Praxis Zayante CarbonX 4iiii Power Crank

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.

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.

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.

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