Campagnolo’s first power meter spotted on Super Record Wireless-equipped Canyon Ultimate
An unreleased Campagnolo-branded power meter fitted to the brand’s latest Super Record Wireless crankset has been leaked on the Canyon website. The power meter would be Campagnolo’s first in-house option.
Fitted to Canyon’s top-spec £10,499 Ultimate CFR EPS WRL, details about the power meter are omitted from the bike’s listing.
As such, we can only speculate based on what we can see. We have also asked Canyon and Campagnolo for comments and further details. We will update this story if we receive a response.
Campagnolo’s first power meter – everything we know so far
The power meter itself appears to comprise a small module slotted into a cutout moulded into the back of each crank arm.
We noted at the launch of Campagnolo Super Record Wireless that both cranks feature this cutout, so while we’ve only seen images of the non-driveside crank, it’s very likely this is a dual-sided power meter.
Compared to similar in-moulded power meters from the likes of Stages, Campagnolo’s power meter module is notably compact. The outer face of the module sits nearly flush with the inside face of the crank arm and is narrower than the crank.
This should prevent any clearance issues on framesets with wide chainstays – something which can occasionally be an issue with crank-based power meters.
Logos on the pod suggest the power meter will have ANT＋ and BLE connectivity, though that’s almost a given for any modern power meter.
With no battery door visible, the two metallic dots on the pod are likely a magnetic charging port.
Where the internal battery is located is currently unclear. With Shimano’s dual-sided crank-based power meter, a single battery is housed within the bottom bracket spindle.
Campagnolo could offer something similar here, or smaller rechargeable batteries could be located within each crank arm.
A patent filed in 2021 could reveal more of what’s going on beneath the surface. This suggested the strain and temperature gauges would be split, which we speculated would reduce the need for manual zero-offset calibrations.
A new challenger in the power meter market?
To date, only third-party power meter manufacturers, such as Power2Max, SRM and Stages, have offered power meters for Campagnolo cranksets.
This makes Campagnolo the only one of the ‘big three’ road bike groupset manufacturers not to offer an in-house power meter.
Shimano produces dual-sided power-meter equipped versions of its Ultegra R8100 and Dura-Ace R9200 cranksets.
Meanwhile, SRAM offers everything from a single-sided power meter for its entry-level Apex groupset right up to premium, spider-based options for its top-tier Red groupset (which looks set for a refresh in 2024).
Campagnolo, though, has been filing patents related to power meters since at least as early as 2019.
Cryptic comments made at the time of the launch of Super Record Wireless and such a drawn-out patent filing process suggest there could be more tech packed into this power meter than meets the eye. We look forward to hearing more.