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Praxis Zayante CarbonX 4iiii Power Crank

8
£700.00

VERDICT:

8
10
Super-stiff chainset that offers a good value way of measuring your power output
Reliable and easy to use power meter
Great gear shifts from the chainrings
Single-sided power meter can give discrepancies if your legs aren't balanced
Weight: 
646g

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The Praxis Zayante CarbonX 4iiii Power Crank gives a relatively cheap route into power measurement for the racer or data enthusiast who wants to see what watts they are kicking out. It's a very good chainset in its own right, with crisp and confident shifting, and you are getting the complete package too, including chainrings.​

Gears to go

The Zayante CarbonX is based around a pair of carbon fibre cranks that are impressively stiff and keep the weight down. Stepping on the cranks saw no sign of flex anywhere, even when hauling myself as hard as possible up some steep local climbs.

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The Zayante uses a 30mm/28mm spindle which possibly helps with the stiffness over the smaller 24mm used by Shimano and others. It does mean you'll need a specific Praxis M30 bottom bracket, though.

Praxis Zayante Carbon and Power Crank - crank 2.jpg

What makes the Praxis different to many other cranksets on the market is that the spider holding the chainrings is separate to the drive-side crank, to give a direct mount system. The X-Spider, as Praxis calls it, attaches to the back of the crank using three T25 Torx bolts.

What this means is that although the 4iiii Power Crank comes with 52/36-tooth chainrings, you could swap them for others in the Praxis range with ease; you can even remove the X-Spider and fit a 1x Direct Mount chainring if you wanted.

Praxis Zayante Carbon and Power Crank - chainring.jpg

Most riders who are after a power meter are likely to be at the performance end of the market, and I think that 52/36t is a good choice.

> Which chainset is right for you?

This setup has been quite a long term test, and after a fair few thousand miles – a lot of them in the wet, as it has been fitted to my full mudguard-equipped Kinesis T2 – there are very few signs of wear to the teeth on the rings.

Shifting is great, and easily on a par with the likes of Shimano Ultegra or SRAM Force, two other chainsets I've been riding alongside the Praxis.

Power to show

The Zayante Carbon+ comes with a 4iiii power meter fitted to the inside of the non-drive side crank and it's a neat little unit, adding barely anything to the overall weight of the chainset.

Praxis Zayante Carbon and Power Crank - powermeter.jpg

Mat reviewed the 4iiii as a standalone product a little while back and was very impressed. In fact, when you've finished here, why not head over to his in-depth report which includes plenty of graphs and the like for even more detail.

On the whole, my findings were pretty much the same as Mat's. I found the 4iiii to be reliable, tracking closely to other power meters I've been using throughout the last year including a Quarq. More importantly, though, the 4iiii seems to be consistent.

> How to choose a cycling power metre

Battery life is impressive, too, and with it being a CR2032 3V you can pick one up for a few quid and change it yourself.

The only downside to having a single-sided setup is that it only measures one leg (the left in this case) and then doubles it.

The various times I've been tested using a Wattbike I typically have a balance of 50/50%, which sometimes slips to 49/51%, so for me it shouldn't have too much of an effect on the overall readings, but if your balance is skewed one way or another then the discrepancies could be much larger.

Value

One of the biggest things going for the Praxis is its price: just £700 for a carbon fibre chainset with power meter, including chainrings. The bottom bracket will cost you another £35 on top.

I've mentioned the Quarq, a power meter from SRAM's sister company, and one of those with SRAM Red carbon cranks costs £858 – and that doesn't include chainrings.

If you want a dual-sided system, then one we've tested is the Shimano Dura-Ace FC-R9100-P power meter. You certainly can't fault the shifting precision from Shimano's top flight crankset, but it'll set you back £1,499.99 at retail.

Conclusion

Overall, I've enjoyed using the Praxis power meter over the months. It's proved itself to be very reliable both in terms of chainring wear and as a power meter. Both have stood up to the elements well, and performance is very good.

Verdict

Super-stiff chainset that offers a good value way of measuring your power output

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road.cc test report

Make and model: Praxis Zayante CarbonX 4iiii Power Crank

Size tested: 172.5mm

Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Praxis says, "With Levatime II X-Spider & Rings | The Zayante Carbon is the ultimate marriage of lightness, stiffness and versatility... and riders also have the option of a factory installed left arm power meter.

"The name Zayante comes from a famous redwood-covered road climb here in Santa Cruz and so we felt the name was fitting. These cranks instal with our M30 family of BB's : BSA, BB86, 386EVO, BB30, PF30, T47, BBRight or older Specialized OSBB road frame. LevaTime II is our new generation of shifting tech.

"Updated to a new stiffer LT2 5mm big ring, this allowed our engineers to increase the amount of shift features and the type of shift features we could forge into the ring.

"It also allowed us to use our new fast engaging forged shift pins to improve shift speed. Holding it together with even better support is our beefed-up LT2 forged X-Spider.

"All of this adds up to the fastest and most snappy feeling shift we've ever produced."

A stiff and clean shifting chainset with the addition of a reliable power meter at a very good price.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Praxis lists:

* Carbon Arms | Direct Mount X-Spider 160/104BCD.

* 165/170/172.5/175mm lengths.

* X-Rings 52/36t.

* M30 Spindle | Requires Praxis M30 BB.

* Works with 10/11sp chains.

* Weight: 620g+/- (172.5mm with 52/36t).

* Q-Factor: 147mm.

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
8/10
Rate the product for performance:
 
8/10
Rate the product for durability:
 
8/10
Rate the product for weight (if applicable)
 
8/10
Rate the product for value:
 
7/10

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Easy to install and the shifting is very good. The power meter gives reliable and consistent readings too.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

Reliable power measurement and a simple-to-use app.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Some riders will prefer dual-sided power data.

How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?

The Praxis is good value for money at £700 when you compare it to another carbon fibre crankset like the SRAM Red Quarq Dzero which has an rrp of £858 – and that doesn't include rings. If you want a dual-sided meter, something like the Shimano Dura-Ace FC-R9100-P is over the twice the price at £1,499.99; that's quite a bit extra to quantify.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes

Would you consider buying the product? Yes

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes

Use this box to explain your overall score

The Praxis Zayante Carbon+ Power Crank Chainset delivers great shifting, loads of stiffness and a reliable power reading for what is not a huge amount of money.

Overall rating: 8/10

About the tester

Age: 41  Height: 180cm  Weight: 76kg

I usually ride: This month's test bike  My best bike is: B'Twin Ultra CF draped in the latest bling test components

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, club rides, sportives, fixed/singlespeed,

As part of the Tech Hub here at F-At Digital, our senior product reviewer Stu uses the knowledge gained from putting well over a 1,000 products through their paces (including hundreds of bikes) to write in-depth reviews of a huge range of kit. After first throwing his leg over a race bike back in 2000, Stu's ridden more than 160,000 miles on road, time-trial, track, and gravel bikes, and while he's put his racing days behind him he still likes to smash the pedals rather than take things easy. Although, as he spends a fair bit of his time reviewing ebikes these days he's becoming an expert in letting the motor take the strain. He's also waiting for 23mm race tyres to make a comeback!

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1 comments

Avatar
McVittees | 3 years ago
1 like

If you want dual sided power probably best not to recommend power meters based on the current models of Shimano cranksets.  Lots of information on the interweb about how their asymetrical four arm design inherently causes problems for strain guages to read accurately.  Quark Dzero or other spider based power meters are a better bet (although they only estimate dual sided power) or better yet a pedal based solution.

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