PES kit at $299, or 4iiii PRECISION 3 at $279 (left-only) / $579 (dual). For a sub-$100 beater meter on a turbo trainer, or for e-sports use where directional accuracy is the only requirement, the PP5 is genuinely useful and the price is unbeatable. For e-sports competition: the post-sprint positive drift gives a few seconds of "free watts" per effort, which is enough to affect race outcomes, and the device should be excluded from any Zwift or structured competition until the next-generation hardware ships.

We will re-test the next-generation ThinkRider PP5 when it becomes available. If the hardware fix is real, the PP5 in v2 form is the most interesting sub-$150 power meter on the market.